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Jon Wright 5 th June 2005. Onwards and Upwards: The Church with a Vision. The Oasis Service Schedule. Started with a short season on God Just finished a short season on Man Will be doing a few weeks on Jesus Next week is Pentecost. Projects are driven by vision.
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Jon Wright 5th June 2005 Onwards and Upwards: The Church with a Vision
The Oasis Service Schedule. • Started with a short season on God • Just finished a short season on Man • Will be doing a few weeks on Jesus • Next week is Pentecost
Projects are driven by vision. • Nehemiah 1: Nehemiah was given a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem • Churches need a vision, without a vision there is no direction • If you don’t know where you are going then all roads will lead there - Henry Kissinger • Lack of vision will lead to lots of false starts, opportunities lost, discouragement
Visions need Prayer • Ne 1:4, Prayer and fasting, • Ne 1:5, Praised God • Ne 1:6,7 Confessed his part in all that happened • Ne 1,11 Petitioned
Visions need Planning • Nehemiah received his vision in Dec but did not talk to the King until April • Ne 2:1-6, he is given opportunity to ask the King if he can return to Jerusalem to rebuild the gates, • Nehemiah was so sure that he was to go that he had already drawn up a plan, he knew how long it would take to rebuild,
Some planning can really help! • Ne 2:7-9, Nehemiah asks for letters from the King so he can have safe passage to Judah • Also asks for letters from the King to give to the governors to provide the materials for rebuilding
The rest of the Story • Nehemiah faces opposition to rebuilding the wall • Ridicule (Ne 4:3) - the wall will fall down! • Violence (Ne 4:7-8) a fight! • Side tracks, (Ne 6:2) come and have dinner! • At one point work stops • However the walls are rebuilt
Oasis has a vision Reconciling the Hearts of Fathers and Children to Heal the Nations.使父親與兒女的心和好來醫治列國 • Given ~2 years ago • We believe it is still for today although Pastor Andy is away
We are starting to pray together • Tuesday morning prayer meeting • Regular Thursday evening prayer meetings • Regular corporate prayer times during Sunday services • Not much on fasting yet thou
We have the start of a plan • Training, equipping and teaching the Word of God • Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth • Learning to minister through Love • We now need to start to set goals (eg size, finance, staff etc)
The Oasis vision needs resources • People who share the same vision (should be the entire congregation) • Paid Staff, • Ya-Ching (secretary) • Mei (finance secretary) • Matt (youth pastor) • April (cleaning) • Andy (a small stipend while out of country)
How much do we need a month to stand still? • Rental for 2Fs: NT$ 178,000 • Rental for rooms in Boys/Girls Houses: NT$ 16,000 • Salaries: NT$ 115,000 (inc health insurance, pension payments) • Missions: set at 10% min of income budget ~40k/month + special giving • Elec 12k, stationary 10k, phones 8k, Adverts 6k • Total each month we need NT$ ~425,000
Missions in May and future • Carlos: to orphans on Phil 10k (to 5k) • KKI: children 6k • Magnus/Elaina: 6k (to 3k) • Ralph/Janie: 6k (stopping) • Prison ministry: 6k • Agape House (drug recovery) 3k (up from 2) • Lisac (medical) 3k (stopping) • WanHua (OMF) 2k (stopping) • One off short-term support will be increased
The Pastor Andy/Fiona Question • They doing well in UK (but has a bad leg) • At the current time we do not know if Andy will return as Pastor • Mei and I will be in UK in late June/early July and talk to him about this • They will be back in Sept but is unsure in what position or for how long
Summary: Onwards is the way to go • A Church needs a vision to move forward • To move on a vision needs planning • It also needs resources, people and finances • Oasis has a vision, • We have restarted the evening prayer meetings • We are starting to form a plan • We need and will need resources to move on the plan