Dripping Springs and Wimberley

Executive Summary

Dripping Springs and Wimberley occupies the Hill Country edge of Hays County, among the oldest CCDs in the Greater Austin MSA by median age, near 43, and among its wealthiest, with median household income above $135,000. At roughly 59,000 residents spread across cedar and live oak ranchland, it is one of the metro's least dense divisions, and one of its least diverse, with about 75 percent of residents Non-Hispanic White. Two distinct community personalities share the boundary: the fast-growing exurban corridor of Dripping Springs on US-290 and the artists' and seekers' retreat town of Wimberley on Cypress Creek and the Blanco River. The corridor holds a deep Protestant spine, with Dripping Springs Methodist Church present since 1854 and several other congregations dating to the 1870s and 1880s.

On paper the church density is relatively strong, roughly one church for every 1,732 residents, but the State of the City describes this western crescent as a place with fewer gospel-preaching congregations and less cultural openness to organized religion. The missional character here is shaped by the spiritual conditions of affluence and comfort, by a real hunger for transcendence that has not yet found Jesus, and by a notable gap between the resources held here and the mercy infrastructure organized to deploy them. What follows is a demographic and spiritual portrait of the corridor, paired with prayer prompts to help the church here pray with discernment for the place God has planted it.

Dripping Springs and Wimberley at a Glance

Measure	Dripping Springs and Wimberley CCD	Greater Austin MSA
Population	58,887	2,426,592
Median age	42.9	36.0
Median household income	$135,475	$100,431
Non-Hispanic White	75.4%	48.7%
Hispanic or Latino	16.4%	32.2%
Active churches	34	1,123 (metro total)
Residents per church	~1,732	~2,161

Demographic figures are drawn from the 2024 five-year ACS release, and church figures from the Greater Austin Mission Society church database, refreshed in July 2026. The MSA church figure is the metro-wide total across all fifteen CCDs. A fuller picture follows below.

The snapshot above is a starting point, not the whole picture, and two tools open it up further. This site's own map and church list for Dripping Springs and Wimberley plots the known congregations of this division, so you can see for yourself where the church is already present and where she is thin. The official Census Bureau profile for Dripping Springs and Wimberley CCD holds the full demographic detail behind the figures above, for anyone who wants to look more closely at the people who live here. Both are worth opening before you pray.

The local church sits at the center of everything God is doing in Dripping Springs and Wimberley. She is not one ministry among many but the community Jesus promised to build and the one he sends into the world, the gathered people through whom the gospel is preached, disciples are formed, the weak are carried, and the good news becomes visible to a watching region. No parachurch ministry, nonprofit, or network can replace her or reproduce what she is. Whatever else happens in this CCD, the health of its congregations is the first thing to pray for, because everything else depends on it.

So prayer for Dripping Springs and Wimberley should hold three things together. Pray first for the church in her many forms to be strong and faithful at the center. Pray for the fuller ecosystem of ministries around her, the planting and renewal and the specialized callings, to grow where it is thin. And pray for the relationships of trust among leaders across this region, because it is through a united and interdependent church that the prayer of Jesus, in Dripping Springs and Wimberley as it is in heaven, comes to Dripping Springs and Wimberley.

An Anchor from God's Word

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food."

Isaiah 55:1-2 (ESV)

This CCD is named for water. Dripping Springs takes its name from the limestone seeps that emerge from the Edwards Plateau, where water works through rock for centuries before finding a surface. Wimberley is built around Cypress Creek and the Blanco River and the famous cold-water pool of Jacob's Well. The land here is defined by water that is hidden, slow, and suddenly present. Isaiah 55 speaks to a different kind of water and a different kind of thirst. It is an invitation to those who have spent their labor for what does not satisfy, who have reached the material summit of a beautiful Hill Country address and found that the view, however stunning, does not fill the deepest place. The Church in Dripping Springs and Wimberley lives among neighbors who are often far from poverty of any material kind but who carry a thirst that the Hill Country, the vineyard views, and the weekend getaway cannot touch. The invitation of this passage is to come not with money but with an open hand. The Church that heeds this call will be a community of people who have discovered that Jesus is what the waters point to, and who will say so plainly, specifically, and with love, to every neighbor who is still spending their labor for what does not satisfy.

