Episcopal Church, Thad's, in Santa Monica

Pastor Jimmy Bartz talks about his church, Thad's, in Santa Monica, CA
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Episcopal Church, Thad's, in Santa Monica

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When people think about church, a lot of times they think about a building. But at Thad's the church that I lead, we're not really interested in a building. We began in a park and moved to a jazz club and worshiped in a Jewish community center and now we're in a screen writer's workshop. What we're really interested in is the people that inhabit that community. We're interested in fostering thought around spiritual practice. We want to cultivate dreams. And we want to help people make a love spreading difference in the world. That's our reason for being. Not just communicating to people how much God loves them, but also encouraging them to be responsive and responsible with that love. To go out with their families, in the context of their children's schools, within the context of their workplace, to make some kind of love spreading difference that only they uniquely would be able to make. So Sunday morning at Thad's looks a little bit different than a lot of churches. I mean, we do have music and prayer and a reading from scripture, and I do a teaching off that. But really the best part of Sunday is the conversation. our community has a chance to come together, a couple 100 people very Sunday, and raise their hands and talk about what they're struggling with, or what's lighting them up, or what's giving them energy or joy or passion. And what I see happening there is intimacy builds very quickly as people make themselves vulnerable and raise their hands and engage in conversation. Other members of the community are either attracted to their vulnerability and encouraged by it, or they come to their aid in a really loving, wonderful way.

Pastor Jimmy Bartz talks about his church, Thad's, in Santa Monica, CA

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Jimmy Bartz

Priest

Jimmy serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Prior to coming to Jackson, he was the founder and priest at Thad’s, an emergent Episcopal Church in the Santa Monica, California, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. He has also served as the Campus Missioner at the University of Texas in Austin, at All Saints’ in Austin, Texas, and All Saints’ Parish in Beverly Hills, California. He is a graduate the University of Texas at Austin and Virginia Theological Seminary. Presently, he serves as the Chair of the Board of the Episcopal Evangelism Society, and in years past has worked with Red Bull High Performance teaching athletes spiritual disciplines, with Naval Special Warfare working to create systems for character development within special operations teams, and was a speaker at TEDx, Venice Beach.
Married to Cindy and dad to Jas and Jade, the Bartz family loves to spend time outside mountaineering, skiing, fly-fishing, hunting and surfing.  Jimmy is currently writing a book on the spirituality of risk.

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