For the sake of the call

When I stop to think about it, so much of the world says that I shouldn’t give it all in anything that I do. The key to happiness is supposed to be in living a “balanced” life—a life dedicated to pleasing ourselves and not giving ourselves fully to anything, lest we actually end up becoming passionate and care deeply about anything that we do. Thus, in the eyes of the world, it doesn’t make much sense that working professionals—at a time when we could be climbing that corporate ladder or settling down with their nuclear families—would choose to pack up their bags, leave their lives of familiarity and comfort, and plant a new church hundreds of miles away from beloved family and friends. But, that’s exactly what a group of our church members have decided to do—to plant a new church in Austin, TX.

For the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the farewell last year, so many people stayed up late nights working on videos, creating picture frames and scrapbooks, buying and wrapping gifts, and practicing songs and dances. Why would people do such a thing? Why would we stay up late with our friends or about a hundred people wake up before the crack of dawn to send off the missionaries at the local airport? It is so we could honor the mission team members that had given it all for God and had touched so many lives through our church. Not many of them owned a home or drove eye-catching cars or became hotshots at their workplace, but their passion, their sacrifice, their generosity has left an indelible mark in the cultural fabric of our church. We give it all because of God’s faithfulness in our lives and to encourage our Austin team as we send them off to be a part of a watershed moment in the history of our church—our first domestic church plant as part of Gracepoint.

When we arrived, we took a picture at the airport, christening the arrival of our presence in the city of Austin, and then we hit the ground running. A few friends came along to help out with the move, and over the next three days, we took time off from our normal schedules and unloaded, assembled, and moved in furniture from two gigantic shipping containers, went shopping at over five different locations, cleaned and settled into four different houses, had memorable times of fellowship around good Texas food, and visited the sites for our Friday night Bible studies and Sunday Worship Service, and had our very first team prayer for the UT-Austin campus. In the eyes of the world, not much of what happened over those days made much sense, for people could have easily went through a life of just work or school and come home to plop down in their favorite spot and enjoy their favorite activity after a long day and repeat the same cycle over again. But, from the eyes of God, it was a beautiful sight of the church in action, of stepping out of our comfort zone and for the team, to take these steps of faith and obedience to God so that more people could come to know the saving grace of Jesus. For the team, perhaps the setting may have changed, and the weather definitely changed, but the one thing that did not change was their passion for God and their desire to serve God, wherever He may lead.