PlantR Breakfast with Phil Miglioratti – Tuesday August 17th, 9am at the Austin Baptist Association
Phil Miglioratti is being hosted for several events by the ABA, and they have graciously provided a time for planters to connect with him as well. Phil is a consultant of sorts who has spent the last ten years of his ministry working with churches and ministries around the country. He leads, coaches, teaches, preaches, facilitates, writes, blogs, networks and prays to help churches and ministries take hold of prayer. Primarily working through the National Pastors’ Prayer Network and Prayer INC, Phil is involved with many organizations who share his vision of connection people to God through corporate prayer.

Prayer is a topic that never dries up and we hope you’ll take advantage of this time with Phil. Please RSVP by Friday, August 13th to the ABA at 454-2558 or by email.

PlantR Lunch at Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood — Thursday, August 26 @ 11am
As a chance to reconnect after summer and get to know planters who are new to Austin, we are having lunch together at Salt Lick. The cost of the meal will be covered by the ABA, but we need to get a count so that Salt Lick can reserve a spot for us. RSVP by Monday, August 23 using the same contact info as above.

Salt Lick would like us all to arrive no later than 11am so they can seat us all together. If you would like to carpool to save gas and share more time together, meet at the ABA at 10am that morning.

Hope you are having a great summer of rest and re-creation. We’re looking forward to reconnecting with everyone as we gear up for fall.

Together for Adoption Conference
October 1-2

Together for Adoption Conference 2010 will be October 1-2, 2010, in Austin, Texas, hosted by The Austin Stone Community Church and Hill Country Bible Church (the conference venue), and in partnership with Hope for Orphans. Our conference theme is “The Gospel, the Church, and the Global Orphan Crisis.” Lord willing, the 2010 conference will be our largest and most helpful conference yet, with gospel-saturated general sessions, longer breakout sessions, and more time to network with other churches, organizations, and adoptive families. We’re intentionally structuring the conference around the gospel and community.
Learn More and Register

GCM Collective Conference 2010
October 28-38

The GCM Collective will be hosting their first GCM Conference in Austin, TX this October, bringing together church planters, pastors, and leaders to collaborate on the practice of missional communities. This three-day conference will feature main and breakout sessions under the theme of GOSPEL, COMMUNITY and MISSION.

You will get to hear from, meet and interact with leaders who are daily practitioners, living in gospel communities on mission in their cities. This is a unique experience that will present the why, what and how-to of starting, leading and multiplying missional communities. Interactive plenary sessions, breakouts and unique training experiences will fill our days both on-site and off.

Big church, small church, multi-site or neighborhood this event is for every church that seeks to effectively expand the gospel in their context.

Learn More and Register

presented by
The Hill Country Institute for Contemporary Christianity
and
Reasons to Believe

Featuring
Dan Heinze, Geophysicist

When: Saturday, June 19, Breakfast Tacos at 9:45 AM and Meeting begins at 10 AM.

Where: Hill Country Bible Church Northwest, 12124 RR 620 North, Austin, TX 78750, Room 4.114

What: A presentation on the methodology and limits of science, leading to a fuller understating of the complementary nature of faith and science. The “Two Books” metaphor has long been a way to express the dual nature of God’s revelation, in scripture and in nature, and this presentation will be helpful for the non-scientist to learn more about the methods and limitations of science in the quest for knowledge.

Who: Dan Heinze is a geophysicist who has been active in the technical evaluation of oil and gas prospects for many years. Dan earned an M.S. from MIT in 1973 and a Ph.D. in geophysics from Texas A&M in 1977. During postdoctoral studies on earthquake prediction at Carnegie Institute of Washington, D.C., in 1978, he and his wife, Judith, started Applied Geophysical Software, Inc. (AGS). Dan was the founder and first CEO of AGS and carried out several other missions over its history including watering the plants and washing the dishes; he exited in 2007 upon its sale to PGS. Subsequently, he and Judith have enjoyed a mix of serving their family, pursuing science, taking a few vacations, and now working to put on the Vibrant Dance series of symposia on the Christian faith and science.

For more information, visit the event page on the Hill Country Institute website.

We began by reviewing some of the key data that came out of the demographic study commissioned by ABBA. There was a general consensus that most of us weren’t surprised by the data. While many in Austin might name themselves Christian by religion, that isn’t consistent with a much smaller number who would say they have faith in Jesus. And a few of the anecdotal examples that were shared line up with that.

One metaphor that Ed Stetzer shared in the presentation the data rings true. Austin, as a whole, has just enough exposure to the Christian message to be inoculated. Many have experienced church first or second hand — just enough to feel that they understand what Christianity is. But those understandings, more often than not, fall short of a holistic gospel and the giving of one’s self to be a disciple entering into a life more abundant.

As PlantR seeks to be a church planting movement, there is, of course, a desire to help see more and more church planted in and around Austin. But another emphasis emerged as well yesterday. How do we do all that we can to help the churches that are already going survive and thrive? How can we partner with each other and established churches and organizations to this effect?

