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Are YOU AWAKE?

That is a great question for a generation that seems to be in a spiritual haze inundated with trinkets and toys. AWAKEN CHURCH is a new church plant in Clarksville, Tennessee; and God is doing great things through them. I had a chance to talk with lead pastor Kevin Miller about AWAKEN CHURCH, church planting, and what how God is moving in Clarksville. Here’s what he said:

1. Who are you?

My name is Kevin Miller, I’m the pastor of Awaken Church in Clarksville, TN. I’m 26 years old and I’m a husband and father as well as a bus driver by day! My family and I moved out here from Albuquerque, NM to Clarksville to start Awaken Church in the middle of June.

2. What is Awaken & what’s that name about?

I guess you could say our mission describes our name. Our mission statement is “Awakening people to the relevance of God’s Word and equipping them for His service.” Today’s culture seems to be asleep to the relevance of God to their lives – it’s like they’re sleep-walking, spiritually-speaking. My prayer is that God would use me to WAKE THEM UP! I know for me, when I realized that God’s Word was more than just a boring history book and that it actually can speak to my daily issues, it became real to me. I hope to be able to help others see its reality and grasp the impact that it can have on a daily basis.

3. Why plant a church?

Good question. Maybe an even better question would be “Why plant a church in the Bible Belt?” I get that one all the time. Let me sum up the question in one word: OBEDIENCE. I fully believe that this is what God wanted me to do. There was no booming voice from heaven and no hand-writing on the walls, but many open doors and years of training to get to this point. It just makes sense. I was a middle school youth pastor for 5 1/2 years before I moved out here. God began to move our hearts and we believed that our next step in ministry was to start something new, so here we are. There’s something exciting about starting from the ground up.

4. Why Clarksville?

3 years ago, my wife and I had never even been to the state of Tennessee. Her parents moved out here to Paris, TN, so we would vacation there every once in a while. We had the idea in mind to start a church, but really had no idea where or when that would happen. We knew there were plenty of churches out here in Tennessee already, but were surprised to hear that my wife’s parents were having such a hard time getting plugged into one with solid, Biblical teaching. That was our first clue. From there, we just did a ton of praying – literally years of praying. We researched different states, cities, locations, and felt drawn to Clarksville. It’s the fastest growing large city in Tennessee with a population of over 150,000 people. Austin Peay State University is right here in town – only a mile or so away from our church building. Because of our age, we tend to attract a bit of a younger crowd, so having a college in the town is great. The ironic thing about Clarksville is that there are places in the town where you can stand in 1 spot and see 4 churches, but statistically, 86% of the population doesn’t attend a church! Wow! That told us right there that there is a HUGE need for real, relevant Bible teaching. I could go on and on about how God guided us to Clarksville and confirmed many times that we are in the right place, but we’ll just leave it at that. We know this is where we’re supposed to be.

5. What is Awaken’s heart & vision?

On one trip that we took out here to scout the place out, I called ahead to a couple of churches asking what was available for someone my age. Almost no church offered anything. In fact, one church told me not to come to their church, but referred me to a big college event on Tuesday nights in Nashville, which is 45 minutes south of us. Part of our vision for the church, although we’re certainly open to all ages, is to reach a generation of people that are my age. They’re throwing their lives away with what the world has to offer without ever realizing how great it could have been if they were following Christ. We hope that through the systematic, expositional teaching of Scripture, they are awakened to the relevance of God’s Word, then equipped to do something with it. My heart is that of a disciple-maker. If I’m not equipping people to do something with what they’ve learned, I’m not doing my job. The Bible is extremely practical and hands-on and I do my best to make that very clear.

6. How can people get plugged into Awaken?

There are lots of ways to get plugged in at Awaken. I’d say the first place to start would be to just come check it out and see what you think. We meet on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 6:30pm at 581 S Riverside Dr. in Riverside Place shopping center on S Riverside and Crossland. We have a full-on kids ministry, so there’s something for the whole family to do. We also have monthly events that will keep you connected with others – outreaches, park hang outs, community involvement, and more. You can find out about all that we have going on at Awaken at awakenchurch.org. We also have secure online giving available if you want to get on board financially! If you want to sample the teachings or even subscribe to our podcast, there are links for that on our website as well.

7. What advice do you give to others wanting to plant a church?

1) Don’t stop praying and 2) don’t go until you know you’re supposed to. You will be attacked left and right, so be armed and ready for the fight. Satan will attack your weaknesses, and when you guard against that, he’ll hit you with new things like criticism that you’ve never faced before, culture shock, homesickness, doubt, worry, etc. When God lays it on your heart to do it, then do it and don’t look back.