We are part of a city reaching movement focused on the Greater Austin Metro area but resourcing and equipping other like minded city networks in the United States and Europe.
We can describe our ministry in 6 words: Uniting Pastors to Mobilize Members Together. Another way of looking at it is “Trickle-down cohesion” where we promote cohesion among pastors at the macro-level so that eventually we will have cooperation among Christians in the neighborhoods, in the workplaces and anyplace else where they share common space on an ongoing basis with many who do not yet know Jesus.
To achieve this David primarily works in 4 major areas in the Austin-metro area:
1) Pastors In Covenant (PIC) groups
According to surveys done by Barna and Focus on the Family, over 70% of senior pastors do not have close friends in town or someone with whom to confide? So what is a pastor to do when there son gets arrested, their daughter cuts themselves, their wife has a miscarriage, they get a diagnosis for a disabling disease, both parents die unexpectedly within 6 weeks of each other, and the music director decides to come out of the closest? These are not accountability groups in that we don’t share our deepest sins or counseling groups where we solve our deepest problems. Rather, they are a safe place for pastors to process their lives with people who can relate to them. In the groups I’ve started, we have walked with pastors through each of crisis previously mentioned. We currently have over 150 pastors in the Austin metro area involved in monthly groups.
2) Large cooperative efforts
One by-product of the PIC groups has been an increased willingness and desire to work together for the good of Jesus’ kingdom and the city. Since 2013 we have had a number of large cooperative efforts, involving approximately 400 churches each. In 2013 we invited the metro area to explore God by looking at the 7 most googled questions about God and faith. In 2015-2016, we invited the metro area to love where you live and to learn neighboring principles from Jesus. My roles in these efforts have been promotion and alignment. The main benefits derived from these efforts: 1) People do come to faith in Christ through the effort; 2) It raises spiritual awareness in the metro area; and 3) It creates a shared identity among Christians that will eventually enable us to work together in smaller cooperative efforts like neighborhoods and workplaces. We start seeing that the people on “my team” are not just those from my congregation or denomination, but all of those that love and follow Jesus.
3) 3rd Grade Literacy
The large cooperative efforts have only been for a brief season but we have begun a large ongoing effort that now is its 6th year. It is the effort to have every child reading at grade level by the end of 3rd grade. We currently have over 120 churches providing almost 1000 volunteers who spend at least 30 minutes a week reading with children. In the school district where we launched our Education Connection program, 5% more children now read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade.
4) Living on Mission
David’s newest project has been developing a training program for adults called “Living on Mission”, designed to help the every believer start viewing themselves and living intentionally as missionaries. In April 2017 he finished the first field test of the training and the results look promising. A note from one enthusiastic attendee said, “Wow, David. Your lesson was just amazing. It was very inspiring and well delivered. I am really intrigued about your topic. Maybe we can meet and chat. I see God’s prodding that I am off course and need to get back on.”
These 4 areas of effort are very good ministries in and of themselves and they are stepping stones that move us closer to what we hope to see: every believer living on mission in cooperation with other believers who are part of the same common space. Our goal is for every person who doesn’t yet know Jesus to know a community of believers who truly follow Jesus in order to continually see and hear of Jesus’ love for them.