Sunday Sum-up

Today was absolutely AMAZING! From the time that we showed up this morning, the core team was on their A game. Kevin was right on with the music. The lights and sound and video were all top notch. Guest services, VHQ and OC Kids were on it. However, I'm not just bragging on our core group for doing an awesome job, although I am bragging on them. What I am so through the roof excited about is that people's hearts were stirred. Most importantly 2 people gave their lives to Christ today! That is so freaking awesome! You can't see me right now, but I cannot sit still. I have been so overjoyed all day long. Everything that we have done over the past year and a half was worth it today. This is the third week in the life of Oasis Church and Hell will now be 2 people fewer and Heaven will now be 2 people more crowded. My hope and my prayer is that this is just the beginning. Here are few thoughts from today.

-Church planting is necessary!

-OC Kids does an amazing job. We had a kid arrive today who's mom said that he would cry the whole time, yet when he left, he left with a huge smile and he told me that he had a bunch of fun. Wow! kids enjoying church. That's a noble idea.

-2 people met Jesus today!

-Pastors who don't worry about reaching young adults simply because they don't have money, really piss me off!

-People are dying and going to Hell! What are you going to do about it?!

-2 people met Jesus today!

-Our core group is amazing.

-I am so fired up right now. God is awesome!

-I'm ready for next week.

little girl lesson

So, I was taking a shower... I know, not the way you want something that you are reading to start... Anyway... I had the door closed, naturally, and my little girl who is about 1 1/2 years old starts knocking on the door. She always knocks on the door. Every time that I get a shower as a matter of fact, she knocks on the door. The routine is always the same. She just jabbers, and I can only assume that she is telling me about her day. This particular night she was telling me about her baby doll. I could hear her knocking the baby's head into the door. Every time that she knocks on the door and jabbers away about what ever it is she is telling me, I can't help but smile. I take such delight in my daughters joyful noises, even though she doesn't always know what to say or how to say it. Every now and again she'll say something recognizable like baby or Brooks (her brother's name), but it's 99% jabbering. I was thinking, a lot of times I have no idea what to say to God or how to say it, but I imagine that He just delights in our joyful efforts to talk to Him. Think about it... God knows everything, so what can He learn from us. He understands our thoughts, and our desires are no mystery to Him. We have no piece of information that is of value to Him. Something tells me though, that He delights in our attitude of joy that we so ineptly try to express to Him... Even if we have no idea what to say or how to say it, our joyful jabber makes Him smile. Try to pray, even if you have no idea what to say or how to say it. He delights in your joy!

Sunday Sum-up

Today was our second official week as a church and I must say that yet again, our group hit it out of the park. Everything looked really great this week and we actually had several visitors, 5 to be exact. Now many people would look at 5 visitors and measure it against the 40 that we had last week and call it failure. I however want everyone to know that we have got to celebrate today. Yes, last week was amazing. I mean, we ran out of chairs for goodness sakes. That is awesome! But let's think about today. we have 25 core group members, so 5 visitors is 20% of our group. In a church that has 100 in attendance, that would be 20 visitors. In a church of 500, that would be 100 visitors. In the world of church planting, a 20% visitor to core ratio is awesome. We have got to celebrate today!
God moved in our midst today and many people left with a renewed commitment to God. Today walls were broken down and hearts were shattered with a real sense of repentance. Here are a few random thoughts from today.
-There are far too many church people who are just not passionate in the least about Jesus.
-The reason that we are not passionate about God is because we are not committed to Him.
-We are more likely to keep to our commitment of watching a football game, playing golf or exercising than we are to keep our commitment to God.
-Religion stinks! we'll talk about this on week 4 of the revolution series.
-Church planting is essential! we'll talk about this next week... among some other great stuff.
-Jesus is passionate about you!
-If we treated our relationship with our spouse like we treat our relationship with Jesus, how long would it take us to get a divorce?
-Yea, I do believe that there are a ton of teenagers who are more in love with Jesus than many adults.
-I think that many of us have lost our first love... didn't talk about that today, but that is a real problem for many of us.
-The first line of Psalm 51:12 needs to become the cry of our hearts.

Oasis Launch!

So, as you can tell, we start them early. Today was it! Launch day August 2nd, 2009. I must say that I am so amazed by our Core group. Everyone was there and did an amazing job. We had approximately over 60 people in attendance today, which is pretty awesome considering our core group is only about 20 people. Thank you to everyone! Any one of you who prayed for us, supported us financially or helped Oasis in any way, you had a part in today's launch. Tomorrow night we will sit down as a staff and really talk about all that took place, but right now I want everyone to know that I believe God placed seeds in some people's hearts today that we will get to see sprout. Today we began a 5 week series entitled Revolution. I truly do believe that God wants to do amazing things in the life of the Church and in the life of Oasis and I am so excited about all that He has in store for us.
Here are a few random thoughts from today.

-We have a huge responsibility to spread the Gospel of Christ!
-I believe that many church people aren't passionate about Jesus because they don't truly believe in the hope that Jesus offers.
-Hope is the catalyst for passion.
-Jesus is passionate about us!
-Church is not a country club, but that is often times what we make of it.
-What have got to have a sense of urgency.
-People are dying and going to Hell every day!
-Please come and attend during this Revolution series if you want to understand why we are planting this church.
-Get over yourself...
-Fall in love with Jesus...