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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