This is a sermon from North Village Church’s 17th Anniversary: Ephesians 4:11-16, “Biblical Shepherding.” September 13, 2026.
17-years ago, North Village Church began in a home in north central Austin around the Domain with a simple belief: when people experience the power of Jesus personally, they can’t help but want others to experience the power of Jesus. Amen? This is what we’ve been leaning into the last few months. Men and women experiencing the power of Jesus… people coming to faith in Jesus, getting stronger in God’s Word, growing in prayer, turning from the allure of this world and giving their life to Jesus, so that it stirs our hearts to take an interest in others! That’s it!
When North Village Church started, there were 17 adults sitting in the living room of our house and we had some of the same energy.Men and women in awe of Jesus, so that it moves us invite others to experience the awe of Jesus. That’s why we exist as a church family!
North Village Church is a family who places Jesus at the center of our lives so that it moves us to chase after every man, woman, and child in Greater Austin to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ.
Jesus at the center of our lives, relationships with one another, so that it moves us to invite others to do the same! It was never about a building. It was never about a polished plan. It’s always been about Jesus, our relationships with each other, and a conviction that Jesus changes lives. 17-years later it hasn’t changed! We’ve met in different places, we’ve seen people come and go, walked through joyful seasons and hard seasons, but most of all, it’s the Lord who provides and it’s the Lord who gets all the glory. Amen? Therefore, the question we need to be asking today is, “What does it look like for us to live out that vision in this season?”
What does it look like to live out that vision today?”
Because anniversaries are not only a time to look back. Anniversaries are also a time to ask, “What does it look like for the people in this room to own that vision today?” Because I think the Lord is doing something pretty special with the men and women in this room today. We’ve experienced some uncertainty and somehow, that uncertainty has drawn us closer to the Lord and closer to one another. That’s weird!
We had to remove a staff member and somehow it drawn us closer to the Lord and closer to one another. We’ve had to make hard financial decisions and somehow it drawn us closer to the Lord and closer to one another.
What does it look like to live out that vision today?”
Even at a personal level, each of us have had our own challenges of uncertainty, our own ups and downs, our own financial questions, and somehow it is drawing us closer to the Lord and closer to one another. That’s pretty special! Therefore, the question we need to be asking as a church family, “What does it look like to live out that vision today?” Let’s look at at God’s Word. Let’s look at Ephesians 4:
Ephesians 4:11, “11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.”
Ephesians is in the New Testament. Ephesians is a letter written to a church in Ephesus, and in chapter 4 we see God’s Word reminding us of the purpose of the local church. Listen to me, the local church isn’t about getting a bunch of people in a room to applaud a few people on a stage. Amen? We love large churches. We trust the Lord is using those large churches for His glory.
But verse 11 is describing a list of spiritual gifts and roles in the local church. Apostles are people who start new works. Prophets are people who take stand on God’s Word despite the culture. Evangelists are people who share the gospel. Pastors and teachers are people who shepherd and build up the body, so that in verse 11 we see different roles and gifts in the local church.
It’s why 1 Corinthians describes the local church as one body with many members, so that we will have different roles and responsibilities, and when we come together as a body it creates a soothing aroma unto the Lord for His glory. Amen? That’s happening in our church family! We are seeing men and women starting new works. We are seeing men and women taking a stand for Jesus in our culture, sharing the gospel, and shepherding one another. It’s exciting! I think it’s pretty special. Look at verse 12:
Ephesians 4:12, “12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”
Look at verse 12 and that phrase “equipping of the saints.” The “saints” are those who are in Christ and “equipping” means to be trained and strengthened in our faith in Jesus. I can’t stress this enough; our end goal as a church family is to bring glory to God by the equipping the saints (men and women in this room) to get stronger in our faith. That’s it!
We love emotional experiences, but our end goal isn’t to create emotional moments for each other. We love serving the community. We love making friends, but all of it is to bring glory to God by equipping the saints to experience the power of Jesus, so that we want to invite others to know Jesus, get equipped, so that it repeats over and over and over. That’s the goal! Look at verse 13:
Ephesians 4:13, “13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
In verse 13 we see men and women growing closer to Jesus and closer to one another. That’s unity! That’s what happens! We develop a love for one another! We see men and women growing in their knowledge of God. That’s goal! We see men and women not getting built up and established. That’s the goal! Look at verse 14:
Ephesians 4:14, “14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”
Look at the word “result.” When we function in our gifts and roles. When we are equipping the body. When we are maturing in our faith…the result is we’re not getting tossed around by the circumstances around us, because our foundation is in Jesus! Look at verses 15-16:
Ephesians 4:15-16, “15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
This is the purpose of the local church. Do you see it? But verses 11-16 don’t just magically happen, because we show up on a Sunday. Unity, knowledge, built up and maturity doesn’t just magically happen because we sing some songs on a Sunday! It happens when men and women commit to one another as a local church!
I know that is abstract, so let me just line it out numerically for us.
- First, let’s not forget Jesus is the hero of this church! Jesus is the One who conquered death. Jesus is the One who supplies what the body needs. Amen? We’re not here this morning hoping 2-3 people can work really hard to accomplish verses 11-16. This is all for Him, by Him and through Him. We can’t lose sight of Jesus.
- Second, Jesus is inviting us to Himself, receive His care, and then through His care, we start to live out verses 11-16. Amen? It starts with us knowing Jesus, walking with Jesus, being in awe of Jesus, and then as a result we start seeing an interest in others. #1 and #2 – Jesus!
