Dan Kimball
Encyclopedia
Emerging Church
The emerging church is a Christian movement of the late 20th and early 21st century that crosses a number of theological boundaries: participants can be described as evangelical, Protestant, Catholic, post-evangelical, anabaptist, adventist, liberal, post-liberal, reformed, charismatic,...
movement in the USA. Kimball's writings focus on encouraging churches and Christians to creatively make any changes needed in order to break the negative stereotypes of church and Christianity that inaccurately may exist. Kimball focuses on doing this through the arts, apologetics and Christians removing themselves from the Christian subculture.. Kimball began using phrases such as "Vintage Faith" and "Vintage Christianity" which are used to express the desire to be returning to the historical and missional values of the original Christian Church and teachings of Jesus.
Education
Kimball is a graduate of Multnomah Biblical Seminary and Western SeminaryWestern Seminary
Western Seminary is an evangelical, non-denominational theological seminary with campuses in Portland, Oregon, as well as in San Jose and Sacramento in California. The seminary offers Master’s Degrees in Divinity, Counseling, Intercultural Studies, Leadership and Theology along with Doctoral...
. He also has a doctorate in leadership from George Fox University
George Fox University
George Fox University is a Christian university of the liberal arts and sciences, and professional studies located in Newberg, Oregon, United States. Founded as a school for Quakers in 1885, the private school has more than 3,400 students combined between its main campus in Newberg and its centers...
.
Pastoring
Dan Kimball is founding pastor and on staff at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, CaliforniaSanta Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
. Vintage Faith Church began in 2004 as a church plant from Santa Cruz Bible Church, where Kimball previously served as a youth and young adult pastor.
Vintage Faith Church
Vintage Faith's vision statement identifies their desire to be a "worshipping community of missional theologians".The church, along with Kimball's writings, focuses on re-thinking church through a missional lens for new generations and culture. This includes designing worship services that use art, prayer stations, and other creative and artistic forms of worship in addition to preaching and singing. As part of this mission oriented vision using the arts, Vintage Faith Church opened a 7 day a week coffeehouse, art gallery and music venue in the church building called "The Abbey".
Teaching
Dan Kimball serves as an adjunct faculty member at Western SeminaryWestern Seminary
Western Seminary is an evangelical, non-denominational theological seminary with campuses in Portland, Oregon, as well as in San Jose and Sacramento in California. The seminary offers Master’s Degrees in Divinity, Counseling, Intercultural Studies, Leadership and Theology along with Doctoral...
, and as Professor of Missional Leadership at George Fox University.
Philosophy
In addition to being one of the earliest members of the Emerging Church Movement, Kimball was one of its more conservative members. Much of Kimball's writings question the existing forms of church and their effectiveness in an increasingly post-Christian culture. However, he stresses that while change in the church is needed, the historical doctrines of the Christian faith do not need to change. Much of his writings focus on ways that methods of worship, preaching, church structure, evangelism and leadership need to change in order to be missional in a post-Christian or postmodern culture.Books
Kimball's first book, The Emerging Church, describes his realization that even in a seemingly successful and large church that he was part of (at the time) was not making the shift to living in a post-Christian culture. He describes how this recognition led him to change his methods of church ministry to see emerging generations part of the church. The Emerging Church details the specific methods of worship, preaching, leadership, evangelism and spiritual formation and why change is needed.They Like Jesus But Not The Church is based on a series of interviews with non-Christians about how they feel about the Church and Jesus. The conversations reveal that while many people have a positive impression of Jesus, they have an intense dislike of the Church. The book discusses what the Church has done to foster these views, and how to address them. Kimball encourages Christians to leave the "Christian bubble" and listen to what non-Christians are saying.