New City's Legacy

As many of you know, ReWork Project was originally founded under New City Church (formerly Soma Austin Community Church) which was planted and led by Pastor Jacob Vanhorn. By God’s grace, this little church did a lot of big things in its nearly eight year life before closing last October.

It would be easy to say it closed due to financial hardship or a congregation that had stopped growing in number. Yes, those are things that were true in the end, but anyone that knows Jacob knows that he doesn’t quit anything just because it’s hard. It’s my belief that our little church remained a church for the exact amount of time God intended it to, no more and no less. In that time He used it for more things than any one person may ever know. I know that personally I was able to leave it a radically different person than the one that entered 4+ years prior; it’s hard to even express what my time there meant to me. There are countless stories like mine and then of folks our church sent out on various missions (both nearby and abroad), partnerships we made throughout our city and country, and events we hosted for other organizations and causes. It was a little church that I watched firsthand pursue mission as if it was big and had nothing to lose, and God honored that. Then there’s perhaps one of the more concrete and obvious legacies of New City Church: ReWork Project.

Thanks to the generosity of many of you, our program and my salary both have separately been funded through individual donors since 2014. When it was time for the church to close last fall, ReWork Project’s life was not in question.

Up until this year, we operated as a DBA under New City Church’s nonprofit status. Moving forward, ReWork will simply be taking over New City’s 501(c)3 position as its own organization. This process has already been finalized as far as the state of Texas is concerned, and it will officially be completed through the IRS when reports are filed at the end of this calendar year.

We have been able to continue operating under the same leadership and board as before. ReWork has meanwhile found new advocates in other Austin churches, and we still see Jacob for Monday Bible study and whenever he’s able to stop by throughout the week.

As ReWork carries on, still seeking to grow in so many ways, we’re encouraged about what God is doing and able to do with us even right now. In big part, this encouragement is because we saw all that He did through that little church we came from, the one that didn’t seem to know it was small. New City Church closed, but by God’s grace it left ReWork Project to continue on. And we are forever grateful to be here.