Prayer week: meeting 7 Birmingham

I always get well excited whenever we plan to pray for Birmingham on prayer weeks and this morning did not disappoint. Brilliant time of praising and thanking God for being in such a great city with massive diversity and size with so many different aspects to it. We then moved this into thanking God for being the head of the body: His church. This was an ace time of praising God and thanking Him for the diversity that exists amongst Birmigham as a city which is reflected in Birmingham’s churches. We asked for greater unity inside each of the churches and also amongst churches and for all of us to know that we all belong to the same family and the church is Christ’s bride: happy, beautiful and not depressed, quiet or dull.

We prayed for churches to be invigorated with hope and optimism in God and to all look staright to Him again for joy and know how much He loves us. We prayed a lot for salvation in the city and were reminded of what Frida Burea prayed for us when she was here with Edward during the summer of 2008: that God encouraged us to have faith for 10% of Birmingham being saved and how big a number that is but how amazing God is!

We prayed for old or smaller churches that might not have seen anyone become a Christian for years to know proper hope in God and that He wants the best for His church and to give them joy. We prayed for old churches that might not have used their baptism pool for years and that they’d see tons of people get saved and would have to get using it again! Richard Stunt had this picture of it being a bit like the little boats after Dunkirk: inasmuch as the little boats were little churches rescuing people from death on the shores and bringing them to life and safety. He felt God was saying it didn’t matter how big the boat was but it was important it was rescuing.

We then prayed for new life in the whole of Birmingham, not just churches, and that Birmingham would be a place characterised by God. That Birmingham would be a city that was transformed in every aspect of city life: politically, socially, culturally (specifically in the arts), that the attitude of Birmingham and Brummies would be hopeful and optimistic all to do with God and how much he loves this city and everyone in it. We prayed Birmingham would be a city that didn’t hark back to time when it was great but that it would become great because of God!

Prayer week: meeting 5 Momentum/Impact

Another good prayer meeting this morning where it was all about the stuff we do with everyone who is in their 20s and 30s called Momentum. It was brilliant to be able to thank God for eveything He is doing in this area and to look back and thank Him for where he has taken us over the ten years Oasis has existed to where we are now. To be able to thank Him for everyone we have come into contact with, whether it was for years or even if it was just one very small meeting, was ace and we asked God would keep blessing them now and that they’d know God more.

As we started praying for those who are involved with Momentum now it was ace to thank God for the recent Momentum weekend away and to ask God to keep blessing everyone in Momentum and everything that Momentum is involved in. Recognising that this age group is massive in Birmingham and that it is a really significant period of our lives where people want excitement, adventure, acceptance, and to have a purpose that they would find all that and more in God (and not in other things that would only prove to be a dissapointment). We prayed that Oasis would be somewhere that people would learn these things and know how much God loved them.

A lot of what we prayed about was concerning universities and colleges but Zac Dixon prayed a brilliant prayer asking God to help us to be as passionate for those in their 20s and 30s who are not interested in education at all: as we are about those at college, university or those who have left university.

Finally, we also prayed about a regular night we run in the city centre, above O’Neill’s pub on Broad Street, called Impact. This is something we do to give back to the city and have a night where bands can play and enojy it. We prayed that the people that come and the bands that play will notice something different about Impact and that they’d ask questions and find out about God through the Impact nights.

All in all another good prayer meeting! Tonight is social action and tomorrow morning is for Birmingham and other churches in the city so come along.

Passions for Life

Two events we’ve been made aware of that are both happening at Birmingham Town Hall so thought we’d let you know.

(If the images are too small to read then please click on them and you’ll see them in their original size)

Marriage and Singleness by Adrian Holloway

This week was not a part of a preaching series but instead we were pleased to have Adrian Holloway preach on marriage on singleness.

2010-03-04 Adrian Hollaway Marriage and Singleness

Everything Conference, London…

… spaces are still available for the 27th March trip to London for the Everything Conference so come along. Click here for more info

Prayer week: meeting 3 Small Groups

Another quality prayer meeting this morning and this time it wasn’t as cold as yesterday. The focus this morning was about small groups but again a big thing that came out was thanking God for who He is, how great He is and thanking him again for our salvation. This might sound like stating the obvious but was a great way to start praying and was similar to yesterday morning.

