ethoschurch tulsa Equipping Gospel-Motivated People to Live Missional Lives

Transcription

1 Equipping Gospel-Motivated People to Live Missional Lives

2 Thank you for your interest in ethos church! This is a prospectus; a glimpse into what ethos church is, what it hopes to achieve, why it is needed, and how you can be a part of helping it to launch. I hope that you find this prospectus both informative and helpful as you consider how you might play a part in launching this church. Again, thank you for your interest. If you have any questions after you read through this prospectus, please feel free to call me at , or by at bberman111@gmail.com God bless you, Beau Berman Lead Pastor ethos church The Bermans Beau, Shannon, Brodie, Sutton, Scout

3 Why the name ethos? ethos (n) (1) the spirit of a culture, era or community as manifested by its beliefs and aspirations; (2) the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; (3) dominant assumptions of a people or period Example: When I was in high school, wearing seatbelts was frowned upon. My siblings and I would crawl around the back of the station wagon with no worries. However, things have changed, haven t they? Now, when you see a child crawling around in the back of a car, what do you do? If you don t call 911, you at least glare at the mother for giving her kids a certain death wish! This is because the ETHOS surrounding seatbelt-wearing has changed! The culture believes, at its core, that seatbelts save lives. This is a fundamental shift in the way a culture, or generation, thinks. Ethos church hopes that this emerging generation thinks differently about God and the gospel; that they would see God rightly; that they would live missional lives motivated by what Jesus has done for them.

4 How would ethos church be different? 85% of churches (in America) have either plateaued or are declining. (Malphurs, Planting Growing Churches) Most of the growing churches (the other 15%) are either: wordfaith prosperity gospel churches, or seeker-driven churches. Those terms could use a definition: Word-Faith (Prosperity Gospel) Churches Their teachings include: name-it-claim-it theology (meaning, pronounce the victory, and through believing, it will happen) claims of victory over sickness and poverty the use of Old Testament promises to Israel as relevant to the church today healings and miracles are sign gifts that are still in use today, and often are performed in the Sunday services Seeker-Driven Churches Their teachings include: Topical messages; not as much of an emphasis on studying the Bible in its context Light on doctrine and theology; not very much teaching on the sacraments More of an attractional instead of missional emphasis, meaning they often attempt to create programs that attract seekers (as opposed to equipping their members to live missionally).

5 What is the Problem? Christine Wicker, former writer for the Dallas Morning News and author of The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, writes: The idea that evangelicals are taking over America is one of the biggest publicity scams in history; a perfect coup accomplished by savvy politicos and religious leaders who understand media weaknesses and exploit them brilliantly. Later, she writes, Once we understand evangelical numbers in context, we begin to understand that America is a very different place than many of us have come to believe it is, and American people are a very different kind of people More thoughtful, more reasoning, less doctrinnaire, more changeable, more flexible, less religious. Dr. Jeff Bingham, chairman of the Systematic Theology Department at Dallas Theological Seminary, writes: I was afraid that the way in which evangelicals would be tempted to respond to the decline of evangelicalism was by changing the faith; making an inflexible faith more flexible; making a faith which was declared in doctrines less doctrinnaire; making a faith which was based upon faith more based upon reason

6 The Solution? Depth! Michael Spencer, author of The Coming Evangelical Collapse We re on the verge of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world, and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West. The reason, he says, is because We evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith, that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars that have been spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next-to-nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. He continues: Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but they do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culturewide pressures.

7 The Solution? Depth! To offset the looming disaster (i.e., the death of evangelicalism), we must have deep, growing churches that are unwaveringly holding to orthodoxy and theological depth, teaching people the foundations of the historical Christianity, while still speaking the language of the culture. There seems to be few churches around the country who are committed to this. But the ones who are doing this are experiencing unprecedented growth especially (surprisingly!) with the under-30 crowd. (See Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, R.U.F., John Piper, etc.)

8 Why Plant a Church in Tulsa? There are many churches who seem to do a great job of building up people in terms of biblical depth; however, many of those churches seem to lack a focus on reaching out to the culture Many churches seem to do a great job of being relevant to the culture, and introducing people to Jesus; however, many of those churches do not appear to place as much of an emphasis on making growing disciples ethos church would attempt to do both

9 What is a Missional Church? The Great Commission Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (The greatest of the commandments being: Love the Lord your God with all of who you are, and love your neighbor as yourself). THIS is the mission. Establishing a Missional Church means that you plant a church that s part of the culture you re seeking to reach. (Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches) Missional is different than being Mission-Minded. The difference is that to be missional, you must see yourself as a missionary in your own zip code, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound. It is living in the world, but not being of it. We want to live with the people around us; but as we are changed and transformed, we seek to change and transform. This is called being Incarnational. North America needs to be treated as a mission field in the same way that we in the West have approached much of the rest of the world for the past several centuries.

