Archive for 'Oak Leaf Canton'

Our January Big Give was called the Great Grace Race. I’m sure this is not an original idea but I’ve never heard of another church doing it quite like this. The intent was to do as many acts of kindness as we could in a short period of time. It was obviously more about the grace than the race but we set a time limit from 11-2 so families could be involved together and we so we might hit to ...

The people of Ephesus were involved with some crazy stuff until Paul showed up with a message with real power.

PAUL IS USED BY GOD
To the not so careful observer, one would think it was Paul performing miracles. No, it was God “by the hands of Paul.”

PRETENDERS TRY TO USE GOD
There is a big difference between God using us and us trying to use God. The Jewish exorcists learned the hard way.

PRAISE WAS LIFTED TO GOD
You’ll see in ...

Everyone has an opinion about discipleship.

I’ve got several dozen books on my shelves on that subject alone.

Whether it is Sunday school or small groups or house churches or whatever, the fix that worked for you should work for everyone, right?

I’m going to go out a limb here and say I don’t have a fix.

I’m not even sure I know what discipleship is (I can hear the draws dropping).

And I’m pretty sure I was never discipled.

But if you asked me, I ...

It has been almost 30 days since we asked you to trade something of personal value for something of eternal value. I’d love to hear how it has been going for you and what the Holy Spirit has been teaching you. Leave comments on this post or you can email me.

Don’t worry, I’m still going to be tracking you all down and asking you personally. :) If your stories are anything like what God has revealed to me through this ...

We started a new series this month focusing on what in our life we can give up or at least look at differently in order to make significant spiritual growth and better point people towards God. In other words, what is something of personal value you are willing to trade for something of eternal value.

The three trading areas we’ll be focusing on each week are

COMFORT FOR CAUSE – trade something you think you need for something that may bless someone ...

Last year we had some service project on the calendar every week. Often it was multiple different options during the week. I fought hard to make Oak Leaf Church about serving and generosity from the start. The problem was, announcing all the different projects we were involved in, most we weren’t asking for help with as much as we were (if I’m being bluntly honest) “bragging” about doing, became a guilt trip for all the people who wanted to ...