Providence Church

We have a church name! Providence Church in Austin.

As we’ve told many of you, we didn’t want our people to think of church as name and a weekly meeting, but rather a people who do life together as we live out the gospel and then invite people into that gospel. For that reason, we weren’t hard-pressed about making a decision for our name before beginning the core-phase, but we were also aware that we need a name, and a name says a lot about a church, so we needed to not take that decision lightly. We liked Providence for a lot of different reasons, but mainly because we just feel a unique sense of calling that God has providentially called this group of people together. As Will talked about in our Commissioning Service, if we had planted this church a year ago or a year from now, most of us would not have been able to be a part of it—our family especially feels this as a year ago we would have still been in seminary and a year from now we would probably already be committed somewhere else at a different church. This sense of calling gives everything that we are doing a greater and deeper sense of purpose while simultaneously giving us humility—that despite our weaknesses and inabilities, God has nevertheless chosen to use us to advance His Kingdom.

We are a little over halfway through our core-phase as we are planning our official launch in early November. In our weekly meetings and small groups we have been talking about different lenses through which to think about and view the gospel. In each lens we are talking about the implications for Gospel (how God has moved toward us and redeemed us), Community (how the gospel affects our human relationships), and Mission (how the Gospel propels us out).

The first lens was Creation, Fall, Redemption, or the macro-level story of how God created all things and is now redeeming all things. As a church we want to be a part of God’s mission to renew all things including our individual hearts, our families, our leisure activities, our culture, and Austin.

The second lens we just finished talking about was this Cross Chart, which is a micro-level look at how God is redeeming us individually. As our knowledge of God’s holiness and our own sin grows, our need of and the worship of the work of Christ on the Cross grows. Because of this we need the gospel just as much today—if not more—than the day were brought to faith in Christ.


And now we are talking about Sonship, which is Paul’s language for describing us as adopted sons and daughters into God's family. Do we think of ourselves as truly being loved by our Father and thus rightful beneficiaries of his gifts and inheritance? Or do we revert into thinking functionally as orphans—ones who seek to be a part of a family and seek approval based upon our performance?

In short, we are learning so much about God, His gospel in Christ, our own sin, the Sherman family, and what it means to live as a Christian with gospel-centrality that we are fully convinced that this exactly where God wants us as we prepare for, not only a life of vocational ministry, but for worship as a family of our good and faithful King.

Please continue to pray for our family as we are still making the transition to two sons, a new city, and a new life in a new church. Also pray that God would continue to knit together this group of saints with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:2-3). Thank you all so much for your continued prayer, financial support, and just all-around encouragement.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Philippians 1:3-5