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!