THE PASTOR NOMINATING COMMITTEE JOYFULLY INTRODUCES
REV. DR. ROBERT M. AUSTELL, JR.
as our candidate to become Vienna Presbyterian Church's Associate Pastor for Worship and Adult Discipleship
May 14, 2023
LETTER FROM
MEMBERS
OF THE APNC
With great enthusiasm, your Associate Pastor Nominating Committee is pleased to nominate Rev. Dr. Robert M. Austell, Jr. as our new Associate Pastor for Worship and Adult Discipleship. Robert has been the solo pastor at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC, for over 21 years.
The APNC was elected by the congregation in December 2022 and we began our work in January 2023. From then to now, we have met every week as we prepared the documents necessary to post the position, reviewed applications, and handled other administrative details for calling a new associate pastor. We posted the position with the National Capital Presbytery, contacted several pastors around the country, and notified numerous seminaries to help get the word out. In the end, we reviewed over 80 applications. We watched numerous sermons online, read blogs and personal websites, and compared our impressions of the many applicants.
From the very beginning, Robert stood out as a perfect fit for this position. We were looking for an experienced pastor, and Robert has been a pastor for over 25 years. We were looking for someone with a musical background, and Robert majored in music, worked as a sound engineer and session musician in Nashville before going to seminary. He provides pastoral oversight and is also actively involved in both the traditional and contemporary music at Good Shepherd. We were looking for someone to lead our adult discipleship ministry, and Robert has the same passion for teaching that he does for worship. He has overseen and led a full range of adult discipleship classes, from large group Bible study, to small group discipleship, to topical classes on subjects like racism and racial justice. He believes that being committed Christians entails both ongoing study and going out into the community.
Most of all, we were looking for someone who loves Christ. As you will see in his statement of faith, Robert has both a profound faith and an uncanny ability to communicate his faith in a down to earth way, free of theological jargon that often accompanies these statements. You don’t need a seminary degree to recognize that his identity in Christ is authentic, it is readily apparent in all that he says and does.
Robert knew about VPC before most of us knew about him. He has been friends and colleagues with Pastor Hope for many years, and even played piano during her installation ceremony. All the APNC members were enthusiastic about Robert’s range of experiences and how he would enhance worship and adult discipleship at VPC. We watched many of his sermons posted online (gspc.net) and read additional material on his website (robertaustell.com). We had several Zoom conversations with him, and after each one we were more and more convinced that he is uniquely qualified to be our new associate pastor.
Throughout this process, we prayed regularly—as a group and as individuals—as we sought to discern God’s will for VPC. We fervently and unanimously agree: this is God’s will for us. We are excited by the prospect of calling Robert as our new associate pastor. We recommend him to you whole-heartedly and with great enthusiasm.
Yours in Christ, Erin Allen, Bill Carter, Carla Davies, Bruce Dickson, Christina Jones, Paul Mayer, Stephanie Seckinger, Rob Skaggs, and Kevin White
ROBERT AUSTELL AS WORSHIP, MUSIC AND SPIRITUAL LEADER"Robert’s love for the Lord is apparent in every way imaginable. He will bring this excitement to worship and discipleship here at VPC. I’m looking forward to all God has planned for VPCs future with Robert."
APNC THOUGHTS ON ERIN
"Robert displays a calm demeanor, warmth in interpersonal interaction, a quick intellect, a great sense of humor, and a confident focus on Jesus."
BILL
"Robert is genuine, authentic and has a strong spiritual grounding."
CHRISTINA
CARLA
"Robert’s sincerity and humility coupled with his gifts for worship, teaching, and music align perfectly with the needs of VPC. I am excited to see how God will continue to bless our church as we welcome Robert to our VPC family."
BRUCE
"His authentic and deep love of Christ impacts all he does, in the church and in the community."
PAUL
"Robert’s musical gifts are certain to reinforce VPC’s history of using all types of music to bring Christ’s love to our diverse community."
STEPHANIE
"Robert’s Statement of Faith communicates his love for God and people in a way that is easy to understand and connect with."
"Robert is a bridge builder, able to connect with people with divergent views."
ROB KEVIN
"Robert is thoughtful, compassionate, and a dedicated disciple of Christ, and it only takes a brief conversation with him to see and experience these qualities. They are characteristics that, coupled with his love and breadth of knowledge in all genres of music, will translate in an extremely impactful way for our church and the entire Vienna community."
IN HIS OWN WORDS
I belong to God, through the gracious gift of Jesus Christ, in whom I believe and trust as Lord and Savior. I often speak of God’s grace and do so out of deep experience and gratitude for that grace. I also treasure God's Word as truth, also a gift to us.
