Monday, February 8, 2010
Valentine's Day ethos gathering
You won't want to miss this week's special valentine's day ethos gathering. We'll still be in the Gospel of Mark, but you'll be surprised at its relevance to love and marriage. Whether you are single or married, you will want to be there for this meeting!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
ethos gatherings a success!
What a great January we've had. Every week we've had twenty-something people come to the ethos gatherings at the Coldwell Banker Real Estate Offices at 61st between Memorial and Mingo. Feb. 7th is the Superbowl, but the gatherings will start back up on the 14th, Valentine's Day. Hope you can make it!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Ethos Church Plans First Worship Gathering
The one question I keep getting over and over again is: Where and when does your church meet? I have never had a good answer... until NOW.
After much planning and prayerful consideration, ethos church has found a GREAT place to meet! Sam Rader, president and founder of Coldwell Banker Realtors in Tulsa, has graciously offered ethos church an opportunity to meet at the Oklahoma Real Estate Academy which is located at Coldwell Banker Tulsa's corporate headquarters (8522 E. 61st St). It is an awesome facility, with about 50 tables and chairs, projectors, sound equipment, a lobby, a room for children's care, restrooms, vending machines, and lots of well-lit parking! How great is that? I want to personally thank Sam for the unbelievably gracious gesture, as well as Brian Shepard who will be taking care of some of the details for us. We will meet at 5:00 P.M. on January 10th. We chose to meet at 5:00 because many folks who will be coming have small children, and meeting at 6:00 just messes up dinner-time too much. We should be finished by 6:00 or 6:15, and there is a Jason's Deli less than 1 block away that we will be eating at afterwards if anyone would like to join us. There will be professional, background-checked childcare available for children 5 and under, and we welcome kids 6 and up to come worship with the family.
We really hope that you can make it to ethos church's first ever worship gathering, where there will be food, coffee, and some gospel-centered teaching from Pastor Beau. Please come and help us change the way that this city thinks about God. We look forward to seeing you there!
After much planning and prayerful consideration, ethos church has found a GREAT place to meet! Sam Rader, president and founder of Coldwell Banker Realtors in Tulsa, has graciously offered ethos church an opportunity to meet at the Oklahoma Real Estate Academy which is located at Coldwell Banker Tulsa's corporate headquarters (8522 E. 61st St). It is an awesome facility, with about 50 tables and chairs, projectors, sound equipment, a lobby, a room for children's care, restrooms, vending machines, and lots of well-lit parking! How great is that? I want to personally thank Sam for the unbelievably gracious gesture, as well as Brian Shepard who will be taking care of some of the details for us. We will meet at 5:00 P.M. on January 10th. We chose to meet at 5:00 because many folks who will be coming have small children, and meeting at 6:00 just messes up dinner-time too much. We should be finished by 6:00 or 6:15, and there is a Jason's Deli less than 1 block away that we will be eating at afterwards if anyone would like to join us. There will be professional, background-checked childcare available for children 5 and under, and we welcome kids 6 and up to come worship with the family.
We really hope that you can make it to ethos church's first ever worship gathering, where there will be food, coffee, and some gospel-centered teaching from Pastor Beau. Please come and help us change the way that this city thinks about God. We look forward to seeing you there!
Monday, November 30, 2009
December Newsletter
The contents of the Berman December Newsletter are posted below:
Dear Friends and Family:
The Bermans have many reasons to rejoice this Christmas season, but the one that is filling mine and Shannon's hearts the most is that we finally feel like we're home. When Shannon and I were married on November 3, 2001, the notion of a being home was not something to be grasped. Between August of 2001 and August 2002, I went through three job changes and periods of unemployment, finally deciding to go into seminary in 2002, when we moved into an apartment. In 2004, we moved to Memphis, and that was just starting to feel like home when we felt the Lord leading us back to seminary for round two. In May 2007, we moved to Dallas, where we rented a house for two years. Upon graduation in August of 2009, when we finally decided to plant a church in Tulsa, we knew that Tulsa was where home would finally be.
There really isn't anything better than spending Christmas at home, is there? Home is where traditions are started, memories are shared, and kids are raised; home is where arguments are had and where forgiveness is sought; home is where true intimacy lies as you are fully known and at the same time fully loved for who you are. Home, for us this holiday season, is this house, this city, and this church-- ethos church.
Even though we really don't have any committed members yet, we have great hopes for what God is going to accomplish through this church. We are confident that the Gospel-centered preaching and teaching that we dream of bringing to this city will be used by God to change the ethos of Tulsa- the way that Tulsa sees and perceives God.
Your gifts and generosity to us over the past year has helped us get to this point. Your gifts have helped us to be home. And for that, we are so grateful, we can hardly put it into words. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for loving and supporting us. Thank you for sending us home. We love you! And Merry Christmas!
Dear Friends and Family:
The Bermans have many reasons to rejoice this Christmas season, but the one that is filling mine and Shannon's hearts the most is that we finally feel like we're home. When Shannon and I were married on November 3, 2001, the notion of a being home was not something to be grasped. Between August of 2001 and August 2002, I went through three job changes and periods of unemployment, finally deciding to go into seminary in 2002, when we moved into an apartment. In 2004, we moved to Memphis, and that was just starting to feel like home when we felt the Lord leading us back to seminary for round two. In May 2007, we moved to Dallas, where we rented a house for two years. Upon graduation in August of 2009, when we finally decided to plant a church in Tulsa, we knew that Tulsa was where home would finally be.
