Service

Please enjoy a blog post written by Elder Tim Hooey on Service:

Sometimes I think I understand love. I know what it means that God loves me and I choose to enter into His love. I choose to look at people with love and treat them accordingly. This love is generous and disinterested in personal gain.

Sometimes I am in desperate need of understanding love. I can’t imagine why or how God would love me and I choose to reject His love in favor of my own way. That way is not always pretty, but sometimes seems good. When I choose that way, I also choose to love people the only way I know how, through my own effort. This is sometimes good, but often greedy and full of motives that ultimately have my best interest in mind.

Over the past month and a half, as a church, we have been talking about service. Lately, I have been thinking of service as an action that flows from love, something that finds its breath from love and cannot survive without love.

When I mention service, I’m not referring to any kind of act that helps people. We are all perfectly capable of helping people without thinking twice about why we are doing it and how God is involved, and to some degree we do this regularly. The type of service I am referring to is Kingdom-extending, selfless, and often sacrificial. This type of service comes in the mundane and everyday as well as the heroic and extraordinary.

Matthew 22:37-40 has a lot to say about love and service. After Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he answered:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love God. Then, let that love for God produce love for people. If we love people, and are concerned for them, it seems that it would be natural to serve them.

I found out almost two years ago that Theodore Judah Elementary School was in desperate need of help, attention and love. Almost 50% of the student body is living under the poverty level, and numerous families are homeless. As I let myself enter into God’s love, and then let that love produce a love for my community, it was natural to jump in and begin serving Theodore Judah. For me, that meant mentoring a boy from the school once a week at lunchtime. The two greatest commandments ever created required that I spend $3.25 on popcorn chicken and tater tots so that I could be involved in the life of a person who needs me. I find this thrilling. Not always easy, but thrilling.

Service is love in action. Sometimes I choose to love and my eyes are open to the heart of those around me. Sometimes I choose not to love and I miss out on extending the reach of God’s Kingdom to the ends of the earth. My prayer for Oak Hills is that we would be people eager to experience God’s love, then, as a response to His love, we would love our community actively.

A Month/Night with Gary Black

Our blog post today is written by Rick Johnson about some thoughts he had in the wake of Gary Black visiting our church last month:

Many of us at Oak Hills were strongly encouraged with the recent month long visit and evaluation from Gary Black, currently working on his P.H.D. Doctorate on “Willardian Theology” at Exeter , England . Gary's research and upcoming dissertation is on a recent movement with some new Evangelical Churches in the United States to pursue Discipleship and intentionally Living in the Kingdom of God as their mission. After studying dozens of other churches attempting to pursue this mission, Gary then this last February and March studied Oak Hills transition from a "Seeker" based church to a Discipleship and Spiritual Transformation based church.

As you are probably aware, about 10 years ago Oak Hills Church was in the midst of being a successful "Seeker" growth model based church with a robust and growing church body, then shifted to a Discipleship and Spiritual Transformation based church (for more details regarding that calling and shift refer to the Elder Board Blog posted on 8/16/10), weighing heavily from the teachings and writings of religious scholar Dallas Willard. Part of Gary Black's evaluation unique to Oak Hills, was whether a church can successfully transition from a "Seeker " or growth model church to a church based upon purposeful Discipleship and Spiritual Transformation, as many believed it is impossible to do so and too risky to try.

Gary discovered that after a sometimes painful yet necessary transition, Oak Hills Church led by its Church Leadership has become a model centerpiece of a Discipleship /Spiritual Transformation based church with a smaller yet committed and purposeful body many of whom are knowledgeable of and practicing Discipleship and Spiritual Transformation concepts and disciplines, including those taken from Willardian teachings such as "Renovation of the Heart" VIM-Vision, Intent and Means-as evident in forums such as Small Groups, Missional Living Group, the Spiritual Formation Academy and the Men's Retreat. There have been countless stories and testimonies by Oak Hillians whose lives have been transformed by purposefully entering into the reality of Christ and living in His Way and Kingdom Living as a church community at Oak Hills.

At a special evening with the Elder Board, Gary tearfully commented that based upon his research and from his own church experience that this was the closest thing he has found to purposely Living in the Kingdom of God together and what he has been looking for in a church. To a tee the Elder Board then reflected "Where Else Would We Go" than a church based upon Discipleship and Spiritual Transformation? Gary advised that Oak Hills Church use this evaluation as a Benchmark, and that we just continue to press on in pursuit of and seeking after Christ as disciples and that the rest will fall into place through the power of the active Holy Spirit according to God's Will...

So much for the nostalgia! Seriously though, I for one say despite our imperfection at seeking after Living in the Kingdom of God as a church, where else would I go! We still have much to learn about Discipleship and Spiritual Transformation, thankfully, but through God’s Grace we are purposefully and intentionally seeking after Jesus Christ and to "Follow Me" together with the higher truth and abundant real and glorious life that only comes with it. What can be more important and better than that, where else would we go? Yes, despite all the hardships that also come with “Follow Me”, Living in the Kingdom of God and Jesus' Way, IT IS WORTH IT!!!

I and the Elder Board would love to see your comments and feedback?