October. In a Nutshell.

Hey everybody. Here's this week's update. Let me take you on a tour through the month of October...

WEDENSDAY, OCTOBER 8: Echo Planning Meeting #2.
This meeting will take place at Caroline's and my apartment at 6:30pm. Please let me know if you are interested in coming so that we can be sure to have food for you and so that I can send you directions if you need them. If you did not attend the last meeting (September 10), that's not a problem. Any and all are welcome.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19: Our first Sunday Morning Gathering!
We are rapidly approaching the date of our first Gathering. If you are planning on attending, I hope you will be thinking about who else might be looking for something like this. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this. We will post a map to the Kimbrell home (which is where we will be gathering on Sundays) within a week of the launch date.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31: Neighborhood Halloween Party
One of our primary objectives is to be a church that exists as an essential part of whatever neighborhood or community that we happen to exist within. Because of this, we will be hosting a Halloween Party in the Kimbrells' neighborhood. The purpose of this is to get to know the people in the neighborhood and help them to get to know us. Jason Kimbrell is coordinating the details of this event, and I'll post more information about it as the date approaches. If you are interested in helping with anything, please let me know.

Also, coming in November: HOME GROUPS.

Thanks for checking in. Feel free to email me (echobiblechurch@gmail.com) for questions are clarification on anything. Thanks again for your interest!

-Rob

Financial Info and Book Recommendation

We are now almost a month away from our first gathering (October 19). There have not been many new developments since the last update, but there are some things that you may be interested in...

-One of the concepts that we're committed to is what we call the 25/75 split. This is the idea that 25% of what we receive in tithes and offerings will be given to outside organizations that are committed to bringing relief and support to the marginalized and oppressed citizens in our world. Half of the 25% will be sent overseas while the other half will remain in the metroplex (the other 75% will be used for the day-to-day operations of the church such as equipment, printing, administrative costs, etc.). We are still exploring and praying about which organizations with which to partner in this, but we hope to be able to announce this by the beginning of October.

-Just as a reminder, if you are interested in contributing financially to our work and mission (which you are under absolutely no obligation to do), you may do so by mailing a check to Fellowship of the Parks (our sponsor church: 9900 North Beach, Keller, TX 76248). They have requested that the checks be made out to "FOTP" with "Echo Bible Church" in the memo line. For those of you who have already given, thank you again for your generosity. You are deeply appreciated.

A good book that I would like to recommend is called They Like Jesus But Not the Church, by Dan Kimball. This another excellent book that will help us to understand the perspective of mainstream culture in relation to how they view Jesus and the people who claim to follow him. Like Jim and Casper, this is not a book that is required for anyone; it's simply a helpful guide through the paradigm of Mainstream America.

Have a great week!

-Rob

Mission, Vision, and Values

We had a great planning meeting last night. Thanks to all of you who attended. We are well on our way.

Our top priority has been to construct and define the DNA of Echo. After weeks of praying, editing, thinking, and re-editing, we have crafted our official Mission Statement. It is in the column directly to your right.

Also, we have four primary vision statements. These are our barometers for success and failure. This is what we see when we look at the future of this church:

A church that equips her people to live as Jesus calls us to live.
Our weekend gatherings are not merely services meant to attract or entertain. The purpose of the weekend gathering is to open our eyes to the way that we were created to live and to challenge us to respond to that call.

A church of Missional communities.
These are not simply small groups. These are small communities that exist in homes that seek to offer hope, renewal, and celebration not only to those who attend, but also to any who may cross our paths.

A church that serves and offers herself to the communities in which she exists.
We want our friends and neighbors to be glad that we are here and long for us to stay. We believe that when Jesus moves into the neighborhood, things should get better.

A church that offers hope and healing to the most marginalized and oppressed people around the world.

Also, we have defined our six core values:

The Grand Narrative
We believe in and affirm everything that the Bible affirms. We believe that the Bible is inspired and that it is instructive for those who seek to live out the way of Jesus.

Wholeness
We believe that Jesus wants to save every part of us and to restore us from the inside out. We will always seek to be put back together in a holistic way.

Community
We believe that we were meant to live a life that is deeply connected with others. We will always seek to be a church that honors community.

Serving
We were meant to offer ourselves in service to God and to others. We are never more like Jesus than when we are serving for the benefit of other people.

Celebration
We were meant to celebrate the divine in the daily and to be a voice of hope in our world.

Forward-Motion
We believe that we were meant to live with an awareness of a culture that is constantly shifting and changing. We will always be mindful of these trends and changes and adjust accordingly.


The first six weeks of our Sunday gathering will be a series that unpacks these values and helps us to see what it would look like to be a church that embodies them.

Thanks for checking in. Have a great weekend!

-Rob

Meeting Tomorrow!

-We are having our first big planning meeting TOMORROW NIGHT (September 10) at 6:30pm at our apartment. If you haven't contacted me yet, please let me know if you are planning on attending this meeting so that I can send you directions to our apartment and so that we can have enough pizza for you. You can email me at echobiblechurch@gmail.com. We'll be starting fairly promptly and we have a lot of ground to cover, so please try to be on time if you are planning to attend. I know that it is a school/work night, so we will not keep you here very late.

-Our Mission and Vision Statements are complete. We will be unveiling them at the meeting tomorrow night, and they'll probably go up on the blog either Thursday or Friday.

-We are having a contest! We are wanting to hear your best ideas for names for our small groups. The idea behind the groups is that they would be the true location where people would have their connections and church experience. We've considered such ideas as House Churches, Life Groups, Community groups, etc. but we want to know if there are other ideas out there. What do you think? Sadly, there is no official prize for the winner. However, there is the fulfilling emotional satisfaction of having performed a job well done. And shouldn't that be enough? Feel free to email your ideas to echobiblechurch@gmail.com.

-Finally, for those of you who have been praying, than you so much for your prayers. They are deeply appreciated. Also, thank you to those of you who have given financially to help our work and mission. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for your faith, encouragement, and belief in what we are doing.

Don't forget that the launch is October 19!

-Rob

Sponsor Church Weekend

This is a big weekend for one of our sponsor churches. ZeroChurch is launching its first preview service this Saturday at 5pm at Bear Valley Community Church (7900 Precinct Line Road). Let's show our support by attending this service.

Also, some of us will be attending the Sunday morning service of our other sponsor church, Fellowship of the Parks at 11am (click here for directions). If you want to ride together, feel free to email me (echobiblechurch@gmail.com).

I hope everyone is having a great week. Thanks for checking in!

-Rob