I have been married to Heather since 1992. We met through InterVarsity in college and have three wonderful daughters: Walker, Abby, and Liz.
I am an ordinary man who has been loved by an extraordinary God. I love the Church and the way God draws people to the hope of the Gospel in and through it. I am humbled by the grace of God in my life and I desire to share that grace with those inside and outside the church. At the end of the day, all talents, experience, qualifications, and personality aside, my desire is to show people the love, truth, and grace of God in Jesus Christ. I hope those characteristics shine through in my preaching and teaching ministries as well as in all the words and actions of my daily life.
I am on the front end of the GenX generation (b. 1968) and find myself culturally bi-lingual between the generations that came before me and those that follow. This ability to understand and communicate culturally with my elders, peers, and younger generations has informed my understanding of worship and mission for a multi-generational Church.
In a similar fashion, musically I read the notes and play by ear. I am a classically trained pianist (some 14 years’ worth), but have also been playing by ear since I was five years old. Before going to seminary I worked as a songwriter, session musician, and sound engineer in Nashville, and continue to be a frequent worship leader at conferences in and out of the denomination. I also write and record music, but probably enjoy even more working with younger or amateur musicians to record and flesh out their ideas.
I have found authentic friendships and community the best place to seek and speak truth in love. Even when differing theologically or otherwise, I have found a freedom and invitation to share honestly as I listen and learn from friends of all perspectives inside and outside the church.
I am deeply a people-person, but also cherish times of solitude to recharge and renew. I love technology, but as a tool rather than an end in itself. I am a laid-back, type-A person. That means I am naturally administrative and organized, but I also don't stress over disorganization or disorganized people. I’m also pretty quietly competitive. Heather has unlocked the secret of my organizationmeets-competition with “You couldn’t possibly fit all those dishes in the dishwasher… bags in the trunk… etc…” I take God seriously, but don’t take myself too seriously and love to laugh.
THE AUSTELL FAMILY
Heather is an encourager, a friend to many, a faithful follower of Jesus who lovingly earned the extended family nickname “Steadfast” because of her consistency and compassion for family and friends. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years while the children were growing up, active in their schools, activities, and church. In recent years she has served as the executive assistant for the Charlotte Institute for Faith and Work and at the front desk of the local YMCA (one of the largest in the country). She has a heart for racial justice and has sung in choirs all of her adult life. She looks forward to becoming part of the VPC church family and finding her place in its life and ministry.
Walker (25) works in Charlotte, NC, as the center manager for two clinics in the FastMed Urgent Care system. She graduated from Davidson College with a degree in Hispanic Studies. She brightens the day of everyone with whom she interacts and she loves animals, including her very large ball python, Apollo.
Abby (22) works in Charlotte, NC, in human resources for the Parker Poe law firm. She is a graduate of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. One might argue that a near life-time of being the middle child qualified her uniquely for a career in human resources. As the only real extrovert in the family, she is also most likely to call a family member while driving or walking so she will have someone to talk to.
Liz (20) is a rising junior at Davidson College and will be spending the Fall semester abroad in Madrid. She is a computer science and math major and also an avid multi-instrumentalist musician, most recently playing alto sax for the college big band jazz ensemble. She loves to laugh and enthusiastically enjoys her friends, hobbies, and pretty much whatever she is doing.
The whole family loves, loves, loves playing “family games,” whether cards, board games, or singing along to favorite songs and musicals. They are also known to chant “math, math, math!” on occasion, which no doubt contributed to Liz steering toward a math degree like her mom!
Liz, 20, Abby, 22, Walker, 25 (front, L-R); Robert, Heather (back)
STATEMENT OF FAITH
Along with being quite traditional in theology, I am passionate about connecting and communicating in our contemporary culture. So, as a flavor of that, what follows has an unchurched or de-churched person, or ‘none’ in mind: minimal jargon, high transparency, and trying to translate that traditional theology into understandable, everyday language. I hope this will provide a faith statement and a window into how I understand my calling.
We (human beings) are messed-up creatures. I know that intuitively and deeply. We put on a front, but behind it, we are a wreck. If and when we think about goodness and God and love and getting our act together, we realize that it is beyond our power. As AA says, we’ve got to realize we have a problem and that we need something bigger than us and outside of us to help. The story of the Bible and the story I believe as truth is that there is a real and personal God who is that something. God is real! We don’t just create our own god – that would still just be us. God is personal because God gets involved: we matter!
