Ethos Church India
Posted by Dave Clayton on 04/10/2011
When Ethos Church held its first services in the fall of 2008, our vision was bold yet simple. As a church we set out to change the world by Loving God, Loving People, and Awakening the movement that Jesus began.
Quite simply, this meant that we would see ourselves not simply as a group gathered for church services, but instead as a group of people gathered with Christ, ready to change our city and the world.
Over the last couple of years, we have seen this vision come to life as our church has served in neighborhoods all across the city, helped plant churches all across the country, and blessed thousands of people all across the world with food, clean water, medical relief, and the good news of Jesus Christ. We have seen this gathering of people grow from a handful of friends, to more than a thousand people ready to change the world as we follow Jesus together.
2 NEW CHURCHES & a SCHOOL
On Easter Sunday, Ethos Church is going global. We are moving beyond the confines of downtown Nashville as we plant two new churches (Ethos Basirhat and Ethos Gaborda) and a school in the eastern most corner of India (on the border of Bangladesh).
The first church plant located in Basirhat, India will be led by Sandip Chatterjee and his team. His associate minister Piyas Dey will be handling most of the day to day ministry as Sandip helps launch the second church. In addition to launching the church in Basirhat, we will be building and staffing a school that will teach local trades and skills (i.e. basket weaving) and assist adults in becoming more literate through reading programs. Currently Basirhat is 60% Hindu, 28% Muslim, and 2% Christian. It is going to be incredible to watch Jesus change Basirhat through our new church there.
The second church will be located in Gaborda, India, not far from the border of Bangladesh. This is a dangerous area, as human traffickers often cross the border in this area resulting in many women and children becoming victims of sex trafficking. Our new church will be working towards providing education and practical work solutions for children and women that will ultimately help protect them from becoming easy targets for human traffickers. We believe Jesus has big plans for his church in Gaborda, and we can’t wait to watch what he does there.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
There are 3 practical ways you can help.
ONE : PRAY. You can pray for Sandip, Piyas, their families, and the two local teachers we will hire to run the school. There has never been a Christian church in either of these places and we believe the enemy will look for ways to stop them at all cost. Pray for these great folks who are joining our team here at Ethos to Awaken a Movement and advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ in India.
TWO : GIVE. As you can imagine it takes money to build a school, fund a church planter’s salary, and hire school teachers. If you would like to help with this effort we would welcome your financial support. You can GIVE online HERE.
THREE : GO. In the months and years to come, our hope is to take teams from Ethos to visit our churches in India. If you feel God calling you to go and be a part of this work, let us know by emailing us at questions@ethoslove.com. If you are interested in going on a short term trip through Ethos Church, just hang tight, we will provide info regarding that as it becomes available.
Thank you for joining us on this journey as we strive to LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, and AWAKEN a MOVEMENT.
This Easter at Ethos
Posted by Dave Clayton on 04/10/2011
There is something special about Easter Sunday. There is something powerful about millions of people gathering all over the world for the sole purpose of remembering that the tomb of Jesus Christ is empty. Easter reminds us of a truth we proclaim at Ethos every Sunday – Jesus is Alive, and that changes everything.
The last two Easter’s at Ethos Church have been special. We have shared a meal, celebrated as people gave their lives to Jesus, served our city, and invited our friends that are not Christians to join us in the process. This Easter will be no different. After much prayer and planning, our goal is to turn things up a notch as we celebrate and participate in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This Easter we have 4 GOALS :
(1) START : We will start 2 Churches and 1 School in India (read more)
(2) FEED : We will feed 1.2 million people in Zambia (read more)
(3) SHARE : We will invite our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to help
(4) CELEBRATE : We will gather to celebrate the reality that Jesus is alive
We believe the task at hand is far too big for us, but is certainly not too big for God. As a church we love to put ourselves in positions in which only God can get credit for the outcome. We believe this Easter will be a real example of an “ONLY GOD” moment.
Here are 4 WAYS TO HELP:
ONE : GIVE GENEROUSLY
Our goal is to raise $30,000 on Easter Sunday to fully fund 2 New Churches, 1 School, and food for 1.2 million people. (GIVE HERE)
TWO : TELL PURPOSEFULLY
Share our goals with everyone you know. Invite your friends, parents, neighbors, and co-workers to START, FEED, SHARE, and CELEBRATE with us. Tweet about it. Change your facebook status. Put a message in a bottle. We don’t care. Just be creative. Imagine what would happen if the 1,200 people of Ethos Church each invited 10 friends to help with this effort?
THREE : THINK STRATEGICALLY
Over the next 8 months we will be sharing more info regarding the tasks at hand. We believe God has equipped many of you within our church family to help meet some of the greatest needs in the regions we are serving. What ideas do you have? How can we serve our friends in Zambia and India better?
FOUR : PRAY FERVENTLY
Pray. Pray. Pray — For our friends in Zambia. For our new brothers and sisters in India. For our neighbors, co-workers, and friends that will see Jesus alive and well in ways they have never seen him previously. Pray that Jesus Christ will receive every ounce of glory through our efforts this Easter.
