Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have SIX things I want to share with you today.

#1- It’s not too late to change the service you attend this year and not disrupt your kids too much if you have them. Please consider attending the 11am service if you attend on Sundays. The 9:30am is getting way too full and the 11am has plenty of room for you. If you’re an NFL fan, set the DVR and come at 11. You’ll enjoy the game more without having to watch all the commercials. If you don’t have a DVR and you’re an NFL fan, stay with the 9:30am. I know you’ll be checking scores, you'll be miserable and you'll likely be distracted from 11:45 until the end of the service. No, better yet, get a DVR!!!

#2- Have you been to the Five Oaks Facebook page and “liked” it? If not, go here.

#3– Here’s the comment we received from the cards we send out to first time guests.

• 9/9 There was a great spirit of love as we joined in with the music and the stations.  A wonderful service although somewhat loud music for old ears.

#4- I don’t know if I should share the following with you or not. Oh well, now I guess I have to since I brought it up. Are you filling out your Communication Card when you attend? The Nominations Committee had to eliminate about 25% of potential candidates for the Governing Board, Elders and other elected positions due to low attendance. We don’t want to appoint leaders who aren’t here often enough to even know what’s happening. But we suspect many are here and just don’t fill out their cards every time. I hesitated to tell you because now you might avoid it altogether--to get out of being nominated! You wouldn’t do that, would you? Seriously, though, that’s just one more reason filling out the cards is so important. (BTW, since we only practice “participating membership,” we do remove non-attenders from the membership rolls. We try to make contact, though, to make sure all is okay. We’re not totally ruthless.)

#5- I’m very excited that we’re starting a Young Adult Ministry at Five Oaks. We don’t have a ton of college students or recent graduates in our area (mostly families due to many factors), but I think there is still a need for this. Here’s the announcement. Get the word out.

Young adults, join us for a new group meeting on Thursday nights from 7 - 8:30 starting Sept. 27. Leaders: Paul & Nancy Titus and Paul & Debbie Robbins. Meeting at the Robbins home (9186 Princeton Rd, Woodbury). Contact the church office for more information.

#6 - The first, longer version of the Miles4Meals video is ready. We’ll produce another, shorter one before too long. But if you have time check it out.

Love you all, Pastor Henry

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