Safety (Sunday Sum-up.)

Today was really exciting because it was the last day of our breakout planning sessions. The past 4 weeks we have had a quick devotional and then we broke into our 4 different areas through which our services will function in order to plan, and I must say that it has been interesting and exciting. First off, Core group, you are amazing. Thank you so much for your excitement and planning. I can't wait to start going through your lists tomorrow night at lead staff meeting. Second, beginning this week, we want ANYONE who has the slightest thought that they may like to come join in and help us launch to decide now that you will visit with us with in the next several weeks, preferably some time in June. We meet at 10:45 AM at the Greenwood YMCA each Sunday. If you have any questions, you can contact the church by email at web@ocgreenwood.com or you can call the church office at 864.229.2105. Heck, just call me if you want, my cell is 864.344.8381. We want to make sure to answer any one's questions who may like to be involved. You don't have to join Oasis Permanently. Just come out and help us through August or September and then go back to your home church if you like. This is your opportunity to be a missionary in your own community. Hey, how easy is that... You can be a part of missions and still get to sleep in your own bed! It's almost like brownies in a box... just too easy.

Just a few quick thoughts from today.

-Yes, I did say that safety is not a biblical value.
-For some reason, we tend to teach our kids that if it's not safe, then it's not of God... That is just a lie straight from the pit of Hell.
-Yea, we do have to protect our kids. Yea, we do have to think about safety. But we can't determine if something is God's will simply by asking "Is this the safe thing to do?"
-Judging from most of the disciples in the New Testament, we'd be more successful at determining God's will by asking just the opposite question. "What's the most dangerous route?"
-If Safety were a biblical value...
-Inner city kids wouldn't get reached.
-The Church in China would be non-existent.
-Homeless shelters would close their doors.
-Many many missionaries would come home
-Any Pastor with a child would need to quit the ministry and get a safer job for his family
-Jesus would have really been off the mark when He decided that His Father sent Him to DIE on a cross.
-The Apostles would have kept their mouths shut and never told anyone about Jesus!

Here's a question that could truly change your life... "What are the beliefs that drive you to determine what God's will is for your life?" I know that safety used to be one of mine years ago... Until I started BELIEVING the bible!... That's a serious statement, not a joke. If you really want to believe the scriptures, then allow them to challenge the things that you've always assumed were true.

6 years ago....

As of today, Morgan and I have a son who is 6 years old. It's so hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday Morgan was telling me that she was pregnant. I can remember being so worried in the hospital room because Brooks' heart rate was dropping sporaticaly. Oh, I can remember the anxiety of watching his heart rate. I kept buzzing the nurses and asking them if they were paying attention to the monitor and they would reassure me that they were watching, but they were just being to calm and seemingly unconcerned. His heart rate dropped to about 26 and next thing I knew they were rushing Morgan out and throwing a pair of scrubs at me. by the time I got my scrubs on and got into the surgery area they were ready to cut her open. They didn't even have time to give her an epidural so she felt everything. Turns out Brooks decided to try and hang himself with his umbilical cord. He had it wrapped around his neck twice. He came out all blue. I have never in my life been so glad to hear a baby cry, I just knew he was dead. Now after two more C-sections I know that they always come out blue... but I didn't know that then. I am still so grateful to those doctors and nurses. Thank you guys so much!
JB (Brooks), I love you so much son! You are an amazing kid. ever since I can remember you have been so loving. You have always been so ahead of the curve in learning and everything. Your smile is my sunrise! My prayer for you is that you will follow God with all of your heart, risking everything that you know, just to see the name of Jesus made known in the hearts of men. Live life to the fullest. Don't ever back down from what you know God is calling you to do, no matter who says you're crazy. To be honest son, you have to be a little crazy to follow God everywhere that He calls you to go. Be the change that you want to see in the world!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Your daddy

This Coming Sunday

This is it! This Sunday each group has to have all of their information in. For the past few weeks each group has been gathering information that will help us develop a finalized budget for launch and begin the process of buying things. This is a very exciting time. Starting June 7th we need to begin inviting people who may want to help with the launch to visit with us. This will officially be the beginning of our Launch team phase. If any of you reading this would like to be involved with Oasis, please come and visit with us one Sunday in June. Core group, be sure to bring all of your info. Also, Later in June we will have a work day where we all get together and build pods... to organize everything on the trailer to get ready for some practice set-ups through July. It looks like the date is going to be June 27th, so mark your calendars Core. This will be a really fun day where we can all get together and hang out for quite some time. Plan on spending the whole day busy. It's going to be so fun! Gee golly wiz, I sound like such a goof. But honestly, it will be a blast! We are almost ready for Launch!

