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Pastor's Point - September 2023

Dear Church Family,

On September 10^th and October 1^st we are going to celebrate our 60^th anniversary as a church family! On September 10^th we will gather at North Campus to fellowship together and celebrate God’s provision for our immediate and long-term future. And then on October 1^st in all three services we will gather for worship and celebrate our great God who has shown Himself to be “Always Faithful” to our church. Then, on the evening of October 1^st we will come back together for a church-wide dinner as we remember and celebrate what God has done in our midst over the last 60 years. You will hear more details as these events get closer, but for the rest of my article I want us to think about the theme of our Celebrating Sixty years of ministry.

The theme is “Always Faithful.” Yes, in some regards that is an allusion to the faithful members and ministry staff that it took to keep ministry going for 60 years. But to a larger degree we need to understand that theme is pointing us to our great God because He is truly the only one that is “always” faithful.

Many things have changed throughout the years. Ministry plans, church policy, church staff, lead pastors, membership makeup. On and on we could go, but the one constant has been our faithful God.

You see even with the best of intentions, pastors, church staff, and members are not always faithful. We as humans fall short. We make mistakes. We sin. We are not always faithful. But the Lord is. This is why I want us to know that the celebration and the glory cannot go to the church’s pastors, past, present, or future. Key members throughout the years cannot be the ones to get the glory for 60 years of ministry either. We cannot celebrate the ministry endeavors of the church as well. We must keep the focus on our faithful God.

You see, people come and go; ministers are here for a season, but the Lord remains. And He is always faithful. Rev. Glen Flowers was here serving with his wife Naomi for twenty-one years before me. I have been here serving with my wife Paula for the past seventeen and a half years. And at some point, someone else will come to be the next lead pastor after me. This is just how it is. Yes, we are all called to be faithful, but we can never be the focus. The focus must always stay on our ever-faithful Lord!

And as Oakhill prepares to launch off into sixty more years of ministry, let us always remember to keep our eyes on Him and to trust Him every step of the way. My prayer for Oakhill is that she will always do the things God has commanded the local church to do, as found in the New Testament. And I believe as those things are done, God will
move and grow His church. And the church’s response to His movement will be to follow His lead. As I always say, “As God Moves, We Move.” Oakhill, keep moving with God and let’s make sure to always give Him the glory!!

I love you and I love being your pastor!

Pastor's Point - August 2023

Dear Church Family,

In October we will be celebrating sixty years of ministry as a local church. That is amazing and a blessing! Our church has been blessed throughout the years by faithful people who invested their lives here at Oakhill. And it is upon their love for the Lord and sacrificial investments that we continue to build the legacy of the Gospel right here on Oak Hill Road.

Our most recent former pastor is Rev. Glen Flowers, who is an active member in our church to this day. He and his sweet wife Naomi are here almost every Sunday praising the Lord and supporting me as their Pastor. I cannot tell you how much this encourages me. I love this precious couple because before I came to Oakhill they served this church faithfully for twenty-one years! I am so thankful that when Glen retired, he gave the pastor search committee my information for them to contact me about praying about coming to Oakhill. I was not looking to leave where I was, but God was moving in the details. I found myself being called to Oakhill and God has blessed me and my family for the last seventeen years. Between Glen and I, we have served thirty-eight years of the sixty years this church has been established. I think he would agree with me that the only way you can stay around in a church for that long is when you have others who stick with you faithfully through the years.

Planting yourself in a local church for the long term produces good fruit in your life and in the life of the church. No church is perfect, and for sure no pastor is perfect. But if we can stick together and keep our eyes on Jesus, we can build a legacy of faith together. Please consider this article I found on this topic and consider the points that the author makes.

