As a pastor of a church in Austin, TX one of the most common questions / frustrations I hear from parents is how easy it is for their children to be self-centered.  Think about it this way:

• When they wake up in the morning cereal is magically waiting for them in the kitchen.
• When they get dressed for school their clothes are waiting for them in their closet.
• When they are ready for lunch they simply open their lunch box and find a healthy meal waiting for them.
• When they are at school they have their own special teacher cheering them on to learn.
• When they come home they have fun cartoons designed for them to enjoy.
• When they are bored they have hundred’s of toys to pick from like video games, action figures, dolls, sports, board games, etc.
• When they are hungry for dinner they simply hear someone say, “Dinner’s ready.”
• When any of these food items run out they simply wait a day or two and they magically reappear in their kitchen.
• When it is time for dinner they have someone prepare their bath, remind them to brush their teeth, and tuck them in at night with a kiss.

And we wonder why our children find it so easy to be self-centered.  They are practically treated as royalty as the rest of the world go to and fro tending to their needs throughout the day.

Now this doesn’t mean we need to neglect our children.  Our children are a blessing from the Lord.  I love being a dad.  I love the hugs and kisses.  I love seeing the world through their eyes.  I love taking care of them.  It is a joy, but at the same time I want to be aware of the messages I am sending them throughout the day and throughout their life.  Consider how difficult it will be for them one day when:

• When someone doesn’t provide them with a selection of food they enjoy.
• When someone doesn’t give them a pep talk to get through their day.
• When someone doesn’t have their clothes clean and folded.
• When someone doesn’t provide them with a roof over their head.

I have found that one of the biggest challenges for our 20 year old’s today in our culture  is that they get out of college expecting to begin their life where their parent’s finished in life.  They expect their parent’s spending money, their parent’s nice house, their parent’s nice car, their parent’s nice vacations, and for the most part they don’t expect to work really hard to get those things in life.  Therefore, how do we respond as parents today to set our children up for success tomorrow?  Here is my top 10 list below:

10.  Model to Your Children:  What do you live for?  What do you run to?  Where do you invest your money and time?  Children don’t always listen, but they are always watching.  If they see you living a life that is for your self they will naturally follow your example.  One of the best things  you can do with them is bring them along with you as you invest your money and time in the lives of other people.

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In the spring our groups are going to study through 2 Timothy.  This is a great time to not only learn about Scripture, but specifically see how God has wired us to be involved in the lives of other people.  As we study through 2 Timothy we are going to see the Apostle Paul come along side Timothy to continually remind him of the gospel and Jesus’ work on the cross.

This is so helpful for us to remember how important it is for us to be reminded of our deep need for Jesus.  To follow along you can download the material HERE.

Over the last six weeks our church has been able to teach on sexuality.  It has been great!  A little awkward at times, but overall really helpful. To help us stay focused throughout this series we continued to come back to this one simple statement:  God created our bodies to be sexual beings who experience pleasure without shame.

Week 1:  Can we talk about sex in church?  God didn’t just create our bodies for only making babies.  He also created our bodies to experience pleasure!

Week 2:  What about “those” words?  Too often we see sexuality as a measuring stick that God is looking for us to avoid.  How is sexuality not simply about pursuing purity?

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In January 70+ from our church family gathered at the Westin (Domain) to enjoy one another and enjoy God’s goodness.  Over the last 3 years God has taken our church of 20 adults and grown us to 130 adults and over 60 children.

I wish I could say it was because of my leadership.  I wish  could say it was because of our amazing plan.  I wish I could say it was our spiritual maturity as we trusted in Jesus.  But, really we were just a hodge-podge of people who stepped out in faith to see Jesus do immeasurably more in our hearts and in our love for Him than we could have imagined.

I hope we are always taking moments in our church family and personal lives to celebrate God’s goodness that He continually pours out on us every day.

On Sunday, February 17th we are inviting our church out to Burnet and Northcross to cheer on the runners in the Austin Marathon.  At first glance it might just simply look like a typical hangout, but there are themes we are trying to accomplish as a church:

1.  Connecting with the community:  It would be easy to be upset with the city.  Due to the race our Sunday location is completely blocked off, however, we see this as an opportunity to support our city.  Over the last 3 years we have met at this corner to cheer on runners and embrace our city.

2.  Connecting with North Village Church:  Sunday mornings are such a horrible time to actually meet people and get to know one another.  Everyone usually puts the best foot forward to put on a smile and you have about 3 minutes of formal conversation as you are walking in or out on Sunday morning.  This time on Sunday gives us a concentrated effort to get to know people a little better.

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In “Walking with Jesus” Part 1 we talked about how easy it is for us to not feel “Rooted, Built Up, and Established.”  In the next verse it gives us some insight as to why this is difficult:

Philosophy and Empty Deception:  What do you think of when you see the words “Philosophy and Empty Deception?”  This doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t want you to go to college and learn philosophy.

