Austin Bible Fellowship

July 27, 2009 | 2 Comments

This is part of an ongoing series of introductions to the churches that are part of the PlantR network. Zac wrote this for the blog last week, prior to sharing at our July meeting. We will post notes from his talk later this week, but it seemed good to offer this first to provide some background about Zac and Austin Bible.

My name is Zac Allen, and I moved to Austin in July of 2006 with a dream to gather a group of ordinary people who love the gospel and want to make their lives count. Prior to moving, I spent a year in a church planting residency in Arkansas. Austin Biblebegan as a bible study in a home, and currently gather at O. Henry Middle School across the street from Lions Municipal Golf Course. I want to use three words to describe different aspects of our church planting journey: Team, Identity, and Influence.

Team: Our greatest setback, pre-launch, was losing my potential staff teammates. All my plans and timelines were dependent on having their horsepower. For me, team can be an idol. I can lean on people in place of God. So when those guys said no, it was as if God was saying, “So you believe in the priesthood of believers, put your money where your mouth is and go build team with who I give you. I will bring staff when you need it.” God forced organic church planting on us, and has raised up almost all our staff from within.

Identity: When you plant, you have a “hoped for” church identity. You think you know your target group and location, your mission statement, and your values, your niche for the gospel within Austin, but you don’t. People shape culture, no matter how great a leader you are. And there is no substitute for the refining process of time. As a leader, it is the delicate balance of clear direction, while discerning and flexing with the people and open doors God provides. It took two years of being a church plant to realize our identity as a church. It is now not something we hope for, it was who we are, the good and the bad. The good: We tend to be a group of Humble, Authentic, Unified, Celebrating, Risk-Taking people. The bad: We are more homogenous than I would like. One of my favorite things I tell people about Austin Bible, is that even if I were not pastoring these people, I would be doing life with them.

Influence. People ask me “Where do you want to be in 5 years”. Some are thinking bricks and mortar, some are wondering if we will be another church who begins in central Austin only to grow and relocate to the suburbs, while some wonder if I am that planter who gets something started and moves on to the next adventure. Truth is, we don’t dream of mega-church, we dream of mega-influence. We dream of equipping and releasing missionaries. If we were given the choice, we would rather have 100 missionaries who are giving their lives away, than 1000 attending on Sunday. But 1000 missionaries is really exciting too. And as far as location, we will do what it takes to remain a hub of the gospel in the heart of the city. Planting Churches is a great idea.

Categories: Churches