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Pastor's Points September 2017

Dear Church Family,

For the last 11 years I have begun my articles to you with “Dear Church Family”.  I have always seen us as the family of God participating together as the body of Christ.  You are my brothers and sisters in Christ and I love you tremendously! Recently we updated our church logo and with it came a new saying that I pray our church will rally around over the course of time.  The saying is simply, “A Family for Life”.  I pray that our church will truly be a family for life for all that are a part of it.  A family for this life that we are making our way through, and a family for all of eternity that is to come!  My prayer is that Oakhill will not simply be “a” church that you attend, but that it will be “your” church family that you are a part of and invested in.

I want to lead us to intentionally invest in each other and the life of our church family.  One way that we are going to do this is to plan and promote family gatherings where we can all be together so we can build community and really invest in one another.  These will be family gatherings where we all can come together; every generation, and every worship hour together united in our bond as brothers and sisters in Christ.

The first family gathering is coming on September 10 as we gather together for a  special family night of worship.  We will be at the associational ball fields where our fireworks celebration takes place.  Food trucks will be present (Pizza Revolution, and Lolly’s Pops) to purchase from or feel free to bring your own picnic style food as well.  Bring your lawn chairs and relax together as we eat, play games, but most importantly worship together as family.  This is going to be an amazing time together.  We will be producing a listing of the different family gatherings that we are planning to offer throughout the rest of 2017 and in to 2018.  Please prioritize these special times together.

Finally, I want to encourage you to clear the dates of November 3^rd and 4^th for a special marriage weekend that we are hosting at our church.  “The Art of Marriage” will be hosted by myself and my wife Paula!  We are very excited to invest in the couples of our church as we facilitate the video teachings of some of the most renowned speakers on the topic of marriage in the church today.  We will also be sharing from our 30 plus years of marriage as well.  This is going to be a fun, encouraging, and challenging time together.  Please make this a priority and please see this as an investment into the health of your marriage.  We are not able to offer childcare for this event so please begin to plan now how you can secure childcare for your children. Consider asking your parents, family members, or friends to help you on this weekend.  This would be one of the very best ways that they could make a powerful investment in your marriage. 

Oakhill truly is a “family for life”!  Let’s invest in one another as the Lord invest in us all! 

I love you and I love being your pastor,

Pastor's Points August 2017

Dear Church Family,

I pray you are doing well and are enjoying this summer season!  This time of the year is very busy for us all so I want to take this opportunity to give you an update on the ministry of our church.  Many exciting things have already happened and there is more to come.

First let me say, Vacation Bible School was amazing this year!!  April and all our volunteers were amazing!  With our morning and evening VBS we had right at 300 kids enrolled this year, and 18 children made professions of faith!!  Praise God for all He did!  It was a week full of excitement, and blessing!!

Second, the Fireworks Celebration we had was our biggest and best community celebration to date!  We parked over 250 cars with 750-800 people in attendance!  Our church family was there along with those that came because of VBS, and we also had many from the community that came because of some Facebook advertising that we did.  I spoke with so many that do not have a church home but need one.  It was a great                       fellowship/outreach event!  Thanks to all our volunteers who made it possible!!

Third, our Life Groups now have 7 adult on-campus groups and 12 adult off-campus groups. I am very thankful for every one of these groups.  We now can reach out to more people and we are seeing people getting connected to the church who were never     connected before.  I pray God uses all these groups to help people “belong” to our church family! 

Finally, I want to mention some upcoming events that I am very excited about!

In September, we are going to have a special church-wide fellowship called, “Family Worship Fellowship!”  We will be out at the ball fields where we had our fireworks for this event. A stage will be set up where all the activities will happen.  The food truck Pizza Revolution will be there for you to purchase food if you would like or you can bring your own picnic style feast for your family.  After we are done eating, we will gather our lawn chairs together for a special time together as a church family to worship together.  This will be a great time together no matter your age or generation!!  It is going to be awesome!!

Then in November we are going to have a special marriage retreat weekend for couples.  Details are still being worked out but please save the dates of November 3-4.  You will be glad that you did!!

Please stay tuned in to what God is doing in your church family in the middle of this busy summer. Also, please do not forget to continue to financially support your church family.  Giving tends to dip during the summer and we have dipped a little more than normal.  Please make the effort to catch up in your giving if you have fallen behind so we can continue to make a difference through our local church and around the world!!

I love you and I love being your pastor!

Pastor Alan