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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

March 2016 Pastor's Points

Dear Church Family,

I am very excited to share with you a few points to consider this month.
 
•We have now filled the two vacant pastor positions on our church staff.  Nick Scott and Jared Mitchell come to us with passion and a love for the Word of God!  I love the fact that we have two young pastors who are convinced of the importance of the Gospel and the truthfulness of God’s Word.  We are going to see the benefits of their conviction as we participate in gospel saturated worship and discipleship that will focus on knowing God’s truth and speaking it in love to each other and to those outside the church as well.  I could not be more excited!!

• March 20^th is going to be a special time of worship as we gather on Palm Sunday. We will consider the sacrificial love of our Savior from scripture, and then we will participate in the awesome reminder of that love at the Lord’s Table. Also, on this Sunday we will be led in worship for the first time by our new worship pastor Jared Mitchell.  I pray that you will make every effort to be here to experience this Sunday with your church family!
  
  
• Also, please know that our Easter Eggstravaganza is right around the corner on March 26^th. We need candy donated and people willing to fill the thousands of eggs that will be hunted on that day. This is a great event that helps us build a bridge to those in our community.  Please bring your family and friends, and be intentional to invite those who may not have a church home.  If you can help with any of the details of this event please contact April Sharp and let her know that you are willing to help.  We need you to make this event happen!!!
  
  •March 27^th is EASTER SUNDAY!!  I pray that your family will be in town to celebrate the reality of our risen savior!  Bring your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers because I believe God is going to speak powerfully through His Word to us on this day!  I am praying for followers of Jesus to be encouraged and challenged in their walk, and I am praying for people who are far away from God to be made new in Jesus Christ.  We will have all three services on Easter, but we will not have our 2:42 groups to allow us to have sufficient parking on this Sunday.
   

I am convinced that God has awesome things in store for us right around the corner!!  Plug in to what God is doing in your church and ask God to use you like never before.

I love you and I love being your pastor,

Pastor Alan