Pastor David’s Blog

On Sunday, we continued our 14-week series, The Key to Happiness: A Journey through Ecclesiastes by covering Ecclesiastes 1.12 – 2.26. If you missed it, you can hear the message by clicking here.

We discussed the cold reality that if we pursue happiness in this world, we’ll never find it. However, God gives us today as a gift – with no promises that our earthly life will continue – therefore, we should take time to enjoy it, to live in the moment, and to seize the day! Here are three practical ways we can do that: 1) Find a job you love. Don’t settle for making money; Discover what you love to do and then find a way to make a living doing it; 2) Make time for people. Stuff is temporary, but people last forever. Enjoy your spouse (if you have one), your kids, your friends and all the special people God places in your life. We’re all living on borrowed time; and 3) Create margin for rest and recreation. We need “white” space in our lives to enjoy the world around us, do the things we love, and reflect on God and His leadership in our lives. Life’s too short to live it at a breakneck speed! Stop and smell the flowers.

This month our home churches are going over their membership covenants and asking you to make a one-year commitment to one another. If you haven’t done so already, commit to love and serve others in a home church. It’s one of the ways God grows us.

A few quick reminders: 1) We need nominations for servant of the year. Please send an email (dgainey@juno.com) with your nominee and why you think he/she deserves the honor this year. 2) The deadline for high school youth to register ($50) for Fuge (July 9 – 13) is THIS Sunday. 3) Learning to Love the Master retreats (part two of our mentor path) are scheduled for March 9 – 11 (men only) and May 4 – 6 (women only). The cost is $60/home church members ($120/non-members). Please save these dates – LLM has the tendency to transform your walk with God!

I hope each of you had a special Christmas & New Year. My parents were in town the week after Christmas and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. Since we may not return to Alabama in 2012, we savored every moment with the grandparents. One of the highlights for me was introducing my dad to a home basketball game at McKale Center. Fortunately, the Wildcats whipped the Sun Devils and put on quite a show. If you come across free basketball tickets, always keep your pastor and his wife in mind : )

I’m excited about our fourteen-week series that begins Sunday, The Key to Happiness: A Journey through Ecclesiastes. As I prepare for this series, I’m already challenged to make changes in my life, so that I may give myself to what truly matters (like people) rather than the tyranny of the urgent. More on this Sunday…

On Sunday, I gave our annual state of the church address. I reminded us that our mission is to turn unchurched people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ by developing spiritual leaders through our home churches and Sunday gathering. I challenged you to: 1) Join a home church this month. If you’re already in one, sign the membership agreement. If you’re not, find one that fits you; 2) Go through parts 2 through 4 of the mentoring path this year. Pay attention to the dates this spring (TBA) for LLM (Learning to Love the Master), a weekend retreat designed to help you recognize God’s presence in your life; 3) Pray for us as we look for land. Stay tuned for more information about property; and 4) Support the Oasis through your generosity. We need your financial support to fulfill our mission.

Two quick reminders: 1) I need your nominations for servant of the year. Please send me an email (dgainey@juno.com) with your nominee and why you think he or she deserves the honor this year. 2) The deadline for high school youth to register for Fuge (July 9 – 13, 2012) is Sunday, January 29. To register, we need a $50 deposit ASAP.

I had a blast last week at our annual Christmas Party. Forty-six adults turned out to eat, exchange gifts and enjoy one another’s company. The food was delicious and the gag gifts were hilarious; but the highlight was spending time with my spiritual family. Like fine wine, the Oasis continues to get richer and more satisfying over time. God is good.

Our annual business meeting took place this past Sunday morning. We elected new directors for 2012 (Elliott George, Lara Bands, Mitch D’Amour, Jill Cooper, Tom Weneck and Melissa Lazzeroni) and passed our 2012 budget. I’d like to thank Tory Ruark for his three years of service as a director. His input has made a huge difference. Normally, I would say that we’ll miss his presence, but he plans to attend the director meetings next year in his new role as assistant pastor.

