is the same at each congregation , but worship leaders have freedom to discern what songs and liturgy are best week-to-week . We gather as a worship team every Wednesday for a few hours of prayer , vision , worship , and logistics . It ’ s one of my favorite times of every week , because they are my favorite people on the planet .
[ WM ] Kyle , you guys seem intentional in building a songwriting culture there at Austin Stone . Tell us about that and also about the songwriting retreats you hold ?
[ Kyle ] We truly believe that there could never be enough songs written , in any genre or language , about the gift of the gospel through Jesus , so we are constantly writing and asking Him for even more songs and even more things to sing for Him to be glorified . To that end , Aaron has done an amazing job of building a culture on collaboration and songwriting . We try and do a couple of songwriting retreats each year ( well , 2020 notwithstanding !), and we focus on asking the Lord to give us wisdom into what our church needs to be singing . We only focus on our writing for our church , and what we need to be singing as a body , and trust that if it is helpful at our churches , that ’ s an extra grace of God . Our retreats are really simple : a devotional in the morning , and then free time to connect with other team members and see if something comes out .
[ WM ] Aaron , each church in the U . S . and actually around the world is approaching COVID 19 ’ s unique set of challenges differently . How are you currently presenting your times of worship for your various church venues ?
[ Aaron ] I think God has been very kind to strip away some of the unnecessary things that we ’ ve all done to make “ church ” more complex than it needs to be . In His kindness , He has removed some of our old habits , strategies , and apathy to wake us up to what ’ s always been true : The Church doesn ’ t need a bunch of stuff and strategies , just a heart to worship and follow Jesus and spread His gospel to everyone around us .
We moved to an online service during the intense season of quarantine in Austin , but now that things have loosened up a bit , we offer indoor services ( socially distanced ), outdoor services , and the online service . We did that to accommodate the wide range of people ’ s comfortability , keeping in mind that many people are not ready to attend an indoor church service yet . We ’ ve also simplified small groups , moved discipleship classes to Zoom , and have spent more intentional time connecting with people through phone calls , personal texts , and online gatherings . Strangely , we ’ ve seen many new people connect to our church , salvations and baptisms , and I believe we are on the cusp