Oasis - Sunday Night Reflections

Wow - it's late Sunday night and I'm still awake! What an awesome day we had at Oasis today! I've been a bit overwhelmed by what we are learning in our series "At the Kid's Movies! - Today we did "Ratatouille" and it is amazing what you can learn from a rat.

So as for my reflections tonight:

• Kids movies are awesome and even if you don't have kids - you should check them out!
• Remy, "the rat" can teach us that your beginning does not need to determine your end!
• You can know your TRUE identity (in Christ) and most of us would like to have a new identity
• LIGHT BULB - our TRUE identity in Christ is for a purpose- Freedom.
• If we are co-heirs with Christ and he came to be a servant - then our identity is to be like him - a servant to others.
• Use your identity for a purpose - Freedom. Use your freedom to serve others!
• Popcorn in church is an awesome thing!
• Attendance is growing in July - "a new concept in AZ!"
• God is our healer, our portion, - all we need.....and the operative word is that we believe because without faith it is impossible to please God!

Be blessed and I look forward to hearing how you used your freedom to serve others this week!

Pastor Scott

Facebook - 209 Friends!

Wow - Facebook is addictive and time consuming but I'm reconnecting with peope I've not had contact with for 15-20 years! I'm loving this and I've already connected with 209 people in just about a month!

So are you on Facebook? - I'll see you there!
Pastor Scott

Johnny's Prayer

Wow - do I love being a dad or what? There are just times that kids can be so alive that you want to linger in the moment for a long time!

I just came from putting Johnny to bed. Every night we ask him who he wants to pray for. There are many nights that he names just one person or others that he says - "you pray tonight". But tonight was one of those prolific nights of prayer from the lips of a 4-year old and daddy just got to listen.

"Thank you God for Joshua, Alex, BobbiJo..thank you for pappy and ma Baker,thank you for Mackie, and Brandy and Bailey. Please take care of Bailey.(she was our dalmation that passed last fall) Thank you for Levi and all of my friends...thank you for my friends at school, thank you for that school, thank you for our new house, thank you for my bunk bed, thank you for our walls - thank you that our house is not a warehouse! (?not sure where that came from) Thank you for air conditioning - Amen!"

Then we got to talk about how prayer is something that God loves. I explained that praying is talking to God about all the things that you are thankful for, what you've been doing and even your questions. I said - God is our Daddy in heaven and just like I love to hear what you do everyday - God wants to hear from you. I told him that even God would talk to him. Johnny said - "But God doesn't talk". Daddy said "If you stop and listen you will hear him in your mind and your heart one day - I promise you." From Johnny - silence....and contemplation.

Then we did "Johnny Is..." and off to sleep. Oh - if this moment could last forever!

Oasis - Sunday Night Reflections

I first have to say that this Sunday night reflection in the style of another blog that I've come to follow. www.PerryNoble.com

I really like his simple bullets - so here is what I'm reflecting on this Sunday night!

• I love the people that God is calling to Oasis! How diverse, how beautiful, how creative and how you are learning unity in Christ!
• I loved today's new series "At the 'Kids' Movies". It was kind of a risk but turned out to be an awesome day as Caryl taught about Wilbur & Charlotte from "Charlotte's Web". All of us can be extraordinary.
• I'm thinking about my "One Thing" that I need to focus on for the next 30 days to be come Extraordinary. How about you?
• I'm wondering if Robert Vigil will actually request battle pay to clean up the popcorn during this series?
• I'm reflecting on what a great thing it was to do corporate communion today. It's been several months since we did this. I'm always blown away by how many people need to know that the blood of Jesus can reach any hidden area of our lives. Have you applied the blood to the closest with skeletons?
• I'm still amazed at our attendance today. Is this summer?
• I'm always pumped when we get to share the Vision of Oasis Life Church and having nearly 50 adults (and 20+ kids in the back) was awesome today. Anyone want to be a partner?
• I'm grateful that my in-laws are here to live with us in AZ and that they came to Oasis today! Besides - mom made mandarin orange cake for the Vision Lunch!
• I'm on my face thanking God that he is allowing me to be a part of what he is doing in the city of Maricopa! I know there are greater things to be done in this city.
• I could go on but .....
• I'm reflecting that by nearly 10 PM on a Sunday - it is time for some rest!

With love - let's pursue Him with all that is within us. It is worth it!

Blessings - Pastor Scott

Facebook Week

Ok - so my sister introduced me to Facebook a year ago but I finally joined this past week! - Wow, how cool is that. I'm always a little scared to be on MySpace because I'm not sure what will pop up on my screen but on Facebook it appears to be much less prone to pornography and you have a lot of controls on what you and others see!



So - this week I've connected with family members, long lost friends, past co-workers, neighbors, other pastors, Christian leaders, church members and so many more! If you've not checked it out - I think it is an awesome platform and one worth investing some time building a profile and finding friends online!

As you know - at Oasis we also use www.mychurch.org/oasislifechurch.org This provides a great and safe place for even younger kids to do social networking in a safe environment. The cool thing is that for those who have both profiles - Facebook and MyChurch can be linked from Facebook.com.

So - will I see you online? Anyone for some social networking?
Pastor Scott

Blogarama ! (and final One Prayer msg)

Wow - I love blogging! However there are times that the amount of places that need to be updated in the media and social networking sites that I just fall behind.

So tonight is Blogarama Baby! - Time to catch up!

On Sunday - July 6 we finished the "One Prayer series. If you've not yet checked it out go to www.oneprayer.com. Our final message was from John Siebeling of The Life Church of Memphis (www.thelifechurch.com) The prayer was "God, Make Us Diverse". While know that we have come a long way in diversity there is still much work to be done.

At Oasis - it is a part of our guiding principle of "Passion for People" that we should be "attractively diverse". Caryl and I believe we should worship here on earth in such a way that reflects how we will worship in heaven - all nations, all races, all colors, all disabilities, all shapes, all sizes, all economic stratas....ALL!

John - Thank you for the challenge! Thank you for your example!

So people of Oasis - friends - how do you embrace divesity? I'd love to hear your comments and storis - With Love - Pastor Scott

Oasis & the AZ Diamondbacks

July 4 - the day we celebrate our countries freedom! 85 of us from Oasis went to the AZ Diamondbacks www.azdiamondbacks.com game vs the San Diego Padres. Turns out that the Davis/Blackburns had another 30 tickets just in front of us so we knew nearly 115 people in our section! We had a blast event though the D-backs lost!

The highlight of the night was the fireworks that took place after the game! Just after 10 PM the lights all went out in the stadium after the roof was opened! We enjoyed nearly 20 minutes of intense fireworks to awesome patriotic music! Johnny loved it but was so tired I had to carry him all the way back to the car - which due to the sold-out crowd took quite a while!

Sounds like a great tradition to get started - so what do you say - want to do it again next year?

Have a great week - Pastor Scott

One Prayer - Wk 4 - Chris Hodges - "Make Us Authentic"

One Prayer has been an awesome time for us at Oasis Life Church. Not only are we having an incredible time as we join over 1500 churches (and growing daily) in this incredible experiment in unity but we are getting to hear from some of the great ARC pastors . We are so blessed to be a part of an incredible organization. See www.relatedchurches.com

This past weekend we heard from Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, AL. (www.churchofthehighlands.com) His prayer was "God, Make Us Genuine". There were so many great things in this message but the thing that stood out was the idea that if we fall in love with God we will want to follow his commands.

Thank you Chris for your incredible insight. As a church we took a hard look at ourselves and asked - "Are we genuine followers of Christ?" So what do you think?