January Newsletter 2011

The past month has been a really exciting time in the life of our church and in my life personally. On Jan 1-3 We took some of our college students to Passion, a conference for young adults, in Atlanta, Ga. I was fortunate enough to get to tag along and I must say that I was encouraged and challenged to see the faith and excitement of this generation! I have always told our church that God has a history of using young people to change this world and expand His kingdom, And I am convinced that this generation will be no exception.
We are currently in our New Year's Revolution series and God is rocking our church. This series is really challenging our church and me personally to imagine what could happen if we would actually use the influence that God has given us to invest in the kingdom, to give hope to the hopeless. We have no idea how powerful of an impact we have the potential to make in this world.
We will begin Financial Peace University on Feb. 23rd. Anyone can sign up by going to the front desk at the YMCA or by emailing the church at Web@ogreenwood.com. We will meet every Wed. at 7pm and the course will run for 13 weeks through May 18th. The cost is $93 per household. If you want to take the class and don't have the money, please email us and let us know. This course is well worth every penny. I suggest to anyone who is able to take this course, to please do so. I believe that there are so many people who want to give to kingdom causes, but they feel too constricted because they are too far in debt and just don't know how to budget their money. Can you imagine what would happen if only a small portion of christians would begin to budget money in their personal finances for kingdom impact?
Thank you so much to all of you, our supporters, for all that you are doing!

December Newsletter 2010

It's the holiday season and we are all so very busy. Oasis is just finishing our "OC Christmas" Series. We've been taking a look at Mary's call to birth the savior of the world. We've learned about the fears she may have faced and how she responded to the call on her life. It's been a really powerful series. In January we will be in our "New Years Revolution" series. We'll be looking at how God has the power to move in our lives in revolutionary ways. As we progress into this new year I look forward to all that God has in store for us. I've been spending time in prayer and I am really excited to put some challenges in front of our church. In my heart right now there is nervousness and excitement for the next year. Please continue to pray for us as we try to spread the hope of the Gospel. Thanks to each of you for your support!

Discussion time

Today at Oasis we really put a lot of answers and questions out there. This blog is just in case anyone wanted to open a public dialogue about any issues. So here is your chance!

This past series was really awesome! It was titled Heterosexual Homophobe and I can honestly say that this has been the most exciting series that we have done since launching over a year ago. We handled many topics such as discrimination, Racism, Homosexuality, Hate and so much more. I want to encourage anyone to listen to the past podcasts. Thank you so much to my staff for the ideas and encouragement. I have an amazing staff! The next series coming up is "You Asked for it" Wow, it's going to be intense. We received questions that will blow you away. Click HERE if you want to listen to the past podcasts.

Sunday Sum-up.

Today was pretty awesome!... other than my daughter throwing up on the way to church. Needless to say, Morgan and Campbell had to stay home today. She seems to be feeling better, but she has been sleeping most of the day. The message was straight up honest today. If you have any questions about the Holy Ghost and how He works in our lives, then you need to check out today's podcast and the rest of this 4 week series. Here are a few highlights from today.

-The Holy Spirit is mentioned over 800 times in scripture.
-The second verse of the Bible talks about the Spirit of God.
-There are churches that would refer to themselves as "Spirit Filled" that really weird many Christians out.
-There are also churches who are the exact opposite and would never dare even mention that the Holy Spirit has any authority.
-I believe the more biblical stance is somewhere more in the middle.
-The Holy Spirit is our Counselor, Comforter and so much more!
-Many believers aren't living a spirit filled life because they either aren't aware of the Holy Spirit or simply resist the Holy Spirit.
-You cannot continuously resist the Holy Spirit because eventually you will grieve Him and He may stop pursuing you.
-There are 3 different ways that the Holy Spirit ministers to us.
1. He comforts us.
2. He counsels us.
3. He convicts us.
Do not resist His conviction!

P.S. Next week is going to rock! don't miss it! We also have a series coming up next that is going to be very interesting. It's going to be called "Heterosexual Homophobe" Before you start calling me a heretic, you may need to hear the podcasts. And yes, it will blow church people up!

The Past Few Weeks... and next week.

Wow! The past few weeks have been awesome! Since I last blogged we have finished the Are you man enough series and we just wrapped up the are you woman enough series. This past series was so powerful for anyone to listen to, especially for the females. I encourage any female to download all three podcasts and listen to them. I actually only spoke for one week of this past series. The first week we had Carrie Booth come and speak. As a teenager, Carrie dealt with Anorexia and literally almost died. Her testimony is amazing! The Second week I spoke about self confidence and much more. To be honest, I was really worried that I was going to stink it up when I spoke, but God had some amazing truths for our ladies that week. Yesterday, we had Emily Jennings speak. Emily and her husband serve on the campus of NGU and she is very passionate about building real relationships in hope of promoting Christ in the lives of others. I must say that what she had to say will resonate with any female. To get our podcasts, you can just go to www.ocgreenwood.com and click on the podcast tab, or you can go to iTunes and type in the keyword "ocgreenwood." Check it out!

P.S. Please give us some feedback if our podcasts are making an impact on your life. We love to know when God is using us to impact your lives. Also, the next series coming up is called "The Ghost". We will be talking about the Holy Ghost, how He works in our lives, and what this means for us as believers.

Sunday Sum-up.

This past Sunday we started our new series called "Are You Man Enough?" and it was awesome! But first here are a couple of announcements.

-We will be doing three movies in the park this coming fall. One per month beginning in August. They will be a blast!
-We will be helping with the Homemade Genius festival in Ninety six on September 11th. We will have the opportunity to connect with a lot of people. We will be there from 6-9 that Saturday night. We will set up a lounge for all those who are at the festival and will be hanging out and giving away free stuff. It will rock!
-I definitely want to tell you about Communiversity on the campus of Lander. It's an awesome opportunity to let the Lander Students know who we are. We actually picked up Evan last year at this event. He began attending the church after we gave him some toilet paper. He is now our worship leader!
-We need volunteers for each of these events, so if you would like to help, either email the church office or sign up at the guest services table on Sunday. Our ladies at guest services will have more details for you, so don't hesitate to take some questions to them.

-Now for today. I don't know if I can really recap without making you think that I am crazy. so if you read this and you wonder if I'm insane... then please listen to the podcast.

-Today we talked about how we as men are called to love. Yet somehow, we have this idea that real men are incapable of loving.
-I said that there are two things that men need to know about love.
1. It takes a pair... No, not like two people... A pair... you know....
-Seriously, love is risky... It's actually more than risky. When you choose to love you WILL certainly be hurt and it takes some stuff to put yourself out there in love and open yourself up to be injured emotionally.
-The fact is, God was the first one to put Himself out there and love, and he was also the first one to experience a broken heart. He created humanity and all creation and immediately, man sinned against him. After this sin, God had to reconcile the relationship. and this leads us to the next reason that it takes a pair to love with all that you are.
-Love takes sacrifice... Sacrifice is required in love. When Adam and Even sinned against God, they realized their nakedness, they realized their sin. In turn God had to make the first sacrifice of all time. He had to kill animals in order to cloth their nakedness. God shed the first blood of all creation. He had to make the first sacrifice.
2. It takes a man to love!
-In 1 Corinthians Paul talks about love in chapter 13. As a matter of fact, we call this chapter the love chapter. It is a scripture that is frequently read in wedding ceremonies. What I find very interesting is that in this same chapter, Paul talks about putting childish ways behind you and being a man. Guys, it takes a man to love!

There was so very much more that I shared today, if you get a chance, please listen to the podcast... It very well could change your life. The word of God is powerful!