Prayer Prompts for Dripping Springs and Wimberley

For the Presence of God Among His People in This Region

"If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here."

Exodus 33:15 (ESV)

Before praying for anything the churches of this CCD might accomplish, pray first that God himself would be manifestly present among his people in Dripping Springs, Wimberley, Driftwood, and Henly. This was Moses' refusal at Sinai: not another step forward without the Lord himself going with them. It was the early church's first corporate cry after persecution, not escape or strategy but boldness and the stretching out of God's hand (Acts 4:29-30). The 34 active congregations of this CCD hold beautiful properties, long histories, and substantial combined resources. None of that is the source. Ask the Spirit to pour himself out afresh across the full breadth of the Church here, from the 170-year-old Methodist sanctuary on Ranch Road 12 to the newest non-denominational plant on the US-290 corridor. Dripping Springs and Wimberley does not need more amenities. It needs God.

For the Gospel to Reach Across the Comfort of Affluence

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters... Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?"

Isaiah 55:1-2 (ESV)

This is one of the wealthiest CCDs in the Greater Austin MSA and among the oldest by median age. Median household income exceeds $135,000. The homes are well-appointed, the school district is highly regarded, the Hill Country landscape is genuinely beautiful, and many of the residents have worked hard for decades to arrive here. And the 2025 State of the City report describes this corridor as a region with "less cultural openness to organized religion," where many neighbors have built a life that does not feel like it needs anything. Pray for the Church in this CCD to resist the temptation of being chaplains to comfort, and instead to speak Isaiah's question plainly: why are you spending your labor for what does not satisfy? Pray for believers to have honest, unhurried gospel conversations with neighbors at the cedar fence, at the school pick-up line, at the farmers market, and at the wedding venues and vineyard events that fill the weekend corridors of US-290. Pray for pastors to preach with the boldness that affluence tends to erode. Pray that the thirst God has placed in every human heart would be awakened rather than numbed by the beauty and provision of this Hill Country corridor.

For the Renewal of the Historic Congregations

"I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first."

Revelation 2:19 (NIV)

Dripping Springs Methodist Church has stood since 1854, making it among the oldest continuously active congregations in all of Hays County. First Baptist Church Dripping Springs has been present since 1872. The Baptist Church of Driftwood and First Baptist Church Wimberley both go back to 1884. Henly Baptist has worshiped in the ranchland west of Dripping Springs since 1916. These congregations have buried the founders of this county, held services through droughts and floods and both World Wars, and now sit in communities that look almost nothing like the ones into which they were planted. Pray for these congregations to find second and third winds. Pray for the Lord to raise up younger leaders within their membership who will carry their historic witness forward rather than manage its decline. Pray for the pastoral courage it takes to call a congregation out of its institutional habits and back into missional life, and for their long-tenured members to receive that call with joy rather than resistance. These churches have survived everything this corridor has thrown at them. Pray they would now be renewed for what God is doing here next.

For Church Planting Along the Growing Edge

"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Acts 2:47 (NIV)

Dripping Springs is one of the fastest-growing communities in Hays County, with new residential development pushing steadily east along the US-290 corridor and south toward the Kyle and Buda CCD. Several of the non-denominational congregations now serving this CCD are multi-site campuses of Austin churches, a model that has served the corridor, but one that does not by itself answer the deeper question of whether rooted, locally led, deeply planted churches will form to meet the arriving households. Pray for church planters specifically called to Dripping Springs and the new subdivisions east of town, and for sending churches in Austin and across the metro willing to release their best leaders and money for works they will never control. Pray also for the artists' and creative communities of Wimberley, which have largely not been reached by the evangelical church, and for church planters willing to enter that particular culture with patience and love. Pray that the Lord would raise up within this CCD a generation of indigenous leaders, not just campus pastors, who will commit decades to this ground. And pray that this CCD would give as well as receive. At a median household income of $135,475 and 75.4 percent Non-Hispanic White, it is among the most resourced and least diverse divisions in the metro, and pray for its congregations to send leaders and money east into San Marcos, where the median household income is $51,139 and more than half the residents are students, and into Kyle and Buda, where one church serves roughly 2,503 residents.

