Summer Recap and Fall Preview

The summer is usually a season that churches, whether large or small, experience a lull—both a lull in attendance and a lull in momentum.  By God’s grace, the summer was a time of growth in both numbers and momentum for Providence.  We certainly missed many of our families and students, but we had new visitors joining us for worship every week which has allowed us to nearly double our Sunday gathering since the time we launched in November.

Growing slowly and steadily has allowed us to assimilate new folks into rich gospel community that continues to encourage and challenge our family in knowledge and worship of Jesus.  Know this: through the gathering of the people of Providence on Sundays and through their being sent out throughout the week, the gospel of Christ is moving in Austin. 

Next week we are beginning an eight week study called The Gospel-Centered Life.  Because we have so many new people who are either brand new believers or not Christians at all, we want to spend some time defining and applying the gospel.  At Providence, we like to say that the gospel isn’t just the entry point to the Christian life, but it is all of the Christian life.  This paradigm is new for many people, so we’re excited to begin exploring how we are far worse than we think we are, and yet how God loves us much more than we think he does. We’ll preach through this content on Sundays, and then meet in smaller groups all over town throughout the week to go in greater depth.  We’re really expectant for the next eight weeks for God to continue to grow his people and for non-Christians to come to faith in Christ.

As for a personal Sherman update:

I (Nathan) spend the majority of my time meeting with and following up with new people who show up on Sundays—trying to get to know them as well as connecting them with others at Providence.  I’m also meeting regularly with a couple of students as well as Campus Crusade staffers as we encourage each other out of sin and into the light of the gospel.  One of the highlights of my week is meeting with two guys who are my age and for the first time in their lives are committed to a church body and thinking about spiritual things.  We’re getting to walk through the Bible together and talk about how God has reconciled us to himself in Jesus which leads to the life that for which we were created.

I’m also just getting to spend a lot of time alongside our pastors, which has been so great for me to learn how to be a better pastor, husband, and dad. And in any other spare time, I’m usually working on resources for our people, most notably a family devotional for the coming Advent season.  I’ll make sure all of you have access to that when it’s finished.

Marcie is still getting to volunteer once a week at the South Austin Pregnancy Center where she meets with and counsels pregnant women whose pregnancies are often unexpected and unwanted. She is also in her second week of leading a Abortion Recovery class for women who are still experiencing the intense emotional and spiritual trauma of a recent or decades-old abortion.  Needless to say, Marcie is engaging in some pretty intense and gritty ministry but also seeing the richness of God’s goodness and mercy in these women’s lives.

Please pray for these next eight weeks as we go through the Gospel-Centered Life.  I think it could be transformative for many as people will hopefully think about God’s holiness, our sin, and the work of Christ in new ways.  We’re hopeful that these small groups will be especially transparent with each other, which might be initially uncomfortable for people who haven’t experienced that before.  So pray that God would make much of himself by the humbling of his people and through their worship of Christ.

Summer Update

It has been just over a year since we moved to Austin and seven months since Providence Church launched. We have learned so much in the last year about God and his transforming Gospel, Christ and his transforming Church, and the Spirit and his transforming nature. We couldn’t be more content than where we are now, in a place of community and growth that is daily life-giving and refreshing. While at the same time, we couldn’t be more challenged in this season of learning and preparation for whatever it is that will come next for us.

So here’s a quick recap of what’s been going since our last update. First of all, the church is growing. Both in numbers and maturity. We were expecting to lose a good deal of momentum and feel quite small this summer with most of our students and Campus Crusade staffers gone for the summer, but we seemingly haven’t missed a beat. There have been new people every week at our Sunday gathering—either by way of side-door relationships just by people in Austin who are starting to hear about us. In the Spring, we spent 13 weeks teaching through the book of Luke, looking at characteristics of a disciple of Jesus. This was an important series for us because we want to be a people and a church who have first-hand knowledge of Jesus—not just some facts about him. After that, we spent five weeks looking at the nature and role of the oft-ignored third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. I preached the concluding sermon in this series on May 29 (The Cosmic Spirit), if you would like to hear that audio. And now we are two weeks into the book of Deuteronomy, or How does the covenant people of God live in a fallen world?