Sunday Sum-up.

Today was really amazing. I am so excited about launch and everything that we have to get done before August 2nd. This morning again, we broke into our groups and again, everyone was planning away so passionately. Thank you so much Core, for being so head over heals in love with Jesus! You guys are awesome! I spoke to the core group before the break out sessions on the topic of finances. Really though, I spoke about sacrifices. But to be honest, I don't think that we as believers should ever be able to separate our finances apart from the idea of sacrificing. I mean, in all reality, if we as the church would always ask ourselves this one question, there would be so many less people spending eternity in Hell. That question is "How can I sacrifice in the area of finances in order to make sure that my material possessions are used most effectively to spread the Gospel of Christ?" Another way to ask this question is "Where is the best opportunity for me to give what I have so that more people can know Jesus?" If we as Christians would ask this question seriously of ourselves on a regular basis, imagine how many more people could have their lives changed by the Gospel of Jesus. Here's what I believe about not using your money for the growth of the kingdom. If you're not using your money for the kingdom of God then you may as well be doing what the picture above suggests that you would be doing with your money. I'm not saying that Oasis is the only way to invest your money in the kingdom. Oasis is one of many many options, but find the best option for you and invest in it! NOW!

Here are a few random thoughts from today.
-When is the last time that you did something so crazy for God, that you knew if He didn't intervene, you'd never make it?
-If you've never done anything like the question above, are you really following God?
-I can't think of any example in the bible of a disciple who had it easy.
-Jesus Gave His life. Why do we think that it's not going to cost us anything to follow Him?
-It's a hard pill to swallow, but collateral damage us unavoidable when you follow Jesus.
-Jesus has never been, is not currently and will not ever be a boy scout!!!
-Does any of what I am saying and asking make any sense what-so-ever? If not, please check your discipleometer.

A Movement

I was reading this verse the other night and I just got to wondering a little. What if the gospel was being preached today in such a way that certain business owners were worried about their lively-hood. Imagine if a huge multitude of people stopped buying drugs, stopped buying enough alcohol to get wasted, stopped sleeping with prostitutes, stopped gambling, stopped buying excessively on credit... What if people just stopped living lives that support these businesses. I'm not talking about boycotting or Legislating in order to get these changes. Paul didn't set out to change the law or get as many people as he could to boycott the idol craftsmen, Paul set out to be used by God to change people's hearts. I'm talking about repentance, an amazing movement of God where multitudes of people repent of their current lifestyles in order to follow God with all of their hearts. I'm talking about a situation where people are being saved out of prostitution and drug addictions. What if divorce lawyers lost half of their business because the divorce rate in America dropped from 50% to 25% because husbands and wives began to MUTUALLY lay down their pride for the sake of their wedding vows. That would be so awesome. I can see it now in the headlines. "Divorce lawyers call conference, Fear for lively-hood." I'm talking about restored relationships, changed lives and a spread of God's redemptive forgiveness throughout America. Wow, now that would be amazing!

This Coming Sunday

I am so freakin' excited about what is ahead of Oasis Church! Millions of people celebrated over American Idol tonight, and it is a good show, but I tell you what... It's going to be so much more amazing to stand with the multitudes in heaven and Worship or maker! What if America was as excited about Jesus as we are about American Idol? Imagine the lives that would be changed, imagine the hearts that would break, imagine the souls that would be saved! God is moving in our Nation, He is turning the tides of spirituality and we as the church should do everything in our power to make sure that when this next generation searches, that they find Jesus, the one who seeks them. Hey Core Group, make sure that you are doing your homework... And if anyone reading this sees Kris somewhere, tell him that I said congratulations. I think he does much better than Adam... Oh yea, if you see Danny walking around, mention to him that we need a worship leader, I think that he would do a pretty freakin' awesome job for Oasis.

Sunday Sum-up.

