Category Archives: North Village Church

Clothing Drive

Throughout the month of August we are hosting a clothing drive at North Village Church for ARC.  We passed out trash bags for everyone in our church to stuff with clothes.  In addition, they will give the bags to their neighbors, co-workers, and family to give also to help people who are in need in Austin.  Individually it is just dropping off some clothes, but together we can have a huge impact and be a blessing to others in our community.

If you would like to donate just drop off the clothes at Lucy Read Pre K at 10am on Sunday mornings throughout the month of August.

God’s Love

God’s love is a popular topic these days.  Especially when we are seeing as many painful events in the news, however, God’s love is completely different than our love.  We typically love out of guilt, obligation, or what we get in return, but Scripture teaches us God’s love is completely different.

It is sacrificial because He lays aside His deity to take on human flesh and when He dies on the cross it isn’t for His sin, but our sin.  He is pierced, beaten, and mocked for our sin and in that moment He becomes sin.  The Father turns from the Son, and Jesus cries out, “Why have you forsaken me?”

It is a love that is sufficient.  It isn’t just an act of kindness but through it is a love that brings peace between us and God.  It is because of His love that we experience forgiveness, clear conscience, hope for the future, power to love others, and it is sufficient.

It is also a love that is a delight.  He wasn’t forced, but willingly laid down His life and endured the cross for the joy set before Him.  He endured the cross to bring greater glory to the name of His heavenly Father.  It is sacrificial, sufficient, and when we experience His love through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross it moves us to love other people with the same type of love.

Expressing God’s Love to Others:

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How to write a sermon?

I am by no means a great communicator.  I am not saying that just to sound humble, but as an honest evaluation of my speaking ability.  I am okay.  There are times when everything clicks and it is great, but they probably happen once every 6 weeks and the other 5 weeks are okay messages in terms of delivery.

Nevertheless, I have tried to find some common threads in the messages that seem to go better than others and I have created an outline that you might find helpful, or even add to if there is something I am missing.  I am not providing this as a formula that I follow every Sunday, but more so a skeleton that I refer to when I am preparing a message.

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Austin Soccer Camps

Starting Monday June 13th, we are going to host a FREE soccer camp at Brentwood Park (6710 Arroyo Seco) each day of the week from 9am-11am.

This FREE Soccer Camp is for aimed for kids around the elementary age and welcomes all skill levels. They will spend time learning drills, playing soccer and having fun!

You can register here.

Life @ North Village Church

Life change is at the heart of what we strive to see at North Village Church. We know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to produce it in all of our lives. We’ve seen it time and time again. Each time we see and hear it, we want to celebrate it. Take a look at some of the lives God has moved in and through at North Village Church.

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Money and Church

We are close to celebrating our second year as a church and as we looked back on these last two years we were encouraged to see we have been able to set up some guard rails when it comes to giving.  Below is a list of a few of the things we have in place to be as effective as possible as a church.

  • As a pastor I don’t touch money.  Sometimes people will try to give me money on Sunday mornings and I decline.  I don’t know who gives, and I don’t know how much people give.
  • We have a team of people who collect and count money on Sundays.  They count in teams so there is always accountability.
  • We have a budget that we create each year that we pray through as God leads us as a church, and we present that budget to North Village Church.
  • We also have an outside church who looks at our budget to give us insight and wisdom on our budget.
  • When the pastors spend church money we have someone in our church who looks at what we spend money and we have to turn in reports each month.
  • We have someone in our church who takes care of the accounting in our church.
  • We have someone outside of our church that we pay who looks over our finances each month to make sure it is done accurately.

Church and Money

Unfortunately money has become a taboo word in church.  It is associated with images of people in jets, mansions, and taking advantage of the poor as eternal life is dangled in front of them like a carrot.  It makes my heart sad.  As a result money is something we just don’t talk about in church.  It is personal.  You can talk to people about the Bible, their marriage, and even parenting, but don’t talk about money because that is crossing the line.

Scripture teaches us money is something we shouldn’t avoid talking about, but really it something that should become more common within the church.  Specifically there is a church in Modern Day Greece that is such an example that throughout the New Testament their giving is referenced as a picture of God’s grace.  Can you imagine money being something that is a picture of God’s grace?  We recently talked about money at North Village Church in the hopes that we can continue to grow in the direction of our church being a picture of God’s grace.

In our culture today we don’t see money as a picture of God’s grace, but more so the means by which we pursue security or pleasure. When we pursue security it means we like to save money and the more money we save the more secure we feel.  We love things like savings accounts, 401K’s, and Roth IRA’s, because it makes us feel secure.  If anything dreadful should happen in life, don’t worry, money will come to our rescue.  Sometimes it makes us feel so secure we will judge other people for not being more responsible with money. We will think to ourselves, “Didn’t they know better?” or  “Didn’t they have any self-control!”

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Let go and let God

It seems really common to hear people say we need to trust God.  Just trust God.  When painful things come up or things happen and we don’t understand why, we always conclude, “Trust God.”  The statement is true, but when we look at Scripture we don’t see God telling us we need to trust Him, but more so teaching us that He is trustworthy.

