Tag Archives: Domain

Finding Community in a City Full of People

If you live around The Domain, you probably don’t have to go very far to be around people. You can walk through The Domain on a Saturday night and pass hundreds of people between restaurants, apartments, coffee shops, stores, and sidewalks. 

You can live in an apartment building with people above you, below you, and across the hall, and still not know their names, so that Austin is full of people. But being around people isn’t the same thing as being known by people.

The Local Church

The same thing can happen at a local church. You can show up on Sunday, worship, listen to a message, grab some coffee, and head home without ever really finding your place. That’s one of the reasons serving on a Sunday morning can be so important.

It might look like you’re giving up precious hours that can be used for other areas of your life that need attention, but something else happens when you start showing up for other people: you start becoming part of a community.

Sometimes taking steps to grow spiritually starts with saying yes to a serving opportunity. It is taking a step of ownership in your faith that says, “This isn’t an observational experience. This is a personal investment in an area of my life that is important.”

Most people don’t start serving because they feel passionate about a specific area. In fact, one volunteer described being intimidated when she first started working with children because she was afraid she might say the wrong thing. But then she discovered something freeing: it’s okay not to know everything. She didn’t have to be an expert. She simply needed to be willing to show up, learn, and care about the kids in front of her.

Over time, something started to change. The children began recognizing her with smiles in the hallways. Parents began to engage her more naturally. She shared common experiences with other volunteers. Faces she might have passed with a polite “Good morning” on Sunday mornings became people she knew.

Serving once a month in a particular area didn’t just give her something to do. It gave her people to know, so that there is a difference between attending a worship service on a Sunday morning and being known.

That’s especially meaningful in a city like Austin. People move here for work. Young adults relocate for jobs with companies around The Domain and North Austin. Families arrive without extended family nearby, so that it’s easy for people to build a life here surprisingly quickly while taking much longer to build meaningful relationships.

Church can accidentally become another place we consume as another task to accomplish throughout the week. We find a service we like. We sit in a familiar section. We listen to a message we enjoy. And, we leave, only to get discouraged over time because we don’t feel like we are growing. But the church was never intended to simply be a crowd of people attending the same location at the same time. The local church at her heart is a family. And families know one another.

One technical volunteer described how serving changed his experience of worship: it wasn’t just about what he got out of Sunday morning but what he was able to offer on Sunday morning.

Counting the Cost

Of course, serving costs something. There will be Sundays when you’d rather sleep longer. Sundays when brunch sounds better. Sundays when you arrive at church and think, I really don’t want to do this today. That’s natural!

But serving others doesn’t something to our soul. It reminds us, even briefly, about the needs of others. In that moment, we stop thinking only about what we need and start noticing the people God has placed around us.

And in a city that constantly invites us to ask, “What do I want to do today?”, following Jesus invites us to ask a different question: “Who can I serve today?”  We don’t have to serve the whole city. We don’t have to know everyone at church. We don’t even have to feel particularly gifted. Maybe we just start with one yes? Maybe it starts with learning someone’s name? Maybe it starts with sharing a little of your story? And somewhere along the way, you may discover that you didn’t just find a place to serve. You found a place to belong.

3 Things I Learned Competing in Austin’s Funniest Comics 2026

A few months ago, I signed up for a comedy competition with 250 comedians in Austin at Capital City Comedy Club in the Domain. That means 250 people were trying to accomplish the exact same thing I was, make people laugh.

Stand-up comedy has a funny way of exposing you. It’s just you and a mic on a stage. The lights are bright. You can’t really see the audience. People are seated at your feet. And, everyone is there with an attitude like, “Make me laugh!”

When you do stand-up comedy there’s nowhere to hide. Every word, every breath, every pause, and every facial expression counts. There’s no PowerPoint to blame on technical difficulties. It’s just a room full of strangers deciding in real time whether you’ve earned another minute of their attention. As I walked away from my set, I realized I had learned lessons that have very little to do with comedy and almost everything to do with life.

1. You Don’t Have to Beat Everyone

You just have to do your job: When I first heard there were 250 comedians competing, it felt overwhelming. How do you compete with that many people? Then I remembered something important. I wasn’t performing against 250 comedians that night. I was performing in front of one audience. My job wasn’t to be better than everyone else. My job was to deliver the best 4 minutes I was capable of delivering. That’s true in almost every area of life. We spend so much energy looking sideways as we comparing careers, churches, businesses, social media, and accomplishments, that we forget our actual assignment. Comparison creates anxiety because it asks us to control outcomes we never could. But, preparation creates confidence because it focuses on what we actually can control.

    Whether you’re leading a company, raising kids, preaching a sermon, or stepping on stage, your responsibility is the same: Prepare. I can’t control how audiences are going to respond. But I can work out those 4-minutes! I can run through those 4-minutes. I can imagine how the audience is going to respond. I can watch the audience as they prepare for the show. I can imagine how they might respond. I can prepare!

    Failures Compound Faster Than Big Breakthroughs

    The majority of laughs I got that night were from moments where jokes didn’t work, audiences didn’t respond, and timing was off. Each of those failures is an opportunity to improve. Do words need to change? I can swap the order. Where can I cut?

    In sermons and comedy, most people just assume I am quick on my feet talking about topics off the top of my head. Not even close. The four minutes last night have been delivered 50 times over the last two-years and every miss was an opportunity to make it better. 

    Confidence Comes From Evidence, Not Optimism

    Some comedians seem to not care if an audience laughs. I need the audience to laugh. It isn’t because I need them to like me. I want to get on the same page with the audience and if they are laughing at what I think is funny it tells me, “We’re all hearing the same thing.” 

