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What Is Thad’s | Why Culver City - Venice - West LA
Mission.Vision.Values | Leaders | Who Is Thad?

What Is Thad’s?

Thad’s is a movement of missionary people who have made the choice to move out of the relative safety of the established church with the calling to bring the love of Jesus to the lives of people in positive, practical and transformative ways. Technically, we are a “mission station”, an experimental community of the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles.

Why Culver City / Venice / West L.A.?

The Culver City / Venice area of Los Angeles, California is a densely populated diverse urban center within a city. The area is experiencing both growth and transition. We see an opportunity to bless this diverse community by living the life that Jesus calls us to live: to be lovers, blessers and servers.

MISSION.VISION.VALUES.

Mission

To bring the love of Jesus to the lives of people in positive, practical and transformative ways

Vision

A community of all kinds of people committed to living the love-spreading, difference-making life that Jesus calls us to lead

Values

  • We live love-spreading, difference-making lives
  • We are called to be blessers not cursers
  • We will be courageous enough to engage God’s work and act
  • We are building the kingdom, not a church
  • We are hospitable, safe and accessible
  • We believe that there is no such thing as scaring or bullying people into heaven
  • We believe you can’t practice God’s love alone
  • We lead by serving
  • We know that love is reflected in love
  • We are Monday-Saturday followers of Jesus, who worship on Sunday

Leaders

The Rev. Jimmy Bartz

Married to Cindy and father to Jas (5) and Jade (1), Jimmy has been involved in full time ministry since graduating from the University of Texas in 1993.

Youth ministry positions in two different churches led Jimmy and Cindy to Virginia where Jimmy attended seminary, and Cindy worked as an inner-city social worker.

Upon graduation and ordination in the Episcopal Church, he went back to Austin as a campus minister for three years. A call to serve a traditional parish came in 2001, and the Bartzes have called Los Angeles home for the last five years.

Beginning in the spring of 2006 and launching at the Jazz Bakery in the fall of 2006, Thad’s has been a dream of Bartz’s and his colleagues for more than a decade.

Quinton Peeples

Quinton Peeples entered ministry work at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills after a career as a writer and a filmmaker. While still maintaining those ties, he was drawn more and more into bringing the message of God’s loving presence to those he encountered in daily life through his work at All Saints’ as the Coordinator for Communications.

On the ministry side, he collaborated with the Rev. Jimmy Bartz to help develop the Confident Evangelism program, became small group leader and launched “The Experience”. “The Experience” was an alternative worship group that met in different public spaces all over the Los Angeles region to explore the question “If God’s love is present everywhere, why can’t we worship anywhere?”

Some of the locations used were a downtown parking garage, a used-car lot, a public park and a preschool. While developing the teaching and liturgies for “The Experience”, the idea of Thad’s began to emerge in Jimmy Bartz’s work. Since many of the same missional ideas and concepts were present, “The Experience” was retired so that Quinton could begin to explore his possible contributions to Thad’s.

After preaching at the Saturday night “Good Evening” services and taking on responsibilities for teaching Bible Study classes at the bi-monthly senior program at All Saints’, Jimmy asked Quinton to join him as a missionary at Thad’s.

Hunter Perrin

Hunter Perrin, guitarist and composer, studied music at the University of Texas at Austin and the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded the Eliot Fisk Prize for outstanding guitarist.

He has composed music for several films, including the movie A Normal Life which won the award for best documentary at the 2003 Tribeca Film Fest. He has released three albums and enjoys performing in a variety of different genres including Rock, Americana, and Southern Blues.

He and his wife currently live in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles where Hunter enjoys writing and recording music at his home studio and performing in various bands. He also teaches guitar lessons at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organization that specializes in providing lessons for underprivileged children.

To read more about Hunter and the music at Thad’s, click here.

Cindy Bartz

Cindy Bartz moved to Los Angeles from Austin, in May 2002. Born and raised in San Antonio, Cindy grew up at Christ Episcopal Church. After receiving her B.S. in Political Science from Texas A&M University and her Master of Science in Social Work from The University of Texas at Austin, Cindy worked for seven years in the non-profit world.

Before moving to Los Angeles, she served as the Director of Northern Virginia Programs for Big Brothers Big Sisters in the Washington, D.C. area and then Director of Community Development at the Austin Housing Authority.

Who Is Thad?

thad - under the radar

Thaddaeus only gets two mentions in the Biblical text (Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18). He was simply one of the twelve disciples. As one of Jesus’ inner circle, it was his responsibility to listen to the teachings of Jesus, teach them himself when called upon, and to heal the sick and cast out demons.

We have chosen to identify with Thaddaeus because he was a significant leader in the movement to spread God’s love and kingdom through the work of Jesus, yet maintains a low profile and humble attitude. We hope folks will think of us in the same way—committed to the kingdom of God shown to us by Jesus and committed to serving people with God’s love.