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Pastor's Point - October 2024

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Dear Church Family,

This month I want to remind us of a wonderful opportunity that is coming up, I want to celebrate what God is doing in the life of our church, and I want to encourage you to praise God for all that He is doing.

First, we have a fantastic opportunity for outreach to our friends, families, and neighbors in October! On October 5th we are going to gather at our North Campus for our Fall fellowship event. This is a great “bridge” event to where you can invite people you know that are not connected to a church so they can experience a great night of fall fun with your church family. I have met so many people through the years at events like this and had opportunity to let them know that we would love for them to visit us on a Sunday morning to worship together. We are going to have hayrides, food, bounce houses, and fire pits for a great fall fellowship. Make sure to come and bring others with you as we enjoy this outdoor event on our North Campus! It is going to be a great night together!!

Second, I want to praise the Lord for what He has been doing in the life of our church over the last several months. God has blessed us with multiple baptisms over the last several Sunday mornings! Sometimes churches have an “emphasis” or “push” to try to baptize more people, but that is not why we are baptizing more people. It is simply God working in the lives of people, and it is the culmination of Gospel work that has been done by our individual families as well as in the ministries of our church. God has just been bringing in the harvest and it is so exciting to see!

Recently we also offered one of our “Discover Oakhill” nights for people to find out more what it means to be a member of Oakhill. We had twenty one people sign up to hear more about what it means to be a member of Oakhill. Once again this is God bringing people to our church to consider membership here at Oakhill. And, during these last few months, our worship attendance has been strong with some of our Sundays being over 600 in attendance! Like I said this is not us trying to generate some high attendance Sunday, it is simply God moving on the hearts of people to come and worship Him here at Oakhill. Of course, with all of this comes concerns about parking and space issues. But thankfully these are in the process of getting addressed as we will soon be breaking ground down at North Campus to continue to develop North Campus so we can alleviate our parking and space issues. Soon you will be hearing more exciting details about the new work beginning at North Campus.

Finally, I want to encourage us to make sure that we are praising our great God for all of this!! He is the one doing these things. He does not have to, but He is choosing to move in these ways, and we should be humbled and thankful for it and make sure to offer Him praise in the middle of it all!

He is so good to us! Remember, as God moves, we move!

I love you and I love being your pastor!

Posted by Alan Scott with
in Kids, Newsletter, Students

Family Ministry Moments - October 2024

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What is so rewarding about being a Kids’ Life Group leader?  Teachers are the cornerstone of our kids' ministry.  There is only so much large group teaching we can do, the most effective kind of teaching is in small groups. We intentionally break down our kids into smaller groups. At the 9:30 worship hour, each grade/age has a class.  At 11 am some of the grades are grouped together but the classes are still small.  This is important so the kids can learn the Bible and grow in their faith. 

Our Kids' Life Group leaders are amazing teachers who pour their life into the children every Sunday. They are crucial in helping these children to grow in their faith but not because they teach the Bible every week.  Teaching the Bible is vitally important but their steady influence in the kids’ lives is just as important.  The presence of a godly leader every week is a huge part of what makes kids' ministry work.

Let’s do a little exercise.  How many sermons or Bible lessons can you remember, ones that have impacted your life so much you can remember them easily?  A handful, 10, 20?  How many have you heard in your life? 1,000’s?  The percentage of how many have impacted your life is very low to the amount you have heard. The reason is that the Bible lessons accumulate in our lives to build up our faith.  We don’t have to remember every lesson to be discipled in the Word.  It is like working out.  You will not see the effect of one workout on your health, but after a year of working out consistently, you will see it clearly.  Being discipled in the Word is like this, we don’t have to remember every lesson we have been taught but when we are consistently learning we see spiritual growth in our lives.

Now how many Bible study leaders, teachers, and pastors can you name? You can probably recall almost every teacher you have had or at least a high percentage of them. I can recall the influence my 11th grade Sunday school teacher, David, had in my life (I only started attending church regularly in my 11th grade year).  I only remember a couple of things that David said in class, however, what I remember most was his godly presence and commitment to teaching a bunch of rowdy 11th grade boys.  He was consistently there every Sunday pouring into us.  David is not the only one that I can recall there are many that have been an encouraging godly presence in my life pouring into me.

This is why I say the influence of the teacher is just as important as the lessons being taught.  We need godly individuals who will commit to leading kids' life groups.  Right now we have an opening in our 1st-2nd grade class and our 3rd-5th grade class both during the 11 am worship hour.  What these children need is a consistent leader who will seek to love them and be committed to sharing the Word of God with them.  Teaching is not always easy, I have been filling in the 1st-2nd grade class for a few weeks. They can try your patience and don’t always listen but the reward I get from teaching is amazing. I know I am making a difference in these children’s lives. I know they are learning God’s Word every week and growing in grace.  There is no greater joy than being able to pour into these children.

Would you pray about stepping up and filling one of the positions? God can use you in a mighty way.  You can be that person who helps to shape and influence these kids for the glory of the Lord. The commitment is just for a year (August to August). We have subs available for when you are on vacation or sick.  Kids’ ministry volunteers must have attended Oakhill for 6 months and pass a background check.  Let me know if you are interested and we can talk more about the open positions. Reach out to me at or call the Church Office at 812-476-3450.

Posted by Bryan Gotcher with

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