oasisCHURCH

"Just Read" - Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study

Details in the poster...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for a printable version of the "Just Read" poster.

It Is Well

Just a little raw taste of the Wednesday night prayer meeting...

It Is Well

 

Church on Christmas Day?

This article is likely to offend someone. How’s that for a hook?

Before anyone asks the question I will answer it. “Yes, there will be an Oasis worship gathering on Sunday, December 25—Christmas Day” (additionally, there will also be a worship gathering on New Year’s Day the following Sunday). The sign in the photo is a fake. It's merely a way to display and introduce the irony in this topic.

However, there has been an abundance of discussion, debate, criticism, etc. all over the country about churches who are canceling services on Christmas Day and whether or not it is right or wrong, etc. I am not sure I would go as far as to say it is “right” or “wrong”. I don’t think it’s a “right” and “wrong” issue. But I do think it is important for us to consider a few questions in context of Christmas Day falling on Sunday. Ponder questions such as: 

1. What do I truly cherish most about Christmas?
2. Why do I truly celebrate Christmas?
3. Who do I believe the Christmas holiday is most for? Family? Jesus? Both?
4. Which family is Christmas mostly about? My birth family? Or my re-birth family?

Much is communicated every year about Christmas in regards to what the “reason for the season” is. Some shout aloud about “putting Christ back in Christmas,” while others bemoan the fact that retail stores are “pushing Christmas out” by replacing the term "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" in their ads. Still others grumble about the increasing "secularization" of Christmas as they seek to remind us that, "Jesus is the reason for the season!" Everywhere you look, there seems to be some complaint about Christmas and how it's to be celebrated. And (don’t miss this) religious people are the ones who scream the loudest.

Yet, it is these same people who are concerned about this year’s Christmas Day because it happens to fall on a Sunday. How inconvenient.

Do you see the rub?

Ed Stetzer from Lifeway research says, “According to a December 2010 LifeWay Research report, 74 percent of Americans agree (strongly or somewhat) that ‘Christmas is primarily a day for religious celebration and observance,’ yet 67 percent of all Americans also agree that, ‘Many of the things I enjoy during the Christmas season have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ.’”

Aha! There’s the rub.

If the most enjoying, precious, treasured aspect of Christmas were truly the celebrating of the fact that Jesus Christ has broken into this world by leaving heaven and being born into humanity in order to save us from our depravity and sin, then rather than bemoan the fact that Christmas Day is on Sunday we would long for Christmas Day to be on Sunday; or at least we might expect that the family Jesus came for—his family—would gather on that much anticipated day and celebrate His coming and His presence in our lives.

Perhaps what the “religious people” are saying during the holiday Christmas season is somewhat true. Competing forces are encroaching on the meaning of Christmas. The holiday is taking on other meanings, other significances. Certainly the retail marketers hope so. The multiple meanings of Christmas are compatible and uncontested as long as they don’t meet head to head. BUT when they coincide on a Sunday, it spells disaster for the Christian significance of the day.

In which case we should probably admit the truth about Christmas and why and how we celebrate it. The celebration of Jesus’ birth in a church gathering on the day of the holiday is less important than the commercial importance of giving and receiving gifts. Celebrating communion with our “blood of Christ” family is less vital than rekindling our nuclear family connections around a table loaded with food. Worshipping the one for whom the holiday is named is less essential than filling the day watching parades and football games on TV and tearing open needless gifts and gadgets.

Maybe there is some truth in familiar holiday songs that there is no place like home for the holiday and the idea that Christmas is primarily for the family.

How does a celebration of Jesus’ birth compete with these ideas? Apparently, from my quick research this week, it doesn’t fare well at all for a significant percentage of Christians—at least in the Protestant church. Interestingly, among our Catholic brothers and sisters, attending a worship service on Christmas Day is nothing new. In fact, they do this every year regardless of what day of the week the holiday falls on. For as much grief as Protestant Christians have given to Catholicism over the years, when it comes to Christmas Day I can’t help but think they’ve had it right all along.

