Dan Kimball

Dan Kimball is an author and was a leading voice in the beginning years of the Emerging Church 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.[1] 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.[2]:83–84[3]:47–66

For the 50th US Secretary of the Navy, see Dan A. Kimball.

Education

Kimball is a graduate of Multnomah Biblical Seminary and Western Seminary. He also has a doctorate in leadership from George Fox University.[2]:190–191,85

Vintage Faith Church

Vintage Faith's vision statement identifies their desire to be a "worshipping community of missional theologians".[2]:103

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.[4] 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 in Santa Cruz, California.[5]

Teaching

Dan Kimball serves as a faculty member and director of the ReGeneration Project at Western Seminary,[6] and as adjunct faculty at other universities including George Fox University.[7]

Philosophy

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.[8]

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 a 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.

Bibliography
  • The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations, 2003. Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-24564-8 (foreword by Rick Warren)
  • Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations, 2004. Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-25644-5
  • They Like Jesus, But Not The Church: Insights From Emerging Generations, 2007. Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-24590-7
  • Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Views, (contributor), 2007. Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-27135-5
  • They Like Jesus, But Not The Church Curriculum Kit, 2008. Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-27787-6
  • Adventures in Churchland: Finding Jesus in the Mess of Organized Religion, 2012. Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-27556-3 (foreword by Wanda Jackson)
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References
  1. Kimball, Dan, They Like Jesus But Not The Church (Zondervan, 2007)
  2. Webber, Robert E. (2007). Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-27135-2.
  3. Kimball, Dan (2003). The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-24564-3.
  4. Kimball, Dan (2004). Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-25644-1.
  5. Fairchilds, Kirsten (2012-10-25). "Down to the grind: Readers Choice for best coffee". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  6. "Dan Kimball joins Western Seminary faculty - Western Seminary". Westernseminary.edu. 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  7. "Dan Kimball hired to lead new center focused on 'future faith' | George Fox University". Georgefox.edu. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  8. "The X Factor | Leadership Journal". Christianitytoday.com. 2009-07-27. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
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