Our Blog

April 2016 Pastor's Points

Dear Church Family,

Wow!!  What a great Easter weekend we had this past month!  The Easter
Eggstravaganza was a great event.  Thank you to all the volunteers who made it happen.  Also, a big thanks to April Sharp our Children’s Ministry Director for giving great leadership!  Kids and parents alike had a great time and I know personally that I was able to have some great interaction with people that are not normally a part of our church!  We followed that event up with our three Easter services the next day.  All of our services were led by our new worship pastor Jared Mitchell, and he did an outstanding job leading us!  We had right at 800 in our worship services and had one person join the church and two people pray to receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord!  We need to thank God because He is the one that brought the people to worship and moved on the hearts of those that made decisions.  He is a good, good, Father and He truly blessed us this year at Easter.

Also, I am looking forward into the future as our good father is going to continue to move among us and bless us with His direction.  I have been seeking hard to know His will for our church family for the next months and years and I feel Him giving me leading in this area.  In May I will have been the lead pastor of Oakhill for ten years.  That just does not seem possible.  We have seen God do many things in those ten years.  We have seen many salvations, people have grown in their faith, we have built buildings together, expanded our worship services and ministries, and seen our budget grow.  Our lives truly have changed as we have worshiped, grown, served and given together!  I am so thankful for all that God has done for us and in us.  And I am very excited to consider what He is going to do in the next ten years of our ministry together.

I shared back in November of 2015 in two separate messages that I know part of what God is leading us to do is to invest like never before in the “Grow” portion of our “Life Change Cycle”.  Our worship has expanded, our service in the ministry is strong, and our people are giving faithfully.  Now we need to invest in our disciple making here at Oakhill.  And we are going to come to understand that the only way to grow as a disciple is to be “counseled” by God’s Word.  So we are going to intentionally set in place a discipleship emphasis that will include a biblical counseling ministry that will help us come to understand that biblical counseling is simply a part of the discipleship process.  Please pray for your ministerial staff as we continue to ask God to show us the details of this emphasis. You will be hearing more about this in the months to come.  I cannot wait to see what God is going to do!!!

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

April 2016 Spare Change

                        Hispanic Church Plant Coming to Evansville!

Late last year we were approached by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) to consider sponsoring a Hispanic Church Plant in Evansville.  We met with the church planter and his family, and   they have since visited Oakhill on two occasions.  We spent the past few months praying and working out the details with the church planter and are excited to announce that Oakhill Baptist Church will be sponsoring a Hispanic church plant later this year!

Alfonso Soto, the church planter, will begin working in the area starting in June.  He will work to establish connections within the Hispanic community for the first couple of months.  Alfonso and his family are currently located in the Jasper/Huntingburg area where they are a part of a SBC Hispanic church.  Alfonso has been instrumental in starting home groups and assisting the Pastor.  He has a desire to see a Hispanic church plant come to the Evansville area.  This will be a church where worship, preaching, and fellowship will primarily be done in Spanish.  Alfonso is looking to start a home group by August that will eventually result in a church plant.

Oakhill will be the home base of operation for Alfonso.  While NAMB will be paying his salary, Oakhill will be paying a small monthly stipend to help with expenses, as well as helping with some ministry costs.  Alfonso will also be learning from our staff and applying those things within the context of the church plant.  We are making a three year commitment to this church plant, contingent on an annual review.  NAMB also has their own goals and standards that the church plant must meet.

We believe that Alfonso will have no problem engaging the Hispanic community in Evansville and starting a home group by August, however, he needs our help.  You might say, “How can I help? I don’t speak Spanish”.  There are lots of ways that you can help even if you don’t speak Spanish.

1. Pray – This is a big undertaking for the Soto family. They are moving their family from Jasper to Evansville. They need to make connections quickly and find some people willing to help start this church.  Church planters and the actual plant need lots of prayer.
2. Include – Include the Soto family as you would any other church member or staff person. They literally do not know anyone from this area. Oakhill will be their church home while they get things going with the plant.  We need to befriend them and work to include them in our church family.  I know you will make Alfonso, Wendy and their children feel right at home.
3. Connect – If you know of anyone in our community that might benefit from this church plant, please submit their name to me or Alfonso. He will be making cold calls and connecting with people for the first couple of months. Again, he doesn’t know anyone yet, so he is relying on us to help him identify Hispanics in our area.
4. Volunteer – We will have connection events like block parties and other activities that you can be a part of. Even if you don’t speak Spanish you can help by volunteering at these events. Look for info to come later in the year on these events.

We will be building a team to assist with the church plant soon.  If you do speak Spanish and want to be involved, then we can definitely use you.  Even if you don’t speak Spanish but still have a passion for this ministry you can help.  Please contact me ASAP at the church office if you are interested in an ongoing volunteer capacity.