I began this article by suggesting that it would likely offend someone. It certainly was not my intention to offend. But hopefully you have been challenged to take some time in the next few weeks to contemplate the four questions that were asked in one of the earlier paragraphs. If Christmas Day is not really about the worship of Jesus, then we Christians probably shouldn’t be so adamant about insisting that the world recognize Jesus in Christmas. Or, when it comes to Christmas, are we merely proclaiming with words something that we do not actually intend to practice with deeds? Are we proclaiming one thing while actually practicing another?

“Jesus is the reason for the season! Keep Christ in Christmas!”

Are we sure?

If the primary “reason” for the season that the world SEES us celebrating (not HEARS us celebrating, but sees us celebrating) is our nuclear family, parties, gift-exchanging, decorating, eating, etc… then the proclamations in the above statements are quite frankly not true. In fact they are hypocrisy—meaning, we shouldn’t make such statements if we know it would be an inconvenience for us to have to practice what we preach.

To make a more true statement we would have to say, “Jesus is part of the reason for the season,” and “Add Christ to all the other things we love about Christmas.”

Pause for a moment this year and reflect on all of your various Christmastime rituals. Then ask yourself, what is MOST meaningful to me about all of it? The answer to that question is your own personal true “reason for the season.”

Oasis will have two Christmas weekend celebrations. One will be on Christmas Eve from 5:00pm-6:00pm. The second will be on Christmas Day from 10:00am-11:30am.

Merry Christmas!

 

Just Pray... Mid-Week "Hour of Prayer" Begins November 30

Details in the flyer...

8th Annual Oasis Christmas Party Is December 10

Here is the invitation for this year's Oasis Christmas Party. Share it online in all your socia networks. Hard copies will be available at all Oasis gatherings and meetings between now and December 10.

I Am Second

The Refuge | Our Dreams Are Different

The Refuge from Soul of Athens on Vimeo.

 

The Refuge | Our Dreams Are Different.

Oasis Sunday Morning Gathering

Here is a look at a typical Sunday morning at Oasis Church Meigs.

Living Life Forward, Understanding it Backward

Download and listen to the accompanying audio to the following post by clicking here. You can also subscribe to our regular podcast by going to the Oasis Media Page.

It was Soren Kierkegaard who coined the phrase, “We live life forward but understand it backward.” The principle is that we often do not know exactly why things are happening the way they are happening in our lives, but when we look back and reflect on the different events and the way things went down over time, we can better understand it. By looking back it also helps us to live forward.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

James 4:13-15 says, “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

In my youthful cockiness and blind arrogance I set out to plant Oasis Christian Fellowship with a pretty good idea in my mind about “tomorrow”. Like James warns us against, I said to my wife, “we shall go to (Athens) and plant a church and do this and do that, and it will look like this and that”—yet I did not know what “tomorrow” would bring. The following is a summary outline of what the coming days would eventually bring us, leading all the way up to where we are today. The latter portion of today’s notes will be more detailed since they are dealing with church structure and leadership, while the first portion of the talk will be a basic outline of my narrative.

Oasis Christian Fellowship by name is approximately four years old, but Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs County is officially less than a year old. I know some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute, I have been attending meetings with Oasis for at least a couple of years, what are you talking about Chris?” That’s exactly why I am doing this talk today, as it is important to look back and see the path God has provided for us, and to understand how we got to where we are today. I believe we are finally at a place in Meigs County where the church is primed to move forward with energy and momentum. So sit back and enjoy this talk. Those of you who have been with us since the beginning will be very familiar with the stories. And hopefully those of you who have recently joined the Oasis family will be interested to know where Oasis came from and why there is a new church in Meigs County.

December 22, 2000
Chris and April make their annual trip to southeastern Ohio to spend Christmas with family. On the four and half hour trip from Wauseon we were listening to church planting seminars on CDs while talking and praying about church planting.

As we drove through Athens we both got the sense that the Holy Spirit was speaking to our hearts and He was calling us to move and plant a church in Athens. The very words out of our mouths were, “If there is anyplace that could use an Oasis it’s down here,” as we were driving down route 33.

