Service

I love my Jesus. He is my all. He sustains me. Challenges me. He is my comfort. I daily want to grow closer to Him and desperately want the same for my kids. Thus, heartfelt worship, strong Biblical teaching, and meaningful fellowship is core to the church my husband and I call home. Though many churches may fit this bill, we personally also have to feel led by God to choose a church. So, that has taken us on interesting journeys of how we find our church homes.

 

When I was single, God led me with many of my dearest friends to help start a new church in Forney, Tx of 200 people. From the beginning, I was on the leadership team and oversaw the Sunday Morning Kids’ church. That church now has 5 campuses and thousands of members at each campus. I am still in touch with the pastors there and am blown away by the growth. This church is Community Life Church. This was the first church where Jason and I first started serving God and the Kingdom as a newly married couple.

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When we were called to California for Grad School and into the film industry, we found a church that was very diverse. Members spanned from homeless people to millionaires, though it was only a couple hundred people. We loved it. It was called Redemption Church. It was hosted at a recreation center in a park near the beach and immediately felt like home. We soon joined and within months, we were invited to serve as Deacons. We served as Deacons to that church for 3 years and made many great friends that we still have to this day.

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Once we were called to move from Huntington Beach, CA to Abilene, (a great God story if you want to read it click here)we lived with my parents for our first two years in Abilene. Talk about a leap of faith! ;-)  During that time, we went back and forth to California for much of the first two years at ACU. When in California, we attended our church there as we were very fond of it. In our move to Texas, Jason felt led to start a faith-affirming, filmmaking collective in Dallas with our life-long friends there. These long-time Dallas friends consisted of film directors, screenwriters, and producers. So, many weekends he was gone growing that group of men in their relationships, faith, and film careers. When we were in Abilene and not in California or Dallas, we would go with my parents to Southside Baptist for some time of worship and fellowship with my parents.

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With Covid in 2020, Jason’s obedience in starting the film collective allowed God to turn that group of men and their families into our church! What foresight from the Lord! It was an incredible time. During that stressful year, we had a very strong group of friends that met online every Sunday morning. We didn’t miss a Sunday for a year. We would watch Matt Chandler online (pastor of The Village Church) and then zoom with our friends to discuss the sermon, our lives, and pray together. It was truly a very faith-affirming season to have people to share life with during that tumultuous year. We really saw how God meant for that film collective to become an even stronger group of faithful friends and families.  To this day, we still lean on each other for prayer, praises, concerns, help, and accountability. We keep these relationships forefront in our lives due to their importance, so we travel to Dallas once or twice every couple of months and fellowship, pray, and attend church together.  It is truly more of a “First Century” type model of church in this way as we do pray, share, and talk to each other daily. Praise the Lord for modern communication technology that makes this possible!

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We came to call this loving group of people our “Film Fam.” (see picture below)

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                (Christmas fellowship/get together in 2020)

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Out of these relationships our most recent film "Matter of Time" originated and was made. Amazing to look back and see how listening and obeying created a truly blessed fellowship from the Lord!

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Another aspect of our lifestyle that is non-traditional to many people in Abilene, is that my husband and I make films and create content for the kingdom of God outside of my work at ACU.  This takes a lot of weekends away, travelling to keep up relationships in California, and working outside of town.  Recently, making our latest feature film "Matter of Time", I was gone for 4 weeks. My husband was gone for 6 weeks and many weeks and weekends leading up to it for pre-production work. We love our unique lifestyle but it makes regular Sunday attendance in Abilene quite a challenge!

Our “weekly” online church fellowship with the “Film Fam” lasted until in-person services began again.  On the weekends we were in Abilene, we looked for a church locally. We visited The Well, Beltway, Pioneer Baptist, Southside Baptist, and several other smaller churches around town.  There were Sundays when two different churches were visited on a Sunday so we could check more out. With travel being very much part of our work and relationships, it lead us to try a different day of the week for church… Thursday!

 

We learned of Beltway’s North Campus and its first service of the week is on Thursday evenings. We began attending their Thursday service. We enjoy the worship, we have several friends who attend there, our kids have friends there, and the Lord spoke to both of us through the sermons. Not to say that other churches we attended God was not speaking, but we felt it a confirmation for my husband and I that He spoke to both of us separately when attending these services on Thursday night. It also fits into our busy, sometimes upside-down weekends of travelling, doing Airbnbs, or working on films on the weekends. However, we are consistently in town on Thursdays. It was so encouraging to know we had found a service where God did speak to us individually. We want to hear from the Lord in all of our decisions, so we felt very affirmed in that moment that He had helped us find a new place of worship. For us and our kids to learn, grow, and give.

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Attending the Thursday night services at Beltway North led us to join the church. The membership process is three classes and we are glad to be a part of this journey with this group of believers. We still maintain our deep “First Century” lifestyle with our life-long friends in Dallas and California, but we are also now grateful to have an avenue to be challenged and give more consistently in Abilene as well.

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Being new to the church, we will continue to listen to the Lord on where he wants us to serve specifically and in His timing.  We know He will use us best when we listen to Him and so we look forward to what God is going to do outside of the other areas He is already using us at home, school, and work.

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I am grateful to have such a journey with God’s Church over so many years, cities, states, and phases of life. Having deep fellowship with other believers, hearing Biblical teachings, and listening to how God wants me to serve has been such a wonderful, life-sustaining adventure for me.  I will have so many friends in Heaven to stand and worship with from all throughout my life and the different churches God has called us to. I am grateful for every phase, place, and church we have called home. I can’t wait to see what else He has in store and how He will use us and grow us.