We set up a prayer cove and we have a Jewish prayer shawl we set up over this little archway that you go in. We have people, a prayer team who are trained, to then pray for people at any time during that half an hour. We quite often have times when we might read; last week the music worship leader had everybody recite a passage of Scripture together that tied into the message as one of the last things they did, so everybody's all saying the Scripture together. And then we'll sometimes have open prayer.
We have about 400 or 450 people that are there right now and we try the best we can keep to communicate, "How do you try to break down a larger meeting to feel a sense of community?" It's not the best logistically, but people can be praying more in community.
Preaching: Since you only gather on Sunday evenings, is this the only worship experience for most of your participants or do many go other places on Sunday morning?
Kimball: I was at Santa Cruz Bible Church for 13 years on staff. I was doing kind of an alternative worship gathering called Graceland, then we decided let's actually start a sister church, so we started this church plant in February. We call the new church Vintage Faith Church and we look at it like a sister church of Santa Cruz Bible Church. And we're now actually paying rent for the building!
Preaching: Is Graceland still going on?
Kimball: No. When we decided that we were going to start a new church, Graceland folded into Santa Cruz Bible Church. We had about 5 months or so where we didn't do anything Sunday nights, and then we launched Vintage Faith in February.
Preaching: As you look down the road, do you anticipate, at some point, being in a separate facility and having a different kind of schedule?
Kimball: Downtown Santa Cruz is kind of a cultural hub; it's not a downtown, run-down district — it's actually a higher-end area. We're looking at purchasing a building that will be too small for our larger worship gatherings, but we want it to be a coffee house, art gallery, have midsize meetings there, a student kind of study center, and we're looking for that right now. That would be our first step, versus looking for a property to meet in for the larger meetings. We do a lot of set up, that's the only hassle — it's more than just the chairs. In the future I could see two or three or four meetings of 400 or 500 people and each of the meetings at different locations around Santa Cruz County, with different leaders.
Preaching: Since you began writing and thinking and working on the idea of the emergent church, and since your first book came out, have you changed some of your thinking about this movement?