OUR STORY

Way back in 1892, our church’s founding Swedish families began investing in people’s lives to see God move in their community. The original group of 33 members knew they were God’s answers to other people’s prayers, that through them God was already up to “far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

In 1925, Swedish Evangelical Church moved the church to its second home on Colorado and 17th Street. In order to reach more people, the church changed its name to First Evangelical Free Church and started hosting services primarily in English.

In 1990, our congregation consisted of only a few dozen aging members, and faced two options: close the doors or radically change.
In response, they asked God for more and called local college and youth pastor Rob Harrell to come lead them. In 2002, First Evangelical Free Church outgrew their space. The church moved to their fourth location and shortly after changed the name to Austin Oaks Church.

After over 25 years of faithfully serving the church, Rob felt lead to move on to other ministry endeavors. Austin Oaks began the search for a new Lead Pastor and after 2 years hired Brandon Zieske from Winona, Minnesota in 2017.

We want to be a movement that sees Austin, Texas saturated with the gospel by developing disciples so that the emerging generations will be captivated by Jesus.