Dearest friends of Harvard Avenue,

I wish I was sitting in your living room right now, eye to eye, heart to heart, to share this news in person.  Given the speed of news today, such is not our luxury. With the deepest of mixed emotions, I have accepted a Call to serve as the Lead Minister of Broadway Christian Church in Columbia, Missouri.  Tremendous prayer, discernment, and more than a few tears have gone into this decision.  Our love for each of you and this sacred gift of ministry at our church has made for the most meaningful decade of our lives.  A quick review of ten years leaves us speechless.  How can we adequately describe what this time with you has meant to us?  We cannot. At least not yet.

As we felt such a Call to Tulsa ten years ago, we feel that same Call to Columbia now.  Broadway Christian Church, a church that had my college apartments to one side and my college bank job on the other, is a church that needs those gifts and graces now.  Most significantly, perhaps, is a Call we feel to live near our families.  Carrie’s mother, three brothers, and their families all live in Columbia and my family lives just a short distance down the road.  For twenty years, we’ve missed most every birthday party, family dinner, and the daily gift of our kids growing up with their cousins and family.  Given the age of our children, and our parents, it is a gift that this is the time for such a ministerial Call to surface.  As exciting as that is for us to imagine, we grieve deeply that it means we will be leaving the ministry we so deeply cherish with each of you.

I could not be more confident in our staff team, our lay leadership, and the strength of our congregation moving ahead.  You are healthy, strong, growing and focused.  As God is preparing us for a new Call, God will also prepare you for this new season.  And surely, God is preparing a new ministerial partner to arrive with new gifts, different strengths, and unique energy.  I fully trust God to bless your faith and keep Harvard Avenue growing into her bright future. We will be your greatest cheerleaders!

While this news is fresh and we all need some time to sit with it, I also anticipate a season of sharing together the joy of all we’ve experienced. Our last Sunday serving among you will be July 28.  A time of celebrating our ten years together and saying goodbye will occur the evening before.  More details will be shared about that as we approach that time.

For now, please know not only our deep love and gratitude for you but even more so the great height and width and breadth and depth of God’s love for us all.  God is not done with any of us.  Christ, who has led us faithfully this far, will continue to be the One who leads us forward.  I trust that truth with my entire being.

With humility, gratitude, and a deeper love than you can know…

Mark

Blood Drive
Wednesday July 17
4:00 – 7:00pm
Family Life Center

Help our local community by simply rolling up your sleeve. It takes less than an hour, but can last a whole lifetime! ONE donation can save THREE lives!

Eat well and drink water that day, bring your photo ID, and come ready to give.

Sign up sheets are available at both Welcome Centers,
or email the church office to be added to the schedule (select a time between 4pm – 7pm).
You may also register with Oklahoma Blood Institute Donor Express and do the paperwork ahead of time!

If you have questions or need information, contact drive coordinator Rick Langenheim.

It has been an anxious season of storm watches and warnings, and even as the waters begin to recede, we remain watchful for any related concerns … and we begin the clean up in earnest.

May brought unprecedented flooding, tornadoes, and damage in our Tulsa neighborhoods; devastation in El Reno, Skiatook, Muskogee, and other areas of NE Oklahoma; near Joplin, and in Jefferson City in Missouri, and further east into Indiana and Ohio.

We are overwhelmed with concern and want to go and be and do … and we will.

But FOR RIGHT NOW, what we really need to do, what will help our friends and neighbors most, is to give time and room for those who are closest to the need, and trained to make the response, to lead the effort. Responding as we are asked, when we are asked, makes the care we long to extend actually possible, and helpful. Do not simply show up if you have not been invited, trained, and directed. You will mean well, but you will create MORE work, not less.

WE PRAY.

The Holy One waits with us.
We bind ourselves to Christ and to one another as we pray:
for first responders, willing volunteers, those simply being neighbors;
for decision-makers, policy-creators, and all who will move us forward;
for care providers, insurance adjusters, contractors and renovators;
for emerging needs, lasting effects, and patience to endure;
and for calm, wise, discerning hearts amidst it all.

WE GIVE.

