Our Blog

Spare Change - December 2022

For the Love of the (Game) Savior

Upward season is in full swing!  We are starting the 14th season of the Upward basketball and cheer program at Oakhill.  Every year, boys and girls from kindergarten to 8th grade sign up to play in our league.  This year we have our highest league enrollment with 222 basketball and cheer participants!  We also have 50 coaches signed up to help.  We will have many other volunteers that will help us when games start.  We are thankful to the Lord for the many children in our program and the volunteers that serve. The Upward Sports Ministry is a unique and wonderful ministry.  There are several reasons for this:

1. Emphasis on Spiritual Things
Upward is not just a basketball and cheer league.  We strongly emphasize the spiritual. During each practice, coaches lead the players through a devotional.  This year they are looking at snapshots from characters listed in Hebrews 11.  The devotions build throughout the season emphasizing truth from God’s word and the gospel.  We also have an intentional gospel presentation at one point in the season.  Players can respond and we follow up with them if they want to know how to become a follower of Jesus.  Finally, we do half-time devotions to bring a spiritual element to the games as well.  Upward only works if we emphasize the spiritual along with the physical.

2. Emphasis on Relationships
Another goal of our Upward league is to build relationships with our players and families.  We want the Upward experience to be a positive one.  We have found that if our staff, Upward leaders, coaches, and other volunteers focus on building relationships then we have a stronger league.  We have connected with many great families that have played every year until their child ages out of the program.  Relationships are key to making Upward great.

3. Emphasis on Skills
Upward is a competitive league, however we emphasize the players' growth over competition.  We want this to be a league where kids of all skill levels will feel welcome.  We also want to see them grow in their skills as the season progresses.  It is always so amazing to see how players improve.  When we emphasize skills, all players feel valued and encouraged.

4. Emphasis on Affirmation
Finally, Upward emphasizes an affirming attitude during games.  You might see parents getting hot or coaches yelling at referees in other leagues.  At the Oakhill Upward league, we see almost none of this.  We work hard to create a positive environment where everyone from the players, to the coaches, to the referees, to the parents are affirmed.  We know that people make mistakes, refs will miss calls, players will miss shots; but even through all of that, we want to be encouraging.  Our Upward league has a great reputation, and we hope to continue this tradition each season.

I hope you understand why we think the Upward Sports Ministry is so special.  If you want to volunteer to help during the season, please contact me at   The biggest way you can help is to pray!  Pray for our players to respond to the truth of the gospel.  Pray for our coaches as they work with the players.  Pray for a safe, fun, and positive environment in practices and games.  We can never have enough people praying for us!  Thank you for your support and prayers!

Spare Change - November 2022

Living a Spirit-filled Life
Being a Spirit filled Christian is an important part of our faith. This is something we should strive for daily. This ideal seeks to shape us in the process of sanctification; however, we must not confuse being Spirit filled with being Spirit indwelled.  Every born-again Christian who has experienced the redemption found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ has been indwelled with the Holy Spirit. This is the same Spirit which was promised by Jesus to help us in all that we do as believers (John 14:16-17). The real question is if we recognize that He is in us and if we cooperate with Him. This is what being filled by the Spirit is all about. Paul explains this in Ephesians 5:18-21:

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 

The idea here is that we are repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit.  Wayne Grudem describes it like this, “…it is appropriate to understand the filling with the Holy Spirit not as a one-time event but as an event that can occur over and over again in a Christian’s life. It may involve a momentary empowering for a specific ministry, but it may also refer to a long-term characteristic of a person’s life.” (Systematic Theology, 782). Christians are called to continually be Spirit filled and to renew that filling if we find ourselves off-track or backslidden. The big question is how do we become Spirit filled? Paul gives us a plan that results in a Spirit filled life:

1. Empty Yourself of the World (5:1-17) - It is hard to fill a glass that is already full of something else. Paul uses
   Ephesians 5:1-17 to emphasize the fact that we need to rid our lives of worldly attitudes, thoughts, and actions. Take a moment to read this entire passage and think about what things need to be emptied out of your life.
   
   2. An Outward Attitude of Worship (5:19) - We should have a worshipful attitude toward everyone we meet. This is to be taken literally and figuratively. One sure fire way to engage with the Spirit is to sing songs of praise and worship to the Lord and talk about Him with other believers.
   
   3. An Inward Attitude of Worship (5:19) - Our inward attitude should match our outward actions. We can’t just sing songs of praise, we must internalize them and sing them to the Lord. Making a melody to the Lord with our heart is about having a close relationship with the Lord. That’s what an attitude of Spirit filled worship does for us.
   
   4.An Attitude of Thanksgiving (5:20) - It is amazing how much better you feel when you express an attitude of
   thanksgiving. There is something about gratitude that just makes us feel better. It helps us to draw close to God and
   relate better to those around us. Start by making a list of all that you are thankful for. You might find that you run out of paper before you run out of things to be thankful for.
   
   5.An Attitude of Submission (5:21) - Jesus is our authority. Every Christian should walk in submission to Him. However, if we say we submit to the Lordship of Christ but refuse to walk in humility, forgiveness, and love toward one another then we are not truly honoring Him. Mutual submission among believers is submission to the Lord. All our relationships should be marked by this type of living. This is what it means to live a Spirit filled life.