I hope our six-week series on the Basic Habits (Spiritual Disciplines) of the Christian Life has challenged you to work on your spiritual life. We’ve covered silence, solitude, prayer, Bible reading, meditation (on Scripture), fasting, generosity, and simplicity. For more on the last two, see Tory’s article on page three.

On Sunday, I challenged you to practice two more disciplines – community and submission. God expects us to follow Christ’s example and voluntarily submit to each other. Here are four ways to live them out this week: 1) Put the needs of others before your own; 2) Choose to let others have their way; 3) Seek counsel from your home church; and 4) Pray for your home church.

I hope you plan to bring friends and/or family with you to our Christmas Eve Service at 7.00pm. This will be our last service for two weeks (we won’t meet on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day). I will present the good news, we’ll celebrate communion and sing Christmas carols by candlelight. Don’t miss it!

I hope each of you had a special Thanksgiving weekend. As I paused to express gratitude to God last week, my mind immediately turned to you – my spiritual family. You gave my family a generous bonus last week and my family is deeply grateful. As I shared on Sunday, we love each of you and thank God for the love you have shown us the last 14 years. You are too kind!

I hope you’re enjoying our six-week series on the Basic Habits (Spiritual Disciplines) of the Christian Life. Each of us is responsible for our own spiritual growth, and we have two distinct opportunities to grow: 1) Personal crises, which are out of our control but critical to our spiritual development; and 2) the spiritual disciplines, which are completely within our control if we choose to exercise them.

So far, we’ve covered silence, solitude, prayer, Bible reading, meditation (on Scripture) and fasting. In the weeks to come, we’ll cover simplicity, generosity, community, submission and Sabbath. On Sunday, I invited you to consider fasting and prayer in order to: 1) sharpen your prayers so that you can pray and listen more intently; 2) grieve (over death or sin); and 3) train your heart to hunger for God as your body craves food. I suggested that you begin with a partial, 24-hour fast.

A 24-hour fast means that you skip two meals. For instance, you would eat lunch and then avoid eating again until lunch the next day. Because it’s a partial fast, you consume fruit juices (rather than water) in the evening and morning rather than food. At the end of your partial fast, eat a simple meal of fruits and vegetables. This is a great way to get started.

The important thing to keep in mind is to use the time you would ordinarily spend eating in prayer and/or meditation on Scripture. Denying your body the food it craves can be uncomfortable, but the attention you give to your soul will pay huge dividends later.

Since our last newsletter, our directors met to work on our 2012 budget. In only two hours they managed to develop a solid budget for next year. In my opinion, the highlight of the budget is a line item for an assistant pastor. Our own Tory Ruark has agreed to work part-time (one day a week) as an assistant pastor (Tory works full-time for Delta Ministries International). This will include speaking/preaching at least twelve times over the next twelve months. Our hope is to increase Tory’s involvement each year until he’s a full-time co-pastor of the Oasis. Tory is currently earning his master of divinity from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon and longs to be in pastoral ministry. This is a huge, personal answer to prayer, and the fulfillment of a fifteen year longing for a ministry partner. God is faithful!

If you’re an active member of an Oasis home church, you should receive a copy of the proposed 2012 budget in the next few days. If you don’t receive it, or if you’re not a current member of a home church but would like a copy, please contact the church office. We’d be happy to mail one to you.

