Who We Are

The Neighborhood Church Collective (NCC) is not THE Church for Austin; rather, we are a collective of churches and missional expressions for the neighborhood. We seek to reveal the ultimate and full reign of Jesus Christ by truly loving and serving our neighbors and neighborhoods. We do this by inspiring disciples-makers to embrace a missional-incarnational posture, equipping them for missionary lifestyle to live a life on mission, and helping leaders pioneer new missional expressions where they live, work, and play.

Each of our missional expressions is a diverse community of believers and friends, united by our love for Jesus and each other, working out what it means to follow Jesus. We believe in the priesthood of all believers, which means there are no spectators. Everyone is a minister with a part to play. We are part of the historic Christian faith and willingly affirm the truth of its creeds.

We desire to be a community of disciples living on mission in order to reveal God’s glory by making disciples. We are committed to living life with gospel-intentional rhythms and choose to be a people who bless others freely, eat in community, listen to the Holy Spirt, learn the life of Jesus, and send each other into mission.

Our Story

While we don’t believe in the division between clergy & laypeople, we do believe that some are called to lead and pioneer missional expressions. Terry and Amy Ishee started NCC in July 2008 in their living room with 6 other people. They wanted to experiment with what the church could look like if it was stripped of its formality and simply focused on loving and serving the neighborhood in which they lived.

The last ten years has been an experiment to foster a missional movement. This collective[TI1] has always maintained its focus on the neighborhood and has had many different incarnations as we have [TI2] tried different ways of gathering with others. At times our expressions were more traditional, but over time they have morphed more into a casual interaction around Scripture with a focus on being sent as missionaries to love and serve our neighborhood and community.

All of our missional expressions work differently with some being highly liturgical with definite orders of service. Some are supper clubs, with neighbors meeting together to discuss important life issues with a spiritual [TI3] focus. Some are just getting started as weekly game nights to build social momentum with a goal of going deeper in sharing life. Because the Church is not a building or a service, but instead it is the people of God who have much variety in what they need, all of our expressions are different and form organically according to the people that participate.

As we continue to start missional expressions in the Austin area, we are actively seeking ways to inspire and equip leaders to pioneer missional expressions around the country. We now have expressions in Texas, Colorado, Florida, and Missouri. If you are interested in pioneering a missional expression or partnering with the Neighborhood Church Collective, you can get involved here.

Our Values

• We value Reconciliation: Reconciliation between God and humankind is at the heart of Christ’s work on the cross. Since reconciliation is so central, it makes sense that it should be a core expression of God’s reign and rule. Reconciliation is between God and humankind, between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, black and white, and Asian and Hispanic, etc. We are to announce reconciliation by championing, describing, explaining, and advocating for it. We must also demonstrate it by being reconciled to others and being brokers of reconciliation among others.
• We value Wholeness: In God’s reign there will be no sickness or disease, no mental illness or depression, nor birth defects or scars. We will be remade whole. It follows, then, that bringing healing and wholeness is a primary way we alert others to God’s reign.
• We value Justice: Justice means more than just the punishment of wrongdoing. It also means giving people their rights. Justice is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care. We are to seek both primary and rectifying justice. Primary Justice is living a life of right relationships in which a person conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity, and equity. Rectifying Justice describes taking up the care and cause of widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor. God’s reign is one of justice and we are called to perform acts of justice to reveal His reign to others.
• We value Beauty: We often feel closest to God in the presence of natural beauty like that around us in nature. More than natural beauty, though, we should commit ourselves to creating beautiful music, art, craft, and food, and inviting others to join us. We are committed to finding ways to alert others to the universal reign of God through Christ by an observation of His creation and by personally fashioning expressions of beauty.

© 2018 Neighborhood Church Collective
info@nccaustin.com | 512-825-3444