For the Spiritual Seekers of Wimberley

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16 (ESV)

Wimberley has drawn spiritual seekers for generations, people who are genuinely hungry for transcendence but who have not yet found it in the person of Jesus. That hunger is visible in the metaphysical and New Thought spirituality that has found a home in this community, an appetite for healing, for presence, for encounter, that has not been channeled toward Christ. The arts culture, the natural beauty of Cypress Creek and Jacob's Well, and the quiet retreat character of the town have together made Wimberley a place where spiritual conversation is unusually easy to begin. Pray for the churches of Wimberley, including Cypress Creek Church, Chapel in the Hills, Wimberley Christian Church, First Baptist Church Wimberley, and the others, to be known by their neighbors as communities of joy, welcome, and truth. Pray for the musicians, painters, craftspeople, and writers of this community to encounter Jesus in the specific languages of their craft, and for the Church here to be fluent in those languages. Pray that the spiritual search that defines so much of Wimberley's cultural texture would find its answer and its rest in the risen Christ.

For the Pastors, Ministry Leaders, and The Aquifer's Ministry of Restoration

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:28 (ESV)

One of the most distinctive institutions in all fifteen CCDs is located in Driftwood: The Aquifer, a pastoral retreat ministry specifically designed to restore pastors and missionaries experiencing burnout. The Aquifer receives ministry leaders from across the Austin MSA and beyond, offering space for spiritual restoration at the moment when the well runs dry. This ministry is both a gift the Dripping Springs and Wimberley CCD gives to the broader Body of Christ and a testimony about what the Church in this region understands to be true: that the leaders who carry others need to be carried themselves. Pray for The Aquifer's ministry to thrive and expand, and for the weary pastors who arrive there to leave restored. Pray also for the pastoral community of this CCD itself. The 34 active churches here are spread across a wide geography and several denominational traditions, and many of their leaders may be as isolated from one another as pastors anywhere else in the metro. Pray for the Anglican rector and the Baptist pastor and the non-denominational planter of this corridor to find one another, share meals, and trust one another enough to pray together. Pray that the same restorative Spirit who breathes through The Aquifer would breathe through the pastoral relationships of this CCD.

For Mercy, Justice, and the Conversion of Capacity into Mission

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?"

Isaiah 58:6 (NIV)

Among the fifteen CCDs in the Greater Austin MSA, Dripping Springs and Wimberley holds the largest gap between household income and local mercy infrastructure. The resources are genuinely present here. The organized ministry to the vulnerable, the addicted, the homeless, the young family in crisis, and the immigrant worker in the rural ranchlands is not commensurate with them. Hometown Missions does the work of rebuilding homes for low-income families and has shown what organized mercy looks like in this corridor. The Michael James Cotton Foundation addresses the mental health crisis among young adults who cannot afford treatment, and it was born from grief and love within this community. Global Child Advocates carries the advocacy of children in Southeast Asia from a Dripping Springs address. These organizations are evidence of what is possible. Pray for the Lord to call many more forth. Pray for the deacons and elders and missions committees of this CCD's churches to feel the gap between their congregation's capacity and the unmet needs of their own county, and to be moved to close it. Pray specifically for ministries of pregnancy resource care, foster support, workforce development, and immigrant welcome to take root and grow in the Hill Country corridor. The resources to fund them are already here.

For a Region That Gives What It Has Been Given

"Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required."

