About Me

Name:  Jason Douros
Location: West Seattle, WA
Occupation: Church Planter/Pastor of Ethos, Software Development Analyst
Born: 1974
Status:  Married to Pamela Douros
Offspring: Xavier, Willoweve, and Quinn
Education: BS in Christian Ministries from Hope International University
MDiv Southern Seminary

My Journey (thus far)

I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland.  I am my mother (Kay) and father’s (Rob) first and only child.  I started out living in Odenton, MD, but we quickly moved to Taylorsville, MD when I was 3 or so.  I grew up in this area, and met many of my life long friends early on.

I went to Winfield Elementary School, and then moved on to New Windsor Middle.  From there I started at  South Carroll High School.  Throughout my early school days I developed  a solid network of friends that I still stay in contact with today.  I must admit, like many people who found themselves marginalized in High School, the experience was rather miserable for me.  I was quite thrilled to leave South Carroll’s stifling walls in 1992 and decided to head for Art School.  Well, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh anyways.  My dream was to be a comic book artist and writer or even a special effects person…something cool and in the entertainment/artistic world.

Well, God would have a different story for me to participate in.

Before I turned 18, I had been to maybe 5 church services including funerals and weddings.  I ended up, through a series of unfortunate events, asking a friend if I could attend her Youth Group at Carroll Community Church (now LifePoint Church).  I hung out there for a while, then agreed to go on a ski trip…for some reason.   The last night there, after a long struggle I took a huge turn in my spiritual journey.  I gave my life to Jesus and promised to chase after Him for the rest of my days.  I also, in cool twist of fate, met an amazing woman, Pam.  We started dating about 6 months later.

After about 2 years together, in 1995, we were married.  We then headed up to Beaver Falls, PA to start our college adventures at Geneva College.  That lasted about 2.5 years, when we moved back to Columbia, MD in 1998.  Once there, we took a much needed break from full time school, and delved into our new spiritual family, Cornerstone Community Church.

While we served at Cornerstone, we started and then led the Youth Ministry for about 5.5 years.  We then started and led a Young Adult Ministry for about 3 years.   During this time, I fell into the world of IT and Software Development as a QA Analyst, Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Project Manager, and Report Developer.  We also completed our Bachelors of Science’s from Hope International University in 2004 through their online degree completion programs.  Pam went on to earn her Masters of Education, and I headed to Seminary for my Masters of Divinity.

Our family also grew during this time period as well.   In 2000 my first son, Xavier was born (that’s him at 3 with the Tiger).  Then in 2003, our daughter Willoweve was added to our family (she is the little baby in the Tiger picture).  Quinn was the last member of the family to appear thus far in 2005 (that’s me and him at the Seattle zoo in the summer of 2006 at 2 to the left).

From Maryland to West Seattle

In the summer of 2003 I really felt that God was calling me to start a new Community of Christ, and I just assumed it was in Columbia where we already lived.  Well, I decided that it might be best to check with Him sometime in 2005 for where we should go…or stay.  We started a long prayerful process of trying to decide where God wanted us to go. After making a short list based on some demographic and cultural research, I went to a summer class on church planting to try and decide our direction.  After an odd convergence of events and conversations, we decided to pursue Seattle, Washington as our first choice. 

After a visit in the summer of 2006, we were firmly convinced that this is where we belonged.  We visited many areas and neighborhoods on our trip, but one really called to us and felt like home, and that was West Seattle.  This wonderful little neighborhood captured our hearts and by the time we finished our trip we had decided to move.

We spent a  long, painful and rather horrific 6 months preparing to leave.  Our townhouse took massive amounts of effort to get ready for the market, but once it was, we ended up selling it in 48 hours in January of 2007 for the asking price.  We also had to wrap up our work at Cornerstone, and I was still doing Seminary full time. 

We made it through that period of time and pulled into to West Seattle on February 11th 2007.  Now I, along with my family and some new friends are working towards getting Ethos up and running.  This is my personal record of that adventure.

About The Name Metrospirituality

What does the name of the blog mean?  Pretty self explanatory really.  I believe that spiritually in an urban or metro environment is different then what is experienced in a suburban or rural environment.  As a resident of a city, a pastor, and church planter, this is my exploration of this unique expression of faith.

You can read the whole story of the word…yes it is made up…here.

That is a brief exploration of me…I feel so narcissistic now