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.