Story
Identity & Values Soil Team Network
2004
The vision began with God birthing a desire in Zac to be a part of a team of Christ-followers, experiencing authentic community, and seeing real kingdom impact both in a city and around the world. The vision for the church began to become clearer. As Zac and Jennie sought counsel and shared the vision with others, they were affirmed that this vision aligned with the biblical purposes of the church. After a six-month search across the United States, from Fort Collins to Washington D.C., God gave Jennie and Zac a peace that the city was Austin . As Zac took exploratory trips to Austin and met with local pastors, he received nothing but encouragement. Each pastor was supportive and acknowledged that Austin does have a huge need for healthy churches.
2005
"The Cause" was a weekend in Austin to share the vision of Austin Bible Fellowship to friends who expressed interest in being a part of the launch team. About 40 people became more familiar with Austin and its culture, along with making some new friends. This was the first physical gathering of Austin Bible Fellowship. Zac and Jennie finished DTS and moved to Little Rock. Zac was given the opportunity to participate in the year-long Church Planting Leadership Residency at Fellowship Bible Church. Regarded by many as the best church planting training program, the Residency is designed to equip church planters with all the wisdom and tools that FBC Little Rock has learned in 25 years of church planting. Austin Bible Fellowship is a church plant of Fellowship Bible Church , Little Rock.
2006
Zac continues to network, cast vision, search for staff team, begins raising support, and continually lives in a state of anticipation as God makes this dream more of a reality. Couples begin moving to Austin, finding jobs, and building relationships. The Allens moved to Austin in July and they began to invite their contacts to a Vision Cast, share the story, and trust that God would begin assembling the right people. They shared with many people their desire to not just gather a group of people to do church, but rather a small band of missionaries who wanted to lock arms and truly be a beneficial presence of Christ in the most influential part of the city. They wanted to be a community where professionals were valued as the top draft picks rather than spectators on the sidelines, where believers could find other believers being authentic about their struggles and intentional about dealing with sin, and where the lost could find an atmosphere of grace and love.
After two Vision Casts in August, thirty adults committed to a 6-week Bible Study at the Allen's house. We used a nearby recreation center for our childcare and weekly shared a meal, prayed for one another, processed through the vision of the church, listened to each other's stories of grace, and studied the Upper Room Discourse. After 6 weeks, these strangers began forming friendships. On Oct 29th, practically the same people who committed to the Bible Study, committed to the Launch Team. The remarkable thing is that nine weeks prior, these people did not know one another, and now they were committing to be in community with one another. That is watching God work!