oasisCHURCH

Today is moving day. I

Today is moving day. I don't know if I wil blog much. I am very excited about our new address. I truly believe it will be an answer to a dear friend's prayer for us... "that we would have a place where we would not merely survive, but really live."

I added a link at

I added a link at the right. It's to my new comrades, Lotus Christian Fellowship in Waverly, OH. They have a Yahoo! Groups web site. There's usually lots of activity on their board. I have also added a discussion forum just for Lotus on the Oasis Cafe.

I look forward to writing much more about what God is doing in this new relationship with Lotus.

"The Gospel Of The Kingdom"

"The Gospel Of The Kingdom" by George Eldon Ladd

I would call this book a very readable theological study of the kingdom of God. I never used to know exactly how to answer whenever someone would ask me the question, "What is the kingdom of God?" My first reaction was, "Uhh, it's the church..." or "It's heaven..." The kingdom of God was always a fuzzy subject for me, even though Jesus spoke about the kingdom more than anything else in the gospels.

Don't allow the word "theology" to scare you away from this gem of a book. George Eldon Ladd gives a brilliant description of the Kingdom of God through the eyes and words of Jesus. It is elementary yet profound. It is complexity on the far side of simplicity.

"The Open Church" by James

"The Open Church" by James Rutz

I first began reading this book several years ago, but it didn't really connect with me. The reason, I think, was because it discussed the concept of an "open church"... meaning, everyone who comes together contributes something. And I could not fathom how in the world such a thing could be possible in a large, "mega-church" type gathering. In common church structures it is likely that some people may "attend" meetings for years and contribute little to the body. One reason for that is because of our structures. This book deals with our structures and discusses possibilities for opening our structures up and narrowing the "clergy-laity" gap.

It is NOT just a "house church" book. It discusses openness possibilities in large church structures as well. I highly recommend it if you are interested in exploring a multiplicity of worship opportunities among your fellowship of believers.

These three books are

These three books are all by the same author, similar in nature, but equally fantastic. The first one is more of a theological explanation for the gifts of the Spirit with some stories mixed in. The second one has many stories of how people experienced the Spirit of God. And the third one is very practical. It's not a "How To..." book, it's just a very practical exportation of doing what Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers... "eagerly desire the spiritual gifts."

I began to "eagerly desire" the spiritual gifts... but even more, EVERYTHING God had for me... about 7 years ago. When that hunger welled up inside of me I discovered the first book, "Surprised By The Power of The Spirit." Here is my story of how I discovered this book... and so much more.

It was one ordinary afternoon in the office in the fall of 1997 that began my journey to discovering the most important dimension in my ministry today, and in my personal faith in Christ... the role of the Holy Spirit. At the time things appeared to be going extremely well for me. I was in a large, growing church, leading a fast-growing, dynamic youth ministry. I was beginning to receive invitations to speak at conferences all around the country. You could say that I was... “successful.” But something deep inside of me was not altogether satisfied. For a while I thought it was my drive for perfection and the most cutting-edge youth program around, and so I continued to take more risks and do more “cutting-edge” things... and more people came. More success. But the more I strove for this, the more obvious to me something wasn’t being satisfied. There seemed to be something I was missing. As a result, I started to become empty, dry. My drive for a fast-paced, entertaining youth ministry actually started to morph into a hatred for it and a desire to quit.

Until one afternoon when I sat in my office praying (it had actually been a while since I had any meaningful conversation with God... I had been too busy creating entertainment to talk to Him)... I asked Him point blank, “Lord, please show me what I am missing. I appear to have the perfect setting. I have a ministry that most guys my age would give their right arm to lead. I have a youth staff who love and trust me blindly, and their commitment to the ministry is beyond measure. So why am I empty? Why do I feel dry? Why do I feel something is missing?”

This prayer resulted in about six months of study that was more intense than my senior year of Bible College (because MY first thought was that I was not DOING enough study, and prayer... so of course this is why I was dry and empty). But this time my study came to life, and for a different reason. As I read the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John I began to see Christ’s message to the world, “the kingdom of God is near.... the kingdom of God has come... pray that His kingdom would come... on earth just as it is in heaven.” What was all this talk about the “kingdom of God?” And it always seemed to be packaged around a miracle, a healing of sickness, or a driving out of demonic presence. So I saw this... Jesus came not only to PROCLAIM the kingdom of God, but to DEMONSTRATE it as well. His kingdom is a perfect kingdom. One without sickness. One without poverty. One without death. One with out evil. One that is not governed by the laws of this earthly kingdom. And Jesus’ message was that God had come to introduce us to a new kingdom... His kingdom. And that we CAN experience this kingdom here and now, even while living in this dark kingdom. Everything Jesus did while on earth He also empowers us to do the same... “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:12-14)

“ANYONE... who has faith in me.” Not just the apostles.

Then in my study of the book of Acts it became even more obvious to me that Jesus’ words were true. In all but 2 chapters there is supernatural, unexplainable, Holy Spirit activity... all for the purpose of bringing the kingdom of God. Very simply. The Gospel was being “demonstrated” as well as “proclaimed.” And many times this demonstration was through a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit... a prophetic word, a healing, etc...

Then I came to some of the more specific, and “controversial” (and even overlooked in some churches) texts of scripture. Those words of Paul in 1 Corinthians when he teaches the church about the purpose for these gifts they have discovered they have now that their faith is in Christ. They were being abusive of them and using them for personal gain, and in some instances they were simply overlooking some of the “more important” gifts while exalting the “less important” ones (see 1 Corinthians 14:5). I saw Paul’s words to the church, telling them that he wished “ALL of them would speak in tongues”... but he would “rather have them prophesy” (speak a revelation or word of knowledge to a person or persons that results in their being strengthened, encouraged, and comforted). He concludes chapter 14 with this exhortation... “Therefore my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

“Be eager to... do not forbid...”

