On Saturday we got to serve over 30 families by helping them with their laundry. It was really easy and they were greatly appreciative. It was also a lot of fun. We were able to network with a number of families that need assistance with children’s clothing and other tangible needs that we are in process of following up with.
If you would like to help we have set up some coin jars at Amy’s Ice Cream and Hey Cupcake or you can join us next month for a little laundry love.
On August 9 we are going to start a 35 day spiritual journey as a church.
Often times our spiritual journey seems to take place in isolation with flashes or moments of community, however, on August 9th we are going to enter into a spiritual journey together to connect closer to Jesus and one another. Each of us will identify an area to fast from (television, radio, phone, web, food, hobby, etc.) and devote that time to prayer for our community and our relationship with Jesus.
The theme for our 35 day journey is “Partnership”. Our guiding passage for the next 35 days is found in Philippians 1:4-6:
4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
My greatest desire is to see each of us see how we can tangibly partner with Jesus Christ in the gospel over the next 35 days and that this spiritual journey would begin to create a lifestyle that continually experiences the fulfillment of walking in Christ and with Christ.
We put out a monthly newsletter that captures a snapshot of what God has been doing in us and through us. If you want to sign up then click on the link below:
On July 25, 2-5p we are going to partner with Magic Cycle to provide free laundry for low income families. It is a small step but it is a direction we are looking to go in so that we can better serve the community.
If you have any interest in helping us out send me an email: michael@northvillagechurch.com
Last Sunday we got to have a practice gathering at Lucy Read. It was a lot of fun. Our goal is to keep it as simple as possible. Our set up and format is fairly basic because the sum of who we are as a church is more than an 1-2 hours on Sunday. This is just one part.
Overall it went really well. I think everyone had a really good time and it was fun to look at scripture with one another and sing out in worship. Thanks to everyone who helped out!
This Sunday we will be meeting at Lucy Read for the second time as a core team and we are going to try to provide for the children, sing a little, and maybe, just maybe look at some scripture. We are going to set up sound, speakers, and even have a trailer. It is a small step for our core team but a huge step for North Village Church. It will be messy, unorganized, and maybe even chaotic but it will be fun.
As a group we challenged one another to invite some friends to share the experience. At first, we have some hesitation because we aren’t really sure “what we are inviting them to” because we are still making this up as we go.
Our second hesitation is that it can feel a little awkward inviting a friend to church because it can feel like “church” is the end goal in mind. However, church isn’t the end and honestly church isn’t just something we do on Sundays. Church is something that takes place throughout the week and what we do on Sunday is just one part of it. Therefore, we are inviting our friends to come and experience one part of our lives with them.
If we hadn’t invited them to lunch, a movie, over for dinner, etc., then, well they are probably not really friends, but if they are then this is just another part of our life as we look to share our lives with others.
In the end, it will be a lot of fun. All of our equipment is either used or has been given to us and could possibly break down in the next 3 months but I feel like we are a part of something special and hopefully a new church will start we will continue to see something different
Looks like we finally decided on a logo…mostly because of time restraints. My goal was to have a logo by June 1 and after weeks and months and multiple graphic artists and tons of options we finally landed on one. Most of the difficulty is even knowing what we are looking for, which is my fault.
The other part of it is that we are starting a church in a community that is diverse and eclectic and that we are still learning. So we have landed on one of our main lessons we have learned in starting a church: just start. Sometimes it can be really easy to want to have everything ironed out, feel 100%, and then make a decision, however, if we waited until we were 100% we probably wouldn’t have started this project.
This morning our core team met at Hillcrest Baptist Church off Steck and Mesa. I met with the pastor a few weeks ago and explained that we had outgrown our home, and although we had a place to meet in the fall, it would be helpful if we could meet on the property of an established church in the community.
I was surprised how quick he was to be helpful and this morning was our first meeting and it went great. It was helpful on two levels. One is that it allows us to check in our children to their children’s ministry and as of now we have about 15 kids from infants to 13 so this was a huge help. It also helps us save money as we continue to gain momentum and not have to pay “rent”.
Overall, it was a great morning and a huge encouragement as a city wide effort takes place to start a new church in north central Austin!
This last Sunday we gathered our core team to dream, pray, and cry out to Jesus to move in us and through us. It was pretty powerful. We spent the first 20 minutes in worship and simply praising Jesus because of His work on the cross. It is His work alone that allows us to gather as a transformed people.
After sharing our dreams and expectations with one another we then spent some time in scripture looking at John 15. Jesus admonished the disciples of the necessity to abide in Him. As we reflected, we concluded that unless we are abiding in Him it is impossible for our dreams and expectations to become a reality. Even if it did become a reality and we neglected to abide in Him then our efforts wouldn’t last and would quickly fade.
We ended our time by revolving between a variety of prayer stations set up around the room. We prayed for the community, the worship, gospel, teaching, children, school, finances, and spiritual transformation. Overall it was a really powerful experience.
Our next gathering is in July!
This Sunday we will be meeting at Lucy Read for the first time as a core team to get a feel for the inside, pray about what God wants to do in us and through us, and dream about what it could look like. We are really excited!
There has been a passage that I have been reflecting on in John 15:
1″I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.”
Things move pretty fast when starting a new church and if you blink you might miss it. It is easy to overlook the hand of God that is continually providing and moving and I wanted to take a moment reflect on how God has provided for us over the last 4 months.
10. Unless you like being tired, don’t start a church. I don’t mean tired like I need to get a nap, but tired like my brain is spinning with about 100 ideas of what we could do and how we could do what we are doing better. See what I am say’n.
9. People are messy. Including me. Honestly if everyone would just do what I want, when I want, and the way I want it then we could knock this thing out in no time, however, that is not reality. Reality is that people are complicated and no matter how charismatic or passionate, you can’t make anyone do anything for any length of time. Nevertheless, if you try to do this on your own it is impossible or will lead to a really boring church.
Every year a community organization in central Austin, Violet Crown Community Works, hosts a community festival. This year they asked our church to help out and we got to paint little kids faces. No one really kept track but it was estimated 250-300 little faces! It was a great way for us to serve the community and get to know the people.
Serving North Central Austin 