Summer greetings ONEchapel friends!
Austin is one hot place! The whole Parsley family is enjoying our first, humid summer of central Texas and we’ve come to realize we’re not in Colorado any more! Austin has been experiencing the after effects of hurricane Alex and so the rainy, muggy-ness of summer descended upon us for the July 4th weekend. We hosted sixty or seventy people at our house for a barbecue and the sun finally broke through for a beautiful day of fun, food and fireworks!
ONEchapel continues to experience the forward momentum of God’s goodness and grace as we speed towards our September 12th Launch Sunday Service. The growing anticipation of what God has planned and the love for a new city continue to rise in our hearts as we see all of the provision coming together to expand God’s kingdom in Austin, TX.
THE LAUNCH TEAM
Since just after Easter, we have been gathering weekly with a core group to discuss values, priorities and responsibilities. The crazy thing is that new people show up every week who have heard that we are meeting and starting a church. Every meeting is filled with lots of discussions, worship, joy and wonderment. Sometimes it feels like we’re building the ship while we’re sailing in the water, but we are enjoying the journey immensely. Launch Sunday is still more than two months away but we are already functioning as a church that is caring for one another and growing in relationship. Last week we had 109 people at our Launch Team meeting. God is good!
MEETING IN A BAPTIST CHURCH
In May, we began meeting at Manchaca Baptist Church due to the gracious hospitality of Larry Foster and the family of believers at Manchaca (pronounced man-check) Baptist Church. Early on we realized that we weren’t going to have a home to meet in that was big enough, so this was an incredible blessing to us. We are meeting in their youth room upstairs above the kitchen and the gymnasium. The concrete floor and metal roof make worship loud and energetic. I love it and feel as though we are enjoying the favor of God as we partner with this loving church to reach southwest Austin.
OUR NEXT VENUE
We’re all looking forward to our launch service on September 12th when we will begin our Sunday morning schedule. We are just about to pull the trigger on meeting in a movie theatre in a fantastic location in southwest Austin. It’s located in a beautiful mall and seats about 350 in the main theatre. We would rent three theatres for children and youth. We still haven’t signed on the dotted line, but we feel good about the opportunity. Pray that God will continue to lead us to the perfect venue to start ONEchapel.
THE PARSLEYS ARE FINALLY IN A HOME
As many of you know, since March our family had been living with Aimee’s mom in New Braunfels while transitioning from Colorado Springs to Austin. The 45-minute commute started to wear on us because we had a very difficult time securing a rental house for some crazy reasons that I won’t take time to tell you all about. We feel that it was all part of our fight to get our feet “on the ground” in Austin. So, after trying to rent 5 different houses, on June 15th, we finally moved into our home for the next year or two, right across the street from the elementary school where Gracie, Ethan and, ultimately, Owen will be going. We had tons of help on moving day and unloaded three PODS in two hours! Sadly, we’re still unpacking…
We were challenged by this process of getting into a house and felt a little like the Israelites who saw incredible miracles and blessing in leaving Egypt, but when they arrived at the Promised Land, they needed to fight the giants. God was giving them the land, but only one victory and battle at a time! Leaving Colorado was blessed…but now we’re fighting for the Promised Land that God wants to give us. Pray that we will fight with more courage and boldness!
THE COLORADO PIPELINE CONTINUES
We are blessed to have many who have made the leap with us in coming to Austin. Brent and Maria Parsley are now settled in Austin as are Spero and Jennifer Stavros and their family. Landon Arnold, Bob Howard, Pam Cosell, Scott and Genee White, Tim Anquiano, Gabe Northway, Daniel Rojas, Nathan and Shannon Emert, Dan and Kristine Elzy, Loren and Missy Eidahl, and a few others have joined us in this great church planting effort. We are grateful for their faith and the adventurous spirit that each of them has to join us on this journey. The only problem has been that I’ve done five family moves in the last 2 ½ weeks and I am way too old for that!
We’re also excited to see many families here on the ground in Austin (Austin-ites) who have made ONEchapel their church. God is adding wonderful people to our core, many are strong believers and some are still seeking but we’re starting to feel like family. We’re still on a good track to see 100 households by our launch date!
THE FINANCIAL UPDATE
We have been supported by so many who have given to the vision of ONEchapel over the last several months. In addition, New Life Church has blessed us with an awesome start up gift that we will soon use to help purchase sound equipment, children’s curriculum, direct mail marketing and outreach events, as well as other necessary start up items for the church. We also have a large gift coming from Gateway Church in Dallas, TX as well as an interest free loan from the ARC, our church-planting agency (www.relatedchurches.com). Our people here on the ground at ONEchapel in Austin have started giving, and we are well on our way to reaching our financial goals for start-up (see our first year budget line items at by clicking on our Launch Site button on the top right of this page).
We are now in the last month of our own personal support from New Life Church, and I continue to raise support for the first year of salary for our own family as well as ONEchapel. God has provided several speaking opportunities and partnerships to help us make it through our first year. We trust God to take care of us and we believe we are in His hands. If you want to contribute financially and help us during this first year of launching ONEchapel, CLICK HERE!
MANY OPPORTUNITIES COMING
Looking back on our journey and what has happened since we arrived here in Austin, I’ve been amazed at how the Lord works and puts everything together for his own purposes. I’ve had the privilege to connect with some pastors here in the city as well as some wonderful city outreach ministries. I’ve prayed with people in coffee shops, taco shops, restaurants and more. I’ve been able to lead people to Christ and had discussions with others about their doubts and failures. I’ve listened as some have described their wounded-ness from their church experiences and challenged others to be more courageous with their faith.
I have been personally challenged by the idea that we need to be able to open a dialogue with people about God that is neither overly simplistic, nor confrontational; but instead, thoughtful, articulate and loving. It’s not that the conversation will convert them, but especially in Austin, this kind of discussion will open the door to relationship, respect and ultimately the Spirit of God drawing them to Him. Jesus changes their hearts and transforms their lives, we just have to be ready to see the opportunities all around us and be willing to engage them in honest, loving, trustworthy dialogue. This is where we’re headed. This is why ONEchapel is here.
Pray for us to see the opportunities and to seize them with boldness!
Thank you for praying and supporting us!
Ross and Aimee Parsley
ONEchapel Austin, TX
4th of July was a blast. Thanks to everyone who came over to the Parsley house for food, fun and fireworks. We made some great memories that night.