If He was just a God up in heaven telling us we need to trust Him or that we need to let go and let God He would be a wicked God who is toying with our emotions, however, Scripture teaches us He has revealed Himself through creation, throughout history, through Scripture, through our relationships and ultimately through the cross.  He doesn’t just call us to trust Him, but shows us He is trustworthy.

Therefore, when we have times when we are struggling to trust God then instead of trying to “trust God” more we would do better to turn to His glory and see that He is trustworthy.

Counterfeit Gods

This summer we are going to gather the men of our church to read through “Counterfeit Gods” by Timothy Keller.  If you haven’t heard of this book I highly recommend it.  Keller talks about how idols are just as relevant in our time as they were in earlier generations, but they aren’t always as easy to see.  Most of us could see how things like money or sex could become idols, however, Keller suggests anything that captures our heart and mind to the point that it determines our happiness can become an idol.  Anything from serving the poor, family, jobs, or ministry.

Start:  June 7th (Tuesday, 7pm)

Location:  Live Oak Bible Church.

Austin Dog Fair 2011

On Sunday, March 20th, we are going to host Austin Dog Fair as a church.  Why would a church host a dog fair?  Well, primarily because people in North Central Austin love dogs and Jesus loves the people of North Central Austin so this is just a really easy way to bring those two together.

What will we do at the dog fair?  We invited over 20 local pet businesses in North Central Austin, local vets, local trainers, an agility course, games, contests and prizes.  It will be a great way for local businesses to gain exposure, and neighbors to meet each other.

This will be our 3rd year of hosting Austin Dog Fair and we are really excited.  The people in the community are becoming familiar with it and that has created some excitement also.  Hopefully we can capture some video this year and everyone will get to enjoy the dog fair!

Marathon Tailgate

 

 

 

 

On February 20th, 9:30am we are going to tailgate for the Austin Marathon.  The races creates police barricades around the building we meet in so we decided instead of fighting the marathon we would cheer on the runners.  It should be a blast!  We will meet at the corner of North Cross Dr. and Burnet Rd.

 

Austin Dog Fair

On March 20th, 2-5pm we will host our 3rd Austin Dog Fair as a church.  It is a lot of fun.  We invite local vets, shops, trainers out to the Brentwood Park so that dogs and their owners can have a party in the park.  It is really helping dogs make new friends!

There will also be games and contests like trickiest dog, ugliest dog, fastest dog, bobbing for hot dogs, and an agility course.  See you there!

Trusting in Jesus

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“Tis’ so sweet to trust in Jesus” are the words of the great hymn and although those words are true it is scary to trust in Jesus.  There is a fear that we will look stupid, manipulated, deceived, or get hurt and it can be scary. 

This last week Tucker (3 year old of awesomeness) would stand up on the arm of the couch and  jump on to the floor and giggle.  He thought it was the best.  As I was walking pass the couch he stood up on the arm of the couch and he was almost as tall me so I stopped to give him a hug.  I couldn’t resist.   I hugged him really tight and then said, “Tucker, fall backwards on the couch.”  He simply said, “Okay!” and he leaned back into my arms until I let him go and he fell straight back.  After his body bounced off the couch he giggled and said, “That was scary.”

When we place our faith in Jesus’ work on the cross it can feel a little scary because we can analyze it over and over, but just like Tucker was sure he would land on the couch we can be sure of Jesus’ work on the cross.  It is sufficient.  It is why, moments before His death, He says “It is finished.”  It is why 1 Peter teaches us “Christ died for sins once and for all.”  It is why He resurrected from the dead to overcome death.  It is why the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us as a deposit that He will complete what He has started. It is why He gives us one another.

We often fear what we don’t know and the greatest thing we can do is get to know Jesus.  Tucker knew the couch.  He knew it would hold him.  He knew what he was standing on.  He was sure of the couch.  Perhaps as we begin a new year we can take one step closer to getting to know Jesus and see that He is trustworthy.

2011 Family Budget

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Each year my wife and I sit down to work on our finances as a family.  In the past we would consider the additional income from salary increases based on job performance, however, over the last two years of starting a new church we have taken a $15K deduction in salary, no increase, and taken on more expenses.  Our property tax has increased $150 a month alone in the last two years so needless to say it makes finances a challenge.

Don’t get me wrong it has been worth it.  God has provided for all our needs and beyond as we have stepped out in faith, but it has been a challenge.  Things break down, you always want more, credit cards make it easy to overspend, and each year it seems like children bring on new expenses.  As you step out in faith to start a new church be sure to count the cost of the financial sacrifices it will take on the front end.

Recently, a friend of mine in California started a company to help with some of these challenges.  It seemed like every financial quarter the credit card companies would reward us for going into debt and he started dreaming that perhaps we could be rewarded for getting out of debt.  It is called Payoff.com.  It is still in the beginning stages, but it is something I am excited about. It is going to create an online community to be around other people who are excited about paying off debt.  That is pretty awesome!

As you begin to dream about starting a new church I would do everything possible to pay off as much debt as possible.  God was so good to us to lead us to a place to pay off school loans, credit cards, car loans, so that we could enter into the church planting stages without any debt, but our house.  I wish payoff.com would have been around when we paid off that debt so we could have been around other people as we pressed toward our goals.