We have great news today!
Todd Inman just joined our team for church-planting in Austin.
Todd has faithfully been a part of the High School and Higher Ground ministries at Central Christian Church for many years and now feels a pulling to be a part of the ministry we are beginning in Texas. However, what I am most excited about is the fact that he is really good at befriending people of various backgrounds. This skill in making relationships with just about anyone will be a great assett as we endeavor to create a relationship network in the city.
Please pray for Todd as he is making the necessary preparations to relocate to Texas.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Prayer Needs
At this point we are in need of some significant prayer support not only now but in the months and even years to come. Planting a church is really not about our skill in music, preaching or managing but all about God doing a miracle. We want to see Him do great things in these coming months for His glory's sake. PLEASE pray with us.
Right now we have a couple very practical prayer needs you could pray for. In the future we will post prayer requests on the side-panel of this blog.
--> Please pray for Andrea and Matthias' house to sell.
--> Please pray for a place for them to live in Austin.
--> Please pray for the transition process for all of them but especially for the kids.
--> Please pray for Crystal as she is leaving her family for the first time.
--> Please pray for a job for Robby as he is leaving his secure ministry job in order to help with this church plant.
Right now we have a couple very practical prayer needs you could pray for. In the future we will post prayer requests on the side-panel of this blog.
--> Please pray for Andrea and Matthias' house to sell.
--> Please pray for a place for them to live in Austin.
--> Please pray for the transition process for all of them but especially for the kids.
--> Please pray for Crystal as she is leaving her family for the first time.
--> Please pray for a job for Robby as he is leaving his secure ministry job in order to help with this church plant.
Austin: An Acts 13 Moment
This past week has truly been amazing. Robby and I went to talk to the elders at Central Christian Church again and outlined our desire to not only leave our current ministry positions well but to actually have them send us out.
The elders spent significant time with us asking about how we got to this point and also about the process of church-planting.
In the end they all agreed that God was doing a great new work in us and prayed for us and for God to be glorified as we went out. That night they also decided to partner with us financially.
Their prayers and encouragement as well as their financial partnership has been such a blessing and encouragement to us.
It very much felt like an Acts 13 moment. In Acts 13:1-3 we read that the elders of the church in Antioch were praying and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke to them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work which He was calling them to. The elders then laid hands on them and send them out.
The elders spent significant time with us asking about how we got to this point and also about the process of church-planting.
In the end they all agreed that God was doing a great new work in us and prayed for us and for God to be glorified as we went out. That night they also decided to partner with us financially.
Their prayers and encouragement as well as their financial partnership has been such a blessing and encouragement to us.
It very much felt like an Acts 13 moment. In Acts 13:1-3 we read that the elders of the church in Antioch were praying and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke to them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work which He was calling them to. The elders then laid hands on them and send them out.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Austin: Purpose of this Blog
The purpose of this Blog is to be a tool to communicate with as broad a number of people as possible the vision we have of planting a spiritually vibrant and strategically located new church in the amazing city of Austin.
We want to see the name of Jesus made great in the city and for the renown of God to spread throughout the greater Austin area.
We want to reach people with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ and allow people to be gripped with the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ.
We want to see the name of Jesus made great in the city and for the renown of God to spread throughout the greater Austin area.
We want to reach people with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ and allow people to be gripped with the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ.
Austin: Who we are
This little section is going to tell a little about who we are.
We are the beginning of a core team that will launch a brand new church plant in the city in the Fall of 2008.
So far we have two families that are committed to this cause.
Robby and Crystal Forsythe have been married for a little over two years. Robby has been the Youth and young Adult worship pastor at Central Christian Church for the last 8 years. He is a talented musician with a passion for worship and a love for people. He has not only done some recordings but has regularly played for large events and in coffee shops and the like.
Matthias and Andrea Haeusel and their 4 kids Bella (11), Emma (10), Hudson and Moselle (6) have worked in a number of missions settings and Matthias has served as Lead Pastor for Real Life in Los Gatos CA, and for the last 3 1/2 years as Lead Pastor for Higher Ground and The Gallery in Lancaster, CA as well as serving as the pastor for student ministries at Central Christian Church, Lancaster.