7 Advantages of Long-Term Church Membership by Karl Vaters
The best things in life don’t come in a hurry. They take time. But they’re worth the investment. Sometimes it seems like everyone is leaving the church. But that’s not the case. While we’re right to be concerned about church-hoppers and church-droppers, people don’t typically go to a church with the plan of leaving soon. Most want to put down roots and stay committed for the long haul. There’s always a core group of faithful people at the heart of every healthy congregation. Our lives and our churches are better because of them. Here are just a few advantages of staying put in a congregation through the good times and bad:

1. You develop deeper relationships: While it’s always nice to meet new folks (and it’s God’s work on earth to help them connect with your circle of friends)
   there’s nothing like knowing and growing with a group of people over a lifetime, or a major segment of your lifetime. There are so many life lessons that simply
   take time to learn. No matter how smart we are or how hard we work, nothing can replace living life with people who know, love and watch out for each other
   year after year and decade after decade. There are no shortcuts to deep relationships. You have to put in the time.
2. You’re less likely to repeat the same cycles: If we move from church to church we can stay spiritually stuck and not know it. Everything around us has changed,
   so we don’t have to. If we move from church to church we can stay spiritually stuck and not know it. It may feel like we’re growing deeper, but we may be doing nothing but repeating the same cycles in a new environment. And there’s no one in that new church who’s known us long enough to spot it, call us on it, or help
   us get past it. We can also get stuck when we stay put, of course. But the repetition is more noticeable, which might provide an incentive to grow deeper. Some
   of the people I most admire are longtime friends who might seem like little more than everyday churchgoers to everyone else, but I’ve watched them grow
   deeper, wiser and kinder year after year.
3. You can be part of the foundation that others build on: Every church needs a foundation to build on. But it’s hard to do that when the ground either grows
   hard (through stubbornness) or keeps shifting (through constant coming and going). One of the reasons we honor the giants of the faith who came before us is
   because they laid a foundation when they encouraged, supported and even funded our new, crazy ideas. We honor them when we do the same for those who come after us.
4. You can be a great champion for both stability and change: When a newcomer or young person promotes change in the church, that’s expected. And it can be
   easy to ignore. But when a long-time member champions change, it carries a lot of weight. In addition to being a landmark of stability, as we saw in the previous point, long-time members can be among the strongest proponents of necessary changes. Whenever our church has needed to make significant jumps forward, we’ve relied as much on the stability, wisdom and support of our older, longtime members as we have on the enthusiasm, energy and passion of those who are young and new. There’s so much concern about the generational divide in churches today. When we stick around a while, we can become the glue that helps bridge that divide.
5. You can help a healthy church become healthier: The strongest, healthiest churches are the ones that have been around a while, have learned the hard lessons over time, and have adapted to changing circumstances while keeping solid on the essentials of the faith. That can’t happen when there are no long-timers
   around, or when the long-timers grow hard and stubborn about getting their own way. But when a healthy church has a mix of newcomers and long-time
   members all working together for a common vision of the future … well that’s about as good as it gets.
6. You can spot and help fix problems before they get too big: There’s no substitute for the eyes of wisdom and experience. If you’ve been around a while and are paying attention, you’re often able to spot potential problems that the younger, busier church members might not see. Yes, there will always be stubborn old
   coots who see problems with everything, and there will always be flighty young people who ignore the sage advice of their elders, but that doesn’t have to be the norm. If you stay steady, supportive, adaptive and kind, young people today are more willing to listen to the advice of their elders than many previous generations were. The key is to keep positive, be available and pick your battles carefully.
7. You get to see and participate in generational progress: We hear a lot about churches that have grown from small to big in a short period of time. But those churches are few and far between. The typical church grows slowly and steadily. Over decades, not just a few years. The typical church grows slowly and steadily. Over decades, not in a couple years. If you invest a lifetime into a healthy church, you’ll get to see a depth of growth that few others will ever have the chance to appreciate. As believers in Jesus, we’re dealing with a timeline that’s eternal. The best things in life don’t come in a hurry. They take time. But they’re worth the investment.

I love you and I love being your pastor!