1st Fridays at 4 - Videoconference

1st Fridays at 4 (Eastern) - an online gathering for those leading Missional Ministries & Midwifing the Spirit's future for all of us!

Our next Gathering is on August 5th (1^st Friday of each and every month), from 4 to 5:30 (Eastern).

This month we'll be interviewing Reverend Jimmy Bartz - the Church Planter who leads Thad's, an experimental community of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. You can read more about Thad's here. Reverend Jimmy Bartz has some fresh perspectives on what it means to "be Church" in the context the community is is called to serve. He also speaks clearly to the disciplines and practices that are essential for planting a vital and self-sustaining ministry. As a participant in this call, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and test out ideas with Jimmy as you explore the application of his claims there in your local community.

The Reverend Jimmy Bartz is married to Cindy and father to Jas (10) and Jade (5), Jimmy has been involved in full time ministry since graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994.

 
He served Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Sugarland, Texas, a Houston Suburb, and St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Houston as a full time Youth Minister before attending Virginia Theological Seminary.

After graduation from Virginia in 1999, Jimmy served as the University Missioner at the Episcopal Student Center at the University of Texas for three years. In 2001, Jimmy accepted a call to serve as Associate Rector at All Saints’ Parish, Beverly Hills, and the Bartz family began to call California home. 

Following a long discernment, much prayer and many conversations with the Bishop of Los Angeles, Jimmy left All Saints’ in 2006 to found Thad’s, an emergent Episcopal congregation in West Los Angeles. For the last five years, Jimmy and his colleagues at Thad’s have sought to build a vibrant, Episcopal community that reaches out to folks who would never darken the door of one of our traditional Episcopal communities.

In all of our calls, we offer each other skills training, peer support and then a Question & Answer time in a 90-minute session.

Our hope is to connect leaders of Fresh Expressions of Church to each other, across our denominations. We generally focus on the characteristics of “emergence” and what it means to partner with the Spirit in support of that which is being birthed. We also talk about the personal practices that sustain us in the “waiting for God.” 

We are offering these sessions via WebEx. Participants can join us via one of the following 3 ways:

• Telephone call 
• Telephone call & watch the live video stream on the Web
• Telephone call & participate in the videoconference w/a webcam

Would you join us, as well as pass the word along to others who might be interested? I welcome any questions & suggestions you may have for our work together.

With high hopes,

Reverend Tom Brackett

Get call-in information on Tom's blog