Church Family!
What a first half of the fiscal year we’ve had as a church! I’m honestly so encouraged and excited about what God is doing in and through our Body, and I hope that you are too! We spent virtually the entire fall thinking about discipleship, and I’ve tangibly seen a major impact already in the way that we’re loving and pouring into each other. We had our largest Celebration Sunday ever, followed just a few weeks later by another one filled with beautiful testimonies about what God is doing, and how He is saving and delivering! Praise God! We, after 18 months of searching, have a Worship Director to continue to lead, guide, shepherd, disciple, and encourage us in the worship of God. We’re fully geared up to send Travis with a healthy core team to launch another church! We had full Men’s and Women’s Retreats with many relationships forming and growing through these. We could go on with celebrations, but you’ll read many more of them below!
The thing I’m most encouraged by though is God’s faithfulness. God is good. So good. He has been moving in individuals in beautiful ways. It is not rare that after church on a Sunday, or as I’m visiting a CG during the week, or as I’m hearing stories through our Staff Team in their care or discipleship meetings, that the general sense amongst people is that God is moving in their lives, significantly. Even in the midst of hardship for some, it seems that God is tangibly at work. God does NOT have to choose to be active in our church. Yet He is acting, and continuing to build this beautiful church in this city. For that, I am so grateful. And so many of you are very clearly and actively a part of it. The most consistent reframe that I get from visitors is that our people are faithful, active, and that God’s presence is rich amongst us. Praise God. This is His graciousness towards us.
I’m excited for you to be reminded of what God has done. I would encourage you, please, read this report! It is an act of remembrance, something God commands His people of often so that they can see God’s faithfulness at work. As you read this, remind yourself that you’re a part of what you read. That as we discussed in Ezra and Titus, what we’re doing, what you’re doing matters. Be encouraged at how God has used your sacrifices, big and small, to make much of His name.
I love you all. Thank you for partnering with us to make much of Jesus here in this church.
Tory Mayo
Sunday
Reflections
It’s incredible to think that again and again we have dedicated time to share in an abundance of celebration with our church body all that the Lord is doing among our people through our Celebration Sundays. Celebration Sundays are a time that The Well is able to corporately celebrate the growth and redemption the Lord has worked out and is continuing to work out in our people. In this last half of our Fiscal Year, we have had the privilege of having two Celebration Sundays, one in September and one in November.
Between these two Sundays, we witnessed 33 baptisms, 15 children dedications, 102 new Covenant Members, and multiple new Community Groups and Shepherds. That is so much to celebrate and thank the Lord for! Thank you Lord that you are making all things new and that we get to witness a portion of it on our Celebration Sundays.
One of the most powerful parts of these days is when, before being baptized, individuals take a few minutes to share their testimonies with the church body. These are incredible stories that scream the Lord’s redemption, kindness, and care for his people. During the past two Celebration Sundays, there were multiple stories shared of individuals being redeemed from addiction. We also had three children, 10 and under, be baptized!
Celebration Sundays continue to be a powerful reminder of the Lord’s deep care for the complete redemption of our souls. As one individual said during their testimony, “he allowed my heart to break so he could put it back together so that I may understand who he is and his redeeming power”.
College
Ministry
Every fall we survey students at UT in order to learn about their spiritual backgrounds and connect with them to share the gospel. Last year we surveyed 512 students and this year we surveyed 1,186 in a quarter of the time! So far out of this effort, we’ve really built relationships with ten of them and one came to Christ and is ready to be baptized! In connecting students to the local church, we’ve seen an 8% rise in students becoming covenant members, and we saw 18 students attend our men’s and women’s retreats. In the last few weeks we’ve seen a number of non-believing students come to visit The Well on a Sunday, and they loved it! On top of all that, in our last few Celebration Sundays, we’ve seen college students get baptized at every one!
Our prayer for this semester is that we would gain a deeper foothold amongst students who don’t know Jesus and that he would soften their hearts to the beauty of the gospel. We’re also praying that we would see an increased urgency amongst college students to connect with the church as the Body of Christ and that they would feel a need to enter into discipleship relationships.