May 4, 2001
Chris and April put their house on the real estate market in Wauseon, OH and began gathering a team of people to move to Athens to join in the planting of Oasis Christian Fellowship of Athens.
During this same time Chris and April began contacting family and friends “back home” (in Meigs County) with the news that they were moving to Athens to start a new church. Already some of those people from Meigs County were getting excited about the possibility of a new church, and were even willing to drive to Athens to join it.

August 31, 2001
Chris and April finish packing up all of their belongings into a U-Haul and move from Wauseon to Middleport. Wait, Middleport? Why not Athens? Because between May 4 and August 31 we became convicted that we needed to vow to God that we would take the risk and move before September, even if our house had not sold by then. Until it sold we were obviously still paying the mortgage on it, and therefore could not afford rent in Athens, but we had made arrangements with my mother and father, Mike and Sharon Stewart, who graciously agreed to allow us to live in an extra bedroom in their house until our house in Wauseon was sold. We would then find a home to either rent or purchase in Athens and move there. We were anticipating that this would be a month or two, maybe three at the most.

In addition to April and I moving, fifteen people from Wauseon and one from St. Louis (Jared Stewart) moved to be part of the new church plant.

September 11, 2001
Eleven days after moving, Chris is leading worship at a retreat for Keith Wasserman and Good Works, when we hear the devastating news of terrorism in New York City. Two days later the real estate agent calls us to tell us that no one is sure what is going to happen to the market, but she will do the best she can and keep us posted. We heard nothing for 3 months. No one even came to look at the house for additional 3 months. Finally, in March of 2002, we had an offer on the house. It fell through. There would be no more activity on the house for another year and two months.

In the meantime we were trying to figure out what to do with our church plans. Looking back, here is a brief summary of the progression of Oasis:

• October of 2001 >> We began having gathered worship meetings at the Ohio University Inn and Conference Center in Athens, using nearly every dollar of our weekly offerings to pay the hotel conference room cost of $75 per week.
• June of 2002 >> We were not having enough people or money to justify continuing to meet in the OU Inn. It was at this time that Chris met with three different families to discuss having church meetings in their homes. Two of these were from Athens (neither still meeting), and one was in Middleport (Mike and Sharon Stewart’s house).
• Summer of 2002 >> On two or three different occasions we met in special larger gatherings on Sunday evening, in Mike and Sharon’s yard and at the old Meigs Middle School. In the Middleport house church we were having between 7 and 15 people on a regular basis.
• Fall of 2002 >> We made arrangements with the American Legion Post 128 in Middleport to use their annex building for weekly Sunday gatherings. These took place in the evening until October 13, which was our first ever Sunday morning meeting. On that first Sunday morning we had over 40 people come, and on a weekly basis we were having between 15 to 25 people at the Sunday morning gathering.
  During this time we were still determined to eventually move the gathering to Athens someday, as the church was still operating as Oasis Christian Fellowship of Athens, although it was meeting in Middleport on Sundays. There was no vision or plan for beginning a church in Meigs County at this time.
• Between October 2002 and August 2003 >> During this time period every individual except two (Amy Hoffman and Jared Stewart) who moved to participate in the church plant decided that they no longer wanted to be part of the ministry of Oasis in southeastern Ohio.
• August of 2003 >> Chris called together a team of people to meet with him on a monthly basis for prayer and accountability in ministry. This advisory team became a catalyst for Chris to bounce off vision and ideas and help in minor decisions.
• Between August 2003 and TODAY >> We continued meeting in homes throughout the week and in the American Legion Building on Sunday mornings, and have begun to recognize the “official” work God is doing in Meigs County through Oasis.

December of 2005
“Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs” receives incorporation status from the state of Ohio.

We had a plan… and God had a BIGGER plan
Looking backward at how things have unfolded, it has become obvious that God wanted to do much more with us than simply plant a church in Athens. Yes, we still believe He wants to plant a church in Athens. But one possibility I was not ready for was that he wanted to plant an Oasis in Meigs County first.

So what are the next steps in this peculiar journey?
For three years we lived as a fellowship of people without a clear definition of who we are or where we are going. I don’t believe this has been all bad. In fact, it has been very good. It has taught us that Christianity is a life to be LIVED, and church is not a country club or a place you go once a week or a program you attend. It is a family, and it is something we ARE. We have learned how to be the church.

