Our Story
A brief history of SW Family Fellowship
Southwest Family Fellowship began in the fall of 2003 when a core group of 24 gathered together with a common desire to build an exciting, effective, and innovative church that would be a safe place for the Austin community to explore the Christian faith and experience a relationship with God.
Lead Pastor, Anthony Scoma, and his wife Deanna were familiar with Austin from their days at the University of Texas and recognized the southwest corner of the city (south of 360, west of Brodie and north of the county line with its rapidly expanding population) as a prime spot for a new church. For the first six years, the “church” met at the AMC movie theatre in Barton Creek mall.
In 2009 we acquired the property of a defunct church near the 290/71 “Y”.
Since that time we’ve undergone two building projects to accommodate the growth.
Reaching young families is a priority for the church. A progressive and innovative children’s program, as well as a philosophy of families taking a spiritual journey together has resulted in an environment that is youth-friendly. Many in the congregation were not involved in church before coming to SWFF and providing a welcoming place for spiritual discovery continues to be a key part of the church’s philosophy and direction.
We want people to feel safe exploring the faith journey, no matter where they are in the process.
Our slogan is “Belong Before You Believe“.
Community building is an important value at SWFF and it is accomplished most visibly through the church’s small groups that meet in homes three times a year. The majority of the adults in the church gather each week throughout the city to study the Bible, work through their own spiritual questions, encourage one another and generally do life together. Our congregation is diverse – by age, ethnicity, socio-economics, politics and spiritual background. That is not easy to accomplish in these sharply divided times, and we work very hard at maintaining unity. But we believe that nothing should be lifted above the cross of Jesus Christ as the chief identity of our lives.
It’s been a fun ride, but the future of Southwest Family is still largely unwritten.
We would love to have you come alongside and write the future chapters with us.
Welcome to Southwest Family Fellowship!