MEETING TIME

Sunday nights at 6:00

LOCATION

Echo Church services are held at the Walnut Hills Christian Church at 1438 East McMillan Street.

PARKING

Parking is available behind the church building, behind the WAIF radio station, and on the street. Enter the church building at the rear parking lot entrance and take the stairs up to the fellowship hall. Child Care is provided through the 5th grade.

THE FLOW OF OUR WORSHIP GATHERINGS

Our gatherings are intentionally simple, as we believe the earliest Christians worshiped modestly. We begin with a reading of a Psalm, followed by a short time of musical worship, and the observance of communion. We then have a message, where we thoroughly examine a text of Scripture to observe God’s message to us. Sunday Gatherings tend to last about one hour, fifteen minutes.

DIRECTIONS

For directions from your precise location, check out Google maps. Otherwise, here are some general directions:

From the south:
Take Eden Park Drive, exit 2, off I-71.
Turn right on Eden Park Drive, go through the park [around the lake]- turning right at the roundabout. After crossing the bridge, Eden Park Drive becomes Victory Parkway. Stay on Victory Pkwy, turning right at the first traffic light onto East McMillan. Stay in right lane; the building is one block past Woodburn Avenue on the left.

From the north:
Take WH Taft Road, exit off I-71.
Stay in left lane off the ramp, turning left onto Essex
Turn left onto East McMillan Stay on East McMillan. You will cross over Victory Parkway Stay in right lane, the building is one block past Woodburn Avenue on the left.

From Columbia Parkway:
Take William Howard Taft Road. Turn left onto East McMillan Street. The building is at the top of the hill on the right.

There’s no shortage of people who will tell you what’s wrong with the city. Instead of dwelling on the problems, we’re focusing on the solution.

Echo Church believes that Jesus will not only transform individual lives but entire communities. Our church was started in October 2005 with a desire to resonate the voice of God throughout the city and to the ends of the earth. When we step back and listen to what God is saying, we begin see the world in a different light.

Echo is a body of believers united by a common relationship with Jesus. We’re human: we laugh, we cry, we hurt, we screw-up; we’re not perfect. Our worship of God isn’t limited to Sundays but is lived out in our daily lives.

We love Cincinnati, enjoy its culture, and believe in its future. While questions will always surface, we invite you to journey with us as we seek God and work towards those answers.

Click here for a PDF download of our core values.

BEHIND OUR NAME

Many people are curious as to why we’re called Echo Church. It began with a study of the Bible and an attempt to discern how God presents himself to humanity. God created the universe with his voice. God used prophets to verbally teach his commands. God sent His Son, who was also called the logos (Greek for, “The Word.”). Throughout the Scriptures, we read that God speaks. Since He speaks to us, it is our duty to share His words to others. They are not our words (we are not the source) so we merely “echo” God’s words to all creation. In Psalm 19:4, the poet observes, “Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

At Echo, we are not content to merely gather together and “have church.” We believe that the church must be incarnational— with believers living among the people to whom they minister, just like Jesus did 2,000 years ago. In essence, we must “be church” and lift up God in a city where many idols reign supreme.

While we are concerned with all of our city, we feel specifically called to minister to the Walnut Hills community, one of Cincinnati’s earliest suburbs. Walnut Hills is a diverse community, where people of various races and economic backgrounds work and live. Echo Church is determined to impact this neighborhood by any means possible: from hosting community movie nights, to sponsoring the community festival, as well as partnering with a local soup kitchen. You don’t need to live in Walnut Hills to be a part of Echo, but we ask that you develop a heart for making this community a better place.

BEYOND OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Since the mission of Jesus does not end with us, Echo Church financially supports various missionaries throughout the world. From time to time, we will partner with other ministries to accomplish certain projects, but here are the missions we continually support.

Hope Inner City (Jade and Kim Kendall) — planting churches in the American inner-city.

Cincinnati Christian University (Sam Gill) — we’re financially supporting the education of a missionary to Pakistan so he can train people to reach his country (For more on Sam’s ministry, click here).

Athletes in Action, Poland (Piotr and Heidi Paprocki) — reaching young people in eastern Europe through athletics.

PROCA Coaching, Poland (Dawid and Justinia Wawrzyniak) — ministering to Polish professionals through the workplace.

STEVE CARR [Teaching Pastor]

Steve has been in the vocational ministry for almost fifteen years. He has a B.S. in biblical studies and Master’s degrees from Cincinnati Bible Seminary and Xavier University in the fields of ministry and theology. He works as a student recruiter and adjunct professor at Cincinnati Christian University. Steve and his wife, Kelly, live in Walnut Hills with their daughter, Kaelyn. You can find out more about Steve on his blog.

AARON BURGESS [Advising Pastor]

Aaron has been in the vocational ministry for over ten years. He has a B.A. in biblical studies and Master’s degrees from Cincinnati Bible Seminary and the College of Mount St. Joseph in the fields of theology and organizational management. He works as a faculty coordinator and professor at Cincinnati Christian University. Aaron and his wife, Dorota, live downtown with their dog, Popper.