Our financial gifts make help possible immediately, and let those closest to the needs determine the best solutions.

Our church’s relief and response through Week of Compassion gets your gift where it is most needed for our siblings in affected communities. You can use WOC’s secure online donation (you may choose to designate, OR make an undesignated gift, leaving the most flexibility) or bring a gift to the church office. 

City and County leaders have established a Disaster Relief Fund for Eastern Oklahoma. This is being managed by the Tulsa Area United Way and the Tulsa Community Foundation. You can donate here, and those gifts will serve all local social service non-profit partners involved in disaster relief in the area.

WE SERVE.

COLLECT:

When you are bringing donations to a site, please only bring what has specifically been requested. Bringing things that are not asked for makes more work for already-overworked coordinators, and wastes time, storage space, and the items themselves.

*Sand Springs Community Services is a local clearinghouse for relief supplies in the levee-threatened and flooded areas. They have two very specific requests:
– cleaning supplies (trash bags; work gloves; sponges/magic erasers; paper towels; toilet paper; cleansers)
– hand-held games or small toys (new, not broken; NOT stuffed animals). Please read this for information and instructions.

VOLUNTEER:

*The Food Bank has regular volunteer shifts (9a-12n, 1p-3p, some 6p-8p) that you can sign up for. The work will primarily consist of packing nonperishable food kits for distribution, especially in the next few days. No volunteers under 11yrs; volunteers 16 and under must be accompanied by adult; *registration and volunteer profile is required*. Register here.

*The River Parks system was effective in its purpose as a buffer between people and the floodwaters through much of Tulsa. Now we need volunteers to help clean up miles of park land that spent a lot of time under water. You can sign up to help restore River Parks as a recreational area here.

*You can access other volunteer opportunities by calling 2-1-1.

As soon as those leading recovery assess how volunteer assistance is needed here in Tulsa, in Missouri, in Indiana or Ohio – and there will be SO MUCH long-term recovery work – we will be there, and for the long haul. It is what we do, and our partners at Week of Compassion, Disciples Volunteering, and others help us do the most good. We will advise, direct, and support that effort in every way we can.

It is an honor and privilege to be in a congregation whose first thought is for others. May divine creativity inspire our waiting, and our witness.

Outreach Ministry Team Lead Diana Booren, along with Community Pastor Kevin Howe, have created this quarterly update (click image below) to keep us posted on the ministries we are part of – and how to do more!

Fully committed to our ‘Become.’ core value, discover community engagement at Harvard Avenue as part of the ‘big picture’ of who we are.

SPRING 2019 : JustHope // Community for Refugees // Day of Service // Community Garden // Family Promise

Join the guys of Next Man Up – a Harvard Avenue ‘fella-ship’ –
for an evening of food, drink, and friendship.

first Thursday monthly

5:30pm

next up : Thursday May 2 @ White Lion (6927 S Canton Ave)

Relax with some food & drink, meet some church brothers you don’t know yet, and hang out with the ones you’ve known for years.

Always great fun and great conversation. No RSVP necessary, just join us!

On January 27 2019, Harvard Avenue held its annual congregational meeting to review the church’s business of the past year, approve a budget for 2019, and receive the ‘state of the church’ address from Lead Pastor Mark Briley.

That budget ($1.2million) was vetted by the Finance Team, Executive Leadership Team, Ministry Leadership team, then moved for approval, seconded, and unanimously approved in a vote by the congregation.

Here is the 2018 Harvard Avenue Annual Report.
Print copies are available at both the Peake Commons and Sanctuary Welcome Centers.
A one-page financial report is available from Nedean Guerin in the Finance Office.

Including a brief welcome and opening prayer from Moderator Darita Huckabee, LISTEN to Mark’s State of the Church address here:

or READ a transcript of his remarks.

We join together in daily prayer for this church, its leaders, congregation, and community. May we be ever more faithful.

Your Week at Harvard Ave, our Wednesday email, is a weekly connection to the events, news, ministries and more. (And it comes in a mobile-friendly format!)

Highlight links within items will lead you to more details on the Your Week page.

Email Communications Director Christy Southard to be added to the weekly email list.