Learning how to BE the church is a vitally important foundational principle that we must never forget as we continue to grow and develop in maturity. And as we grow and develop in our maturity we will obviously become more defined and recognizable in our culture. At the same time it is becoming very important to focus on leadership development. The Scripture has some very specific instruction and qualifications for church leadership and organization. And it is essential that we do not overlook this important aspect of our church’s health.

Last week I took three posts to discuss the important aspects of healthy church leadership development. You can find those under the title: "Qualifications of Church Planter" Part I, Part II, and Part III. As we build for the future we must fix our eyes on our mission. God has a plan and a purpose for each person who finds fellowship with Oasis in Meigs County. Now that we have looked backward in hope of better understanding what God has been doing among us, let us look forward and LIVE life to the fullest.

May 14, 2006 to five years from now...
Oasis in Meigs County is a growing, healthy church of people who have fervor for the work of Jesus Christ and are faithfully living out the mission of God (missio dei) throughout the various neighborhoods, communities, and towns in Meigs County. The church gets to participate and celebrate in seeing hundreds of people put faith in Christ and join the mission. We get to see God raise up people from our own number to become pastors/elders, deacons, and missionaries in their schools, in their homes, and in their workplaces. We get to train and help raise up people from our fellowship whom God is calling to begin an Oasis in another town, and perhaps another state, or even another country. We get to see God develop the people and the plans for the Oasis church plant in Athens.

Visualize yourself in five years. In relationship to the mission of Oasis, where will you be? Where do you want to be? What do you want God to do with you by then?

What do you need to do NOW to begin working toward that goal?

I believe that Oasis Christian Fellowship of Meigs is in existence today by the providence of God. Looking backward, it is easy to see the ways He has put this fellowship together like pieces of a puzzle. We are the pieces of the puzzle. And He is moving us to where we are supposed to be. We are not finished yet. I believe He’s just now getting all the end pieces put together. Now comes the meat of the puzzle. The middle. Take comfort in the knowledge that God can see the picture. He knows where we are going. We are in His hands. Let’s keep living life forward so we can understand it backward.

"BE the Church" (some "balancing" thoughts as summertime approaches)

A few months ago I was pondering these issues of "living life, being involved in the world, while also being part of a church community". I posted the following thoughts on a web site called Allelon.org. Hopefully they will be helpful to you as you plan for the summer and desire to be in fellowship with Oasis.

When I was a child growing up I saw kids on my ball teams whose parents did not allow them to participate with the team on Wednesday nights because that was "church night." I always felt bad for those kids, feeling that if you make a commitment to something you should be able to do it all the way, not just "when you can" or "when you want to." But then again, hadn't they made a commitment FIRST to their church? So then, perhaps they shouldn't play sports at all........ no that doesn't seem right... does it??? I guess it depends on how we view commitment to "church". Is it church meetings? Or is it something else?

See the struggle? In house church/simple church settings, during the summertime your meetings and gatherings can get pretty sparse for lack of people. And it's not because these people are "falling away" or any of that nonsense... it's just that they are choosing to participate in the community at large. And I WANT people to coach ball teams, and have their kids play on teams, and do gymnastics, and go to band camps, and help in community events, etc. But I also do not want our house church hosts and leaders to become discouraged because it appears their fellowship is dying.

This is the dilemma I have found myself in... even personally. I coach baseball. I have always coached baseball since the day I stopped playing. It is a needed recreational activity for my personal well-being, and a great opportunity for me to interact in a number of young people's lives and fellow coaches in very positive ways. The conversations I have had in dugouts between games or on the bus have often had the feel of a house church meeting in and of themselves. However, often coaching baseball takes me away from some of those summer meetings that I usually attend on a regular basis.

These "extra-curricular" things are important parts of our lives. But as we know, fellowship and regular edification of the body is vital to our lives as well. So the practical question is… how do we make both work? I have focused this writing as a discussion on “summertime church issues” because I have found this to be more prevalent in the summertime. How do we encourage and continue to participate in the communities in which we live while also keeping the fellowship and the encouragement we get from one another, for instance, in our house church meetings (most of our house churches meet on weeknights, which is typically when we find the most conflict with community events)?

