Over the last year I've really found a spiritual home here in Nashville with Ethos Church. It's kind of wild to think that in 2007, Ethos was only an idea floating around in the minds of a wonderful couple in my community. Now in 2010, hundreds of college students, adults, and families flock to the Cannery Ballroom every Sunday (now offered at 3 convenient services) to fellowship and worship with our Ethos family. When I began coming to Ethos in fall of 2009, I was immediately intrigued by the concept of "house churches." These Wednesday night small groups meet all around out city, giving everyone a chance to get plugged in. As the semester progressed, my house church in Hermitage quickly became my favorite aspect of Ethos. Every week we grew closer and closer while sharing meals, telling stories, and reading the gospel to brainstorm ideas of how we could better serve Nashville.
One year has quickly come and gone.
I now find myself as a college graduate transitioning from the university setting into the real world. Ethos has been a terrific element of my life over the past year, so I'm very excited to jump back into the house church circuit. With Ethos' great growth during the 2009-2010 school year, there are more house churches on the table than ever. Even more intriguing, Ethos is offering a whole new breed of house churches called "passion churches." These small passion focused groups will meet once a week to discover how their common passions can be used to serve Nashville in the name of Christ. This beautiful new series of churches will see groups unite around passions such as running, crafts, and even ultimate frisbee. We have a home repair passion church who will be volunteering a night out of their week to do handy work for our neighbors who may not be able to do home repair for themselves. In another part of town, we have a sewing passion church who will unite to craft wonderful sewn goods that can be donated to Nashvillians in need. I personally have joined the world's first photography passion church.
I can trace my passion to photography back to the 6th grade. You may not be able to tell by looking at me, but I was once the finest wildlife photographer in the Dickson County public school system (and I have the ribbons to prove it). As a borderline ADHD 11 year old, I found a great peace and satisfaction going out into my yard and hiding in a small tree to take photographs of birds as they came in to feed. With my mom's 1980 Minolta 35mm camera in hand, I was able to capture some National Geographic quality shots of cardinals, pileated woodpeckers, and Tennessee's lovely state bird, the mockingbird. Perhaps my favorite of all was a dazzling close shot of a Carolina Chickadee, the photo which I brandished all the way to the state 4-H competition in Murfreesboro. Good times... Anyway, here I find myself 12 years down the road jumping back into photography with the same Minolta 35mm camera I wielded back in the winter of '98. I had a monumental photo safari with some talented friends last weekend, and I'm already planning my next adventure. With this being said, I'm very excited to see how my photography passion church develops.
Tonight we held our first passion church gathering in a charming house on Woodvale Drive. Arriving fashionably late, my party entered the den, ascending our total attendance from eleven to fifteen. We began our night by going around the circle to introduce ourselves and share why we were drawn to this particular passion church. As we went around the circle, a common theme arose; Everyone had a love for the art of photography, and we want to discover how our passion can be used to serve the Lord. For the next hour we chatted about our thoughts and dreams for history's first photography passion church. We drafted several service project ideas, such as hosting a baby photo shoot for single mothers and hosting a benefit art show. Over the coming weeks, we will be taking different topics (like creation and reconciliation) upon which we will meditate, pray, and use as inspiration for photography projects. Then, we will take Wednesday night meetings to share our latest work and discuss how our images transcend the image of God. It was truly a thrill to be surrounded by such a talented, passionate group of individuals. I realize that we only spent a brief time together tonight, but I can safely say that our first gathering is only the tip of the iceberg. A huge, creative iceberg.
God is doing wonderful things here in Nashville. And I cannot wait to see the work these Ethos house churches do for our community this autumn. As we move further into 2010, I'm curious to know what you're passionate about, and how can that be used to better your community?
"Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion." -Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German Philosopher
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