Happy Fall, Friends!

I hope you and yours are well. Here’s our latest:

Personal

Our biggest news happened earlier this week and is certainly worthy of being the featured image above. On Monday, Kade Thomas Austen, grandchild #7, was born. He was 6 lb., 14 oz. and everybody is doing great. “Mimi” Pam got to see him along with his siblings, Emmett and Macy (featured above). Because I was traveling, however, I haven’t even gotten to see him yet. That’s something I hope to remedy this weekend!

Care Net

Here are eight good friends and the Church Engagement team I lead. Three of us are focused on engaging expectant and new fathers, and six of us on engaging the church.

Many churches think nothing of investing time and money to equip a short-term mission team to go and offer compassion, hope, help, and discipleship to those who think differently than they do. What’s more, in preparation for their trip, each team member would receive training to better understand the people group they’d be serving. In a similar way, the idea of planning to end the life of one’s child is a foreign concept to many, reflected in a statement like “I can’t begin to imagine why someone would abort their child.”

That’s why we created Making Life Disciples 2.0, the ministry resource our team promotes across the country. It’s a cross-cultural training to help individuals develop empathy and skills to better reach the abortion-vulnerable—a mission field right in their own community. If interested, you can experience the first session here.

Book

I am still waiting on the final typeset copy of Irreplaceable: Recovering God’s Heart for Dads and you can learn more about the content and launch here. Thanks for waiting patiently with me and I promise you’ll be among the first to know once it’s available for purchase.

Church Plant

According to the Pew Research Center, only 63 percent of people in the United States self-identify as Christians—down from 75 percent ten years ago. It’s trends like this that have inspired me to lead a core group to plant Mantua Creek Church. And in order to better understand the Pew study I just cited— what Russell Moore calls “stealth secularization”, here’s some helpful insight from the ministry Axis:

“Christianity’s share of the religious landscape in the United States may be in decline, but Pew’s data offers a more nuanced picture of what’s actually going on. According to their report, 31 percent of Christians who are raised in the faith grow up and identify as religiously unaffiliated. (Note: This doesn’t mean that they have no religious belief, just that they don’t meet the criteria for being religiously active as defined by Pew). But 21 percent of people raised with no faith affiliation convert to Christianity during their adult lives. That puts the rate of Christian attrition, which Pew calls ‘switching,’ at about ten percent. Over time, that ten percent adds up to a lot fewer practicing Christian families. It’s also worth knowing that in 80 countries where Christianity was once a majority, the percentage of Christians seems to bottom out around 50 percent. These statistics could spell a decline in Christian cultural capital, but we know that doesn’t mean Christianity is less true, less valuable, or less eternal.”

The Culture Translator Premium Vol. 8, Issue 40 | October 7, 2022

Here’s our updated mission statement: “Acknowledging Jesus, the friend of sinners’, call to make disciples, we are building a church community to enjoy the journey together, reconnect those who’ve been disillusioned or hurt by the church, and share the Good News with new friends.”

And here are a few prayer requests:

1. That we would secure our corporate non-profit status by the end of the year.
2. That God would add to and solidify our core group and we would truly be a loving and welcoming community. Right now, there are 18 of us. I wanted to share a fresh pic that included all of us but, recently, someone has been absent due to sickness every time I’ve tried! Tis the season…
3. That God would provide our 2023 financial and pastoral support needs. If our financial support continues at the same level as it has the last two years, we only need to raise 12.5% ($2500) from individual donors for 2023. If you would like to partner with us financially this year, please let me know at gregausten7@gmail.com and you can make a secure online contribution here.
4. That God would give us meaningful interactions with friends and neighbors over the holidays. That God would draw individuals and families to himself through us.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks so much for your prayers and support!