Maybe it’s by focusing more on “doing the Word” during the summer months, and perhaps our "meetings" during those months should consist more of helping/serving in a variety of ways. Or perhaps a few planned fellowship parties, and some "intentionally spontaneous" weekly cook-outs?

I believe that perhaps the best, and most biblically accurate way to view the local church is as a "family"! In my experience most nuclear families have this SAME problem over the summer. The normal routine is tossed out the window because of all the activity of summer. How does a family respond to this? One example I can think of is they are open to seize an opportunity when everyone is together. They look around and see everyone home for an afternoon at the same time and say hey “let’s get together, eat, and catch up!” I also think you have to become deliberate about getting together. So there definitely must be balance, and flexibility alike.

Staying with the family metaphor... in a family, how is "commitment" defined? Is your commitment to your family dependant upon how many dinners you sit down and have with them? Are your priorities out of place because you are not making every effort to be at those "scheduled" times together? Of course not. Those are important times, and you should make every effort to have those as often as possible, but just because your schedule may not allow you to be at the dinner table every meal with them does not show you lack commitment or giving priority to your family.

Family is defined by flexibility... not rigidity. If I tell my son that he cannot play baseball this summer because he will have games scheduled on church meeting nights (which he most likely will), what am I telling my son? Is God, our church family, and our relationship with God and our church family a priority over baseball, or gymnastics, band, etc? Of course. But what does it mean that God is a priority over these things? Does it mean that we cannot be, or should not be involved in these "extra-curricular" things if the schedules will potentially conflict with our meetings? We have to remember, church is family... not meetings. My family is defined by who we are and what we do WHEN we are together. It is NOT defined by simply getting together or the number of times we get together. Does that make sense?

Some people are going to weigh in differently on this, and so I feel that part of my role is to help us all understand there is room for differences of opinion. For instance, there will always be people in the church who get involved in a lot of "extra-curricular" activities that may cause them to be away from church meetings now and then. To say they have not made their church involvement a priority would not be fair. Their commitment to Jesus and to the church should not be measured by whether or not they attend church meetings. But on the other side of that coin... those people will need to be deliberate about creating other opportunities in their schedules for fellowship.

There is a dangerous pattern that has the potential to rear it's ugly head if we are not careful. In many church institutions there is this concept that you are not a committed member unless you come to all the events and programs. But as you have heard me say before, my desire it to stop "going" to church, and instead BE the church. In the "simple" church model I found a "structure" that lent itself to that understanding of who we are as the church. However, even with the "simple" church or "house church" we can still be in danger of falling into those same old patterns.

Likewise, there will also always be people who DO define their commitment by being at all the meetings, etc. They do feel it necessary to make it top priority to not miss a single one, and will choose to get involved or not get involved in other, extra-curricular things based upon when the meetings are. And those people must also be encouraged in their zeal and passion for the church, while at the same time reminded that others are not "less committed" than they are.

Earlier I referred to family "routines"... and how at certain times, like summertime, the normal routine is usually set aside for a while. The church also has a set of routines, but it seems that the church tends to grab a hold of those routines with a much stronger grip than nuclear families do. I guess the key is to figure out how to set aside some of the normal routines without losing or backtracking in our relationships and fellowship life.

If each one of us can find that balance, then I believe we will find what truly is ABUNDANT LIFE. God has given us everything for our enjoyment. He wants us to constantly be about HIS mission in this world... while enjoying the life he has given us. My desire is to encourage you in this. To be an example of this very thing for you. I hope you see me as one who enjoys life, who has a passion for the Gospel, and for empowering people to serve in this great commission of Jesus. I may do this through preaching, teaching, serving my church family, serving my nuclear family, or serving in the community at large.

This has been a lengthy article. I hope you are challenged, stretched, and encouraged by it. Find freedom in it! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM. Liberty to LIVE and LOVE your community. If nothing else, take it as an exhortation to do just that.