We left the Dale’s after some pizza and a refreshing shower and made our way toward downtown Austin. We were headed to meet Justin Christopher and Jeremy Story with Campus Renewal Ministries.

It all began when Justin was a student at the University of Texas and hated the idea that everyone back home just expected him to “survive” as a Christian on “that pagan campus”. (I guess UT around here is known as a pretty evil place.)But he wanted to do more than just survive, he wanted to be with God as he took back the souls that he loved so much! So Justin and a group of friends began praying. After they all graduated, Justin kept praying, and soon others began to join him. He became a campus minister for the Baptist Student Center, but his goal was far beyond incubating the Baptist kids who walked through the door. He called on every campus minister asking them to join him in prayer each morning for the UT campus, (as opposed to praying for MY ministry as some prayer meetings devolve into, or praying for my second cousin’s grandma’s roomate’s big toe).

While unity of these ministers was not easy at first, he promised that there would be no agenda except what God revealed to them during their prayers. For the last 15 or so years, it has been just that!

They have come to accept that many students on campus need something more than a weekly worship experience to fully embrace the Christ-life, so they have begun to plant little authentic faith communities (AFC) all across the campus.

But they aren’t doing this haphazardly - they’ve done their homework, and it seems that there are about 1000 people groups on UT’s campus (everything from fraternities to dorm floors to neo-nazi groups). In the last half a decade, they have seen over 100 AFC’s pop up throughout the campus with each year doubling the number they had in the previous year!

Each year they see dozens of new baptisms, and they are doing their homework here too. They don’t just want a horizontal convert (Presbyterian Student Group to Church of Christ Student Group or whatever) they want to see true advancement of the Spirit on campus, and they are seeing it!

Recently they just opened a prayer room just above a sandwich shop on the UT Campus. It was here that we had our discussion. There is an antechamber with lots of couches and snacks, but the real space on the loft was a room sectioned off to the left - it had bean bags circled up, a piano, a bongo drum, prayers written all over the walls, and a sign up board for 24/7 prayer. They wanted to see the whole campus soaked in prayer every hour of the day. Amazing.

And it all started with prayer. A prayer movement always precedes a church planting movement.  This is an example of the whole harvest force prayerfully engaging and seeking after the whole harvest field that they have been placed in.  I am thankful to Father for Campus Renewal Ministries!

Next up we’ll talk about our time on 6th street and a man with a master’s degree getting paid minimum wage (?) to be a missionary.

After only being gone for 4 days, it feels like an eternity since I’ve written on here, and I’m excited to share with you what God revealed to us in Austin, TX during our Urban Immersion experience. Over the next four posts, I’ll give you a spotlight on some of the events that took place, as well as some of the creative harvest workers doing some amazing things in that area of the world.

So Thursday morning bright and early (well, sorta…we had a few late bloomers that morning…ME!) we left for Austin in a caravan and made it with only a few potty breaks to Reimer’s Ranch - our first stop on the trip.

This was my first chance to “lead” a climb, which means setting up the course for anyone else who follows. Its a little trickier and admittedly my hands used a little more resin to keep from sweating, but in the end it paid off. We reflected later that evening on the experiences of the day and I realized that I am a leader. That is hard for me to take in sometimes, and most of the time I don’t feel up to the task. But it was helpful also to be reminded that even though I may be a leader, I will never lead alone. Someone is always helping me with the next step; finding the next hook to hold on to. And there is always someone attached by a rope to catch me if I fall.

The next day we drove into Austin and met up with Tony and Felicity Dale. They were doctors over in England and let the Lord use them in helping hundreds of doctors and patients to follow Christ. Back in 1987 they came to Austin to do the same thing, only to be severely disappointed. Over the course of 10 years they waited for the Lord to show them what to do next, and finally he did.

He helped them wrestle with what “church” was really all about. They began to hear that the Church is not restrained to pew sitters soaking in words from the “sage on the stage”. They read 1 Cor 14:26 where it says, “When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight…”

Father was teaching them that the Church is about each and every person learning to use their gift, both in AND out of the gatherings.