We then got into thanking God for small groups and for small group leaders: specifically praying protection over them and that they won’t get worn out but will be a great influence on their respective small groups which in turn will have a great impact on the rest of the church. From this we prayed that the recent Life Rhythms series would be a great resource for small group leaders (and the rest of the church) to get the balance right in our lives with God as our Lord.

This led into small groups being the engine room of the church that will “stoke the fires” for us as individuals and the church as a whole always making us look straight to God, getting more people into small groups for everyone’s benefit, making them places of hospitality which in turn will have a great evangelistic effect where small groups will not only be a place of Godly reset and recouperation but will see salvation.

All in all well worth getting up early for! Tonight it’s about kids and youth or otherwise hopefully see you there tomorrow morning where we’ll be praying for Momentum and Impact.

All’s fair in love and Scalextric

(Photos are quite small on the blog but click any of them for a larger version)

So for the latest and greatest men’s event so far we all poured over to deepest darkest depths of Warwickshire and battled it out on a MASSIVE scalextric circuit. Now, most blokes on the night hadn’t played for a while (insert: ten years ago minimum) so expectations were pretty low on performance but everyone was well up for the challenge.

Like I said the course was pretty big and six people raced at a time so when the others were not racing they had to stand around the track waiting for a crash and then put the car back on the track. Serious stuff.

We all raced and then the top six overall from the whole night then went through to the Grand Final to decide the top three for the podium and of course, overall winner. So top three were: “Innnn 3″ (Zac’s mate) Sam, “Innnnn 2″ Jon Cairns and overall winner best on the night was “Innnnn 1″ ‘Smoulderin’ Jon Adams!

As you might be able to tell from the snap John Cairns (left) was not happy about coming second because he’d led the way but when he crashed on one corner no one put his car back on and it cost him. Gutting for him but ‘Smoulderin’ Jon Adams (centre) was pretty happy with himself. All is fair in love and scalextric.All in all a really good night and quality one to get mates along to and one for the younger lads. Despite me coming tenth out of nineteen.

Marquee Mart(in) and the PA bunch

So a few people went down to the marquee this afternoon to scout it out and work out where everything is going to go so I thoughtI’d take some snaps to show you what it looks like pre-Sunday.

First of all, it is BIG. Not too big but bigger than we are used to. The above snap is just the entrance. I got Adrian and the welcome signs in it to give an idea of scale. I know it’s a marquee but it’s a lot more than a flimsy tent. It’s got plastered walls, proper carpet and air conditioning so serious stuff.

Then after you’ve walked through the entrance you come straight into the main room. This is where we will be meeting. This is what it looked like when we got there and the Cricket Ground staff were still setting bits up in there. The black and white squared dancefloor won’t be there (un)fortunately on Sunday.

These aren’t going to be on when we’re meeting but in the ceiling of the main room there are hundreds of very small LEDs which give this starry effect. Looks nice and I wanted to show it because otherwise you won’t be seeing it. This snap again gives an idea of the size. The two figures slightly to the right of centre are Adrian and Gus. It’s BIG.

This is more what it will look like when we meet on Sunday but to have a real view you’ve got to be there. Hopefully this gives you a little background to our new venue and you found it interesting. We’re not going to be there every week to warn you before you get too excited but it’s exciting stuff in the life of Oasis so thought I’d share it.

As if a new venue wasn’t enough enticement for you to come on Sunday don’t forget Adrian Holloway is there morning and evening this Sunday so hopefully see you there.

Prayer week…

… join us this week at 6.30-7.30am and 8-9pm from Monday – Friday at the Cricket Ground room 105. Click here to find out what more

Life Rhythms week 7: Emotions by Adrian

The culmination of our Life Rhythms series with Adrian Hurst talking about emotions and the importance of understanding them and dealing with correctly.

2010-02-21 LR Adrian Hurst Emotions (edit)