Tuesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want to share with you.

#1- Get a recap of the service with highlights of our prayers, readings and songs here.

#2- To watch Eric Fair's story video from the weekend and get some ideas for engaging Scripture this week go here.

#3- Here are your comments from the Communication Cards:

• Loved the new worship songs, fantastic! Thanks to all the new faces on the worship team, nice job. TODAY is the Day! [Yes, beautifully led. It was fun to have Sean (our Tech Director) at drums for the first time and Clint back from his summer away.]
• I’m reading this book Vertical Church. I know I go to one! Praise God! 
• Great projection – we could hear Justin even on low parts. 
• Truly awesome music! 
• Awesome worship band! Thank you for your message Henry! 
• God IS the Lord of Endless Light! Hope of every heart including mine. Great is the love of the Savior. 
• Thank you for sharing your experience Henry. 
• Thank you and God bless! 
• Justin can we hear Gungor – “Beautiful Things”. 
• Please label what is Gluten Free for Communion. [It's all gluten free every week. We put it on the cards that explain the stations (the ones next to the note sheets on the way in).]

#4- Here’s a recap of the message in 10 tweets:

1. Week 1 of “Eat This Book” series based on Luke 18:31-34.
2. Guess what happened. The very next day God spoke to me. But it wasn’t a test. It was more like a meal for my spirit.
3. What I did every morning was reflect on Scripture and I prayed.
4. You can’t have Jesus in your life without also having a high regard for Scripture, for its authority and for its relevance for our lives.
5. Jesus believed it is the Word of God, he lived the Word and he nourished himself from the Word.
6. He didn’t simply say, “I am God in the flesh. Everything I say is true. And the Bible is true because I say so.”
7. He said, “Don’t just believe me be/ I work miracles & claim to be sent from God. Study the Bible to see if my ministry & my words are true.”
8. Buchanan: “40 years of that! 40 yrs of the Word preached. 40 yrs of sermons declaring God’s scandalous welcome to the stranger among us.”
9. J said "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God." Eat this book. Jesus ate it & expected us to eat it too

   

10. If J. needed to eat this book, we certainly need to eat it. Not just 1x/wk in a church service. Not just 2x w/ SG. We need to eat it daily.

#5- Here’s a new feature I’m going to experiment with I’m calling “Off the Cutting Room Floor.” I’ll include some good stuff I edited out of the message for time’s sake or to keep the focus on the big idea.

• Listening to some people today talk about how God told them to do this or that—or how God told them to tell you what you should do—you’d think they claim to be higher authorities than Jesus. That’s why we need to be really careful about people like that.
• Christianity is different from Mormonism or other groups that add to the Bible and don’t seek to be in line with the Bible’s message. For example, Mormons and Christians share a lot in common in terms of values and even many doctrines. A few years ago I looked at a list of doctrines we share in common with Mormons and my first thought was, ‘Maybe they are Christians.’ Then I looked at a list of their doctrines that contradict the plain meaning of Scripture in favor of the teachings in the Book of Mormon, and it was obvious they are not "Christians"—they are "Mormons." That’s the only conclusion you can come to if you base your beliefs on the Bible. Jesus was extremely careful to show that what he taught was completely in line with the Bible because he believed that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God.

Blessing to you, Pastor Henry

Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want to share with you today.

#1- We have four Five Oakers attending a Befriender Ministry Foundation Workshop next week, all day Monday through Thursday. The training qualifies us to offer this ministry that will be the foundation for our new Care Ministry at Five Oaks. In reality, small groups are our first line of care, but Care Ministry will be one of the ways we keep people from falling through the cracks if they are not in a small group. Twenty Five Oakers have already indicated an interest in volunteering in this ministry. One of our members, Jake Eyler, will be establishing this ministry at Five Oaks as part of his internship at Bethel Seminary. We’ll let you know when we are starting our training for our members who want to volunteer for this ministry.

#2- As we start of our new ministry year, we launch our new ministry plan. The plan is developed by the Staff Leadership Team and approved by the Governing Board. We have five initiatives this year and I’ll share one per week over the next few weeks. Just remember, these are initiatives, they do not include all the priorities we have in our on-going ministry of making disciples of kids, students and adults.

Initiative 1: Our leaders will understand the spiritual growth continuum and what catalyzes spiritual growth for people at different points on the continuum so that all ministries are designed to effectively make disciples.

The spiritual growth continuum is just a fancy way of saying people are at different places in their spiritual maturity. If you’ve heard me talk about whether Jesus is outside the car, in the back seat, in the front seat or in the drivers seat, this is what we’re talking about. Interestingly, the key catalysts for spiritual growth change depending on where you are on the continuum. So we want all of our leaders to understand this whole concept and we’re taking concrete steps to make sure that happens.

#3- We kicked off the ministry year with an all-staff party. About 30 staff and their spouses came over to our house for the most delicious BBQ provided and prepared by Matt and Jeanie Steele. Smoked pork and chicken with homemade Carolina style BBQ sauce. (My mouth is watering as I write.) Best baked beans I’ve ever had and some other great side dishes. Great food and great fellowship. Thank you Matt and Jeanie, you have servant hearts and you know how to make fantastic BBQ.

#4- We received two cards back from first-time guests:

• The first one is quite long, so I won’t include it here, but it was not complementary of our welcome. They did say, though, that they will try us again. Hopefully we will welcome them better the next time. And I hope they choose to come up for 10-Minute Connect if they haven’t yet.
• Here’s the second one: “I found the congregation to be very friendly and welcoming.  They seemed eager to meet you and make you feel comfortable.” [Very good to hear after the last one. It would be good not to let anyone fall through the cracks. It takes openness and diligence on all our parts. It’s so easy to be focused on only people we know.]

#5- We launch the Eat This Book series this weekend based on Luke 18:31-34. It’s a four-week series about hearing God speak through his Word.

Hope to see you on the weekend. Pastor Henry