Oasis Life: Summer 2017
Keeping you connected over the Summer
Welcome to the Summer 2017 edition of Oasis Life, our regular Magazine for those both inside and outside of Oasis! The aim of the Magazine is to provide a longer, more in depth view of everything that’s been going on at Oasis lately, and everything coming up over the next couple of months; it’s not meant to be a quick read like our Weekly Email Blast, but rather is something to be enjoyed in a bit more time so pop the kettle on and make yourself a cup of tea or coffee.
Oasis Life is organised into three sections: ‘Home’, ‘Life’ and ‘City’. Put simply, ‘Home’ is all about who we are, ‘Life’ is about what we do together, and ‘City’ is about what we do in Birmingham and Beyond.
A Thought From Adrian
Change of Pace: The summer often affords a moment to change pace. Whether through the planned time away on holiday or simply enjoying the longer summer days with some hopefully good weather allowing us moments to get outside, to pace life differently.
Within this change of pace, I want to encourage us to seek to reflect on the ‘Wellbeing Series’. This series isn’t just to impact these few weeks now but our lives moving forward from this point. Let us use this time to start to work out what changes we need to make. These changes often start small and take time to apply but the benefits are incredible. I know I am seeking to do this and I would love you to join me.
This summer let’s be those who start to live in the good of the wellbeing God offers.
Love and peace,
Adrian
Sunday Talk Resources
Every week, we’re producing notes and application questions from the Sunday Talk to help you go deeper into everything we’re looking at together. These are best worked out in a Small Group context (drop us an email on smallgroups@theoasischurch.com if you’d like to connect to a group!) although are also useful for personal reflection. Check them out here and follow our Medium Publication, if you’re a Medium user, to stay up to date with the latest resources.
Recommendations
As we continue our new series, ‘Wellbeing’, our recommendations this time focus on resources that will help you to learn to live life to the full by caring well for your mental, spiritual, emotional, relational and physical wellbeing.
Music: Still (Volume 1) by Rivers & Robots, Housefires III by Housefires
Books: Soul Keeping by John Ortberg, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero, Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren, The Happy Christian by David Murray, Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Summer BBQ
Sunday 16th July: Our annual Summer BBQ at Pete & Trina’s house! This year, we’ll be having our morning meeting as normal, and then heading over afterwards for a fantastic afternoon of fun and community. We’re asking everyone to bring some meat/veggie alternative to contribute, AND either a pudding or a salad option depending on the first letter of your surname: a pudding if your surname starts A-L and a salad if it starts M-Z. We’ll provide everything else! The address is Walkers Heath Farm, Gay Hill Lane, Kings Norton, B38 0BN, and you can see a parking map on the left.
Newday 2017
Emma Knight: At the start of August we’ll be taking our Youth to Newday in Norfolk. Newday is one of the largest Christian events for young people that takes place in the UK every year. Young people aged right through their teenage years join together from churches up and down the UK to learn about and worship God, camp out together, soak in the summer festival feeling leaving Newday further along in their relationship with Jesus. You can find out more here.
Please pray for our Youth as they spend time away together; that their friendships would strengthen and their relationship with God would deepen as they encounter him in new and exciting ways. Please also pray for the youth leaders as they support and encourage the youth throughout the festival. It’s looking like it will be a really fun week full of opportunities to praise God and enjoy hanging out as a group together.
Thoughts from the Women’s Retreat Day
Sarah Bowen: Last Saturday we held the third Oasis Women’s Retreat at Red Hill, in the Warwickshire countryside. Red Hill is the most beautiful setting for a day away from city life! We met in their beautiful barn conversion which is surrounded by meadows and farmland. There’s plenty of space to find a quiet corner of a field to sit and relax and to reflect.
Highlights of the day for me were sharing in the morning, with Janey, on the story of the woman at the well. We’d both enjoyed the preparation for this talk so much so it was great to have opportunity to share our reflections on the story and it set the scene for us to find Jesus waiting at the well for us. During the afternoon we heard from several of our women on what the theme of ‘living well’ looks like to them in their life, which was both inspiring and challenging.
And then of course, there was the food! Hazel and her team prepared the most delicious spread of tasty food for us followed by homemade cakes, which we enjoyed sitting out in the glorious sunshine! What could have been better?
I think we will be back there again next year!
Dates for the Diary
Things are shaping up for the Autumn term, so here are a few highlights of what we’re planning later this year:
- There’s no meeting on the 27th August as we take a little break before things get underway again for the new academic year. We’re back on the 3rd September for our now-annual ‘Commissioning’ meeting.
- Our next Week of Prayer is coming up from the 18th-22nd September; it’s always a powerful time seeking God as individuals and as a community.
- On Sunday 1st October, it’s our 18th Birthday as a church — that’s right, we’ve finally reached adulthood, despite how it might appear from time to time! Definitely make sure to be around that weekend as we celebrate together.
- We’re planning to host a ‘Healthy Marriages’ Day on Saturday 14th October, for anyone who’s already married, engaged, thinking of getting married or in a long-term relationship.
- It’s the Birmingham Marathon on 15th October, and as we have for the Half Marathon and 10K, we’ll be lining the streets to cheer on the runners and play our part in this big city event.
Loving the City
Sunday 23rd July: Anyone who has been around Oasis for any length of time will know that as followers of Jesus, wherever we are and whatever we do, we can bring God’s colour and flavour to people around us. Often, that’ll be in the context of our normal, daily lives, but we’re also seeking to expand opportunities to reach out to those we might not normally encounter. That’s the heart behind ‘Loving the City’; bringing God’s colour and flavour to people on the streets and in the parks of Birmingham. After the meeting on Sunday 23rd, some of us will be grabbing some lunch together and then heading out into Cannon Hill Park, with anyone who wants to welcome to join us! To find out more, get in touch with Paul Samms at paul@theoasischurch.com
Bridge Crowdfunder
Ben Kyte: Thank you so much if you’ve already got behind our crowdfunding campaign throughout June. It’s been an amazing campaign and we’ve already raised over half our target amount! We’re now into our final push and we’d love it if you could continue to share about the campaign on social media. Birmingham City Council are currently in the process of making a final decision about our application for match-funding. All the early indications have been positive but we’ll just have to see what they come back with! We will keep you posted…
Please keep sharing with friends and work colleagues. And let’s see just how far we can go with this! #backingthebridge
Impact Summer Sessions
7th July-25th August: Come and join us for the Summer Sessions at mac Birmingham. Every Friday night during July and August we’ll be presenting hot and emerging artists from Birmingham. Come and chill with us in the mac arena to start your summer weekends off right. Don’t worry if there’s rain- we’ll still be enjoying the music inside the mac building. You can find the line up below and you can find out more by going to Impact’s Facebook page.
21/7: Joanna Karselis // Ollie Armstrong
28/7: Tom Peel’s Music // Affiejam
4/8: David Benjamin Blower
11/8: Mondo Royale
18/8: Philippa Zawe // Andrew Souter Music
25/8: Barrowclough
