There was a time when the church was very powerful—in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society… . But the judgment of God is upon the church [today] as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century.
Martin Luther King Jr., 1963
Planting A Gospel>Community: Everyday Contexts -
Life has a variety of contexts. Contexts are the surroundings or environments that all of us live in. We believe that Jesus is Lord over all contexts of life. To help us see how Jesus transforms each context of life, we speak of everyday contexts. Everyday contexts include a variety of…
I have been talking with a lot of people recently about all of the changes that are taking place at once in me and Sami’s life. When talking with a friend about it a few nights ago I made the comment that the last few months have been an exciting and scary “new chapter” for us. After making this comment my friend looked at me and said, “bro, this isn’t a new chapter for you guys— this is a new book”.
I guess it wasn’t until my friend said this to me that I realized how much change is actually taking place for us at once. I wanted to take a second and update on each new “chapter” of life that we are writing all at once right now. We are incredibly excited about all of this an know that God is orchestrating and working in and through it all.
Chapter 1: Goodbye Lubbock, Hello Round Rock
After a little over 6 years in Lubbock, Sami and I packed up and moved to Round Rock. We are joining with Josh and Lauren Reeves and a few other’s from Redeemer Lubbock to plant a church in Round Rock. The people in Lubbock and especially our sending church, Redeemer, will always be near and dear to our hearts. There are lots of people and things about Lubbock that we already miss and will continue to miss, but we are excited about this new work that God has called us to. We would love to talk more with you about how you can pray for us, support us, or join with us as we work to plant the gospel in north Austin if you are interested.
Chapter 2: The Elders on Elder Way
We decided not to waste any time in putting down roots in our new city, so we bought a house. Buying our first home was a stressful but exciting adventure for us. I made over a dozen trips to Home Depot and Sami had lots of fun shopping at Ikea during our first week as home owners. We love our house and are excited to serve and bless our new neighborhood. Oh, and the street that we live on is Elder Way (I’m not lying).
Chapter 3: Oh, Baby!
We found out in March that Sami is pregnant! This has kind of trumped all of the other exciting stuff that has been happening. We just had our 14 week sonogram and it was unbelievable to see how much the baby has grown and developed. We can’t wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl. Sami is doing great and we are both already falling in love this little thing that is growing in her belly. The doctor is telling us that Dec. 3rd looks to be a pretty accurate due date!
Chapter 4: Jonah
We also just recently found out that my brother and his wife will be adopting a little boy from Russia and they are going to name him Jonah. We are so excited for them as they are beginning this process and seek to make a difference in the orphan crisis in this world. Their is no better picture of what Christ has done for us in the gospel than the adoption of an orphan. We cannot wait to meet this little guy! You can follow along with their adoption story by clicking here.
Chapter 5: New Jobs
As a pastor, people often ask me for advice on things. If anyone would have ever asked me if I thought it was a good idea to quit their jobs and move to a new city without jobs— I would tell them that this doesn’t sound very wise to me and maybe they should wait until God provides new jobs before they move. Well….this isn’t what we did. We knew that God was calling us to Round Rock and knew that he would provide job for us, and this is exactly what He did. Sami is working as a Labor and Delivery nurse at a great hospital in Round Rock. She is absolutely loving it! And after applying to every school district in a 40 mile radius of Round Rock and sweating it out with every other teacher in the state over the new education budget cuts, I was just offered a teaching/coaching job at Round Rock Christian Academy. I couldn’t be more excited and grateful to God for his provision. There are a few more people on our church planting team that are still job searching (mostly teachers), so you could join us in praying for them.
Chapter 6: A Church Forming
For the past three weeks I have been splitting time between Lubbock and Round Rock as I finish out my duties at Redeemer Lubbock. Due to being in Lubbock on Sunday’s I have yet to be able to be apart of Redeemer Round Rock’s Sunday gatherings. This past Sunday I was able to attend my first RRR gathering and was blown away but the church that God is forming. There were around 30 adults and 15 kids crammed into the Reeve’s living room to share a meal and discuss the gospel and what it means to be a gospel-centered church. We haven’t even launched this church yet, haven’t sent out one mailer, and don’t even have our entire team from Lubbock here yet, and that living room was already full of people: friends, neighbors, young, old, black, white, new christians, mature christians, and non-christians. God is working and we are grateful!
thanks for reading,
Jordan
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“This Jesus is the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” — an uneducated, common man, whom had been with Jesus— Acts 4:12&13
I am starting a campaign to get this on the sign at Redeemer. We’ll see how it goes…
On Friday Sami and I came out of hibernation after a week long arctic blast of snow, wind, and single digit temperatures that hit Lubbock. We headed down to Hondo, TX for my cousin Jami’s wedding. It was a great privilege to be able to officiate Jami and Clayton’s wedding. We had a blast spending time with my family and even did a little dancing at the wedding. Here are some shots from our two days in Hondo.