There really isn't anything better than spending Christmas at home, is there? Home is where traditions are started, memories are shared, and kids are raised; home is where arguments are had and where forgiveness is sought; home is where true intimacy lies as you are fully known and at the same time fully loved for who you are. Home, for us this holiday season, is this house, this city, and this church-- ethos church.
Even though we really don't have any committed members yet, we have great hopes for what God is going to accomplish through this church. We are confident that the Gospel-centered preaching and teaching that we dream of bringing to this city will be used by God to change the ethos of Tulsa- the way that Tulsa sees and perceives God.
Your gifts and generosity to us over the past year has helped us get to this point. Your gifts have helped us to be home. And for that, we are so grateful, we can hardly put it into words. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for loving and supporting us. Thank you for sending us home. We love you! And Merry Christmas!
Friday, November 13, 2009
When to Begin Meeting?
As a church planter, I find it difficult to gauge people, especially in regard to strategic timing. The question I get over and over again these days is, "When and where does your church meet?" This is a difficult question, because new churches can't really begin meeting until... well, until they have people that actually buy in to the vision and WANT to begin meeting. We are in the stage that occurs right before that begins to happen... the stage where we are trying to explain our vision and our philosophy, and building relationships with people who have expressed interest in being a part of our core team of people.
Because we plan to launch ethos church in the fall of 2010, replete with worship leaders, childcare, and a building, we must do the groundwork that occurs right before that happens... and that is to gather a core group. In order to gather a core group, there must be evangelism being done, because let's face it-- the last thing we want to do is to draw people away from their churches and build a new church full of church-goers! What we want to do instead is to introduce non-church-goers to the person and work of Jesus, and we want to begin a new church full of unchurched and de-churched people who don't have pre-conceived ideas of what church is and what church should be.
Now, does that mean that we don't want mature, church-attending people in our church? Of course we want them, because if we are going to be a disciple-making church, then how else are the de-churched and un-churched people going to grow in their faith if a mature believer doesn't disciple them? We need mature folks to disciple people in our church!
Which category do you fall into? Do you need to re-connect with a church? Are you a mature believer who is interested in our mission? If so, we want to invite you to join our vision for this city. It's gonna be a fun ride.
Because we plan to launch ethos church in the fall of 2010, replete with worship leaders, childcare, and a building, we must do the groundwork that occurs right before that happens... and that is to gather a core group. In order to gather a core group, there must be evangelism being done, because let's face it-- the last thing we want to do is to draw people away from their churches and build a new church full of church-goers! What we want to do instead is to introduce non-church-goers to the person and work of Jesus, and we want to begin a new church full of unchurched and de-churched people who don't have pre-conceived ideas of what church is and what church should be.
Now, does that mean that we don't want mature, church-attending people in our church? Of course we want them, because if we are going to be a disciple-making church, then how else are the de-churched and un-churched people going to grow in their faith if a mature believer doesn't disciple them? We need mature folks to disciple people in our church!
Which category do you fall into? Do you need to re-connect with a church? Are you a mature believer who is interested in our mission? If so, we want to invite you to join our vision for this city. It's gonna be a fun ride.
Friday, November 6, 2009
6 Guys... and Counting
My friend Matt Chandler at the Village church in Texas has a great plan for discipleship. He takes three guys and pours his life into them for a year, and after that year, he hopes that they are then ready to go and do the same for someone else. His staff goes through the discipleship process, they too disciple men, and after a few years, the laws of compounding interest begin to take place, and multiplication of disciples starts to happen. After 6 years, that church is full of discipled guys.
It's really no different than what Jesus did. He took 12 guys, and although he occasionally preached to thousands, he really walked through life with the Twelve. After being discipled, those guys took the message of the Gospel and they took it to the world, a few men at a time. That is our dream at ethos church... that instead of a bunch of groups sprouting up all over the place in hopes of community happening, we want discipleship groups sprouting up all over the place, with the hopes of life transformation happening.
We believe, at our core, in discipleship, and we hope that the men's group, which is starting up with 6 guys this coming Monday night, will be the beginning of a new ethos... a new way of thinking about God in our community.
It's really no different than what Jesus did. He took 12 guys, and although he occasionally preached to thousands, he really walked through life with the Twelve. After being discipled, those guys took the message of the Gospel and they took it to the world, a few men at a time. That is our dream at ethos church... that instead of a bunch of groups sprouting up all over the place in hopes of community happening, we want discipleship groups sprouting up all over the place, with the hopes of life transformation happening.
We believe, at our core, in discipleship, and we hope that the men's group, which is starting up with 6 guys this coming Monday night, will be the beginning of a new ethos... a new way of thinking about God in our community.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Discipleship Group Starting Monday Night, 11.09.09
This Monday night we will be starting up a new men's discipleship group. We have almost half a dozen signed up and ready to go. If you are interested in coming, know these three things:
- The first few weeks are informational only; no commitment required
- You will not be required to "share your junk." We believe that you will share whatever is on your heart whenever you feel comfortable to do so.
- You will learn more about the faith than you ever thought possible.
- This is just as good for non-believers as it is for those who have been in church their whole lives. If you would like to call the last group who went through the process, let me know and I will get you their numbers. It changed their lives.
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