Last Sunday marked a special 5 year anniversary.
September 18, 2011 is forever seared in my heart.
I could write 1,000 things, tell 1,000 stories and could spend days talking about God’s faithfulness. I could write about friends who are nothing short of family, their faithfulness and insane hard work over the last 5 years. I could write and end up a hot mess. This has not been a road that we have walked or carried alone. My people, they are the best on the planet and I will fight you over that and for them.
To be able to say “5 year anniversary” is not something we take lightly. It is nothing short of miraculous that we are where we are. What a journey and we are just getting started.
Our church is not what we started as. We aren’t even the same name as that first day back in 2011. Same was never the intention and we serve a God who does new things. New and unexpected is part of the journey and God does some seriously cool things through it. Trusting that can be hard, but at this point, I know with confidence that there is no other way.
We merged with another church that was different than us and became a brand new church in 2014. We became Central City Austin. We were two different groups of people who believed that we are indeed better together. We have fought for it. We gathered, we prayed, we met, we worshipped. We did this together because we believed that just maybe this was God’s leading. We believed that just maybe, these two churches needed each other. We trusted God’s leading and found that He does good things…and that He is right. I have been blessed beyond measure to add to the list of people I will fight you over.
In case you haven’t noticed, I believe in the local church. Like, over the top, with all of my heart, believe in the purpose of the local church. I know it is imperfect but that is the amazing thing about God’s grace…He takes those incredible imperfections and allows us to be an incredible example of His love; to be His hands and feet; to speak, give, serve and lead. I want to do that so well. So so so well.
While God has done much in us in the last five years, what He has broken my heart for in the last 7 months is not in vain. When I think of all God has done in 5 years, I do not dream small for what He can do in 10.
Let’s do this church!
We may not be where we were, but that was never the plan.
We are better together and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!