Our Blog

Pastor's Points September 2018

Dear Church Family,
Coming up in the month of October we will be celebrating our 55^th year of ministry here at Oakhill Baptist Church!  I thank God for the constant presence of ministry that our church has had here on the northside of Evansville.  God has blessed in so many ways over the course of these years! He has taken a small group of people who started a home bible study and blessed it to be a thriving church family for 55 years.  It is a joy to be a part of what God is doing in our church.

On October 7^th we will celebrate our ministry anniversary with a special emphasis in all three of our services.  We are making a special video which will include interviews with three of our former pastors.  Talking with them about their years of ministry did nothing but confirm to me how God has had His hand on Oakhill for all these years.  It is good to remember all that God has done, what He is doing currently, and what He desires to do through Oakhill in the years to come.

I cannot believe that I have already been at Oakhill for 12 years.  It seems like yesterday that I was meeting with the search team considering if God was calling me to Oakhill.  HE made it clear to me then that He was, and He has only affirmed His call on my life since I have been here as pastor.  I dearly love you!  I am so thankful that God has called me here to do life with you all!  God has moved among us, and as He has moved I have encouraged us to move with Him.  I did not come to Oakhill with a grand plan of growth for our church.  My only desire was and is to preach the Word, share the Gospel, make disciples, and love and serve together for the glory of our God.  God honors those things, and because of our focus on those things, He has moved among us!!

I know that He is going to continue to move, and as He does I will be encouraging us to move with Him.  We simply must follow His lead!  The Lord will always be faithful to us, and the only right response from us is faithfulness to Him!  Thank you for being willing to follow our Savior!  He has been so good to us throughout the years, and I know He will continue to show His faithfulness to us if we will continue to follow His leading in the life of our church family!!

I love you and I love being your pastor!
Pastor Alan

Spare Change September 2018

Parenting in the Tech Age

The past eight weeks Pastor Alan and I have been leading a parenting class on Sunday evenings.  The last session we felt it was really important to focus on parenting in the modern age; mainly concerning ourselves with media and technology.  My generation was the last generation to grow up without the internet. I believe we got some form of it when I was in high school; however, it was the really slow dial-up kind that made that annoying sound as it connected.  Kids today will never know a day without the internet. That means they are always connected to media- including games, social media, movies, tv shows, and music. These were things that we have had in some form or fashion for decades; however, never before has there been unlimited access to virtually every form of media.  Whether we want to believe it or not technology has crept into every facet of life, but this is not always a bad thing. I love technology, it enables us to do so much and connect in ways we never thought possible. We can use it to learn and grow in so many ways. The point is not to take all technology away from kids, we don’t need to get off the grid, we just need to be educated and smart about it.  Here are three ways to help parents in the tech age:

1. Remember it is About the Heart
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”  This verse encourages us to guard our hearts. This literally means to put up a fence around our hearts.  We are to be discerning about what we allow in. This is especially true in the area of technology and media.  So much of what is out there is good and helpful; but there is also a lot that is damaging to our souls. We need to be diligent for our own benefit and also for our children.  Kids don’t have the ability to discern what is good on their own so we must help put up the walls to guard their little hearts. Their heart is the source of life and if polluted with all the trash that can be found on the internet it will damage them long-term; so remember when helping your children in the area of technology we aren’t just making a list of dos and don’ts we’re  seeking to protect their hearts.

2. Exercise Parental Control
Parents, remember you are in control!  Don’t just give your child a tablet or phone without exercising your parental authority.  It is lazy and harmful to give your kids what is essentially a pocket PC and expect them to do what is right.  Kids get curious, they hear things from their friends so they want to check it out. This is not to mention that there are people that want to influence and hurt your children via the internet.  We must remember that we are the ones that help to control technology for our children. Practically, we need to study and utilize the built-in parental controls of    various devices (including gaming systems).  We need to set time limits for tech usage. We need to set a bedtime for when our kids’ devices go off. Many of these features are built in, but there are also devices to help, like Circle or Koala Safe. There are also software options like Qustodio, Net Nanny, or Covenant Eyes.

3. Use Technology to Your Advantage
Finally, don’t be afraid of technology.  Use it to your advantage. There are so many solutions out there to help families stay safe on the internet.  One great option for whole home filtering and protection is OpenDNS, which is also free. Understand what your kids are playing, what they are watching, what social media sites they are into.  There is a lot of good, helpful information out there to equip parents. Look at a site like pluggedin.com to see the content of movies or video games. There is no reason you shouldn’t have the information to have an informed discussion with your child about various media and technology topics.