The story of the Bible is that this real and personal God got involved, making the world and everything in it. God allowed us the freedom to choose the right thing and the wrong thing. When we choose the wrong thing, God doesn’t abandon us, but comes after us, like I did when I used to let my young child ride her scooter in the cul-de-sac (freedom!) and she didn’t look out for and get out of the way of an oncoming car (choosing the wrong). I ran after her! God has run after us in Jesus Christ. God became completely human, born into the world as Jesus of Nazareth and yet still completely God, and taught and lived and died to come after me. When Jesus died on the cross, he took my messed-up life as his own, in the same way that I might run, leap in front of an oncoming car, and shove that wayward child out of the street. Jesus has done that for you and for me! And his message was, “Come and believe that I am who I said I am and that I have done what I said I would do. Come and follow me.” That’s what it means to be a Christian – to come, meet God through the Jesus Christ of the Bible, trust him, and follow him out into the world in service, compassion, justice, and love for the world.
I belong to God because I follow Jesus Christ. Just as God raised Jesus up from death itself (the Easter story!), God raises the mess that is me up to a new life. Jesus said that would be kind of like being born all over again (John 3). That is the Christian life – a new start and a new life because of trusting and following Jesus. And through Jesus, God promises new life forever –that’s Heaven... new life with God forever. How does one get all that? What are the mechanics? Jesus said, “Come, listen and learn, believe, trust, and follow me.”
GIFTS AND STRENGTHS
SPIRITUAL MATURITY. In Robert we see the joyful modeling of an authentic Christ-centered life and respect for all people with love, dignity and patience in his day to day interactions.
LOVE OF MUSIC. Robert deeply appreciates the breadth of vocal and instrumental music in worship – from ancient church music to 21st Century compositions. He will develop meaningful and creative worship experiences with enthusiasm.
TEACHING. We observe in Robert a strong Biblical foundation, an ability to communicate and connect across generations, and a heart for showing God’s love, truth, and grace.
PREACHING. Robert preaches scriptural truth with deep insight and humility and will inspire our congregation to apply God’s Word in practical ways throughout daily life.
INTERPERSONAL ENGAGEMENT. Robert is particularly suited to cultivate respect, dialogue, trust, and community within the church and in the surrounding culture. He thrives in areas where collaboration is essential for productive ministry: with pastors, staff ministry leaders, elders, deacons and volunteers.
I am excited that after an in-depth, nationwide search, our APNC, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, has discovered my friend and colleague, Rev. Dr. Robert Austell. Robert is an extraordinary man of faith with a phenomenally pastoral heart for ministry. He is a talented musician, a thoughtful teacher, and above all else, someone who deeply loves the Lord and His Church. It speaks volumes of our congregation that a pastor of Dr. Austell's caliber has joyfully accepted the invitation from our APNC to serve in this special place of ministry with all of us here at VPC. ~ Rev. Dr. Hope Lee
GREETINGS
Greetings, VPC, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! While I am new to you, know that I have been worshiping with you virtually, praying for you and with you, and celebrating all that God is doing in the life of your church for many months. It has been a joy to get to know the APNC – what a wonderful and diverse group of people who love the Lord, love VPC, and love worship and God’s Word! While they will probably tell you about the
“match” from their perspective, know that for the past 21 years I have been cultivating a ministry that is anchored in worship and in God’s Word. It has been an answer to prayer TO ME to discover a call where I will be asked to use two areas of greatest passion and purpose. I’m not sure who is more excited and surprised, them or me, but at the end of the day we are all thankful that God knows what He’s doing.
One of my favorite hymns is “Come Thou Fount.” I long to be filled up to overflowing with God’s presence and love, heart “tuned to sing” God’s grace. I remember God’s faithfulness throughout my life, “Ebenezers” of mercy and help. I resonate with the frustration of “prone to wander, Lord I feel it” but am grateful for God’s grace to bind me to Himself despite my human shortcomings. And pondering Psalm 36:8-9 in light of this hymn I sing a new refrain: “We’ll feast on grace abundant, drink deep from Spirit-streams; Your love pours out in fountains; by Your light, Your light we’ll see.”
A few days after I said ‘yes’ to the APNC, Heather shared a daily devotional with me that ended with a prayer for “my own church family.” In her text to me, she said “I now have two church families and prayed for both of them today.” Know that even as we say goodbye to one church family whom we have loved and who has loved us well, we pray for and look forward to making a home among you as family and as our new community of faith. We are so excited to get started and the prayers and anticipation are already in full swing.
And so I pray for us together this prayer from Ephesians 3:14-21...
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen!
In God’s grace, Robert
