The Association of Vineyard Churches, also known as the Vineyard Movement, is a nondenominational Christianity evangelical Christian denomination with over 1,500 affiliated churches worldwide. The first Local Church started when Kenn Gulliksen brought together two Bible studies, both meeting at the houses of singer/songwriters: Larry Norman and Chuck Girard. (More from Wikipedia)
One clue to what was happening with Bob Dylan occurred about six months before Slow Train Coming was released in November 1979; as reported by Wikipedia: “Before the album was completed, Patty Valentine had brought a defamation-of-character suit against Dylan, regarding the song ‘Hurricane’ from Desire; on May 22, [1979,] while giving a pre-trial deposition in his defense, Dylan was asked about his wealth. ‘You mean my treasure on earth?’ replied Dylan. He was asked about the identity of the ‘fool’ in ‘Hurricane’. Dylan said the ‘fool’ was ‘whoever Satan gave power to . . . whoever was blind to the truth and was living by his own truth.’ Five days later, Dylan’s pre-trial statement was reported in the Washington Post, which also interviewed Kenn Gulliksen, who revealed to the paper that Dylan had joined the Vineyard Christian Fellowship.”
Wikipedia mentions that the organization now known as the Association of Vineyard Churches (which was founded by Gulliksen) was formed in part by Christian contemporary music pioneers that I mentioned in my last post: “The first local church started when Kenn Gulliksen brought together two Bible studies, both meeting at the houses of singer/songwriters: Larry Norman and Chuck Girard [a founder of early CCM band Love Song]. In early 1975, thirteen groups met at the Beverly Hills Women’s Club. These Bible studies, and others like them, were attended by many popular actors/actresses and musicians including Bob Dylan.” Dylan also attended the Calvary Chapel discipleship courses in Southern California.
(August 2014)