As we brainstormed those questions, these were the thoughts about how we can partner with each other to help existing churches build a sustained movement:

• Be a truly collaborative network of planters
• Encouragement for each other
• Helping to equip each other and other leaders
• Constructive criticism of our models and character
• Being financially wise
• Train missionaries to Austin
• Coaching
• Share and identify with more stories of local planters
• Identifying and strengthening our theological calling
• Soul care for planters

Let’s carry this discussion on in the comments. How have you seen the above list working itself out already? How, as a network of co-laborers, can we develop and provide these things to each other?

For those that missed the presentation or would like to review the study for Thursday’s discussion, it is located online at the ABBA website. Please come ready to share your perspective in order to promote the gospel in our city and churches!

The panel featured three local artists who are also deeply connected with local churches:

• Nate Navarro – a pastor at Austin City Life, and the founder of a non-profit called Music For the City. The vision for the Music for the City came out Nate’s desire to connect two passions he shares: the Austin music scene and the poor.
• Steven Bush – a staff member at Austin Stone leading a team of artists who tell stories through writing and photography. Steve is also a musician and a photographer.
• JJ Plasencio – JJ is a former member of two nationally recognized bands and a worship pastor with a strong heart for mission, inviting those who aren’t part of a church to play in his worship band as an entry into Christianity.

As each of these men shared, a few common themes emerged through their stories or the stories of those they have worked alongside:

• A disengagement with the church at some point in life, followed by a return through the arts.
• A longing for the church to be known for making great art, and not forming some kind of “crappy sub-culture”.
• A consuming desire to see the Gospel be made known and true through their artistic expressions and the relationships that come through them.

Out of the sharing of their hearts, a lot of great discussion formed around these questions:

• What does it look like for Christians and non-Christians to work together for the good of the city? This is the core question that Music for the City is exploring in their work, and one that all of us should be asking.
• How can the church engage with others for the good of the city and still give credit to Jesus through the collective witness of the church? Should that be publicly visible somehow, or come out of the relationships that happen through the work?
• What does it look like for artists and pastors to work closely together? JJ suggested Orbiting the Giant Hairball — a book about how the creatives and executives at Hallmark had to learn to work together.
• How can we engage with artists in such a way that they can express as more than just illustrations for the sermon? How do we show love to the artists? Love the artists beyond being a resource. Respect and support their art outside the church. At the root of all artists is an approval idol.
• How can the church re-engage burned artists to join them on mission? Teach them to be ministers first and artists second.
• Should we pay the artists? There is not an easy answer to this, as there are times when this seems appropriate, and times when it isn’t.
• What is the role of art in the Church? A visual story is often more powerful than a aural story. People weep over a scene in a movie before they would by hearing the story. Allow art to tell the story of the gospel.

All of the answers above only capture bits of the conversation. They may appear incomplete, and they are, as many of us felt like we hand only scratched the surface in this conversation. It’s one we will likely return to in the future.

Our time together ended beautifully, as JJ laid bare his heart in sharing his love and passion for the church. While he could be involved full-time in the music industry, it is to the church that he has given his heart. That is where lives are changed. Before closing our time by praying for us and our churches, he reminded us that our competition isn’t each other or any of the other churches in town…it’s the lake, it’s all the places where people are going to find beauty and life.

• What does it look like for the church to engage the arts in a city
  known for creativity, artistry, and originality?
• What does it look like to be both a Christian and an artist in a city
  that celebrates the artist, yet views the Christian as narrow minded,
  uneducated, and unoriginal?
• In Austin how can the Church really engage artists, and can a
  Christian artist be relevant and on mission?

THE PANELISTS

NATE NAVARRO – Nate is the founder and co-director of Austin non-profit Music for The City, a movement of artists and Austinites bringing together music and charity to aid the poor, sick, and the helpless. He also serves as City Group Director at Austin City Life.
musicforthecity.org
twitter @natenavarro

STEVEN BUSH- Steven is a photographer and musician based in Austin, Texas who has a heart to see justice and hope brought into this broken world. He specializes in Music, Portrait, Documentary, and Travel photography. His work has been used to brand bands and musicians as well as to bring awareness to the work of non-profit organizations.
stevenbush.org
twitter @stevenbush

JJ PLASENCIO- JJ Plasencio is the Dove Award Winning, Grammy nominated bassist for the the groups Sixpence None the Richer and Plumb. He is the founding engineer and producer at Hot Pepper Studios where he produces national and local acts. He was the founding music director for Gateway Church for eleven years and now serves and the worship pastor at Fellowship Bible in Cedar Park. He is married and has two kids.
twitter http://www.plantr.org/?p=547 On Thursday, May 6, Ed Stetzer and present the results of the demographic study of Austin and the vitality of the church in the region. It is at this event that the results of the Austin Church Survey will be handed out. This is open to all planters and up to three key leaders, and will be valuable no matter what stage your church is at.

It will take place from 3:30 – 8:30pm at Grace Covenant Church (9431 Jollyville Road). The event is free and includes dinner from Rudy’s Bar-B-Q.

Online registration, along with more information, is available GreaterImpactAustin.org.

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