Matthias was born and raised in Germany and therefore despises light beer and bad food.
We love the people of Austin and want to see them gripped by the love and grace of an amazing and good God!
We are the beginning of a core team that will launch a brand new church plant in the city in the Fall of 2008.
So far we have two families that are committed to this cause.
Robby and Crystal Forsythe have been married for a little over two years. Robby has been the Youth and young Adult worship pastor at Central Christian Church for the last 8 years. He is a talented musician with a passion for worship and a love for people. He has not only done some recordings but has regularly played for large events and in coffee shops and the like.
Matthias and Andrea Haeusel and their 4 kids Bella (11), Emma (10), Hudson and Moselle (6) have worked in a number of missions settings and Matthias has served as Lead Pastor for Real Life in Los Gatos CA, and for the last 3 1/2 years as Lead Pastor for Higher Ground and The Gallery in Lancaster, CA as well as serving as the pastor for student ministries at Central Christian Church, Lancaster.
Matthias was born and raised in Germany and therefore despises light beer and bad food.
We love the people of Austin and want to see them gripped by the love and grace of an amazing and good God!
Austin: How we got here
Hey guys this is Matthias. Andrea and I are in a real time of transition right now. We actually just gave notice here at our current place of ministry at Central Christian Church in order to pursue what we believe God is calling us to right now: CHURCH PLANTING in AUSTIN, TX.
About two years ago we received a packet from a church in Austin, called Hill Country Bible Church or HCBC, that advertised a student ministry pastor position. We weren't interested in that because I felt like I was doing more ministry here (in terms of what I feel God has called me to and gifted me for) and that ultimately I wanted to be a teaching or senior pastor, but the packet was amazingly well done and included a DVD by the senior pastor about the city of Austin and their vision for it. He described the city and what was going on in terms of growth and development and gave his vision for how they could reach every man woman and child in the greater Austin area with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.
While we were not interested in the church and the position they offered, the city and the vision to reach it somehow struck a cord with us and Andrea and I started thinking about Austin. It kept coming up...
Austin is an amazing city of 1.4 million people. Some researchers suggest that this city will be growing by 1 million people over the next 10 years. The vibe is young, creative, and somewhat unconventional. The city is only 17 percent churched, and most of the people there are really turned off to religion. Sociologists are saying that this city just overtook San Francisco as the most creative city in the nation. There is a new trend out that describes how society and culture will be shaped over the next couple of decades. They are calling it the creative revolution (think industrial revolution) or the rise of the creative class. The theory goes something like this, there are certain creative centers in the world were creative and innovative people gather (the top five are Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Raleigh, Washington/Baltimore) these people bounce ideas of each other and innovate which affects the way we live and view the world. Sociologists suggest that our world will be shaped by these urban creative centers. Anyways, there is a lot more to this, suffice it to say that I want to be a part of reaching these places…
A little while later we started looking at churches we were attracted to because they seemed amazingly effective at reaching the lost and advancing the kingdom. Northpoint or Mars Hill Seattle for example. Every church I was attracted to and did research on had started as a church-plant. So I started looking into church-planting. The more we looked into church-planting the more it seemed that in terms of evangelism and life-change church-planting was the most effective method of furthering the kingdom of God. I started reading about it, listening to people talk about it and praying about it. I even talked with our elders and our senior and executive pastors about this growing desire to be involved in church-planting.
We kept in touch with that church in Austin ( www.hcbc.com )through internet, listening to sermons, vision, business meetings, etc. They have an amazing vision for church planting and actually have a 12 months residency program that helps potential church planters train for planting a church in Austin and help with the launch. This church has actually strategically mapped dozens of locations throughout the greater Austin area and has an aggressive God-sized vision of reaching every man woman and child in the greater Austin area with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ. If you're reading this you have to listen to the vision for this (well - you don't have to but you could...) you can find it at http://sermons.myhcbc.com/index.html "Leadership Community Meeting" from fall 2006. We talked with them, went through a series of interviews and prayed a lot.
In June we were contacted by a ministry out of Houston called New Church Initiatives(they were hired by the church in Austin to assess potential church-planters and make recommendations as to who should come to Austin to plant)who invited us to be assessed as potential church-planters. Since we didn't know if we "had what it takes" we agreed to fly to Austin to be assessed. The process was grueling, but I really enjoyed it. It took place at the same church and the executive pastor, senior pastor and his wife took part as assessors.