Today was yet another amazing day with Oasis Church. Being a pastor has been a huge learning experience and one of the most difficult things to do sometimes is to just stop, but that is exactly what I did today. This morning during our Core Group meeting, I just got out of the way. After almost a year of teaching and speaking to the group I was able to literally let them do what God is calling them to do. After speaking for about 7-8 minutes, I literally played with the children. I took the kids in the kids room and we played with toys and read books and I wiped snotty noses. I did this because I trust Oasis to do what God is calling them to do. We are preparing for launch and it is so exciting. When I came out of the Children's area, all the groups were still planning hard away and it was a wonderful thing to see. Everyone seemed so excited to do what needed to be done. Core group, I love you guys! Here are a few random thoughts and recaps from the first few minutes of the meeting.

-God has given His disciples AUTHORITY to do amazing things.
-Doing amazing things requires action... not JUST participation.
-Fans sit in the stands... Fans are good.
-Players are on the field... Players are necessary!
-God has called every disciple to be a player of something.
-Oasis has fans, and the support of these fans is awesome!
-God has called the core group to be players and you guys are running with the ball!
-Yes, Ministry in most American churches is very comfortable compared to the ministry of the 12 disciples.
-How would we react if God told us to take nothing on a journey... NOTHING LITERALLY!?
-We'd probably ask Him if we could at least take our cell phones.
-The Church can NOT get comfortable, it's so easy for us to because our ministry is so much more comfortable than that of the 12.
-Our ministry is no less of a calling than the 12's.
-God desires to do amazing things through Oasis and every American Church!
-Jesus told the disciples that they would be persecuted... Flogged... Beaten... killed.
-They still followed Him.
-They still preached the gospel.
-We shy away from the gospel because we don't want to make anyone mad...
-We have GOT to preach the Gospel whole heartedly!
-Our call is to carry a message of hope!
-Let's act like we have something to offer the world!
-Because we do... It's a message of HOPE!

Sunday Sum-up.

Today was a great day to be part of Oasis Church. The Core Group began the process of developing supply lists for each section and setting firm launch budgets. We met all together for the first 15 minutes and then we broke off into separate groups. The groups were Worship Team, Children's Team and Guest Services Team. So for the next three weeks we will continue with this process. It was really exciting to see each group working together so effectively. I had the opportunity to just walk around and observe passionate people putting forth passionate effort in planning to be used by God to impact the community of Greenwood with the gospel of Christ... Man that was a long sentence, probably a lot of grammatical errors in it. This summer is going to be an amazing experience!

This Coming Sunday

This coming Sunday is going to be really interesting. We will begin by meeting in one large group to talk about vision and how each area can meet the vision of Oasis. After a few minutes, we will break out into our four different areas and each group will begin dreaming and planning for their particular positions. I'm sure that there will be plenty of homework, so be ready core group. The next three weeks will have this same basic format. I'm waiting to hear back about our Launch Team Phase video and I believe that it is going to be a great tool to bring more people on board with Oasis. I will let you guys know something on it just as soon as I find out more. Please keep in mind that we labor not for ourselves, but for the gospel of Christ! I love you guys. Oasis, you are an amazing Church!

Sunday Sum-up.

Today was really awesome! We talked about how God uses messed up people to do great things for His Glory. So if you feel like you are a messed up person, then you are exactly who He wants to use. Think about it, who gets the most glory when God uses messed up people to do amazing things?... He does. At the end of the message everyone filled out papers signifying in what areas they would like to serve, and tonight we sat down as a lead staff and went through all of the papers. We were able to place everyone in their number one choice for what area they want to serve in. God really is moving in the hearts of the core group and I believe that we had just the right amount of people sign up for each area because God has the right people involved in this church plant and they are truly listening to His call on their lives. I really enjoyed today and I'm already so excited about this coming Sunday when we get to do breakout sessions and see our core work together in each of their teams. It's going to be amazing!
If you are reading this blog and you are not currently involved with Oasis, you need to know that there are still many, many positions that God can use you to fill. In a few weeks we will begin our launch team phase where anyone will have the opportunity to hear about the opportunities of service within Oasis Church. Please feel free to come join us. We will let everyone know about the Launch team meetings through facebook, personal invitations, our newsletter and I will let you know on this blog. Let's do this!