Students and Kids Ministry
“I think we need to plant a thousand!” said Peyton, when her teachers in Well Kids were sharing with the class about our Mission and Vision of planting 100 churches nationally and 100 churches internationally. It has been an incredibly rewarding quarter in Well Kids. Some major highlights being, we saw 3 kiddos get baptized, we expanded classrooms to make room for new friends and family, and we hosted our first Family Movie Night to celebrate the greatest gift of all, Jesus. Our kids have really been impacted by our new curriculum that we rolled out this fall from The Gospel Project. Conversations about Jesus happen each and every week in all of our classrooms and kids are recognizing Christ in every text we go through, and watching their friends give their lives to Christ and being baptized has been a topic of conversation over and over. We have to give a huge shout out to our Community Groups for showing up and showing out at Trunk or Treat! That was a huge success and blessing to bring all our families together, and to give back to our favorite ministries in town. Overall, the Lord continues to bless our Ministry in Well Kids.
Student ministry has seen the Lord move in so many ways this year. We continue to meet Sunday mornings during the second gathering and have welcomed our new class of 6th graders to our group. We continue to grow in our knowledge of the Lord and his great love for us. We got to celebrate another student baptism at our latest celebration Sunday and could not be happier about what God is doing with our students.
Let’s continue to pray for more Eastside students to come to know Jesus and that many would come to our Student Retreat in April!
Missions Update
The Lord has been moving in power through Missions at The Well this past year through inviting His people to share in His heart for the Nations and vision for the Great Commission. Our desire is to create a culture at The Well where the people of God feel confident to live sent lives out of their identity in Christ in the city of Austin and around the globe.
Our Missions Ministry has now established a full team, including a Missions Director, Missions Coordinator, and 3 Mobilizers from Launch Global. This Fall, in collaboration with Launch Global, we launched our Goer Missional Community group with four committed participants. These individuals have devoted nine months to intentionally walking with the community, exploring God’s calling on their lives for long-term overseas missions.
In addition, we had 10 people participate in the Mission of God class for 10 weeks in partnership with The Austin Stone. Throughout the course, learning from the Scriptures and speakers from across the country, students were able to move from awareness and exploration to passion and conviction as they explored God’s heart to redeem people from every tongue, tribe and nation to Himself with practical applications to take next steps.
Moreover, we have successfully deployed two women overseas to join teams engaged in church planting efforts in the Middle East, and presently, we have four individuals in the pipeline preparing for launch in the Spring of 2024.
Furthermore, we had 33 people attend our Short-term Trip Interest Meeting and take next steps to discover God’s calling on their lives to go to the Nations and gain exposure through going on a short-term trip with The Well.
Lastly, we hosted our Fall Worship Night alongside our college ministry, where close to 150 people gathered at Eastside to worship. The Lord moved in beautiful ways as he intimately engaged with His people.
Pray that God would raise up leaders to step into international church planting and a desire to walk in obedience to where the Spirit is leading them. Pray that God would stir a zeal in the hearts of our people to see lost souls set free by the name of Jesus. Pray that God would continue to lead and guide those in our pipeline to where He is calling them to go. Pray for all of the initiatives that will be set into motion coming in 2024; Disciple Making Intensive Groups, Short-term Trips, One Place Ambassadors, and Goer Missional Community Groups, for the participants and leaders to abide deeply in Christ as they learn and grow and that through all of these opportunities they would fall deeper in love with Jesus.
Community Groups
Nearly 30 neighborhoods across the city of Austin have one of our Community Groups (CGs) meeting in their midst each week, representing nearly 700 people. Let that sink in! As we participate with each other in the community God has so graciously gifted to us, we are further blessed and refreshed in the Lord (Psalm 133)- what a benevolent Father!
We saw the truth of this psalm lived out so vividly in our CGs over the past six months. Most notably we saw a growth in Covenant Members taking part in a CG (86% of all of our CMs, that’s a 16% increase from 2022!!). We believe wholeheartedly that spiritual growth does not happen in isolation, so we are especially thankful for all the ways God has called many within our church family to pursue Christ in community! Be encouraged!
There have been many stories within our CGs of God’s faithfulness to individuals and families as we live life together from week-to-week. So many examples of groups rallying around those in need of prayer, friendship and care, biblical discipleship, and material support – all of which, the Lord continued to answer and deliver through our people, to our people! As a church, we also desire to bless those around us just as much. Several of our CGs incorporated regular weekly rhythms to care for and reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And to inspire even more of our groups to live missionally each day, we introduced a new role in CGs: One Place Ambassadors!