LARRY BUDDE [Leadership Team]

Larry works for the Cincinnati Association of the Blind. He and his wife, Kristen, live in Hyde Park.

DAVID McCOY [Leadership Team]

David works for the Cintas Corporation. He and his wife, Rachel, live in Norwood.

JOSH NISSLEY [Leadership Team]

Josh works for Western Southern Financial Group. He and his wife, Lyndsey, live in Walnut Hills with their dog, Euler.

SAM WALDRON [Lead Worshipper]

Sam, a native of Springfield, Ohio, is a minstry student at Cincinnati Christian University.

TIME CHANGE!

Sunday February 14, 6:00 p.m.

Our services will begin half an hour earlier. Starting February 14, worship will begin at 6:00 p.m. each Sunday night.

Men’s Bible Study

Saturday March 6, 8 a.m.

The men’s Bible study meets biweekly at the Parkside Cafe on E. McMillan. Contact us for more details.

Women’s Bible Study

Monday March 8, 8 p.m.

The women’s Bible study meets biweekly in someone’s home. Contact us for more details.

Keep Up-to-Date

To be added to our weekly email update, email us at updates@echochurch.org.

Do you have gatherings on Sunday mornings?
No. In an effort to be good stewards we’ve chosen to meet in an unused, already existing space. While we continue to explore the possibilities of meeting on Sunday mornings eventually, we’re currently focused on Sunday nights.

Are you part of Walnut Hills Christian Church?
No. WHCC has been gracious enough to rent us their facility so that we can have a place to hold our services. Both congregations are committed to making a difference in our city but are entirely different churches.

What denomination are you?
Echo is an autonomous, non-denominational church, started out of the Independent Christian Church tradition.

No, seriously, what kind of church are you?
While people prefer to impose certain designations on churches, from evangelical to emergent, we prefer to believe that we’re a simple church looking to do whatever we can to change our world.

What do you believe?
A collection of our theological beliefs can be found here in PDF form.

What should I expect in a Sunday gathering at Echo?
Our worship services are structured around the worship pattern of the early church. Each week we have times of singing, the taking of communion, and teaching from the Scriptures. If you have a Bible, you can bring it or we have pew Bibles available. Feel free to dress casually.

Do you provide child care?
Yes. Echo Kids is our supervised child care provided for children from toddlers through the fifth grade.

Do you have small groups?
Yes. Our small groups meet every other week to hang out and talk about spiritual issues. For more information, email us.

If you’re a recent Cincinnati transplant, welcome to town! Cincinnati is a unique Midwestern city with amazing architecture, stunning vistas, and world-class amenities, all while maintaining a small-town feel. One of the first thing many people do when they move here is try to find a place to worship. It’s critical that Christians get connected with a church community; when we invest in the church, the church invests in us and, ultimately, God is glorified.

One thing we’ve realized at Echo is that we’re not the right church for everybody. And we’re O.K. with that. While we’d love to have you join us, our commitment to the cause of Jesus in urban Cincinnati supersedes the growth of our own congregation. So if you’re trying to find a Christian community where you can get connected, here’s a list of nearby Bible-teaching churches that we know which you might want to visit.

Christ the King Church (Over-the-Rhine)

Covenant-First Presbyterian Church (Downtown)

Crossroads Community Church (Oakley)

Legend Community Church (Oakley)

Parkside Christian Church (East End)

University Christian Church (Clifton Heights)

Our current teaching series is a brief review of the book of Genesis. On Easter Sunday, we will begin a massive study on the book of Exodus. While the book of Genesis was the subject of our very first study when we started Echo, few people were actually there to witness it. So in preparation of what is to come, we’ll look at Genesis as a primer, setting the stage for Israel’s exodus— going from beginnings to bondage.

Join us as we glance at the first chapters of Genesis, watching the Scriptures transition from creation to comfort.

To listen to Echo teachings online, access them through iTunes (click here to access the Echo Church podcast on iTunes), or listen via the links below.

Previous Series: TEACHINGS FROM THESSALONIANS

Oct 11: Urban Exploration [Intro to Thessalonians] by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 1)

Oct 18: Amateur Artisanship by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 1)

Oct 25: Lead by Love by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)

Nov 1: TXT MSG by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Nov 8: Sources of Joy by Aaron Burgess (1 Thessalonians 2:14—3:5)

Nov 22: Between Saints & Sinners by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 4:1-12)

Nov 29: It’s the End of the World As We Know It, and I Feel Utterly Confused by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 4:13—5:11)

Dec 6: Would You Like a Fortune Cookie? by Steve Carr (1 Thessalonians 5:12-28)

Jan 17: God Is Just by Steve Carr (2 Thessalonians 1)

Jan 24: Heavenly Ignorance by Steve Carr (2 Thessalonians 2)

Feb 14: The Spectrum of Faith (part one) by Steve Carr (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5)

Feb 21: The Spectrum of Faith (part two) by Steve Carr (2 Thessalonians 3:6-18)

OTHER SERMONS

Feb 28: I Need Some Rest by Aaron Burgess (Hebrews 4:1-9)