As some of you know, the church my family attends was effectively destroyed by an arsonist's fire about 19 months ago. We (the church) had known for quite some time that we were getting too big for the old building, so there was a pile of money in a building fund already. With that and with some insurance money we paid cash for several acres of prime real estate in Austin. then we went through two architects and a builder who just would not get it through their heads that we had x dollars to spend and did not want to to over, period.
Now we have a perfect storm brewing
A man whose personal ministry/mission in life is to be a minimal cost building superintendent for just our type of church, with decades in construction, including building a couple of major hospitals under his belt, is finishing up his current project at exactly the right time to start on ours.
A team of volunteers that goes around doing the actual construction of buildings for churches like ours has, if I understand correctly, agreed to help us out.
The economy is in Depression. The prices of raw materiel and labor are falling sharply.
And last week, our Pastor announced he estimates we now have all the money it will take to complete the new facility.
June 1st is the date currently set to begin the site work (turning dirt).
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While other churches shrivel and die (as Newsweek is pleased to point out right before Easter), this one is growing. We have been running totals of 10-20 more people (around 10%) in each service from before we were burned out (two years ago), even with several families having left or moved away.
Why?
Because when people come to Trinity they get what they need: Jesus. The gospel from the Bible sans fluff, people who love each other, and not much else. There are occasional meals together and outings for the young people to wholesome activities. There is not a single's group, but there is an orchestra (but no drummer).
There are a lot of members who say Trinity is unique in Austin (and rare in the whole country).
Trinity is an independent, fundamentalist, bible baptist church. We use the KJV only, on purpose, and we sing from a hymnal the songs your father and his might have known. We ask for the old paths . . .
. . . and we are blessed for it.
The church's website is www.tbcaustin.com.
Happy to hear things are going so well for y'all in the midst of the United States of Mayhem! I'd come visit but I'm at the other end of things (Round Rock) and I've been missing services a bit too much for a youth pastor, anyway, for various reasons.
ReplyDeletePlus, I'd probably bring an NIV, so I'm afraid of getting shot. (Just kidding!)
Nah, you could bring an NIV, but you'd get lost in the middle of reading a passage. Then if you just stopped to listen, you'd wonder why things were so much easier to understand than you were used to.
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