Our Story
In the beginning…
The story of Vintage Faith Church begins back in the mid-1990’s when Dan Kimball and a team of leaders were serving in high school ministry. As the they saw the immense possibilities of engaging with the next generation in Santa Cruz, their hearts grew to include college-age and young adults which led to them becoming involved in the college/young adult ministry at Santa Cruz Bible Church where they implemented a very mission-oriented approach in the ministry. Knowing that the historical Christian doctrines and beliefs of the faith remain the same, but with each generation there may be different ways of communicating and designing ministry the team began bringing in the arts, culture of theology forums, and creating space for young adults to ask questions openly. The ministry grew to over 800 college-age and young adults gathering every week. This led to the idea of starting a new church for people of all ages who connected with this approach to church and ministry.
A new church is born
In 2004, Dan and the team from the young adult ministry launched Vintage Faith Church. The name "Vintage Faith Church" was used as we wanted to reflect the "vintage" values of the early church and teachings of Jesus.
For the first year and a half, we met on the campus at Santa Cruz Bible Church on Sunday nights. We had a desire for our meeting place to be on the west side of Santa Cruz as close to downtown and UCSC (University of California Santa Cruz) as possible. We also wanted to find a space to launch a coffeehouse/music venue/art gallery that would also be part of the life of the church and open to the public (this dream would eventually become The Abbey Coffee, Art & Music Lounge, which opened in 2008).
The move to Mission Street
While scouting out downtown locations for a coffee/music/art venue and approaching churches located on the west side to possibly rent space and hold additional worship gatherings, we began a conversation with First Presbyterian Church. They were a small church in a very vintage 1938 brick building, situated at one of the busiest intersections in town. We discovered that First Presbyterian Church was already very familiar with us and most of their leadership had even attended our worship gatherings. They were an amazing group of mission-hearted people and generously invited us to use their space.
This was an incredible answer to prayer - to have a place to meet right in the area of town we had hoped to be located in. In 2006, we relocated over to the Mission Street building. It became apparent that the common heart that Vintage Faith and First Presbyterian Church had for God and mission was so strong that we joined together as one church in 2008.
The Abbey - Coffeehouse, Art and Music Lounge was opened 2008 as part of the vision we had even before starting the church. The Abbey is a unique place where we hope UCSC students and locals in town feel cared for and have a place to hang out, study and have meetings in. We also have music and art events to promote and support creativity in our community and provide a place for emerging musicians and artists to have a venue to connect and share their art.
The Mission Continues
In 2025, Dan Kimball, founder and former lead of Vintage Faith Church, felt the need and urgency to see younger leaders trained in Bible and theology. With the amount of cultural confusion as to what Christianity is and what the Bible does and does not say and sensing a great need for leaders to have accessible seminary training, he felt called to shift out of the lead role into a niche role in the church. He became Vice President and Associate Professor of Leadership and Theology at Western Seminary which has a campus in San Jose. He is still on the Vintage Faith Church Sunday teaching team and is teaching theology and Bible classes for the church. He also is the curator overseeing The Abbey arts and mission events.
We then moved into a new co-lead model of leadership. Adrian Moreno and Sara Bentley have stepped into take the lead of the church and overseeing the mission and staff. Adrian and Sara share the majority of Sunday teaching and both have had a lot of previous church experience. We are thrilled to have them lead Vintage Faith Church into our next chapters of history and mission.
Even though the church started in 2004, it feels like we are just beginning. We will continue to focus on seeing the next generation experience the grace, love, and joy of knowing Jesus. Yet at the same time, to accomplish this mission, it involves older generations mentoring and passing the faith down to the younger. We also value having so many young families as part of our church, allowing us to be multi-generational church with a heart for Santa Cruz.
Our passion continues to be to teach the truths that God gave us in His Scriptures and how putting faith in Jesus is incredibly life-changing for this life and for all eternity.
For more info about our gatherings, click here.
