Matthias speaks to HCBC

Check out http://www.hcbc.com/sermons and click on the sermon which says "God's Faithfulness" to listen to the message Matthias preached to the HCBC congregation Sunday December 30th.

Love is a promise

"Judge not Christ's love by providences, but by His promises."
Thomas Wilcox
How comforting this is! The crazy circumstances we find ourselves in have nothing to do with the love God has for us. His promise of love must be our firm foundation when everything looks unfamiliar and scary.

We got an email this morning telling us that the wonderful house we are renting just went into escrow. It had been on the market for months before we got here so they agreed to rent it. No offers had been made in many months. We have been here three weeks and have nearly unpacked everything. Our kids love the house and the neighborhood. But, God in his providence is moving us to a different home. If you look at the circumstance it looks unloving. Our kids have just adjusted to a new state, we love this house, we are in the middle of planting a church. It doesn't make earthly sense for God to move us. And yet, His promise is sure: "He who calls you is FAITHFUL; he will surely do it!" 1 Thes. 5:24
I desire to love God for his promises, not his providences. Pray with us as we look for another house that will allow us to minister to the city of Austin and house all of us!! Andrea

Merry Christmas from Robby & Crystal

Merry Christmas!
We've had such a fun couple of weeks. It started with Todd, Robert, and Rolly coming to visit us in Austin. We hit the town and did too many things to list. One of our favorites is the Alamo Draft House (google it!). It is hands down the coolest theater I've ever been to. We really enjoyed the conversations and laughs that come from cramming so many people into a Hyundai Tiburon (and a 500 sq. ft. studio). On top of that, we are so excited that Todd and Rolly landed jobs during the visit and will be here to stay in Jan. Right now we're enjoying time with family and friends in Lancaster (and Vegas) for the Holidays. On the Dec. 30th, Crystal and I will be making the wonderful drive to Texas one more time. We're looking forward to moving into our new apartment downtown on Jan. 5th. A big part of what we are doing in Austin right now is simply making friends with people, spending time with them, and talking to them about Jesus. John Herrington recently told me that church planting is more of an art than a science, and we're finding that to be true. We'll write more later, but for now... Merry Christmas and our love... Robby and Crystal.

Merry Christmas

Hey Everybody!
It's the morning of Christmas Eve and I am sitting in the living room of our rental house in front of a roaring fire enjoying my third or fourth cup of coffee and listening to the bustle of our kids as they are making Christmas crafts in the next room - doors are closed and the mood is conspiratory - I guess these crafts are about to become Christmas presents for mom and dad.
This year has been a whirlwind of change and even though I lived through it only now in a slower more reflective pace of the holidays am I realizing the extent of change... or am I?
I am thrilled and terrified with our new assignment all at the same time and I know that without your love and prayers it would simply not have been possible for us to come this far.

Andrea and I are deeply appreciative for the many of you who have given of your love to us and have shared our lives.

To all who read this a very merry and blessed Christmas - we love you guys!

Matthias, Andrea & Kids

News

• We had our first Core Team meeting where we spent time discussing what it means to be starting a church. We talked about the DNA of our church, the desire to live as missionaries in our community, the hope to be a blessing to Austin, how to share the unbelievable news of God's love and grace poured out to us in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we set certain milestone goals for the next few months leading up to our launch date in September of 2008. It was great to get going and see God form a team for His glory.
• The last couple of days have been great as we had several of our friends from CA come out to spend some time with us in Austin. Todd was here to try to find a job and after only two interviews he found a great job getting hired at the Four Seasons in Austin. He will be moving here by the 14th of January.
• We also have great news as Rolly is joining our team. He came out to visit George, loved Austin, and got a job. Now he went home to wrap things up in California, oh the season of unentangled youth.
• Robby and Crystal are home with Crystal's family in CA to celebrate Christmas and bring the rest of their stuff here on their way back - pray for another safe trip driving across the country.
• As a result of John Herrington falling of the ladder I had to do an emergency fill in sermon at HCBC UT, but God was gracious and last I heard at least on person received the love of God personally that day! I will be speaking again on the 30th of Dec. Pray that I could bring glory and honor to God as I speak about His faithfulness.