One of the answers to that theme question for Deuteronomy is one that our family is learning here in Austin. And that is that the covenant people of God should pursue justice for the oppressed while loving the unloved. Marcie is volunteering once, and sometimes twice, a week at the South Austin Pregnancy Center, where she is performing sonograms, providing physical needs for expecting and current mothers (clothes, diapers, cribs, etc.), and then widely loving these often isolated and scared women through the Gospel of Christ. These times are often the highlight of her , and she has already ministered to countless women.

A small group of us from Providence has also adopted a family of refugees from Burma through the Refugee Services of Texas. This family of six belongs to the Karen ethnic people group which are persecuted in Burma, and has been living in a refugee camp in Thailand for the past 12 years. They are Christians (the spiritual heritage of Adoniram Judson, whom they still celebrate), and couldn’t be more joyful and excited to be in America—the first country that has ever welcomed and wanted them. We furnished their apartment, picked them up at the airport, and then have just been hanging out with them while helping them shop for groceries and learn bus routes. There has never been a clearer reminder to us that, as Christians, we are all sojourners—exiles longing for a better country (Hebrews 11).

On top of all of this we are still pursuing Gospel Content, Gospel Community, and Gospel Cause (explained here) by living life together in encouragement toward each other and mission toward the city. I am leading a small group of men this summer through the Sermon on the Mount, including a UT student who is Buddhist and before three weeks ago had never read a word in the Bible. An exciting time. And Marcie has been meeting with and learning from the other pastor’s wives as they talk about the excitement and hardships of life in ministry.

Lastly, a quick family update: Caleb just celebrated his first birthday (May 21), which is really hard to believe. And Owen (now two and half) has started going to pre-school twice a week for a couple of hours, which he and his mother both very much enjoy. They’re just growing up so fast! I need a moment…I’m all verklempt…..OK, I’m back. There are so many young families at Providence and in our neighborhood that we appreciate and enjoy so much as both boys have made a bunch of friends.


Thank you all for your prayer and support for our family and Providence Church. We would definitely appreciate you to continue to pray for We hope that you will be in continual prayer for Providence as a whole, that is:

1. The lives and families of the church leadership.
2. Growth in numbers so that our staff may be internally and self-funded.
3. That the hearts and minds of our people may be daily transformed by the Gospel moved outward in mission.

But also for our family personally:

1. That as Marcie and I approach our fifth anniversary, we might be more in love and united as one flesh by our sixth anniversary.
2. That Owen and Caleb might come to faith in Christ Jesus as their reconciliation and substitute because of their great rebellion against the High King.
3. That God would move toward people through the relationships that we are making with both Christians and non-Christians alike.

Providence Update

Providence is quickly approaching our fourth month of existence, and God has done more than we could have ever imagined in such a short amount of time. On top of our churchly duties, Marcie has been very much enjoying volunteering weekly at the South Austin Pregnancy Center counseling young women and providing for their physical needs. And Nathan is helping a couple of Campus Crusade staffers with ministry and discipleship to UT athletes.

Our Sunday gathering is growing quickly with an influx of UT students as well as friends, co-workers, and neighbors of our members. As we continually tell people in our church and those who are interested in our church, Providence exists to glorify God through the centrality of the Gospel in all things. This is especially true in the way that we approach Gospel Content, Gospel Community, and Gospel Cause.

Gospel Content is simply that God is saving sinners and making His Kingdom made known on earth. We want to be learners by knowing and understanding the Gospel through the Bible. By Gospel Community, we mean living life together and experiencing transformation, encouragement and accountability. Our Gospel Cause is trying to be obedient in mission toward the city by loving our neighbor and seeking to redeem culture, vocation, families, etc.

Often our tendency can be to emphasize one of these to the neglect of the others, so we are trying to be very mindful and intentional to embrace the fullness of the Gospel as all three. We have created three smaller groups within our church which we are calling Gospel Communities to try to implement and all three of these aspects of the Gospel. Each Gospel Community has 25-30 people who meet monthly for a time of fellowship, encouragement, and prayer (Community). Within those larger groups, we also have smaller groups of 3-4 people which meet weekly to read the Bible or a study together (Content). Then as larger Gospel Communities we are trying to do mission together (Cause). That may look like serving or volunteering somewhere together, but more often is just inviting others from our Gospel Communities into the relationships we already have. So for instance when we have a neighborhood firepit at our house or go to the park after work, we invite several people from our Gospel Community into our mission and vice versa.

We are learning and growing so much daily and thank God that, through your support and prayer for Providence, we are here. Also, we finally have our website up and running which you can find here.