- Third, He wants to do it all with the men and women in this room. Listen to me, I don’t know why. I wouldn’t have picked you. I wouldn’t have picked me!
But He wants to take our flawed lives, immaturity, poor social skills, busy schedules, fatigue, doubts, and He loves to live out verses 11-16 through the people in this room! We call it biblical shepherding! This fall, we’re looking to widen the spiritual care of our church family. For example, if we have 2-3 people who are carrying the spiritual weight of our church family then our “span of care” becomes a bottle neck to the capacity to those 2-3 people.
Typical needs in a church family (vs. 11-16):
- Visiting someone in the hospital
- Meeting someone for lunch
- Sending someone an encouraging text
- Asking about someone’s visit with their family
- Walking someone through a passage of Scripture
- Helping someone create a financial budget
- Praying with someone after worship
- Talking to someone about North Village Church
If there are only 2-3 people in our church family providing spiritual care then it creates a bottle neck to their capacity. Honestly, it’s how you create a pastor-personality driven church, because everything and everyone runs through the capacity of that pastor. I don’t want that. You don’t want that. Jesus doesn’t want that, but the only way that doesn’t happen is if we lean into the Lord and He draws us to Himself, receive His care, so that He moves us toward one another.
Take a moment right now, and imagine yourself living out 2-3 of those bullet points as a church in Austin. Take a moment and imagine your excuses to those bullets and then imagine the Lord stirring in you a step of faith that says, “Jesus, I am going to trust you to move through me to care for the people in this church family.”
We will talk about this on Sundays throughout the fall, but the best way to see us growing as biblical shepherds is through our groups. We are going to have groups start meeting September 20th that are going to walk through Scriptures, we’re going to talk about the challenges, and we’re going to focus on getting really comfortable with these 4 questions.
- Who are you? (What’s your name? What’s your story?)
- Where are you? (What’s going on in your life?)
- How can I help? (Big or small, but most of the time it’s small)
- Who can you help? (Shepherding multiplies)
Our prayer is that these questions would become second nature for us. You can go through these questions with someone in 30 seconds or 3-hours! But, imagine when we gather as a church family in December and it’s just normal for people to be praying with each other, catching up with each other, meeting new people, setting up lunches, and connecting with each other throughout the week? Widening that span of spiritual care to 5-10-50 people!
Listen to me, I am sure some of us right now are thinking, “But I am introverted. I am not good with people. I am too busy. I have too many problems in my life. This doesn’t fit my schedule.” I am sure the enemy doesn’t want the body of Christ biblically shepherding one another. I am certain he would love for us to just sit in a worship service, check off our religious commitments and leave.
I get it. But biblical shepherding doesn’t mean you have to become an extrovert. It doesn’t mean you have to know the whole Bible, have all the answers, or become responsible for everybody in the church. It simply means becoming available to Jesus and attentive to the people He has placed around you.
- Who are you? Where are you? How can I help? Who can you help?
That’s something all of us can begin to do. If you’re new this morning, I’m not placing this expectation on you. We want you to have room to breathe, ask questions, and get to know us. But I do want you to hear what we’re asking God to form among the people who call North Village Church home. In June, a group of men and women made some important commitments. Those commitments were awesome. But we don’t want to stop with commitments.
We’re asking the Lord to keep moving among us, to form us into people who want to know one another and be known by one another. Because Jesus cares for us through His people. And as He cares for us, He forms us into people through whom He cares for others. So, imagine someone walks into North Village Church in January 2027. Before they understand everything, we believe, before they know all our names, they begin to sense, “The Lord is at work in these people. These people genuinely care for one another.”
Imagine someone has a question about culture or Scripture, and their first thought isn’t, “I need to talk to somebody on the stage.” They turn to someone on their left or right because we’re learning to shepherd one another. Imagine you’re talking with a friend at work about faith, and your first thought isn’t, “You need to talk to my pastor. You need my pastor to pray for you.” Your first thought is, “Let’s get tacos and talk about it. I’ll pray with you.” That’s an exciting church family.
Last Sunday, someone told me, “The second time I visited North Village Church, someone remembered my name.” That’s it right there! And just last week, I overheard someone say, “You don’t have to know the whole Bible to encourage someone.” That’s it! Because there are going to be Sundays when the sermon is just aight. The music might miss a key. Children’s ministry might be hobbling along. We want to do those things well, but programs aren’t the heart of this church.
We want to excel at becoming people who are being built up in Jesus, caring for people who are being built up in Jesus, who then care for somebody else. That’s the kind of church family we’re asking the Lord to form. You with me? Rather than only telling you what this could look like, I wanted you to hear from some people who are living it. These are not perfect people, and they are not the only people God is working through, but they are a picture of what it looks like to live out our vision today.
Let’s give a round of applause. That is a snapshot of what Jesus is building as a church in north central Austin. It’s not perfect, but it’s His people experiencing His power, getting built up, and then helping someone else experience that same grace. That’s biblical shepherding! That’s what it looks like to live out our vision today! It isn’t some new strategy for us. It’s what Jesus has been doing and over the next 12-weeks, we’re asking Him to turn up the temperature, so that it becomes second nature for us!
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in North Austin near the Domain, serving Austin and the 78757 area. We are a church family learning to know Jesus, love people, and live with Him at the center. We would love to meet you in person on Sunday. Find service times and plan your visit at northvillagechurch.com.
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