We are a family who places Jesus at the center of our lives so that it moves us to chase after every man, woman, and child in Greater Austin to experience the life transforming power of Jesus Christ.

Family:  We are fighting to be a family. We don’t want to just sit next to each other on Sunday morning. We are fighting to know one another. We are fighting to say, “No” to other relationships in our lives so we can say, “Yes” to our relationships with one another.

Center:  We desperately want to keep Jesus at the center. This speaks to the authority of Jesus. This means we submit our lives to Jesus, because it is when Jesus is at the center of our lives we have unexplainable capacity to chase after every man, woman, and child.

Chase:  This last part of our vision is the part of our vision that moves us outward. This is the part of the vision that moves us outside of our comfort zone. This is the part of the vision that guards us from showing partiality, and moving us into relationships that are uncomfortable.

Connecting with Jesus (2018):  Let the Word of Christ Richly Dwell Within You.

Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

We wanted to connect with Jesus by connecting with His Word. Specifically we challenged our church family in three areas:

1. Studying the Word of God: Remember we passed out Malachi Notebooks (Bring one), we did a deep dive into 1 Corinthians 15, and we injected our community groups with a bible study method called Hermeneutics: Observation, Interpretation, Application, and Gospel.
2. Enjoying God’s Word: This is important. We always want to be careful that we are not just learning more information, but that our heart, soul, and mind are being transformed to enjoy God’s Word.
3. Communicating God’s Word: This last year we were encouraging and challenging our church family to teach two other people about a passage from 1 Corinthians 15.

Connecting with the Community (2018):  Making the Most of the Opportunity.

Colossians 4:5-6, “5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

In Colossians 3 we see the Apostle Paul admonishing the local church to “Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you” and in Colossians 4 it is a charge to go out!  In Colossians 4 we see a charge to “pray for open doors of opportunity.”  We see a charge to pray for “boldness to speak forth the mysteries of Christ.”  We see a charge to “conduct ourselves with wisdom” and to be “gracious and seasoned with salt.”  

Throughout the chapter we see a charge to the local church to go out declaring with their lips and demonstrating with their lives the name of Jesus to the city at large.  Write that in your notes somewhere, “We want to declare with our lips and demonstrate with our lives the name of Jesus to the city at large.”

1. Shepherding the Home (Fall 2018 Devotional): NVC reading plan made available to our church family. Begin October 1, 2018-August 25, 2019 (Monday-Friday).
2. Serving the Community (Spring, Summer 2019): Demonstrating the name of Jesus with our lives in our city. In those bullets you see 5 primary ways for us as a church family to leave the fingerprints of God’s glory all over our city.
   • Education Connection
   • Spring Fling
   • NVC BYBC
   • Summer Trip
   • Aquapalooza
3. Sharing our story (Spring 2019): Declaring the name of Jesus with our lips in our city. These first two are largely demonstrating our lives, but this last one is men and women being trained to declare the name of Jesus with our lips.

Lets press into Sunday morning, lets press into our groups, lets press into our relationship with one another, lets press into God’s Word together, lets press into Jesus, and die to ourselves, put Him first, and see great things for His glory!