Thank you for your Prayers

Hey Guys -

thank you so much for all your prayers. John Herrington had reconstructive surgery on his face and hand yesterday. The surgery lasted over three hours and they inserted plates in his face and pins in his finger. The surgery went well and John feels like he is more himself again and now can begin the healing and recovery process. His face is very swollen and he will require physical therapy for his hand but he is good spirits. Bob King and I went to see him in the hospital this morning and we were very pleased with how sharp he was. Keep praying that he would recover quickly and completely.

Thank you to the Elders of Central Christian

Serving at Central Christian Church during these last 3 1/2 years has been a great privilege and joy. Now they are partnering with us to see the city of Austin reached with the love and mercy of Jesus Christ! Robby and I are profoundly grateful to these men and how they have been a blessing to us and our families!

This is part of a letter I sent to them this past week.


Dear Elders of Central Christian Church -
Karl, Dave, Danny, Dave, Ryan, Mike, Jim & Allen

As Andrea and I reflect over these past couple of months, our hearts are so grateful for the support you have given to us. We were blessed to be a part of Central for 3 ½ years. Our lives were changed by the opportunities for outreach and ministry, and we grew in our love for Christ and our dependence on Him. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to teach, preach and lead, and permitting me to mature my gifts in service.

We saw God move in our ministry as we prayed for growth and for men and women to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and fill our services for the Glory of God. I will never forget the first Sunday in the Gallery. It was an amazing process to pray for a deeper ministry and see God move in ways only He could! Soli Deo Gloria!

These past months have stretched us and have been full of God’s intervention, even in minute details. Most of my time through the end of November has been spent studying church-planting in general, researching demographic and psychographic information, praying, walking the various parts of the city, doing surveys with people in different parts of the city and asking God to give us a heart for the city.

I remember a couple of months ago when I was here on my own, I was talking to Andrea on the phone about the people of Austin and how much I desired them to be gripped by God’s love and be reconciled to Him. As I was talking to her on the phone all of a sudden I completely choked up and started weeping for the people of Austin who do not know the love of God. It was a powerful experience, as I am not normally a crying kind of guy!

We have now completed our training phase with Glenn Smith a church-planting expert and consultant from New Church Initiatives in Houston and have been given the green light from the church-planting team and the elders here at Hill Country Bible Church as to where we will be planting the new church. We were given the downtown area of Austin. If you look at a map of the city we have everything north of Lady Bird Lake, east of the river, west of I 35 and south of Koenig. The area includes the area around the Capitol, downtown, 6th Street, the Campus of the University of Texas, and a number of family neighborhoods. We are thrilled to be allowed to focus on this area, even though we anticipate this area to be a challenging location.
We are dreaming of reaching the next generation of influencers not only of Austin, but men and women, future leaders and creative minds that will shape the culture and future of our nation and possibly the world. The slogan of the University of Texas at Austin is this: “We are Texas, what starts here changes the world!” That is exactly what we believe as well. We are profoundly grateful for your love, prayers, and financial support. We are so blessed with our partnership for the Gospel and the glory of God. We are amazed at the outpouring of love and support given to us by the people of Higher Ground, the Gallery and Central as a whole. Your partnership in the Gospel during this time is so precious to us. We pray that God will enrich your ministry greatly as you seek His glory and fame.
May God richly bless you during this Christmas season!
Matthias & Andrea

Would you join me in praying that God would greatly bless the ministry of Central Christian and the leadership of these elders.

