Tevis Austin

The Firehouse - Opening Celebration

It is hard to believe how far things have come over the past few years from dreaming to reality.  We had a celebration and dedication for The Firehouse Sunday, September 21.  This celebration was focused more on making sure we had everything ready for the opening Celebration.  We still have some things to improve, but things came together well.

 

 

We only invited those who have committed to serve at The Firehouse and those who already committed to attend to the September 21 gathering.  76 people participated including kids and adults.  That allowed us to celebrate together, to reflect on how God led us to this point, to say thanks to everyone involved, and to challenge everyone to focus on our mission of caring for our community and leading more people into a growing relationship with Christ.  Our theme was "Get Out of the Bubble."  The idea was that we now need to get out of our bubbles and get involved in the lives of people in our community.  So much work had gone into preparing for the opening celebration, that we wanted to make sure we didn't lose focus on what our mission really was.  We even gave out bubbles to everyone at the end.  Of course the kids loved it and so did many of the adults.  All of this was followed by a special time of dedication in front of The Firehouse and an open house.

Our opening Celebration took place on Sunday, September 28.

The Firehouse will actually be a video venue which means everything will be live except the teaching. As campus pastor, there may be special occasions when I will teach in person, but usually the teaching will be done by video.  The sermon will be recorded at our Williams Street location and then shown at The Firehouse one week later.  That allows us to make sure the video functions well.  We will also be able to edit the video in the case that we would want to intentionally encourage participation during the sermon by taking time to talk about things.

We have a preschool and nursery ministry at The Firehouse, but we are designing each Celebration to involve people of all ages.   We had 106 attend our opening Celebration.  Our theme was "Now is the Time."  There were lots of clocks set up.  Our main points included the importance of structuring our time around what we believe is important, being intentional when it comes to who is building into our lives and the lives of those we care about, and restructuring our time so that we can influence our community. 

During each Celebration, we are planning to have a "Fire Drill."  No we aren't actually having a fire drill.  We may change the name, but we stuck with this title since it went with The Firehouse theme.  The idea is that we want to take a few moments to very simply make the main idea of what we are teaching clear for everyone. 

There have been so many people who have helped to pull things together.  I am so thankful for all of their hard work, and I am excited to see how God will continue to work in the weeks ahead. 

 

 

Gone Like the Wind

I have tried to make it my goal since I started using this blog to post one entry a week.  I actually have done pretty good at reaching my goal, but the past two weeks have gone like the wind. 

Brendon started playing football two weeks ago.  I probably should clarify and say it is flag football.  I watched him start trash talking with some of the other players at his first game.  I am still trying to figure out where he got that from.  I am starting to wonder what his mom does at home when I am gone.  This league is for K-2nd.  He must have talked too much to a second grader at the end of the first game, because the kid leveled him.  It might have been a lesson learned. 

 

Brendon actually spent more time cheering on his team.  We met someone a few days later who had been to the first game, and when she noticed Brendon, she referred to him as "the kid who was cheering."  At least she didn't refer to him as the cheerleader since the team didn't actually have cheerleaders. 

Brendon has now been playing the position of center.  I don't think it is because he is an incredibly strong lineman, but I could be wrong.  However, that position does allow a five year old who is still learning how to catch, throw, and play with the older kids to contribute.  Brendon has really enjoyed it. 

I think the most difficult part of coaching football for this age group would be looking at such a wide age range and then trying to determine where is the best place for each player to play.  I feel like the past few weeks have been a lot about trying to determine the best place for people to play when it comes to ministry.  Often the bigger challenge is just getting people to play.  We are now less than a week away from getting things started at The Firehouse.  Our teen ministry, Student Community, just made the move to start "Ignite" at The Firehouse on Wednesday nights last week.  We are still trying to get people involved with Ignite and with our teen small groups.  In fact, we are moving forward this week without adult leaders to work with our middle school girls.  

At the same time we have been working to get people involved in student community, a lot of time and energy has been spent on getting things in place to start our Sunday Celebrations at The Firehouse.  We start on Sunday, September 28 at 9:45 AM.  However, we will actually have a gathering for those who have already committed to serve and attend this coming Sunday, September 21.  That gathering will be followed by a special dedication and open house.  It will allow us to celebrate and have a special time for everyone to basically practice serving. 

Everything seems to be coming together for this Sunday, but there are so many things that still need to be done.  We have now met three times with our core group.  We potentially had 38 who expressed interest in serving in the beginning, but that number is now less than 30.  Some people will have to serve in more than one position on a regular basis and other positions may have to be left vacant until gaps are filled.  I continue to trust that God will fill the gaps.  I hope that as more people consider coming to The Firehouse over the next few weeks, we will be able to find new people who are willing to serve. 

Originally we talked about The Firehouse being simply an overflow area with video, and I have to admit there are times I think that would have been much easier.As we move forward, we are praying that more importantly, The Firehouse will be a place where new people from our community will come and ultimately get involved.

Both Megan and Brendon have started preschool over the past couple of weeks.  This is Megan's first year.  She only goes on Thursdays. 

 

 

Finally, I must say that things have literally gone with the wind over the past couple of weeks too.  We had what I considered a great flowering pear tree in our backyard that the recent remaining winds from Ike tore apart.  That really is nothing compared to the damage the wind has done all over our area.  I have been amazed by the damage that I have seen and heard about.  I just finished a conversation on the phone with a couple who had a tree fall into their house.