The
Vineyard Christian Fellowship here in New Haven was started by Bill
and Lainie Elander. Bill, a native of the New Haven area, moved to
California in 1977 to work with Campus Crusade for Christ. Soon after
his arrival God gave him a call and vision to return to New Haven
and share the love of Jesus with the lost and broken in a contemporary
form. He then spent the next nine years being trained; first under
the teaching and ministry of Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel and the
under John Wimber and the Vineyard. During that time, Bill met Lainie,
a native Californian, at Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada,
California, where they were both students. Lainie was preparing to
teach on the mission field. They were married in January of 1984,
and in June of 1986, Bill and Lainie were sent from the Vineyard in
Yorba Linda, California to start a new work in the New Haven area.