Now they are leaders in with House2House Ministries, a go-to point around the nation (and the world) for helping people learn and get connected with organic church principles and participants.  Their website has the most extensive listing of house churches I am aware of.  They also put out an awesome print magazine by the same name, and help pull of a national House Church Conference every year to help raise awareness that God’s Church is leaving the building.

Felicity taught us about “Storying” which will probably be a blog post all of its own some day. Its a powerful, simple tool for sharing the stories and principles of the Bible to illiterate and alliterate cultures (like the USA). She told us of how God was leading hundreds of thousands to Christ in India and Pakistan, and how storying was a means of developing these new disciples in their own homes, with or without any real education. Pretty sweet!

In part 2, I’ll talk about an amazing renewal going on throughout the University of Texas campus.

This morning we leave for Austin, TX!  Just like last year, it has become a pretty cool tradition in MRNA to head down to the Austin area for the last half of Spring Break to enjoy some rock climbing, good food, the SXSW Music Festival, and meet up with a whole host of teams and individuals working as missionaries and leaders in one of the world’s most diverse mission fields.

I’m so glad that Trina is going down with me - I honestly can’t emphasize that enough.  Her support and enjoyment of this journey we are on together is sometimes the only thing that keeps me going.  Her creativity and insight is so pervasive (again, many kudos to her for the new design of this blog) that I wonder where I might be in my ministry and life without her!  That is why I’m so glad she’s coming along.  Her instincts for a simple, organic life in the kingdom will be encouraged and reaffirmed as she talks with national leaders and vision casters - the real apostles of our day.  Thank you Father for this gift.

I’m already anticipating the return from A-town to A-town (ahem, Austin to Abilene) to give you the 4-1-1 on what happened, who we met, and how Father showed up!

I’m finally after almost 6 years of living here in Abilene making my way out of the ACU “bubble” (social world that is contained within itself and only leaves itself when it is doing “outreach” or “admissions” which for ACU can be the exact same thing).

It’s probably because we’ve moved to downtown Abilene, I’m taking a lot less classes and I’ve got a job at a restaurant here in town! I’m learning really quickly that this restaurant business is like its own sub-culture! Unique vocabulary, dress, lifestyle ethic…its all here. If I were a sociologist, I’d be going wild. Even as a missiologist, I’m learning so much more about people as I work with them than I ever would have in a book or class.

At my restaurant is a practicing lesbian, at least three who are in drug rehab, a man who is supporting 9 children and another on the way, another who was married just 4 months before finding out that his wife was cheating on him for another guy (he just signed the divorce papers a few days ago). There is sadness in the lives and hearts of these new friends and co-workers, but I also see in them a desperate desire for life.

I went out to a bar with a group of them after a weekend shift one night and they bought me a drink (hey, what would Jesus do?). As we were talking and laughing, I realized that this is their family - for many of them this is their only family, and I am getting a chance to see what the very depths of their hearts look like.

Later that night, me and another guy were talking over coffee and he revealed to me that he had been beaten by his alcoholic father. He said this his father was abusive because when his dad was a child, he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. I mourn for him and his family.

Another co-worker told me that her friend had died of a heart attack last night because she was struggling through rehab. I had no idea how complex and wicked the Evil One is against God’s creation.

What do I do? How do I not only provide a sense of comfort amidst the rubble but also offer them the chance to be alive in Christ together? Why can’t the church be that Good News that Christ and Paul were so convinced it would be for the suffering and dying? These people are suffering and dying now! They can’t wait for us to get our ecclesiology right!

I feel like we have such a long way to go - but I believe in Christ - and I believe in the power that he gave his bride to be Good News. But I need to know what the next steps are…my heart can’t handle all of this!

Proof of Global Warming!  Hide your grandmother’s eyes!  (Admittedly found here).