Soma Austin Community Church | Austin, TX

• Jacob Vanhorn
• Apr 1, 2010
• Series: Church Profiles
• Categories: Church Planting Articles

Briefly describe your story of your call to plant a church 

After 28 years of living as an agnostic who wished he was an atheist, the brokenness of my life and the reality of Jesus Christ became overwhelming. After studying the costs of Christianity in reading Mere Christianity by CS Lewis and The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer I realized what I had intuitively known already, that God was glorious and the fullness of my Christian life would be devoted to showing His glory. I knew early on that I would spend my life declaring and demonstrating the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 Several years later after joining The Village Church in the Dallas area, I went on staff as the College & Singles Pastor. It was while there that my heart for starting a new church planting work began to grow. That seed led me and my family to Austin to start Soma Austin and see people in Austin grow to love Jesus.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)? 

Our biggest challenge is the post-Christian context that we are planting in. While still being in the middle of Texas, South/Central Austin is largely resistant to Jesus, Christians and to claims about the truth of the gospel. There are sociological, philosophical and theological reasons for this. All of them come together to contribute to what is largely believed to be a 90-95% unchurched rate in the South/Central Austin area. There is hope. We believe that they have not necessarily rejected Jesus, because we don't think they even tried him. Our hope is to introduce them to Jesus for perhaps the first time.

What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant? 

If your wrestling with the decision to plant, ask the Holy Spirit for confirmation, seek wise counsel from others who love your holiness more than your happiness and be assessed by a legit church planting organization. But first read John 15. Ask whether you are actually abiding in Christ, seeking the Helpers help and aware of the costs. Or are you just thinking you can plant a better church than someone else. If your not abiding in Christ, seeking the Helper's help and examining the cost, you will try to plant a church and cause all kinds of damage to you, your family and others. Don't plant a church for your identity as a church planter, make sure your identity is in Christ and plant because He told you to and to do anything else would be disobedient.

How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network? 

While on staff at The Village Church, they joined Acts 29 as an existing church and committed themselves to church planting. This began my exposure to Acts 29 and I grew to love and appreciate Acts 29's theological distinctives and it's leadership culture. The biggest benefit to the Acts 29 partnership was the planter assessment process and the ongoing brotherhood in the network. When you see other Acts 29 planters it is like old friends pretty quick.

How do you pastor your family? 

With my bride, my primary goal is to keep Jesus in focus and to protect oneness between us. They enemy longs to drive wedges between relationships, so I try to be aware of when something is threatening our oneness. Further, I pastor my bride by serving her and bearing the brunt of life for her.

My children are 2 and 4 years old, and we regularly read The Jesus Storybook Bible together, pray together and laugh together. The primary thing I try to do with my children is instill a sense of love and trust in them. They don't totally understand complicated truths when they are very young, but they do feel love and a building up of trust. One day soon I am going to have incredible truths to share with them, and I want them to trust their daddy and know he loves them.

Outside of the Bible, what is the most helpful book you have read for church planting?

Redeemer Church Planting Manual

Church Profile: Soma Austin Community Church
Launch Date: April, 2009
Location: Austin, TX    

Mission, Vision, Values of the Church

Our mission is to glorify God by renewing people and communities by declaring and demonstrating the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our confession is Jesus is Lord and our belief is that Jesus changes everything. Core values include the Gospel, Worship, Design, Community, Truth and Renewal.

What is your biblical perspective on authentic community, and evangelism? How is this practically seen in your church? 

Authentic Christian community has it's foundation in that as sons and daughters of God we are the family of God. As family, we love one another, serve one another and live our lives with one another in Christian unity. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be one, unified, and that by that Jesus would be made known. Our unity is a gospel declaration and demonstration. We add to that our proclamation of the Jesus, showing others who He is by word and deed.

Practically this is seen in our church through networks of relationships in our Soma Groups, our primary contexts for biblical community. We dig down deep in one anothers lives through discipleship groups, 2-4 people walking more closely with one another.

What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church? 

To testify to all of God's grace at Soma Austin would take many more pages than are available here. In short, we have been incredibly blessed to see many people experiencing grace and renewal. We have seen those who were living wandering lives, turn to Jesus and they are now discipling others. We have seen people experiencing freedom from addictions through the gospel. God has also been gracious to us in allowing us to develop great relationships with networks and organizations in the city through service. Through the generosity of our members we have been able to help other church plants get started, provide emergency relief for Pakistani Christians, provide Haitian relief funds and buy land for a church in Zambia to build a church and school. In 2009 this small church gave well over $40,000 away for reneal and already in 2010 we have given away over $25,000 through the generosity of our members. Our people continue to grow in letting go of the comforts of this world to see others find renewal.