Up to that point in my ministry I had done lots of things, but NEVER had I been eager to prophesy (I hardly even knew what it was, so how could I eagerly desire something I knew nothing about?!), but one thing I had certainly done was forbid the speaking in tongues. Maybe not so much directly, but indirectly forbid it. Anyone who believed that stuff was a wacky Pentecostal charismaniac. The truth was... I was only afraid of the thigs that I was ignorant of.

So I began to pray (Please understand the struggle I went through this entire time, praying, asking God to turn my thoughts and study away from this if I was being misled, or if I was entering into heresy... I was nervous... my paradigm was shifting. This was a scary time because I knew if I continued to travel this road then my life and ministry would never be the same, and my relationships with people would undoubtedly change forever. I was unaware of how true that thought was until now... and it continues to prove to be true. We have such a hard time in the church allowing room for disagreements in interpretation. We feel threatened as though we must “defend the faith” whenever someone believes different from us on some issues that are “less essential.” Anyway, enough rambling.)... I began to pray, “Lord, Paul says to eagerly desire these gifts. Therefore I want to receive the gift of prophesy. Give me words of knowledge to comfort people in my church. Reveal the secrets of men’s hearts to me so I may strengthen and encourage them in their walk with You. What I discovered was... little pictures, or words, or phrases that sometimes seemed so off the wall, would intrude my thoughts, or my worship, or even my preaching. This used to happen before, but now I stopped and asked, “Lord, is this a word of prophesy?” Sometimes I would feel a prompting in my spirit to share that with someone specific, or sometimes to the whole group. And I began to be absolutely amazed at the results. People would say, “How did you know that?” or “That is the answer to my question I have been struggling with and praying about.” And I began to understand... God desires to speak directly to His people. Of course He speaks directly to us through His Word, the scripture. And His Word is all we need for life. But sometimes... because He is a gracious and compassionate God who longs to be active in our daily, personal lives... sometimes He gets personal. Sometimes He speaks things to me through another person, and that word ONLY fits me, at that time, and at that place. That is prophesy. And I had just been introduced to it at age 25. Did that mean I had become “more spiritual?” No... just more open to what He has for me to experience. Does this mean I should have been angry with God because He had been holding out on me all these years? Of course not, these gifts were always available to me. I did not have because I did not ask. And even at times in the past when I did ask, it was not because I was seeking to believe and to understand. It was to try and prove to somebody that they were not for “today’s church.” But I have since learned that they ARE. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does
not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

It was at the beginning of this journey that I had discovered the book "Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit" by Jack Deere. The author became a testimony, a witness, for me of the things about which I was learning. From there I continued to read the other two books by Deere. I recommend these books if you are a little unsure of the gifts of the Spirit... or maybe a little confused... or maybe desiring to believe and to seek them but a little scared.

They will be comforting.

The following is a list

The following is a list of recommended reads I gave to Lotus Christian Fellowship when I met with them yesterday. All of these can be ordered from Barnes and Noble.com or Amazon.com for a fair price. All of these books have greatly influenced my life over the past 5 or 6 years. Perhaps over the next several days I will take one per blog and write a brief comment of how it has encouraged me. They are in no particular order below... just whichever one came to mind first, then next, and so on...

"The Open Church" by James Rutz

"Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit" by Jack Deere

"The Gospel Of The Kingdom" by George Eldon Ladd

"The Word and Power Church" by Doug Banister

"Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz

"The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George C. Hunter III

"Cultivating a Life For God" by Neil Cole

"Servant Warfare" by Steve Sjogren

"Conspiracy of Kindness" by Steve Sjogren

"The Missional Church" by Darrell L Guder

Here's a couple of images

Here's a couple of images from the regional simple church planters gathering at Vineyard Central in Norwood. One is of the group milling around from worship station to worship station, and the other is of me participating in a worship station.

I did a little rearranging

I did a little rearranging to the column at the right. I decided to categorize the "teachings" section and add more to it. Hope it is useful to you!!!

We had a great time

We had a great time yesterday at the "Party In The Park" in Waverly. I am always so blessed to be with those friends. They are like family to me.

Yesterday at the Party In The Park someone asked me why I haven't been putting any more of our Sunday teachings up on the internet (see righthand column). I said it was because I haven;t been recording them lately. But now that I know they are valuable to at least one person I will begin recording again. Look for this Sunday's teaching on John 15. My study on that chapter has begun this morning, and I am excited about what God is showing me already. Jesus continues his teaching at the dinner table with his (now eleven) disciples... staying with the theme of abiding in Him... and in His love... and in THAT we will bear much fruit.

Anyone know what happens to a tree that does not bear fruit?

We had a very nice

We had a very nice 4th of July holiday. We spent the majority of the day in Middleport, swimming with family (our relatives were down from Connecticut) and friends. At the end of the parade that passes through Middleport we handed out bottles of water to everyone who was in the parade. They were so appreciative. It was a hot and steamy day... and the look on their faces as we handed them a free water was beautiful. I couldn't help but think about the fact that the spirit of Jesus sees faces like that every day, all around us. We stand in the path of someone's journey... after they have walked a long, difficult road. They are worn out, tired, and thirsty. They are the very reason why we call ourselves "Oasis." I want to be a fellowship of people who are an Oasis, handing out the free gift of Jesus to every thirsty soul. The parade was a beautiful, physical, picture of that which can happen daily in the spiritual... if only my eyes are open to seeing the thirsty wanderers.