News > North America

Austin UBF, TX, US
March 26, 2014

A Dwelling in which God Lives by His Spirit

I. 2013 Annual Review

We're thankful to God whose kingdom is the kingdom of light. We're thankful that we not only get to watch him build his Church but even get to be a part of it. Jesus has captured our hearts, and there's nothing else for us to live for except him and his kingdom.
2013 was an exciting year for us. It wasn't because it was a year of big life change. It was because it was a year to experience God very personally. He showed us that he knows us, that he is intimately involved in our lives, and that he guides us step by step. When he made his calling for us to come down to Austin clearly, we were most moved by this -- that God is so personal.

So in early August 2013, seven of us -- the Kims, the Jeons, and Christine A. moved together from Chicago to Austin. Not long before we left, having studied John 6, we realized we were like five loaves and two fish. Five adults, two toddlers. But more than that, we were not impressive, not skillful. But we put ourselves in Jesus' hands and quit our jobs and made the move. Our prayer was that as Jesus fed the 5,000 that he would use us to minister to the fast growing city of Austin.

We rented one big house and have been living together for the first year. It was easier to coordinate this than for each of us to look for a place to rent. We also did this so that we can express the family nature of the body of Christ. In our short time here, we found that living all together has been a great conversation starter. People are intrigued when families can live together like this and not kill each other. We could be a testimony to the love of God that is the foundation of each of our lives. Living together has been a blessing, being able to readily gather and pray together.

In the beginning, we met twice a day to pray and study the Bible. These days, we are meeting once a week to talk about how God is using us to reach out to people -- praying for people by name. We meet another time to study the Sunday passage and share reflections on the previous passage.

A couple of weeks after we got here, school began at the University of Texas. University of Texas has more than 50,000 students. We began to visit the campus to pray and to invite students right away. The Lord sent us a student here and a student there. At this point, we weren't sure what community life would look like. So we mainly focused on getting people into one on one Bible studies.

Our first Sunday here, we visited a local church. We began our own service the following Sunday. We started studying Mark's gospel.
Our pastors began to look up and meet up with other campus ministers and local pastors. They were able to learn much and be encouraged from these meetings.

In September, God granted us a worship place through Isaac's job. The coworking space where he works allowed us to worship there on Sundays.

We made friends not only on campus, but at our jobs, through friends. When we had a few ladies start to join us, we began a midweek meet-up for them. They meet at a cafe and studied the Bible.

We found that having dinner parties is a great way to invite new people to experience community before getting into Bible studies. So we've been having a lot of parties. We found that people can get comfortable with us and are more open to exploring God with us afterward. We are also making it a point to join in on other people's parties and making friends with young people there. We've also been volunteering here and there, individually and as a church, so that we can bless the city.

There is a campus organization at UT whose calling is to help all other campus ministries work as a team. It is really a beautiful ministry, and connecting with them has helped us feel right away that we are part of something bigger, that we are part of a team.
Late November, we received an official notice from the State, being recognized as a church.
On December 15 and 22, we had Christmas services. On the 22nd, we shared reflections on Jesus, our Immanuel. Then we went into the city with food to serve the hungry.

We're so thankful to God who provided everything for us. He granted all church planters a suitable job. He granted us the perfect home to live in together. In his sovereign way, he answered our prayers and quickly gave us a place to worship. We're thankful to God for the ministry we have among UT students and coworkers and other young Austinites. We're thankful for the pastors and fellowship members and family members in Chicago who have helped us prepare and have continued to encourage us from a distance.

II. 2014 Vision and Strategy
On the last Sunday of December, we studied Ephesians 2:22. It reads, "And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." We are praying that we can have many entry points for irreligious Austinites. That's why we have one to one Bible studies and dinner parties; we make sure our Sunday service feels grassroots and accessible to all people, even seekers. But we didn't want to forget what the Church is and make up our own definition in the effort of being relevant to this culture. Jesus is the Head of the Church. The Church is the body of Christ, God's dwelling place. If we are not all about Jesus and if we are not following Jesus, then we are no longer a part of the Church, just a human organization. We are holding onto Ephesians 2:22 as our key verse for the year, remembering the identity and privilege written into this verse for the Christian and for the Church.

We began the year with a New Year’s Retreat at Corpus Christi, a few hours away from Austin. It was a sweet time of rest. We spent time listening to God, picking a verse based on his leading, and reflecting on it.

We are planning a big dinner on Friday, Valentine's Day. We want to celebrate the love of God, which is the perfect love all our hearts long for. It looks like we're at the cusp of making a group Bible study among students at UT. We pray that God may establish this in the next month or so.

In general, we make it a point to visit the campus when we can. And when we're not on campus, we live a life of love and mission wherever we are. Our key members have purposefully found jobs that place them in the dead center of Austin's culture -- downtown, yoga studio, after school programs, high school, whole foods. God has led us to many open hearts in these domains. We pray that we can work together as a loving community to help each person that God brings to grow as disciples of Jesus who love Jesus with all their hearts and who can be sent back into the world to love others with the love of Jesus.

Josh Jeon