Friday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I hope you had a blessed Christmas. Here is a post-Christmas service edition of the Memo.  

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

#2 – 17 people indicated they were making first-time decisions to follow Christ as Lord and Savior!!!

#3 – Here are your comments from the Christmas services:

• This service was amazing! I always think that the true magic of Christmas is the church service and Christ himself. I love God so much! 
• Never felt so touched. 
• Great sermon, great video. 
• Great videos and music. The church looked wonderful. 
• Merry Christmas! 
• His death on the cross is an act of love I do not understand. [I sent some material that hopefully will help.]
• Thank you Jesus for being a part of our lives! 
• God has always been in my life. 
• Amazing sermon, Henry! Thank you for blessing us with your study and prayer. 
• Awesome message! God bless! 
• Powerful message today. The end video was very moving. Thank you. Merry Christmas! 
• Glory to God. 
• He is my Savior! 
• I’m so grateful to call Five Oaks my church. 
• Praise God! 
• Thank you for the amazing service, music, message details and for each of you who served for us. Sweet Christmas Blessings! 
• Thank you all for a great worship. Praise God! 
• Great opening worship set! Henry, you do such a great job explaining the movement – thank you. Loved discussion/dedication of lighting station. What a wonderful Christmas message! The only difference between an “X” and a “†” is that it is fallen and needs to be put right by Christ. 
• Great service – loved the traditional music. 
• Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Merry Christmas! 
• I trust in Jesus as my Savior and Lord. 
• Great service – music and message.
• Dan, nice job.
• Loved the traditional Christmas songs. 
• Awesome message! 
• Jesus is my Savior. He loves me and I love Him. My life is great because of Him. 
• Praise the Lord, Jesus is Lord.
• Jesus is my Savior.
• God bless, Merry Christmas to the church staff! 
• What is my purpose? Great words to hear tonight. Thanks. 
• Thank you, Pastor Henry. You are amazing! I feel God’s presence here today! 
• Jesus rocks my world! 
• Thank you, 1000 x’s better than last year! Blessings to all of you! 
• Thank you for a beautiful, wonderful and spectacular message. The “will you follow me” video was amazing. I loved watching my twelve year olds reactions while he watched it. Very powerful! 
• Amazing video. 
• Beautiful service, great video to close message. Great job! 
• Thank you! 
• Jesus is my Savior! Praise and glory to Him. 
• Thank you for addressing the “valley of the shadow of death”. 
• Thank you for your message. 
• Today you spoke of hurt by Christians and it was my family that was hurt by the church. As a result my family is so distrustful of any organized religion. It is a slow process, but I’m starting to feel His love more and more as I let Him in. 
• Christ has been my Savior for almost 35 years. Praise His name forever. Beautiful service! 

#4 – Here is the sermon in 10 tweets:

1. Most people never get beyond the story of the baby in a manger. ...they fail to connect the Savior dot with the dot that is their lives.
2. One reason some never get beyond the story of the baby is because they’re put off by Christians.
3. Confession Booth story: We’re not going accept their confessions. We are going to confess to THEM. We've misrepresented Jesus on campus.”
4. Jesus' mission was to seek & save the lost. When they responded, they weren’t transformed overnight, & they still don’t change that quickly.
5. Background video: Joshua Bell playing $3.5 M violin in subway. Ignored. Beauty often doesn't transcend the noise in  our lives.
6. God has entire universe to capture his interest but Christmas says, “You matter. I care about you. I am for you.” God doesn’t ignore us.
7. If you’re thin & get a diet book for Xmas, not going to take it out of the box. Maybe you feel you don’t need a Savior from your sins.
8. Scientist: “I’m realizing that I’m not in control over things that matter most to me. Maybe I rejected him be/ I thought I didn’t need him.”
9. Record of everything you say other people should do and compare to your life. You would be condemned for breaking your own standards.
10. Falling Plates video…

God bless you all, Pastor Henry

Wednesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

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

#1 – One Snowy Starry Night was a great success. Half of the 900 plus registrants made it in spite of the snowstorm. That’s a lot of folks. I loved all the enhancements to the experience. It just keeps getting better. The carpenter’s workshop with real, working carpenters was impressive. And if Mike and Stephanie can keep having babies in time for this event each year, they can be our permanent Mary and Joseph family! Great, great work by so many people, and lots of fun. Great learning experience, too. I scared a bunch of kids with the rabbi costume, but only one cried. I'm going to have to be meaner next year or wear a scary clown costume. :-)

#2 – Our One Starry Night Miracle story: The people who were bringing the animals canceled because of the weather. The live animals are a big part of this event. Jeni or Cindy were sharing this with the Rick and Melissa Borner. Lo and behold, Rick and Melissa own three pygmy goats! Goat-herding Five Oakers!!! Thank you Rick and Melissa for bringing the goats. What are the chances of something like that happening?

