Shannon Chapman

Live at Ethos

Tomorrow I am so excited because the Glorious Unseen will be leading us in worship.  I saw these guys a couple week ago and they blew me away.  I'm telling you right now this is not a week to miss at Ethos.  They will lead us into the presence of the Holy One as he Burns in us and Meets us here.  

So, go ahead and set your alarm clock for 10am because the it all starts at 11am.  Hope to see all of you there in the morning. 

//Peace

What is Ethos like?

Over the last 22 months since we started Ethos, people have asked me what is Ethos like?  To be honest, I have struggled with how to answer this but tonight I am going to attempt it.

 

• Welcoming…
• We have a great group of volunteers that help us greet people and make them feel like they belong at Ethos.
• We try hard in every aspect to convey the message that we are just like you who are attending today. 

 

• Message...
• We strongly feel that the message is just one part of the weekly community/worship experience
• We try hard to avoid churchy words, but present the truth of God's Word clearly.
• Really try hard in every aspect of the communication to feel conversational not one sided.

 

• Production...
• The reality is we all have production mistakes but we don’t try to hide them.  We just try to go with the flow but want excellence in all we do.
• All production elements are done strategically not just to be cool.
• We seek to follow the leading of the Spirit over our production schedule.
• We structure our service but try HARD for the community to not feel the structure at all. 
• Creativity comes very easy for our community but again the creativity must point to the Big Idea of the day.

 

• Music...
• Our music leads itself to feeling raw but sounds amazing.
• The style of music leads you and invites you into the presence of God.
• We allow everyone to worship and express their worship how they feel they should.  Some sit, stand, raise their hands, bow, but there is no doubt that God is moving us.

 

• Countdown...
• We start EVERY service with a countdown because it’s the only way to keep on schedule. 
• When the countdown gets to Zero we'd better be ready.

 

Ok that may not say everything that I wanted it to say but that is my first attempt to explain what kind of community ethos is.  We put a huge emphasis on explaining/teaching and experiencing who Jesus is and what kind of life he is calling us to live…we seek to do that through words, visuals, art, silence, stories, and anything else that will drive home the point.

On a personal note I feel like I am at my best as a communicator when I take the emphasis of teaching from my own personal experiences with God.

Sunday Recap

Today we started our new series called Air.  I felt that we hit it on all cylinders today as a Team.  The songs today were Hosanna (hillsong) Help me to find you (Todd Fields) Still haven't found what I'm looking for (U2) Living Rain (Parachute Band) Made to Worship (Chris Tomlin).  There we just an amazing peace about today in my heart.  

We are also doing a 5 part video series during this series called Xpressions.  We are looking at 5 different Hebrew words that are used in the Old Testament to describe different forms of worship.  

The essence of my message was were are Created To Worship.  The major point of my message is we never stop worship we instead exchange our worship.  I really hope everyone got the essence of what I was trying to say.  

Here is the video from our series Xpressions wk1.

Untitled from Shannon Chapman on Vimeo.

Ethos in Review

Today was another great day at Ethos as we continued our series called Building for the Future. It by far the lowest attendance for the summer. But the energy was good!

We had a lot of house keeping stuff to do which I hate but I guess thats just part of it sometimes. We did Grace will be my song, Jesus Paid it all, and God of this City. There was a special moment during Jesus Paid it all where it felt like the room split open and we where singing in the Heavens. It was such a special moment.

My message today was on what Nehemiah did when things began to go wrong. Here is a quick breakdown of what Nehemiah did.

Prayed Honesty
Nehemiah 4:4-5, Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.  

Used Commons sense
Nehemiah 4:9, But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.

Motivated the people
Nehemiah 4:14, After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."  

He never gave up
Nehemiah 6:3-4, So I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

People really seemed to get it today. I thank God for a community like Ethos. Ethos is real people seeking a real God. Let's continue to Build the Future!

Sunday in Review

Today was just one of those great days at Ethos. I got to church at 7:30 this morning with breakfast. The band got there at 8:00 and we hung out for a while and ate and just talked through things for today. Worship was amazing!!! We sang Lord of all, Beautiful Jesus, and Glory to God during the time of worship and we opened up with God of this City.

I really felt good about my message today. We are still in our series called Building for the Future. Today was entitled building a team of vision. Nehemiah is by far one of my favorite book of the bible and this series seems to be really connecting to people.

Cant wait until next week!!!

First ever POINT!

Today marks a day that goes down as the first ever Point. The point is a gathering for the Ethos leadership team. We have spent months planning and dreaming of what this gathering should and could look like. I want to thank Scott Hodge and his team for all their help. They really helped us plan what these nights should be about.

Tonight we are going to have wings from Zaby's and talk through some exciting things coming in the next few months. We have basically laid out the night with time for Vision, Huddle, and Skills. The theme we want to lay out tonight is what we want everything to be... simple but excellent. This is how we want Ethos to function as a community.

Ok, I am headed to finish up getting things ready. Cant want to for tonight!

New series starting tomorrow!

I am so excited about Ethos tomorrow. I have been out of town this week with the family and believe it or not I didn't take the mac with me. So, I'm so ready to be back speaking at Ethos with week. We are going to take the next few weeks to look at the story of Nehemiah. I will try to recap tomorrow after the service. I pray that our hearts will be driven for the mission of God!