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!

This Coming Sunday

I am so excited about this coming Sunday! RRRRRRR! that's me clinching my teeth, while thinking about rushing at the enemy with our Core by my side! We will spend time this Sunday talking about being in the right place for the Glory of God. Our Core will get a chance to write down where they want to serve and then all during next week the Lead Staff will spend time praying over every name and each position. Then the fun begins of finalizing Items, processes, budget and so much more! This past week we bought a trailer and now it's time to look at what we are going to fill that trailer with. In the UFC Referee voice "Let's get it on!"