Since then Andrea and I have been praying hard as to what God is doing in our lives and He has little by little given us direction and peace to give up everything we hold so dear here(our thriving ministry – we are out of room in our morning service at over 200 people every week and still run a large night service as well, our many close friends, salary, influence, position, house, yard, pool, etc.); all very unspiritual things but we were counting the cost and the sacrifice. It will be a costly move, and we will have to raise some support, but we are willing to make that sacrifice in order to be missionaries to the city of Austin!
About two years ago we received a packet from a church in Austin, called Hill Country Bible Church or HCBC, that advertised a student ministry pastor position. We weren't interested in that because I felt like I was doing more ministry here (in terms of what I feel God has called me to and gifted me for) and that ultimately I wanted to be a teaching or senior pastor, but the packet was amazingly well done and included a DVD by the senior pastor about the city of Austin and their vision for it. He described the city and what was going on in terms of growth and development and gave his vision for how they could reach every man woman and child in the greater Austin area with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.
While we were not interested in the church and the position they offered, the city and the vision to reach it somehow struck a cord with us and Andrea and I started thinking about Austin. It kept coming up...
Austin is an amazing city of 1.4 million people. Some researchers suggest that this city will be growing by 1 million people over the next 10 years. The vibe is young, creative, and somewhat unconventional. The city is only 17 percent churched, and most of the people there are really turned off to religion. Sociologists are saying that this city just overtook San Francisco as the most creative city in the nation. There is a new trend out that describes how society and culture will be shaped over the next couple of decades. They are calling it the creative revolution (think industrial revolution) or the rise of the creative class. The theory goes something like this, there are certain creative centers in the world were creative and innovative people gather (the top five are Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Raleigh, Washington/Baltimore) these people bounce ideas of each other and innovate which affects the way we live and view the world. Sociologists suggest that our world will be shaped by these urban creative centers. Anyways, there is a lot more to this, suffice it to say that I want to be a part of reaching these places…
A little while later we started looking at churches we were attracted to because they seemed amazingly effective at reaching the lost and advancing the kingdom. Northpoint or Mars Hill Seattle for example. Every church I was attracted to and did research on had started as a church-plant. So I started looking into church-planting. The more we looked into church-planting the more it seemed that in terms of evangelism and life-change church-planting was the most effective method of furthering the kingdom of God. I started reading about it, listening to people talk about it and praying about it. I even talked with our elders and our senior and executive pastors about this growing desire to be involved in church-planting.
We kept in touch with that church in Austin ( www.hcbc.com )through internet, listening to sermons, vision, business meetings, etc. They have an amazing vision for church planting and actually have a 12 months residency program that helps potential church planters train for planting a church in Austin and help with the launch. This church has actually strategically mapped dozens of locations throughout the greater Austin area and has an aggressive God-sized vision of reaching every man woman and child in the greater Austin area with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ. If you're reading this you have to listen to the vision for this (well - you don't have to but you could...) you can find it at http://sermons.myhcbc.com/index.html "Leadership Community Meeting" from fall 2006. We talked with them, went through a series of interviews and prayed a lot.
In June we were contacted by a ministry out of Houston called New Church Initiatives(they were hired by the church in Austin to assess potential church-planters and make recommendations as to who should come to Austin to plant)who invited us to be assessed as potential church-planters. Since we didn't know if we "had what it takes" we agreed to fly to Austin to be assessed. The process was grueling, but I really enjoyed it. It took place at the same church and the executive pastor, senior pastor and his wife took part as assessors.
Since then Andrea and I have been praying hard as to what God is doing in our lives and He has little by little given us direction and peace to give up everything we hold so dear here(our thriving ministry – we are out of room in our morning service at over 200 people every week and still run a large night service as well, our many close friends, salary, influence, position, house, yard, pool, etc.); all very unspiritual things but we were counting the cost and the sacrifice. It will be a costly move, and we will have to raise some support, but we are willing to make that sacrifice in order to be missionaries to the city of Austin!
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