On Sunday, I challenged you to take personal responsibility for your spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not automatic, but requires commitment and hard work. The best way we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become a spiritually mature followers of Jesus is to embrace the spiritual disciplines. On Sunday, we covered prayer, solitude and silence. As I mentioned, we need to take: 1) Short (or minute) retreats throughout each day. This can be on our way to work or at lunch. Retreat from noise and people and get alone with God; 2) Long retreats about four times a year where you withdraw from routine for no less than three to four hours to hear God; and 3) Daily retreats of fifteen minutes or more. We need a daily dose of prayer and solitude if we would truly hear God speak to us. If you aren’t already doing these – start now. It will make all the difference in the world…

I enjoyed my umpteenth Alpha Retreat this past Saturday on Mt. Lemmon. Thirty-five adults and youth participated in our largest Alpha retreat yet. We discussed the person and role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, including how we can live each day in His power (the Spirit-controlled life). I challenge all who attended (or who’ve done so in the past) to remain sensitive to rebellion and passionate about keeping short accounts with God. It’s the key to an extraordinary Christian life!

On Sunday, I challenged our spiritual family to pray earnestly for God to show up big in the lives of all those God places in our paths. In addition, I invited our members to offer to pray for those around them who need to experience God’s love and power. Please keep praying for the people on your impact list, and take time this week to put your arms around someone and ask God to do something beautiful and amazing in his/her life. Then step back and watch God work!

As I mentioned last week, we recently purchased a new printer/copier for the office and we still have a few used, office machines we’d like to make available to Oasis members – a scanner (almost new), fax machine, and photo printer. If you’re interested, please contact the church office and we’ll make a deal!

This Saturday is our bi-annual Adopt-a-Roadway cleanup at 8.00am. We’ll meet at our sign across from the Goodwill on Valencia and enjoy a little outdoor exercise as we walk our mile of roadway, picking up debris. Afterward, we’ll grab breakfast together at Jerry Bob’s.

In the near future our youth will begin raising funds for Fuge. In the meantime, we need all high school youth who are interested in joining us to make a $50 nonrefundable deposit to reserve their spot. Only students who’ve paid their deposit will be eligible to participate in the upcoming fundraisers. So, get that to us ASAP and tell your friends.

Join us this Saturday for our Alpha Retreat from 8.15am until 8.15pm at Inspiration Rock on Mt. Lemmon. Youth and adults will have separate talks, but will join each other for breakfast, lunch and dinner (in Tucson). The topic will be the Holy Spirit – who He is, how He works, and how He wants to fill us and empower us to live the Christian life. The afternoon will be free, so come prepared to have some fun, too. God has used the Alpha retreat over the years to change lives, and I look forward to watching what He does on Saturday!

We finally replaced our outdated office copier and printer for a new four-in-one printer/copier/fax/ scanner. As a result, we have several older office machines we’re looking to unload. So, if you need a fax machine, copier, or printer, please contact the church office and we’ll make a deal!

The weather is slowly beginning to cool off, so we’ve schedule our bi-annual Adopt-a-Roadway cleanup for Saturday, November 5, at 8.00am at our sign across from the Goodwill on Valencia. Join us for a little outdoor exercise as we walk our mile of roadway picking up debris. Afterward, we’ll grab breakfast together at Jerry Bob’s.

In the near future our youth will begin raising funds for Fuge. In the meantime, we need all high school youth who are interested in joining us to make a $50 nonrefundable deposit to reserve their spot. Only students who’ve paid their deposit will be eligible to participate in the upcoming fundraisers. So, get that to us ASAP and tell your friends.

I missed most of you on Sunday, but thoroughly enjoyed spending time with community college students from all over Arizona at a three-day retreat for Cru Arizona at Jackpot Ranch in Camp Verde, Arizona. Cru at Pima-East (including my home church, Fellowship of the Son) joined students from Yuma, Prescott, Coolidge, Phoenix and Tucson for an inspiring weekend of worship, teaching and discussion. I took Faith and Graham along and they had a blast. For the Pima students, the weekend substituted for our Alpha Retreat, with the additional benefit that we were able to rub shoulders with young people from all over the state who are committed to sharing the gospel on their campuses, too. I was honored to give three of the four talks to the 50+ students who attended, and I look forward to attending next year’s event

I hope you’ve made plans to attend our church-wide Alpha Retreat on Saturday, October 29 from 8.15am until 8.15pm. Both youth and adults will relax at Inspiration Rock on Mt. Lemmon for an encouraging day of talks, discussion and free time. I look forward to seeing you there!