This is not about Ethos Church. This is about an empty tomb, a risen King, and a Glorious God. What better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ than by advancing the Gospel, feeding the hungry, and educating the next generation. Thanks for dreaming God sized dreams with us, and for having the courage to swing for the fences as we seek to Love God, Love People, and Awaken the Movement that Jesus began.
Story : Get To Know
Posted by Dave Clayton on 08/30/2010
At Ethos, we believe one of the most effective ways to reach new people with the gospel of Jesus Christ is through planting churches that plant churches. Over the last two years we have helped dozens of church plants financially, through prayer, and with man power. Over the next two weeks, we would like to introduce you to a couple of our church planters from the Vine in Vancouver, British Columbia.
ABOUT US : Greetings to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ at Ethos! David (or Dave as I think you all call him) is always sharing with me about the wonderful things that God is doing among you there in Nashville. Amy and I are thrilled to know that you are thinking of us and partnering with us in prayer in our church planting work here in Vancouver, British Columbia. So let me share with you some about who we are, and what we’re up to in Canada.
Amy grew up in the opposite corner of North America in Port Charlotte, a town on the gulf coast of southern Florida. I was a Navy brat, and my family moved wherever the Navy sent my dad. My last two years of high school landed me in Summerville, South Carolina (where I met this nerdy little 9th grader named David Clayton). Amy and I met at Harding University where Amy was working towards a degree in education and I a Bible degree. We started dating while I was working on a Master’s degree in Marriage & Family Therapy, and we got married the day after I graduated in 2005. Amy also earned a Master’s in Education from Harding.
Our relationship began as each of us was meeting with a group that had a dream of planting a church in the Pacific Northwest. Before we knew it, we fell in love, and we’ve been on an adventure together ever since. After we married we lived in Searcy, Arkansas for a couple of years where Amy worked as a teacher and I worked as a therapist, and our walk with God was nurtured in our life with the Downtown Church of Christ.
In July of 2007 we quit our jobs, packed up our lives and moved to Eugene, Oregon. Our plan was to live there for around 6 months while we waded through the process of getting our visas for Canada. We ended up being in Eugene for 18 months! While living there we worked in campus ministry at the University of Oregon and with a homeless drop in shelter for youth. These experiences were not only life changing but were also good training grounds for our work here in Canada. During this phase of our marriage our faith was continually strengthened as we watched God provide for us month after month.
Finally, on December 15, 2008 we made the move across the border and started our new lives in Vancouver. Since then we have been working with our partnering couple, Paul & Julie McMullen, at planting a new church; Amy obtained a degree from Vancouver Community College for teaching ESL; I’ve been working at starting a part time therapy private practice; and we had our first son, Elijah Hawk Etheridge.
About The Vine : The vision for The Vine, a church of Christ, started over 6 years ago amongst of group of Harding University students and graduates. That group of students was whittled down eventually to two couples (us [the Etheridges] and Paul & Julie McMullen) with a vision for planting a multiplication based network of simple and organic churches in Vancouver, British Columbia. We envision a large network of weekly intimate house church gatherings that all come together once per month for a time of celebration. In February, 2009, the four of us gathered together and asked God for that to be the last time that it was just us four. To this date, He has granted that request.
For the first half of 2009 we met together with another new church plant with a similar vision, LifeHouse Christian Church. In August of 2009 we experienced our first multiplication and LifeHouse and The Vine began meeting separately. We still gather with LifeHouse once per month for our celebration services.
Currently, The Vine consists corporately of one house church usually consisting of 8-12 people. We gather weekly on Sunday evenings at Paul and Julie’s apartment. Since one of our core values is multiplication we try to keep things simple so as to promote reproducibility. Our gatherings are simple and casual. From Sunday to Sunday the flow and order of our time together can look very different. However, every Sunday includes a meal, time spent together in the Bible, singing praise to God, prayer, and communion. Midweek, we gather in small groups of 2-4 which we call Life Groups. Life Groups provide a safe place to explore God’s word together, confess sin, and pray for one another and for friends who do not yet know Jesus.
From a corporate standpoint (meaning if you look at our times together on Sundays and mid-week) The Vine is still very much a small baby church. However, we are still in the gathering phase as a young church, and it becomes very difficult to measure The Vine when you start looking at neighborhood connections. Much of our work here in the first year and a half has been simply adjusting to a new country, city, and culture, and trying to network in our neighborhood. If you were to measure community at The Vine by counting all the people in our neighborhood who have visited, served in service projects, or engaged in vision type discussions about The Vine the number would probably reach upwards of 100. So we view ourselves as missionaries in our neighborhood whose job is to network, connect, volunteer, and vision cast in each pocket of people that we come in contact with. In everything we do we are asking for God’s favor and looking for opportunities to plant seeds for His Kingdom. At the same time we are trying to disciple the group of people that has committed to The Vine already. This group consists of some mature Christians, some brand new Christians, and some who have not yet made faith commitments to Christ.