10 What would set ethos church apart? It would not be numbers-driven! (Technique-driven model) Churches mistakenly conclude (that they are missional) because of their increased attendance. Their trendy techniques cause a rapid rise in attendance, giving them a false sense that what they are doing is working. As a result, they may be more willing to throw discipleship out the window as a goal if that helps them retain more warm bodies in their services. That s a compromise a biblical church won t make. (Stetzer, Missional Churches, 24) It would be driven by life-transformation! In Good to Great, Jim Collins asks, What is the Win? For ethos church, the win is transformed lives.

11 What is the mission of ethos church? Equipping Gospel-Motivated People to Live Missional Lives Equipping People- making disciples through one-on-one and small group relationships This is one of the most fundamental aspects of the church. This church does not believe that true life change will happen in either the main service, nor will much life change happen in life groups. We believe that the most impacting life change will happen in discipleship. Whether that is in a small group or one-on-one, discipleship will be one major way we measure success. It is in discipleship relationships that lives change.

12 What is the mission of ethos church? Equipping Gospel-Motivated People to Live Missional Lives Gospel-Motivated -- We will not be religious, legalistic, or moralistic, but instead, our faith and trust in the God of the Gospel will motivate our behavior and morals We believe that theological and doctrinal beliefs are the foundations that cause people to act and think the way they do; therefore, we will work hard to lay theological and doctrinal foundations that are rooted in orthodoxy and the Gospel, which will cause our people to live radical lives. We WILL NOT simply do church; rather, we will live lives motivated by the Gospel.

13 What is the mission of ethos church? Equipping Gospel-Motivated People to Live Missional Lives Live Missional Lives- Every person is called to be a missionary in his/her sphere of influence. Our church will not be satisfied with numerical growth (or marketing strategies aimed at numerical growth); rather, because of our unwavering commitment to transformed lives, we will choose to live out the Great Commission by becoming missionaries in the culture where God has placed us. This is a radically different way of living, and it requires tremendous commitment, and results in tremendous joy.

14 Core Value Statements We desire to be incarnational rather than attractional. We desire to be about mission over marketing. We desire to fight for depth and not be satisfied with width. We desire sacrifice over entitlement. Values Discipleship Missional Living Evangelism Expositional Bible Teaching Contextualization of the Gospel Relevance to Culture

15 What would the church look like?

16 Orthodox Faith Calvinism can be defined as People suck, and God saves us from ourselves. -Mark Driscoll T- Total Depravity U-Unconditional Election L- Limited Atonement I- Irresistable Grace P- Perseverance of the Saints

17 Orthodox Faith

18 Orthodox Faith Joe Carter, in an article titled, Calvinism and the Seeker-Insensitive Church, writes: For the past twenty years the seeker-sensitive model making church more appealing to the un-churched has been the dominant approach to church growth in evangelicalism. But as Mars Hill and other Calvinistic churches are proving, the old You re a sinner and need Jesus can be quite effective too. Driscoll s church offers moral leadership to a generation used to being flattered by authority figures. While schools and even other churches seek to boost self-esteem by telling kids they can achieve whatever they want (or conversely that they should be happy not to achieve anything), Driscoll s Calvinism tells them what they already know: deep down they re not so great, and that s not good enough. In fact it s a message that appeals to all ages, because whatever you achieve, it never stops being true.

19 Needs Year 1 Salary/Benefits for Lead Pastor $5k/month plus taxes, retirement, health insurance Office Space\Office Supplies $5k/year Website Costs $2k/year Advertising/Marketing Costs $5k/year Total- $92,000 Year 2 Lead Pastor and Admin Pastor Salary/Benefits $10k/month plus taxes, retirement, health insurance Part-time Worship Leader $20k/year Office Space/Office Supplies $5k/year Space to Rent for Services $5k/year Promotional Banners/Signs/Cards $10k/year Total $200,000 The total need for ethos church is $12,500 per month I currently have 8 people who, combined, are giving $2,950 per month. If we can find 50 more people to give $200 per month, (0r 25 people to give $400 per month), we will meet our goal.

20 The Harvest 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."