Our mission trip to Mexico is scheduled for spring break. We plan to help Pastor Julio Espinoza’s newly planted church by working on their building and sharing the good news with the community during the week of March 10-18, 2012 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. The cost is $850/person and includes construction supplies, food, lodging, and a couple of days relaxing after the mission trip in San Carlos! Your commitment would include four to six training meetings, one full training day, the trip itself, and a debriefing later. Adults may bring their children if they plan to attend themselves (talk with Tory about the details). If you plan to go, please let either Tory or me know ASAP so we will know whether to go ahead with fundraiser plans.

As I shared during the message yesterday, I’m convinced that we need to maintain an active Impact List of the people we believe God has placed in our lives so that we may communicate the good news through word and deed. If you have not done so already, take a moment to write down the names of ten friends right now who – as far as you know – do not yet have a friendship with Jesus. Then, take some time each week to pray over each name, asking God to open doors for you to be the missionary He created you to be.

This week at Alpha we explore the role the Bible should play in our lives. We’ll talk about this subject (and last week’s topic, prayer) again in a few weeks when we begin our new series on the Basic Habits of our Faith on November 13. In this six week series we’ll also address fasting, meditation, solitude, generosity, simplicity, community, submission and Sabbath rest. I’m already looking forward to it!

I hope you’re making plans to attend our church-wide Alpha Retreat on Saturday, October 29 from 8.15am until 8.15pm. Both youth and will relax at Inspiration Rock on Mt. Lemmon for an encouraging day of talks, discussion and free time (Campus Alpha is this weekend). I look forward to seeing you there!

As I mentioned the past two weeks, our next mission trip to Mexico is scheduled for spring break. We plan to help Pastor Julio Espinoza’s newly planted church by working on their building and sharing the good news with the community during the week of March 10-18, 2012 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. The cost is $850/person and includes construction supplies, food, lodging, and a couple of days relaxing after the mission trip in San Carlos! Your commitment would include four to six training meetings, one full training day, the trip itself, and a debriefing later. Adults may bring their children if they plan to attend themselves (talk with Tory about the details). If you plan to go, please let either Tory or me know ASAP so we will know whether to go ahead with fundraiser plans.

With great sadness I learned this week that another friend lost his battle with cancer. I first met Andy Clendaniel through our involvement in the Heat Optimist Club. Later, Andy became my corporate banker. Andy and I have had several spiritual conversations over the years, including two very deep talks over breakfast at Jerry Bob’s in the last few months (I even used him as an illustration in the Missional Life). Andy leaves behind a wife, Collette, and two daughters, Paula and Brenna. He was 50 years old.

Alpha continues this week as we explore the role of prayer in our lives. As God speaks to you during Alpha, please share your stories with us on our Facebook site, Oasis online. Since we have four Alpha courses going at once, it’s important to share your stories with the rest of us so we can be encouraged by what God is doing on other evenings.

Mark your calendar now for our church-wide Alpha Retreat on Saturday, October 29 from 8.15am until 8.15pm. Youth and adults (talks will be separate) will relax at Inspiration Rock on Mt. Lemmon for an encouraging day of talks, discussion and free time (Campus Alpha is October 14-16). Make plans now to attend!

Once again, our next mission trip to Mexico is during spring break. We plan to help Pastor Julio Espinoza’s newly planted church by working on their building and sharing the good news with the community during the week of March 10-18, 2012 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. The cost is $850/person and includes construction supplies, food, lodging, and a couple of days relaxing after the mission trip in San Carlos! Your commitment would include four to six training meetings, one full training day, the trip itself, and a debriefing later. Adults may bring their children if they plan to attend themselves (just talk with Tory about the details). I hope you can make it!