#3 – The Story of God on steroids is what I call the Cover to Cover course Warren Coe will be teaching at Five Oaks starting Tuesday evening, January 8. Registration for the first trimester begins this weekend. The entire course of study spans 3 semesters. What a great chance to go in depth on the whole Bible story. Email me if you’d like more information

#4 – Get a recap of the weekend service with highlights of our prayers, readings and songs here.

#5 – Here are your comments from the Communication Cards:

• Bulletin Error – Dorothy Day, T & C Wiant phone. O Come All Ye Faithful – very powerful! Awesome! [I don’t feel good about putting their number on the web, so email me if you’d like it forwarded to them.]
• Thank you Pastor Henry, for this message. It can be so timely for me because family drama makes the Holidays so tough! Fear makes me hold everything in that I need to share with them during this time. thanks for preaching the truth in love to me. You’re a blessing. 
• The decorations look great! 
• Nice guitar rif at start! [That was Clint and he’s moving back to Maryland. Graduated from McNally School of Music. He’ll be missed.]
• Okay, I know, we as humans are naturally resistant to change, but my communion “packet” today reminds me of a Keurig coffee K-cup! Huh? Loved the traditional Christmas carols! [We had the packets only at the 9:15 because of a snafu. Sorry about that.]
• Thank you for the beautiful songs and bringing my heart to worship Lord Jesus Christ.
• Thank you for today’s message! I’ve been wanting to lead a team again at work and now that it is upon me I become fearfully failing at it – especially because I asked for it. I lost sight of living a life of fearlessness and the reason I became scared was because I alone can’t do it. But with God I can.
• Just feeling the power of the Christmas Season – thank you Five Oaks for embracing and enhancing my experience.
• Love the music. Any opportunity to play the music a little softer?  Music is a bit loud, otherwise great. By the way, the Christmas CD is awesome.
• Great worship music. Base drums and bass guitar, provided a nice bottom end. Great arrangements of the music.
• Nice job on the pre-song and solo. It’s good to see/hear men on backing vocals lately. [I’m loving the preludes this month. All from our Christmas CD.]

#6 – We received another great comment on the card we send visitors. We have been batting a thousand on positive comments lately.

11/4  Looking for a new church in our area and this was a great first impression.  We will likely continue to attend and make this our new church home.

#7 – Here’s the sermon in 10 Tweets: Luke 2:8-21 on “Fear”

1. Coulrophobia = Fear of clowns. Not as limiting or debilitating as some fears can be.
2. The No. 1 Enemy of Creativity: Fear of Failure… Harvard Business Review Blog Post
3. “Fear of Me” – I can’t do what God wants me to do. There’s also fear of people and circumstances.
4. Until you see the role of good fear, you can’t be free of fear. Good fear is a healthy respect that motivates me to go beyond myself.
5. Good fear drives me to learn new skills, prepare for contingencies, call in professionals and turn to God for help
6. The Bible says that the only way ultimately to keep fear from robbing your life is found in facing the ultimate fear of all.
7. The ultimate fear comes in a burst of light one starry night: “The glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear.”
8. When people shrink in fear at God's glory, he often tells them not to fear & points to his mercy & grace.
9. The ultimate fear leads you to your Savior.
10. Face your fears by beholding the gospel: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news [= the gospel]”

#8 – Volunteer Central will be up and running in room 101 for all Christmas services. If you haven’t volunteered yet, let us know you’d like to help for one of the services.

#7 – 16 people went through the membership class last week. Our membership is at an all-time high in the history of our church. If you want join our team and you participated in the Story of God small group study this trimester, we have a one-hour membership class coming up in February. Don’t miss it.

#8 – Thanks to Eric Fraser for the cookies we enjoyed between services this last weekend. Eric does this on his own, after clearing it with us, because he knows a lot of people visit churches in December and he wants to create a place for conversations to happen. I love that!

#9 – We’ll be offering two opportunities in January for those interested in finding out more about serving in the Befriender Care Ministry (January 6 and 13, times and location forthcoming).

#10 – This week’s message is on peace in the midst of anxiety and worry.

Don't forget to pray hard and invite someone to the Christmas services. It could change their eternal destiny!

I love you all, Pastor Henry