Luke 12:48 (ESV)

Dripping Springs and Wimberley has been measurably blessed. The numbers are plain: among the highest median incomes in the MSA, the most beautiful landscape, the most regarded school district in Hays County, and a church landscape with over 170 years of unbroken gospel witness in the oldest of its congregations. The Lord has not arranged this for the benefit of a single corridor. He has arranged it so that this community, held lightly and offered freely, might become a sending and sustaining base for the gospel in Greater Austin and beyond. Pray for the Church in Dripping Springs and Wimberley to understand its affluence not as a reward to be secured but as a resource to be deployed. Pray for household generosity to rise well above the regional average, for churches to become known in their county for what they give away rather than for what they have kept. Pray for the wisdom to discern which of the good things in this CCD are gifts from God to be stewarded and which are idols dressed in Hill Country scenery, and for the courage to love the giver more than the gift. Ask the Lord to make Dripping Springs and Wimberley a CCD that holds its resources with an open hand, so that the prayer of Jesus, in Dripping Springs and Wimberley as it is in heaven, begins to be answered along the cedar ridges and creek banks and limestone springs of Hays County's western edge.

Additional Ways You Can Pray

The prompts above are a starting point, not a ceiling. Here are four practical ways to take this prayer further into the life of Dripping Springs and Wimberley.

Walk the CCD. Pick a corridor or neighborhood in Dripping Springs and Wimberley and walk it slowly. Walk the US-290 corridor through downtown Dripping Springs from First Baptist Church to the new subdivisions pushing east toward the Kyle and Buda line. Walk Ranch Road 12 through Wimberley from Cypress Creek Church past the shops and galleries and down to the Blanco River. Walk the Driftwood community near The Aquifer and the Salt Lick, where the rural past and the exurban present sit next to each other on the same caliche road. Stop in front of schools, community gathering places, feed stores, vineyard tasting rooms, and the art studios and wedding venues that shape the economic culture of this corridor. Pray over what you see. Ask God to move in the specific people and institutions that shape daily life along that stretch of ground. Prayer walking turns abstract petitions into embodied ones and tends to change the one who walks as much as the region being prayed for.

Map the CCD. Use the demographic picture in this guide as a starting point and sketch a simple map of your own neighborhood or area of Dripping Springs and Wimberley. Mark Dripping Springs ISD attendance zones, the historic town centers of Dripping Springs and Wimberley, the rural communities of Henly and Driftwood, the creek corridors and spring-fed swimming holes, and the places your family already lives, works, and gathers. Let the map expose where the gospel is already at work, where it is absent, and where the church might be invited in next. A rough hand-drawn map is worth more than a polished one, because the act of drawing forces attention.

Pray for the CCD like you would pray for a person. Write down two lists. First, what you love about this region: the Hill Country beauty that genuinely points to the Creator, the historic depth of congregations rooted here since the 1850s, the creative culture of Wimberley, the restorative ministry of The Aquifer, the families who have built something lasting in a beautiful place. Second, what you lament in this region: the spiritual comfort that can come with affluence, the cultural resistance to the gospel that the State of the City names plainly, the gap between the resources held here and the mercy work that has not yet been organized, and the spiritual seekers in Wimberley who are genuinely hungry but have not yet found Jesus. Bring both lists before the Lord. Loves become the material of worship, and laments become the material of intercession.

Pray Together. The prompts in this guide are written to be prayed out loud by a gathered group, not only read privately. Invite two or three other pastors, ministry leaders, or intercessors from across traditions in Dripping Springs and Wimberley to pray through this guide together on a rhythm, whether weekly, monthly, or in a standing prayer gathering. Corporate prayer has formed every lasting gospel movement, and it tends to form the relational trust among leaders that the Kingdom Ecosystem section describes as connective tissue.

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If this guide served your prayers, there is more coming. The Greater Austin Mission Society is building a prayer guide for every Census County Division in the metro, alongside ongoing research on the church across the region. Follow us on Substack at notes.missionatx.org to receive new guides as they are released, regional research, and invitations to pray with leaders across the city. The full Dripping Springs and Wimberley CCD Prayer Guide is also available as a PDF to download, print, and pray through with your team.

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This prayer guide was prepared by the Greater Austin Mission Society. For questions or to contribute data, contact info@missionatx.org.