Our Blog

Worship July 2018

Church Family,

I hope the summer is treating you well and you are all having lots of summer fun with your family and friends! It’s been a busy season of ministry here at Oakhill, as we have seen God move in big ways this summer! We are just coming off an incredible week of VBS, and we hope you and your family were here to enjoy it. As I reflect on our time in VBS, I can’t help but thing of the great times we had at the worship rally as our kids danced, sang, and worshipped through music! It’s always a joy to hear a child speak and sing about Jesus.

If you’re like me, you wish you could hear children worship like this all year long. The good news is that you don’t have to wait until VBS every year to worship with your children! Worship with your children can happen any day, and any week. Yes, it may look and sound different. You may not have the fun VBS songs, the crazy lights, or dance   motions, but you have the opportunity to teach your children more about what worship truly is. You have the opportunity to teach your children that worship doesn't come through your singing or dancing, but true worship comes through your heart. Here are 3 ways to worship with your children every day and week.

1) Bring your children to Church on Sunday mornings. This may seem like an obvious answer, but this is a guaranteed time to worship together once every week. Here at Oakhill, we have our Children’s worship, and we also have our corporate worship times. Come and be a part every Sunday.

2) Worship in the car. This may seem different, but we all have CD players, IPods, etc., and these are all great resources to worship with. Find out some of your kid’s favorite worship songs, or show them some new worship songs. Play these in your car, and encourage your family to sing along. Take the time you have in the car to talk about what the songs mean. Lead your children in worship while you are in the car together.

3) Find time for family worship in your home. In the evenings, in the mornings, whenever works best, find a time to gather around with your children and worship. You don’t have to play an instrument, but you can sing some songs that they can easily learn. Amazing Grace is a great hymn to teach your children. And have your Bible with you. Take 20 minutes to read scripture together, pray, and sing. It will be well worth your time. We don’t have to wait for times like VBS to worship with our children. Opportunities are all around us, we just have to take advantage of them!

Worship June 2018

Church Family,
This month I want to share some thoughts on preparing for Sunday worship. How do you prepare for Sunday worship? Have you ever considered this question? Do we even need to prepare to worship on Sundays? And if so, what do we do to prepare? I think the answer to this question is, “yes”, we do need to prepare before we walk into the church doors on Sunday morning, and I think it’s important to do it. We don’t have to wait until we get to church to have an encounter with God, but we can start our time with God early in the morning, as we prepare our hearts to worship Him with the rest of our  brothers and sisters in church when to arrive for our corporate worship service. Here are four ways that we can all prepare our hearts for our Sunday Morning Worship Gathering.

1) Make the decision to attend Church. Our pastor always says, “Going to Church on Sunday is a Saturday night decision. Don’t wait until Sunday morning to see “how you feel.” You’ll always feel tired, weary, and too many feelings will you tell you not to go. Make this decision non-negotiable. Decide on Saturday to be a part of church on Sunday. Make plans and follow through. You’ll never regret spending an hour of your Sunday morning in corporate worship.

2) Get up early and spend time with God before going to Church. As mentioned earlier, our encounter with God doesn’t have to wait until we arrive at 9:30 am, but to rise early and spend time with God and His word will only enhance your corporate worship time. Not only does this enhance our worship, but it prepares our heart to love people well. It prepares our heart to serve well. And when we arrive to Church, our time with God propels us to live and love like He does. An early meeting with God in the morning will never leave regrets later in the day.

3) Stay caught up. And by this, I mean to stay up to date with the current sermon series. I know there are weeks where we will miss church, and there are some Sundays that we just don’t pay the best attention. All of our sermons are posted online on our website, and they are always up to date. We always work through a current sermon series, so it’s important to stay caught up. If you are aware how God moved last week, you’ll be more prepared for Him to move in your life this week! And this isn’t hard. We don’t want Netflix shows out of order. Let’s make it a point to listen to our Sunday sermons in order as well.

4) Talk about what you’ve learned. When our Sunday worship gathering has concluded, think about what you’ve learned, and share it with someone. Share with your family, your small group, or a friend. When God moves, share it. Be excited for what God is going to do on Sunday, because you know that after, you’ll have a great testimony to share as to what God has done in your life! So as we come on Sunday, we should expect to learn something that we can share with others. God is worthy of our conversation!

See you Sunday!
In Christ,
Jared