Hey Family!

Wow, can you believe how quickly time is passing us by and that we’re already in the spring of 2021?! It’s hard to believe that just about a year ago, we were all beginning to understand that COVID wasn’t going anywhere and we were doing our best to adjust. Despite the chaos, as you reflect over the last year (especially the last quarter) I hope that you find yourself as encouraged as I am! God has been and still is moving, and I’m so honored to be a part of what He is doing in and through us as a church family! I hope as you look over this Impact Report and see the pictures and read the stories, that your heart is moved to worship our King because it’s truly been Him who has been making all this happen. He could do this all on His own and yet He chooses to use us. Isn’t that gracious of Him? I’m so grateful for all of you who have allowed the Lord to use you over this past quarter. Thank you for the ways you serve, the ways you give, the ways you fight for community, the ways you strive for diversity, the ways you exalt Christ, the ways you make disciples, and the ways you partner with us to impact the world all for the glory of God! You belong here and we would not be the same without you. Let’s celebrate, y’all! So much has happened and I know He has so much more in store for us!

Tory Mayo

On January 17th, over 450 of us gathered together to celebrate Jesus through baptisms, worship, and prayer. Not only did we get to see one another—many for the first time in the new year—but we also got to celebrate as 10 of our very own took the next step in their journey of faith to get baptized and proclaim their death with Christ and newness of life in Him!

We also celebrated and prayed over our 80+ Community Group Shepherds, thanking them for all the ways they have shepherded our people throughout 2020. It’s been amazing to see how the Lord continues to draw people to Himself during this season and such an honor as a church family to celebrate all that we have witnessed! He is so faithful, y’all!

Go Ne-Ne!

As we moved into 2021, there was a felt hope on the horizon. As a church family, we wanted to encourage our people to place their hope in the right thing—in the Kingdom and our role in building it. Whether or not things get back to “normal,” we wanted to kick off the new year looking ahead to brighter days—for us as individuals, and for us corporately as a church family.

Nehemiah has been an incredible book for us to walk through together—filled with future hope, exceptional leadership, and sacrificial efforts that pave the way for Israel to become a nation again and, ultimately, the Messiah to come and deliver the world from their sins.

Nehemiah isn’t just about building a wall, though! He is tenacious in building up leaders, confident and trusting in the provision of God, and intentional about calling up individuals into things bigger than themselves and the fruit that will spring forth from within when they are willing to make sacrifices to advance the Kingdom of God.

Squad Goals

Here at The Well, we like to say we don’t find community; we fight for community. We firmly believe that growth is not done in isolation and life is so much better when done together. It’s here that we get to experience God’s beautiful provision and have the opportunity to be a provision for others!

This past quarter, from December to February, God raised up 24 new CG Shepherds, six new CGs, and four new CG Coaches to begin to better care for our CG Shepherds! But we don’t just celebrate the growing—we celebrate the going! We see each CG Shepherd as a potential future church planter, each CG as one step closer to sending people out on mission, and each CG Coach as potential leaders of future churches to come. Our Community Groups continue to remain a beautiful and vibrant part of The Well’s DNA.

If you don’t have a Community Group to call home yet, click here to find one.

New Life, Who Dis?

We know of eight people who chose to give their life to Christ since December while watching the Guided Gathering. God’s ability to save isn’t restricted by meeting from afar!

Please join us in praying for these new believers—that their faith would be established in the Lord, that they would be protected and nurtured by the Body of Christ here at The Well, and that they would fall more in love with God as they grow in their knowledge and fear of Him.

You’re About to Get Schooled

This was a HUGE quarter for The Well’s College Ministry—from building the internal framework of the ministry to seeing the multiplication of College Community Groups! The Lord has accomplished more than what we could have asked for or imagined in this past quarter!

We invite you to pray with us for continued vision as we invest in a movement of reaching the lost on our college campuses, making disciples, and raising up faithful leaders! Here are several highlights from this quarter to celebrate:

• We partnered with UT to get our first Media Intern.

• We became an official organization on the UT campus.

• We raised up four new College Community Group Shepherds.

• We hosted an intentional hang-out with over 35+ college students.

• We established weekly leadership dinners to further equip these students and build community.

• We multiplied College Community Groups from two to three.

• We completed our first major social media project—“Transformed”—a video series where each leader shares their testimony.

Newbies to the Covenant Family

Despite everything going on in our world last year, God has continued to grow our church family and we’re grateful to chase after Christ together with you all! We hosted one Covenant Community Class between December–February and the class filled up quickly—we ended up welcoming a total of 57 new Covenant Members from just that go around!

