Dan Kimball is the author of two books, The Emerging Church and Emerging Worship; he is also the pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California.

Dan, could you briefly explain what 'Vintage Christianity' is all about?

To me, it is about going back to the roots of our faith (vintage) to see what the values and emphasis were in the early church and in the teachings of Jesus.  I am not saying to go back and act like the early church, or only have house churches etc. because they did. We live in a different time period and culture.  I am concerned with the emphasis of the early church in comparison to today’s contemporary church mindset.  It is like seeing what is vintage wine, and what is Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill or Wine Coolers. There is a difference between the two.

There is a great deal of discussion surrounding the modern and emerging church about being ‘relevant,’ what do you think makes a church relevant?

I personally hate the word “relevant” (I don’t hate the magazine), but I think we can easily misunderstand what it means to be “relevant”.  In the effort to make ourselves relevant we can fall into the trap of putting on a façade or trying to be something we weren’t meant to be.  I think the church should be the church; we should contextualize ourselves to our local community.  I think that being relevant is really about understanding the culture and the people within the culture we live in and not necessarily changing who we are.  At the same time, there are many leaders I know that have lost touch with culture; they have created a Christian sub-culture that doesn’t engage the world.

In many ways faith and culture are colliding; do you think there should be a clear distinction between the sacred and the secular in culture?

I see life in general as all spiritual.  It is either redeemed for God’s glory or it isn’t.  So in that, I see a difference. But I try to avoid categorizing too many things as sacred or secular.  I think Christian leaders need to be all the more sensitive to the Spirit in discerning how far we drift in becoming like the world.  Jesus said, be in the world but be careful of the enemy. I want to remain fully engaged in the culture I live in, but I also want to remain discerning.

How do you cultivate spiritual formation in your church? What does it look like?

We are trying to do this primarily in the context of relationships. We have a large worship gathering Sunday night, but we constantly teach that the big meeting is comprised of many mini-churches who meet in homes throughout the week.  In the homes they read scripture and go through life together, which is not easy to do in large meetings. Through relationships we study scripture, share life, and serve our community. So we try to put ourselves in the best means for the Spirit to transform us.

Consumerism is a big threat in today's world, as a pastor, how are you planning on creating a missional movement rather than a consuming community?

From day one, we keep talking about the fact that we don’t exist for ourselves. We have the word “missional” in all we do. However, people are people and we all will lean towards inward consumerism, so it will be something we constantly teach about and live out and tell stories of those in the community who are truly missional.

How do you communicate the gospel to a postseeker/postmodern culture? What are some things to think about?

We try to clearly communicate the gospel in both words and action in all forms of expression. I think too often it’s only taught in words and not seen in lives of people or actions. So we are trying to live it out, rather than just talk about it.

Dan, you have written two books, ‘The Emerging Church,’ and ‘Emerging Worship,’ some critics would say that the emerging church is just a passing trend, what are your thoughts on the longevity of the emerging church?

I never set out to have something even considered to be a “trend”. I was a youth pastor, then a young adult pastor, now a pastor of new church we started, who tries to remain engaged in culture and with people.  The word “emerging” means “what is coming to the surface”, there will always be different forms of worship expression and ministry and even theology emerging. I wrote the books to reflect what I see in our local community; there are also many examples of other communities so it’s not just a California thing.  It will emerge into whatever the Spirit has us emerge into to be Jesus to those around us.

What are your hopes and dreams for Vintage Faith Church?

We want to see thousands of people come to know Jesus through people in the church being Jesus to those outside the church. This will happen through birthing several congregations and not just growing one big one.   And this means the heart of who we are as a church will be training and empowering leaders, not having one pastor be the focal point of a church.

(If you would like to find out more about The Emerging Church and Emerging Worship you can visit Dan at vintagechurch.org - If you would like to contact the interviewer go to brianorme.com)

 

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