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April 2017 Pastor's Points

Dear Church Family,

I hope you are doing great and looking forward to celebrating our risen Savior this Easter!  This is such an awesome time of the year because it reminds us of how much we as Christians must be thankful for.  This year we are going to celebrate the fact of how worthy our risen Savior is!!   Jesus is Worthy for many reasons, but this year we are going to
celebrate three of those reasons in a sermon series simply entitled “Worthy.”  He is the Lamb of God, Suffering Servant, and Risen King!!  This series is going to help remind believers of how thankful we should be, and it is going to help non-believers to consider the reality of their lives and how they can be changed for all of eternity!  Please make sure to be in worship as we consider the fact this Easter season that Jesus is… “Worthy.”

As you come I want to encourage you to reach out to your friends and family and invite them to attend as well.  We will have three services Easter Sunday morning at 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am.  Also, this year on Good Friday we are having a special service at 6:30pm where we will consider the Cross and exactly what Jesus was doing on that cross for all who would believe in Him.  As James MacDonald has shared, Jesus was doing at least four things that we need to consider…

He Was Substituting

To understand the gospel, you must first understand this idea of substitution.  Jesus died first for Barabbas and then for every other human who has ever lived.  I am in that line.  You are, too.  I deserve to die that death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.  That's substitution.

He Was Scandalizing

The Jews, rejecting Christ, called out for His crucifixion, the most shameful, painful, awful death a person could experience.  And they wanted it for Jesus.  The cross of Jesus Christ has always been an outrageous scandal.  What's Jesus doing on that cross? He's fighting for the souls of men.  He's seeking to redeem them from their own hatred.  Hear the soldiers laughing as the Savior gives up His life for them.  Two thousand years later, people still scream and mock the cross of Jesus.  It's a scandal!

He Was Suffering

Unlike modern ones, first-century executions did not seek a quick, painless death or the preservation of any measure of dignity. On the contrary, they sought an agonizing torture that completely humiliated the victim.  To fully appreciate the meaning of the cross of Christ, you must comprehend the extent to which He suffered for our sin.  A holy God poured out His wrath on His Innocent Son so that we could be forgiven.  When Jesus said, "It is finished," God said, "Paid in full."  Sin has been put away now.  The cross of Jesus Christ satisfied the requirements of a holy God.

He Was Satisfying

The gospel of Jesus Christ is only a concept until we comprehend the way Jesus' death on the cross satisfied God's wrath.  A holy God poured out His wrath on His Innocent Son so that we could be forgiven.  When Jesus said, "It is finished," God said, "Paid in full."  Sin has been put away now.  The cross of Jesus Christ satisfied the requirements of a holy God.  I cannot wait to celebrate our “worthy” Savior with you this Easter season!!!

I love you and I love being your pastor!!

March 2017 Pastor's Points

Dear Church Family,

First, I want to say thank you to the church family for helping us exceed our financial goal to ensure that we pay off our church debt by the end of 2017!!  We had the goal to raise $92,000.00 and we received monies and pledges totaling $94,000.00.!!!  By exceeding our goal by $2000.00, it will allow us to use less monies on hand to pay off our debt!  Thank you for your sacrificial giving!!!

Second, I pray that you were able to be in service on February 19^th as I shared possibilities for the future of our church family.  If you were not there I encourage you to go to our website (www.oakhillbc.org) and listen to that sermon.  In it I lay out biblical and practical reasons why we as a church are taking steps to continue to reach out to the lost in our community, as well as rededicate ourselves to making disciples.  One of the steps we are asking our church to take is for some of our existing 2:42 groups to consider meeting at another time other than 9:30am on Sunday morning to free up more parking for our worship services.  We have 193 parking spots and by the national average you can figure two people per car which comes to a total of 386.  We always are over this number every Sunday.  Our current adult 2:42 groups are considering what they can do as it relates to meeting at an alternate time.  Some groups have already let me know that they can meet at another time or location to help with this parking challenge.  There are some groups that are not able to meet at another time and I understand and want to thank them for considering it.

We also had a question and answer time on February 22 to speak into the reasons for the need for some of these adjustments.

From that meeting, I want it to be clear that…

1. No one is being forced to change the time their 2:42 group meets. We are simply asking for our groups to consider sacrificing a preference of a meeting time to help meet the practical concern of parking.  Each group will make their own decision.
2. It was presented that student ministry would not meet on Sunday mornings after August 13^th, but that may not be the case if we find there is a need for a student group to meet for those families that may stay on Sunday mornings.
3. We will be starting all new Life Groups off our campus because of the lack of parking and physical space in our building. With this will come an adjustment to our Sunday morning children’s ministry schedule.  This adjustment is necessary for multiple reasons.  We must create a sustainable model of ministry which uses our space and volunteer base to their greatest effectiveness.

I know it is sometimes hard to change the patterns that we are used to, but the Gospel and making disciples is so important that I believe it is worth asking us to be open to these adjustments.  Also, you will find a frequently asked question/answer sheet at the welcome center about this new model of ministry to help answer questions that you may have.

Finally, I want to encourage us all to keep our eyes on Jesus during this time.  Let’s walk in his love and desire above all things what he wants in this world and in our lives!!  We can never go wrong by seeking out his will and displaying his love!!  I am so excited about our future!! 

I love you and I love being your pastor!