    Before I get called up to a stage I can feel my heart beating in my chest. I am flooded with these thoughts like, “Why am I doing this to myself?” The only thing that quiets that voice is my faith in Jesus that give me the courage to pursue this area of my life and evidence that people have found these bits funny. 

    Real confidence isn’t pretending you’re not nervous. It’s remembering you’ve done difficult things before. I’ve found that to be true in comedy, leadership, and faith.  Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s trusting what you’ve already learned enough to take the next step anyway.

    One Final Thought

    Competitions have winners and losers. But life isn’t a competition. Sometimes in life there are going to be moments where we advance and there are going to be moments when the fruit of the hard work doesn’t materialize. 

    Success in life isn’t about advancing. Success in life is about learning and discovering that you’re far more capable than you thought you were six months ago. For me, I’m grateful I advanced to the next round, but I’m even more grateful for what the process taught me. Because long after this competition is over, those lessons will still be shaping the way I live, lead, and step onto the next stage.

    The Danger of Uncertainty

    If you’ve ever driven around the Domain in Austin, you know how quickly things can change. One week there’s a new apartment complex going up. The next week another restaurant closes. Tech companies are hiring, then laying off. Traffic patterns change, so that sometimes morning traffic is at 7:30am and sometimes 9:30am.  What?

    Last Sunday, I stood in front of our church family, a church by the Domain in Austin, and realized we were living through one of those seasons.  We are in the midst of a ton of questions. Where are we going to meet? How is this all going to work financially? New positions on staff are need and just like in any church, we need men and women who are taking ownership beyond attending on Sunday morning.

    In addition, how do we stay focused on our vision as a church family in the midst of uncertainty. The temptation to give into apathy and indifference is off the charts. After all, what does it matter? This is the voice that echoes through our church family right now. You can feel it on a Sunday morning. It’s palpable! As the elders of our church family, we know we don’t have all the answers. The people in our church family know we don’t have all the answers. And, like most people, our first instinct in the midst of uncertainty is to find certainty!

    • “If I just knew what was going to happen…”
    • “If I could just get an answer…”
    • “If I knew how this relationship would turn out…”
    • “If I knew whether this job was going to work…”

    Then I’d finally have peace, confidence, clarity and everything would be great! But that’s not what Scripture teaches. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve didn’t lack information. They had everything they needed. They knew God. They walked with Him in the cool of the garden as friends. Can you imagine?

    But something changed in their story. It wasn’t the information they possessed about God and one another. It was the uncertainty that entered the conversation when the serpent asked one simple question: “Has God really said…?” That question wasn’t about gathering information. It’s not like the serpent was genuinely wondering, “What has God said?” He knows! Instead the serpent was introducing uncertainty into the conversation.

    Uncertainty Shapes Us

    Here’s what struck me while studying Genesis 3. The greatest danger wasn’t that Adam and Eve had unanswered questions. The greatest danger was that uncertainty began shaping their relationship with God. That’s still true today. When uncertainty goes unchecked, we begin asking different questions.

    • “Can I really trust God?”
    • “Is He holding out on me?”
    • “Does He actually know what’s best?”
    • “Is He paying attention?”

    The circumstances haven’t changed yet, but our hearts have started to look for something else in life to find stability. This is where the spiritual fight for our faith in Jesus goes live! The serpent never showed up with overwhelming power. He showed up with words and suggestions about truth.

    He didn’t immediately tell Eve to rebel against God. Instead, he simply nudged her toward uncertainty. That’s how deception usually works. Rarely does it ask us to abandon everything overnight. Instead, it slowly erodes trust.

    • One conversation.
    • One thought.
    • One assumption.
    • One compromise at a time.

    Responding to Uncertainty

    One of the fascinating details in Genesis 3 is that Eve begins subtly changing what God actually said. God began with generosity in Genesis 2, “You may freely eat from every tree…” By the time Eve repeats God’s command, the emphasis on God’s generosity has disappeared. She even adds restrictions God never gave. That’s what uncertainty often does. It magnifies what we’ve lost while minimizing what we’ve been given. Uncertainty creates fear that becomes louder than gratitude.

    In a city like Austin, it can give us this illusion of certainty. Tech companies keep moving into the city. Exotic cars keep appearing. We are surrounded by wealth and education in the capitol of Texas! It feels pretty certain! But it just takes a moment and any of those “certain” areas of life can change in a second. And, deep down, we know those areas of life are unstable and unreliable. Therefore, the goal isn’t to eliminate uncertainty in life. That’s impossible! The better question is, “Who am I becoming while I walk through uncertainty?”

    This is critical because fear produces one kind of person. It’s the kind of person that gets wrapped up with insecurity. Fear stirs up passivity. Fear causes us to spend energy on something that might never happen. But, when we are in a place of trust it produces a different kind of a person. When we are layered in trust we will move toward people. We are clear in our thinking. One is controlled by outcomes, the other has a foundation.

    The Gospel Speaks Into Our Uncertainty

    Genesis 3 doesn’t end with Adam and Eve hiding forever. God comes looking for them. Read that last sentence again, “God comes looking for them.” That’s the gospel! Long before Adam and Eve searched for Him, He searched for them. Read the chapter for yourself and see. It’s amazing!

    That story ultimately points to Jesus. Where Adam and Eve hid, Jesus stepped forward. Where they tried to cover their own shame, Jesus covered ours through His death and resurrection. The gospel isn’t simply that God gives us answers. The gospel is that God gives us Himself. That changes everything. Because certainty has never been found in perfect circumstances. It’s found in the unchanging character of God.

    The future will still be unclear. Our economy will still fluctuate. Relationships will disappoint if we give them enough time. But the invitation of Jesus remains the same as He calls us to know Him, trust Him, follow Him, and invite others to do the same. Because, sometimes faith isn’t knowing exactly where you’re going, sometimes faith is knowing Who you’re walking with on the journey.