Pray

Hey everybody! Hope your Christmas season is going well.
I want to ask you guys to pray for our church-planting director John Herrington. John fell of a ladder this weekend. Fortunately he did not sustain life-threatening injuries. However he does have several significant injuries. John has a compound fracture in his hand, and he broke his eye socket in three places.
His leg and shoulder are pretty bruised and he has some swelling. The injuries to his face and his hand require surgery and John and Angela found a specialist (an ocular plastic surgeon) who will be able to do reconstructive surgery on his eye-socket. This surgery will most likely be Wednesday. Pray for John and Angela and for the upcoming surgery.

Amazing Father

I wrote this a couple of months ago, but it was referenced by Ed in his comment on my post "Mishaps and Messiah", so i thought I post it here for your convenience. Plus it is a good reminder for me personally!

This morning in my bible reading a familiar verse sort of leaped off the page in a new way. I was reading through the minor prophet Zephaniah and chapter 3 verse 17 became real to me in a new way.

"The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness;
He will quiet you by His love;
He will exult over you with loud singing."

While meditating on these truths the following became newly real to me:

1. God is not only eternal, He is the ever-present I AM. He is in the midst of his people - He is not far off, but He is right here with us.
2. God is mighty - His power is limitless and His strength beyond measure.
3. God will save - He will take up our cause and will use His limitless might on our behalf.
4. The Father rejoices over us, His children - we aren't simply a nuisance or annoyance to God - He loves us deeply!
5. The Father comforts His children and quiets our unrest, fear and angst.
6. The Father sings over His children, because he has genuine delight in them.

WOW! What an amazing Father we have, immeasurably big and yet personal and approachable, intimately concerned and involved in the very details of our lives while at the same time holding the measurless universe in the palm of his hand...

Mishaps and Messiah

It has been a whirlwind over these last several days of finally having Andrea and the kids join me here in Austin. Receiving our stuff from the moving company was a pretty big job, starting to find everything we've packed in various boxes an even bigger one. Now comes the fun part of actually setting up the house.
The house we are renting is very homey and we feel so grateful to John and Jacy Donovan who are letting us rent their place at this time.
In the midst of moving in we've had a pretty big mishap. As the washer was draining we had raw sewage back into our house and flood the place. The drain pipe was apparently blocked by a bunch of roots that had to be cut out and the sudden flood of water was too much for the partially clogged pipes. The problem resolved, we set to scrubbing the bathtub, shower and bathroom floors, only to discover that the episode had flooded the two adjoining bedrooms... What a disaster and what a mess!!! As I write this, workers have just removed the carpet padding and three large fans and dehumidifiers are working hard to dry out our house.
Andrea and I made beds for the kids in the living room on the couch. The kids think the whole sleepover in front of the fire-place is a really cool thing, Andrea and I are yet to be convinced.
It is frustrating, but at the same time we are trying to learn how to rest in God. On Tuesday Andrea and I went on a date wings as an appetizer and Handel's Messiah as the main course. Over dinner I shared with Andrea how I was feeling pretty stressed out with everything that is involved in starting a new church, trying to make things happen by simply working harder. Andrea was encouraging me to relax a little and trust God to build His church. Psalm 46:10 says "Be still and know that I am God"; the NASB translation says it a little different, "Cease striving...", which is exactly what I have been doing.
Anyways back to Handel's Messiah. We arrived at the concert venue only to find that all the tickets were sold except the obstructed view ones, and we could not get two seats together. My suggestion was to just go hang out at the Domain, but Andrea kept saying, "let's just wait a while longer." (My question was - for what?!?)
After a few minutes a white-haired gentleman approached us and asked if we needed tickets for the concert and that he was there with a church from San Marcos who had bought a bundle of tickets of which two were extra. He ended up giving us the tickets and walked us to perfect center auditorium seats just in time before the lights dimmed and the Austin Symphony began their crescendo into the opening of the Messiah.
As we sat there Andrea said, "I just knew someone would give us tickets, I just had that feeling all night." I just leaned over and whispered back - "I guess that is the difference between striving and resting."