We love this community so deeply, and desire to cultivate spiritual flourishing for groups, and individuals, to the glory of God. Therefore, we launched a two-part CG Shepherd Development track for the first time. This includes a 3-part class, and 4-part Cohort with training tailored to building up new Shepherds. Since launching this summer we have had 46 women and men participate, ultimately welcoming 12 new Shepherds and allowing us to multiply 3 new CGs!
Let us together praise God for his very tangible presence within our Community Groups, and ask that His Spirit lead us into greater humility and intimacy with Jesus Christ as we continue to pursue life in community!
Serve Austin
The Well staff collaborated with the principal at Eastside High School to provide a Thanksgiving meal for the faculty. The event was organized to boost the morale of the staff, and this is the second year that the school has approached our staff for assistance. The principal fried the turkeys in the courtyard while we carved 12 and served meals to over 90 people. Our lead pastor, Tory, volunteered to be the barista and made lattes, americanos, and other special order coffees.
We recently introduced the "One Place Ambassador" to the CG Shepherds. The term "one place" refers to a location within the community where people naturally live, work, or engage in recreational activities. This new position aims to encourage CGs (Community Groups) to not only have a "One Place" where they can serve as a group, but also to encourage every individual in CGs to have their "One Place" to build relationships that lead to sharing their faith. The One Place Ambassador role will replace the current mission liaison role in CGs and was introduced during our last CG shepherd training.
In December, we held our second annual Giving Tree event at Eastside High School. The event was organized to help 178 students who were identified as being well below the poverty line or in a homeless situation. These students had aged out of the typical child gift distributions, so we decided to meet that need. Our CGs came together to shop, wrap, and deliver gifts to the school. Finally, we hosted a Christmas party where over 100 families and 25 from The Well signed up to join us. At the event, gifts were exchanged, and it was a very encouraging experience for the families and Eastside High School. To date, this was the largest gathering of families the school has ever sponsored, aside from a sporting event.
CG Serving Spotlights!
Our Weber East CG serves with Mobile Loaves and Fishes once per month as an entire group. They get together and realized the best way to serve them was to be a constant and trusted partner. Through their consistent presence and proximity, Mobile Loaves and Fishes have come to not only expect to see them each month, but lean on them for the influence they make on the Community First Village.
Our Spicewood Springs CG have also begun serving recent refugees through an organization called “‘More Than Welcome”, and our church has also also been able to give them a grant to match funds they collected to provide some needed financial funding.
Financial
Update
The second quarter of our fiscal year came to a close at the end of February and I am truly overwhelmed by your increased generosity to support and bless our church! As we look ahead to the second half of this fiscal year, we are in a very stable financial position allowing us to prayerfully seek ways to use your generosity to continue to push back darkness in our city and bless the community God has given us in East Austin and at Eastside Early College.
In Q1 (Sept.- Nov.), we went against our financial reserves in the amount of ~$90,000 in order to meet our operating expenses, which we had prepared for. Throughout Q2 (Dec.- Feb.) we saw a significant increase in generous giving and we were able to make up that shortfall and add an additional (~66,000) to our unrestricted reserves making it $677,700. Our expected expenses for the last quarter were $599,834 and our actual expenses were $594,950 (detailed in the chart below) which also worked against the shortfall from Q1.
This is a huge answer to prayer and a very tangible representation of the faithfulness of God as well as a direct response from each of you to provide for our financial needs. Thank you! Thank you for supporting your church and for living out generosity as worship. As we look ahead to Q3, we will continue to be good stewards of the resources the Lord has given us through you while making much of Jesus! We have much to celebrate!
Chandler Miner
Operations Director
chandler@thewellaustin.com
| Giving | $793,036 | |
| Expenses | Budget | Actual |
| Staffing | $342,184 | $321,497 |
| Administration | $14,698 | $17,950 |
| Facilities | $89,912 | $84,472 |
| Ministries | $61,717 | $53,200 |
| Mission and Church Planting* | $91,323 | $117,828 |
| Total | $599,834 | $594,947 |
| Current Position | ||
| YTD Expenses | $1,214,825 | |
| YTD Contributions | $1,370,634 |
*this number is a percentage of actual giving