The Austin Stone Podcast

Ross Lester preaches on the topic “The King on a Colt,” as we begin Holy Week and look ahead to our celebration of Easter.

Matt Blackwell preaches through Matthew 18:7-9 with a message on the realities of temptations and how to resist them.

Halim Suh explores Matthew 18:1-6 and what true greatness looks like in the eyes of Christ.

Tyler David leads us in the book of Matthew with a message on the “Temple To End All Temples.”

However, later, in 1905 formerly enslaved African persons Thomas J. White and his wife, Maddie B. Haywood, founded the Travis County Emancipation Celebration Association and, two years later, they pooled enough community resources to purchase five acres of land on Rosewood Avenue and Chicon and named it Emancipation Park. They believed that Black people should celebrate Juneteenth on Black-owned land. It was their own piece of freedom. It was their own piece of property. Emancipation Park lasted for over 20 years until the City of Austin seized the privately-held land through a process called ‘eminent domain’ and constructed the first federally-funded housing projects named Rosewood Courts, which still occupy the space today. To comply with the city-enacted mandate, enforced by the ‘Separate but Equal’ doctrine of U.S. law, the Negro District was created in East Austin, east of East Avenue, which is present-day I-35. The Negro District would house all of the segregated facilities within the city, including a park—a park that we now know as Rosewood Park. From that point on, the limited resources that the city would invest and put into Black recreation, leisure, and services went into Rosewood Park. But despite all of the violence that created Rosewood Park for the Black population, Black people in Austin still made it their own.

Clarksville was named for Charles Clark, the man who decided Clarksville would be a place where Black men, women, and children could reunite with their families and friends, torn apart during slavery. As more Black families arrived in the area, Clark's visions guided them. He wanted them to direct their own lives and freely practice their religion away from the gaze of the establishment. It was theirs.They were united by a shared history of being reduced to a condition, being ‘enslaved’ and never ‘a slave,’ and they were determined to be someone—to become citizens of the United States of America on their own terms. And that's what they did. When the City of Austin made the decision to become what is renowned for today—a place of pristine green natural spaces, the center of knowledge production and innovative technology—they faced a problem. Black people and their communities dispersed in various parts of the city, stood as a challenge to them achieving their goals. The city’s solution to this challenge was the creation of the 1928 Master Plan, which designated the area east of East Avenue, or present day I-35, to become the ‘Negro District,’ where all services for Black people were to be located. It was a deliberate and strategic decision to force Black people to move into East Austin. Those residents and community members that decided to remain in place were denied services and public investment.

Ross Lester leads us deeper into the book of Matthew with a message on our “Delivered Deliverer” from Matthew 17:22-23.

Although I wasn't there when the ministers in charge of St. John Regular Baptist Association began the organization, my great-great-grandfather, Reverend Calvin Allen Sr., was. He was among reverends Jacob Fontaine, Jessie B. Shackles, John Henry Winn Sr., Buffington, and Horace Smith. His presence that day would ensure that I would be here today sharing with you their story and how they organized one of the largest independent associations of Black people within the state of Texas following the emancipation of enslaved Africans in the U.S. The St. John Regular Baptist Association went on to have over 200,000 members in its earlier years. In a 1904 editorial of the Austin American-Statesman, they predicted that the association and the Negro race will become extinct. It read, ‘When the shackles of slavery were thrown aside, the Negroes, yielding to licentiousness and ignorance will soon disappear.’ Well, they were terribly mistaken because the St. John Regular Baptist Association continues until this very day. Upholding the same determination as those men who sat under that large canopy of the oak tree between 25th and Leon Street that decided they would take the future into their own hands and uplift their people.

Originally featured on “TGC Q&A,” a podcast from The Gospel Coalition, “How Do We Love the Unborn and Their Mother?” focuses on how we can advocate for the unborn and their mothers, empower women with better choices, and why compassion and grace are essential in upholding the sanctity of life. The Gospel Coalition and The Austin Stone share a deep Scripture-based love for all of life—including the unborn. Scripture tells us we’re created in God’s image, foreknown, knit together by God in our mother’s womb—fearfully and wonderfully made. From conception to the grave, all life is precious. So, how should followers of Christ view the sanctity of life and love our neighbor and the unborn in a way that honors God’s creation? Margaret Gibson, the Director of Development at The Source Texas and leader at The Austin Stone, explores the necessity of the whole body of Christ to engage in the pro-life cause and how we are to compassionately engage in supporting the unborn and their mothers.

Halim Suh leads The Austin Stone through Matthew 17:14–20 with a message on omnipotent faith.