On Sunday we took the day to make the 2 hour drive into Austin and see our friends Tanner and Kelsey who just recently moved there. It was great to see them, but being in downtown Austin made my stomach hurt a little because I am running a half marathon there in two weeks. I should probably go run….
Sunday afternoon we made the short drive from downtown Austin to Round Rock to watch the Superbowl with Josh and Lauren and a few of their neighbors. After the Super Bowl Josh and I stayed up talking church planting while Lauren and Sami played Just Dance 2 all night! Funny stuff. It was great being in Round Rock and even greater hanging out with the Reeves. We love those guys and cannot wait to join them in gospel ministry when we get to Round Rock sometime this summer.
This eventful weekend was just the beginning of what will be a busy spring for us. We have another trip Austin/Round Rock in two weeks, we will be taking the college ministry from Redeemer Lubbock to Salt Lake City over spring break for a mission trip, Sami has a Sage conference coming up, and I have lots of stuff happening here at the church….not to mention a few more house/job hunting trips to make to Round Rock in April/May. It is starting to become more and more real to us that we are leaving Lubbock and leaving Redeemer, which comes with both excitement and sadness. Our roots have grown really deep in our 6 years here.
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I love my church. My church goes by the name Redeemer, but that doesn’t even begin to define her. Incase you are reading this and you don’t know the story on Redeemer here is the short version. Redeemer was planted in Lubbock a little under 3 years ago. Our commitment is to be centered on the Gospel in all we do, and to be a missional family in our city and beyond. God has grown us in every sense of the word, and I continue to be amazed at how he is using our people in gospel ministry.
Last night we had an end of the year members banquet. For once this was a gathering that I had zero responsibilities at and could just sit and enjoy good food and good people. As I sat last night and listened to story after story (some of celebration & some of struggle) it was obvious to me that Christ is truly building and leading his church.
Here are a couple of cool stories/things that stood out to me from last night:
1. I love our value of simplicity.
Simplicity is one of our family traits at Redeemer. We want to be as simple (or at times cheap) as possible for a few reasons. 1) To model to our people that God doesn’t need a huge production to work, but rather works through the everyday things of life. 2) We feel the church/christians can foolishly spend Jesus’ money in ways to make our lives more comfortable and more safe, which is contrary to Jesus’ mission. 3) The less money it costs us to operate the more money we can use to send missionaries, church planters, and to serve our city. I saw this value lived out in many ways last night at our members banquet. With a membership of 300 it would have cost a pretty penny to cater a meal for everyone so we decided to embrace our baptist roots and throw a giant Pot Luck. It was awesome! Tons of food, lots of cheesy dishes, and lots of full belly’s. I wish I had a picture to post of table after table lined with dishes and crock pots.
2. Our church is growing in diversity.
One of our desires is for our church body to mirror heaven. We want to be a church that resembles God’s heart for worshipers from every color, tongue, and type. Starting in 2008 as a predominately young (college/post college), white, middle class church, we have been fervently praying for diversity. As I looked around the room last night I was reminded at how far we have come. Although we are still young and white, we now have piles of families, lots of color, and quite a bit of gray hair in our crowd. There is no way there would have been so many casseroles at that pot luck if God didn’t bring us Grannies who want to be on mission!
3. The 20/20 vision is becoming a reality
From day 1 we have had a desire to be a church planting church. It is a conviction of ours that planting new churches is the most strategic way of reaching people and advancing the kingdom. In fact this is the new testament model! What we call the 20/20 Vision at Redeemer is our desire to plant 20 churches in the US and send 20 international mission teams by the year 2020. Last night at our banquet we recognized and celebrated this desire becoming a reality. Our first mission team is being sent to the Arabian Peninsula in mid January to make Jesus famous there, and at least 4 or 5 other international teams are in process of forming as I type. We also commissioned and celebrated our first church planter (Josh Reeves) who is moving to Round Rock, TX this week to begin a church planting endeavor. Several others from Redeemer will join the Reeves in Round Rock this summer, including Sami and I. This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a sending hub of missionaries and church planters across West Texas, the US, and the Nations.
These are just a few things that stood out to me last night and made my heart glad.
As you can see I love my church and what God is doing through Redeemer Lubbock and am so grateful that I get the privilege of serving on staff and leading areas of this church!
