On Sunday, we taught about the importance of North Village Church personally being involved in starting new churches. We identified three primary ways we can participate today:
- We can pray: Pray for God to raise up people to be involved in starting new churches. We are currently supporting two churches financially and helping them get established: Iglesia Biblica de City Bell in Argentina and The Well in Austin, TX.
- We can go: Consider going to help get a new church started. Pray for others to go, and pray about how you can personally lay aside personal comfort to see a new church get started.
- We can give: Right now we are giving 5% of our finances toward starting new churches and our goal is 10%, which would be an additional $12,500. On Sunday, we received $8,20o toward starting new churches and we are praying that we can reach our goal of $12,500 by the end of the week. You can help!
How to give: (Deadline ends Friday at 12pm)
- Pay Pal (Just put Church Plant Sunday in the memo)
- The City (Drop down window: Church Plant Sunday)
- Mail: 8705 Shoal Creek Blvd. Suite 201, Austin TX 78757
1. I didn’t grow up going to church: I didn’t either. When I first started reading Scripture I thought David and Goliath was about a bear. It’s okay. You have to start somewhere.
2. I don’t like to read: That’s a lie. You read fiction junk all the time about vampires and hunger games. You read about sports. You read about music. You have all the draft beers memorized at the Flying Saucer. You can do this. It is simply a matter of you coming to a place where you decide if you want to stay in this fight.
2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
This verse might sound complicated. You see words like, “Approved, diligent, workman, and accurately handling the word of truth”, but it simply means we need to be growing in our understanding of Scripture. Sometimes this can seem a bit broad so let me give you 3 Stages of growing in your understanding of Scripture:
When we look at Scripture we see the Apostle Paul find his confidence and boldness as an “Apostle of Christ Jesus.” It is easy for us to assume the authority comes from the title “Apostle” but the only reason it carries any authority is because it is connected to Jesus. He found his confidence in Jesus?
Consider all the places where we look for confidence and boldness in life. We easily turn to our physical appearances. If we feel like we are in shape and eating healthy then we walk with a little pep in our step. We also turn to our finances. If our savings is growing then we feel confident about life. We turn to our circle of friends also. If they are inviting us places and including us in social activities then we tend to feel better about ourselves.
In 2010 I was asked to pray for our city council. You can look at a video of the prayer here: http://austintx.swagit.com/play/10052011-686/#2
On April 11th, I will have another opportunity to pray for the city council and I see it as a great opportunity to come along side our city council members for spiritual encouragement. I am sure they have personal agendas. I am sure this is something they are doing to advance their career in some capacity. But, I am also sure they are under immense pressure. Please take a moment to pray for the leaders of our city today!
North Village Church has recently created a tool to help us stay connected with people and living on mission with Jesus. It is a simple tool to help us:
- 3 people to pray for
- 2 people to serve
- 1 person to have spiritual conversations
Click on the link or search “Living On Mission”
As we move throughout our series of Art of Neighboring we have found how easy it is to get overwhelmed by all the people we come in contact in a day. Recently we found a helpful resource that helps us break down our relationships to the immediate 8 people we come in contact with throughout a week. It is really helpful.
Click on the link below and you can use this helpful tool as well.
1. Identify a relational context (Home, work, or hobby)
2. Identify the names of those 8 people. If you don’t know their names then this is a great place to start!
3. Identify something relevant in their life. It could be where they work, went to college, grew up, etc.
4. Identify something in their inner life. Where are their passions, fears, dreams, etc?
It is something simple that helps us take tangible steps of getting involved in the lives of other people!