If you are interested in learning more about what it means to become a Covenant Member at The Well, consider signing up for our next class by clicking here. If you have specific questions, please feel free to contact our Connections Coordinator, Juli Quintero, at juli@thewellaustin.com.

The Well Institute Launch

We are excited to share that The Well Institute (TWI) has launched! You can now take courses offered by Dallas Theological Seminary in Austin, along with Well-hosted classes. Our heart behind this opportunity is to help further equip each believer for the works of the ministry where they are in hopes that they would find their place in the story of God and serve passionately there, ultimately growing into the fullness of Christ.

Participants are able to audit a class or obtain credit towards their DTS degree or certificate. This is a monumental partnership for The Well that we pray will bear much fruit for the Kingdom. If you are interested in learning more, click here or email Adam Watson at adam@thewellaustin.com.

Residents Who Aren’t Evil

The Well Austin Residency Program will officially launch on August 1, 2021, and we’ve been getting ready for it all quarter! This two-year educational and ministry leadership program is designed for post-baccalaureate men and women who desire to explore vocational ministry in a local church setting, discover and hone their spiritual gifts, develop practical ministry skills, and learn the fundamentals of biblical theology.

We had the honor of interviewing and selecting five residents for this program during this quarter! Some will serve in our Missions Ministry and others in our College Ministry. Please pray for these residents as they take this step of faith by entering into a season of support raising before coming on board!

Living on Mission

As we reflect on this past quarter, we feel like we’ve seen our heart for missions and outreach only increase! Many of our classes over the last few months have been geared toward missions—whether that is Disciple-Making Intensives or training on how to evangelize to our Muslim neighbors. We want to be a sending church that is impacting the world, and we are excited to continue moving in that direction.

Here are several highlights from this quarter to celebrate:

• We launched four Disciple-Making Intensives.

• We partnered with the 100 UPG Cooperative in an effort to partner with other churches to plant churches that reach unreached people groups.

• We held a class focusing on training our people how to love and understand our Muslim neighbors.

• We funded the start-up fees for an apartment in Barcelona where several displaced young men from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds have been brought in and introduced to Christ by a group of our missionaries ministering there.

• Two girls were baptized in Barcelona.

Get Yo Planting On!

Our current church planters, Juhan and Christine Kim, are gearing up to be sent out next year to plant their first church in the Domain. They have already begun forming a core launch team, holding interest meetings, and finalizing the Sunday gathering location. We’re excited to see what God does in them and through them and are honored to prepare and support them during this time.

The Family That Serves Together…

We want to be a family that not only serves the church but also serves the city. One of the ways we’ve begun doing this is through the Missions Liaisons of our Community Groups.

Many of them partnered with The Source Pregnancy Center this winter to provide Christmas gifts to the families in their program. Others provided meals and shelter for each other, co-workers, etc. during the recent snowpocalypse in February.

We would love to highlight the unique ways God is mobilizing your CG specifically to serve Austin! Let us know by emailing photos of your group serving to our Communications Director, Stephanie Thompson, at stephanie@thewellaustin.com.

As we continue to move through the challenges of a global pandemic, we are continually being reminded of God’s blessing and favor for the Well. We have seen this in a number of ways during this season and especially through the provision of your faithful financial support. At a time when a number of churches are experiencing shortfalls in giving and having to reduce ministries, your tithing has continued and grown beyond levels seen before the Covid shut-down. This has allowed us to continue to press into our vision, minister to an increasing number of members and attenders, and provide financial support to people who reached out to us during Covid. God is good indeed! You can see God’s incredible provision in our Q2 financial update. We were forecasting tithes and offerings to be less than expenses, creating a slight deficit for the quarter. However, actual giving was in excess of the forecast, and because of cost savings associated with not being able to gather, and other stewardship efforts, expenses came in under budget. The outcome has allowed us to be generous to those in need through our benevolence efforts, give more than planned to our missions and church planting efforts, increase our reserves, and give us the opportunity to allocate those resources along with any additional funds raised for the future acquisition of a permanent church home. Your generosity through your faith and trust in God’s provision has made all of this possible. As we celebrate God’s care and love for us, we are humbled by your generosity knowing the sacrifices you are making to support The Well. As we move into and through the next quarter, I invite you to continue to pray with us that God would continue to use The Well in mighty ways to push back darkness in the city of Austin, our nation, and around the world for the glory of our savior Jesus Christ.