Loving God. Loving People.

Creating and cultivating Everything: Investing in the City

Our next ‘Everything’ event will be on Sunday 13th May where we will seek to look at, examine and encourage how we can seek to invest in to the city.

Some Background. to the events…

What is it all about?

As a church we are clear that we are on a ‘rescue mission’. We are called to rescue as we have been rescued as Paul describes in Colossians 1: 13 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”. We are those who have been rescued into Jesus’ kingdom which is characterised by love, peace, justice, righteousness and power which we are given a picture of in Revelation 21 and 22 as to what this will ultimately look like.

Having been rescued into this amazing Kingdom we now get to be involved in rescuing through:

a. seeing individuals rescued into this Kingdom

b. revealing the Kingdom in our every day lives.

‘Creating and cultivating everything’ is therefore about encouraging one another through stories, challenges and opportunities that we are seeking to take in our every day lives to create and cultivate demonstrations of this Kingdom we have been rescued into.

Why ‘everything’?

Want each of us to understand the unique places God has placed us in to reveal his Kingdom. The places we spend our day to day lives in for some of us our work places and for others the communities God has placed us in. Through the time together we will then have opportunities to connect with others who can our in similar places so we can understand and encourage one another.

Together all of our ‘things’ added together will start to cause us to change ‘everything’.

Why ‘create’ and ‘cultivate’?

To reveal God’s Kingdom means we have to be proactive. We need to be those who are both actively looking for demonstrations of his kingdom in our worlds and therefore seek to cultivate it and where we can not see demonstrations of God’s Kingdom to create it. Or to put it another way as Jesus did to be salt (cultivate) and be light (create).

Who is it open to?

Everyone!

Education…

…all those involved in providing education are invited to a meeting hosted by Churchcentral this Sunday at 7.45pm with special guest Jeremy Turner. The aim of the evening is to offer support, encouragement and inspiration.

The meeting will be held at Lordswood Girls School, Knightlow Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8QB

There will be time given to hearing from Jeremy along with space for question and answers.

Who is Jeremy Turner?

Jeremy Turner who is an elder in a Newfrontiers church in NorthWest London and the Headmaster of Friern Barnet Secondary School. He has been lauded for turning what was seen as a failing school completely around.

Creating and Cultivating Everything…

…this Sunday 6.30pm at the Komfort suite at Edgbaston Cricket Ground. A great opportunity to connect with others to be encourage as to how you are and can be making a difference. To findout more about what ‘creating and cultivating Everything’ is all about  click here

Creating & Cultivating Everything

Couple of films we didn’t show last Sunday evening due to time that depict what is possible through collaboration…

Creating & Cultivating part 3

We recognise that there is a huge potential in all we can do through collaboration. For the last part of the evening we started to think about some of the ways we could collaborate which we will talk about more the next time we meet on Sunday 18th September at 6.30pm

Questions of collaboration…

…what are some of the unique skills you have to offer?

…what are some of the things you dream of being involved in?

…are there any projects you would appreciate others joining you in to aid you getting it off the ground?

Creating & Cultivating part 2

Our stories:

John Newbold reminded all of us of the amazing backdrop we get to play are part in of Birmingham and the way we can do the city good particularly in light of a recent article by the Independent. (Click here to read)

We then got in to discussion groups connected with others in similar day to day lives as our own to discuss more how we are creating and cultivating.

The groups:

Arts: Chaired by Jane Rosier

Business & Commerce: Chaired by Mark McGill

Health & Public service: Chaired by Ian Walker

Social Action & community: Chaired by Jon Smith

Education: Chaired by Becky Webb

Creative services: Chaired by Mike Hurst

Within these groups we sought to discuss…

…where are you uniquely placed?

…in what ways are you seeking to cultivate and create God’s kingdom where you are placed?

…what are some of the challenges you are facing and how could others support you?

Nb These discussion groups are also looking to connect at other points if you would like to get involved email admin@theoasischurch.com with the details of the group you would like to be connected with

Creating & Cultivating Everything part 1

Last Sunday evening saw a number from Oasis gather for the first of our ‘Creating & Cultivating evenings’. The evening was a mixture of talk, film, sharing stories and discussion.

I thought it would be good to give a quick 3 part snap shot of what we did through the evening for those who couldn’t be there and a reminder for those of us who could.

Start:

We started the evening with a reminder of why we were doing the evening that it falls under the heading of ‘rescue’, that we live with as a church. A deep desire to therefore see people rescued in to God’s kingdom and to live lives of rescue that therefore demonstrate what God’s kingdom is about of peace, love, righteousness, justice and mercy.

We have each been placed in to unique places in order to demonstrate God’s Kingdom which we can do through cultivating (being salt) nurturing demonstrations that are already present and creating (being light) new demonstrations.

Stories:

To earth what this look like we heard some stories from Mosaic church Leeds.

Creating and cultivating everything…

What is it all about?

As a church we are clear that we are on a ‘rescue mission’. We are called to rescue as we have been rescued as Paul describes in Colossians 1: 13 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”. We are those who have been rescued into Jesus’ kingdom which is characterised by love, peace, justice, righteousness and power which we are given a picture of in Revelation 21 and 22 as to what this will ultimately look like.

Having been rescued into this amazing Kingdom we now get to be involved in rescuing through:

a. seeing individuals rescued into this Kingdom

b. revealing the Kingdom in our every day lives.

‘Creating and cultivating everything’ is therefore about encouraging one another through stories, challenges and opportunities that we are seeking to take in our every day lives to create and cultivate demonstrations of this Kingdom we have been rescued into.

Why ‘everything’?

Want each of us to understand the unique places God has placed us in to reveal his Kingdom. The places we spend our day to day lives in for some of us our work places and for others the communities God has placed us in. Through the time together we will then have opportunities to connect with others who can our in similar places so we can understand and encourage one another.

Together all of our ‘things’ added together will start to cause us to change ‘everything’.

Why ‘create’ and ‘cultivate’?

To reveal God’s Kingdom means we have to be proactive. We need to be those who are both actively looking for demonstrations of his kingdom in our worlds and therefore seek to cultivate it and where we can not see demonstrations of God’s Kingdom to create it. Or to put it another way as Jesus did to be salt (cultivate) and be light (create).

What’s the format?

We will start with a short presentation followed by a load of time to breakdown into smaller groups connected with others who are in  a similar area to us e.g…business and commerce, education, community, social action, health, art, construction. In these smaller groups seek to understand, encourage and share stories.

Who is it open to?

Everyone!

My hope is that no one will discount themselves but that all will come along and start to reveal the valued part they play in the rescuing mission we are on together.