The word “Philosophy” means “the love of wisdom.”  Essentially we love the thought of our own ideas so that we end up trading places with God.  We place ourselves at the center of the equation and God is simply there to help us have a better life.  It is subtle at first, but over time He becomes someone who exists to help us get through school, get married, get a job, and live a happy life.  The Bible exists to help us get through those difficult days.  Sunday exists to encourage us and make us feel better.  Groups throughout the week exist so other people can listen to our problems.

How could we possibly feel “Firmly Rooted” when we are basically relying on ourselves and trusting in ourselves to make every decision?  We could try to give the impression that we are holding everything together, but when we lay our head on our pillow at night and we feel the terror of that responsibility then we know the true answer.

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In Colossians 2 it teaches us about what it means to walk in a daily relationship with Jesus.  It gives us three phrases to capture what it means practically:

Firmly Rooted:  Rooted in my relationship with Jesus where I am not persuaded by the acceptance of others or my moral performance.  Instead I am continually turning my heart and mind to rest in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

Being Built Up:  I am not only turning my heart to rest in those truths, but I am finding myself growing stronger through those steps of faith.

Established:  As I am growing stronger in my faith I look back and see it isn’t a result of my effort, but God’s grace working in me.

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We are entering into our 4th year as a church and it feels like it is a year where we have been able to articulate our vision with greater clarity.  It isn’t that it has changed over the last few years, but we are able to take broad concepts and break them down into much more definable details.  This has been very helpful and encouraging on a number of levels:

– Personally it has given me greater clarity when I communicate our purpose as a church to new people, leaders, and on Sunday morning.

– Practically it has helped me delegate these responsibilities to other people.  If you look at the diagram it is just an overview shot of our vision, but we have people who are running with these each of these roles with greater detail.

Year 4 Vision

We recently moved into new offices.  Come by and say, “Hello!”

8705 Shoal Creek Blvd.

Suite 207

Austin, TX 78757

Three years ago we started with 18 adults in our living room and 13 children to step out in faith to start North Village Church.  Today we are 175 adults and children!  I wish I could tell you it was because of great leadership or great ideas, but it is simply the result of people humbling themselves and turning their hearts toward Jesus to see His majesty, power, and glory so that it lifts our eyes to be involved in the lives of other people.

This next year we are praying for our hearts and minds to be shaped by this idea of being rooted in our relationship with Jesus.  To help us move in this direction we are going to focus on three questions:

• What are you learning?
• Who are you running with?
• How are you on mission?

On Sunday we shared our new budget with North Village Church.  In our last three years as a church God has been so faithful to North Village Church.  We have met our budget every year and after our first year we have been financially sustainable.  This is rare to see from a new church.

It is partly because we have tried to keep our budget as stream lined as much as possible and mostly because God has gone before us and moved in the hearts of His people to invest in what He is doing.  Below is a recap of our budget over the last 3 years and a prayer guide is attached that we hand out to everyone at North Village to prayerfully consider how they would invest:

Year 1:  $150,000 (It was as cheap as we could get the budget)

Year 2:  $170,000 (We made a few adjustments, but this was our first year to not rely on outside support.)

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As a church we want to be exposed to Jesus as much as possible so that we can abide in Him and His truth for our lives. “Abide 2012” is going to help us do just that.

During the month of July, NVC is asking you to participate in a scripture challenge where you receive a verse of Scripture to read each weekday through text message. Our theme for the month is “Jesus is ____________. 25 truths about Jesus.”

So each weekday in July you will receive a text message with a verse and a truth about Jesus. Our hope is that this is another small way we can be reminded of who Jesus is and who we are in Him. This could be a life changing month in your life and in the life of our church and all you have to do is read a text message!

To participate, text “Abide” to Tim Birdwell at 512.966.2364. Text messages will begin on July 2nd and end on August 3rd.

At the end of April we celebrated our 4th Austin Dog Fair!  You can click on the link here to watch a video recap of 2012.  In addition we outlined some of the ways the dog fair is a win for our church below:

For the last year I have been gathering local pastors to pray for and serve north central Austin and on Sunday while we were hosting the dog fair there was another church partnering with a neighborhood to clean up Northwest Park and Shoal Creek.   That means the body of Christ is having a tangible influence in multiple places in our community.

We had over 50 people from our church come together to help make it happen, which is awesome as our church is partnering together to have greater influence in the community.

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Meeting people and connecting with Jesus on Sunday morning can be really difficult.  We typically show up feeling rushed or behind.  We aren’t sure where to sit.  We aren’t sure who to talk to and what to talk them about.  Here are the top 10  things to make the most of our time relationally on Sunday:

10.  Preparing our hearts:  Take a moment as you walk from the car to say a short prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to prepare your heart for that morning (Scripture, people, singing, etc.)

9.  Look for new people:  New people are always fun to talk with, even if they are just “New to You.”  Ask them, “How long have you been coming?  How did you hear about North Village?  Where do you live in Austin?”  Those are just a few go-to-questions to get you started.

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