Oasis Life: September 2016

Hello, and welcome to the September edition of Oasis Life, our monthly Magazine for those both inside and outside of Oasis! In this issue, you’ll find details about upcoming events, ways we’re seeking to impact the city, stories from different areas of church life and highlights from members of our community. You can also click here to sign up to get this Magazine emailed straight to your inbox each month. First up, here’s an encouragement from Adrian:

Over the summer I managed to get away with my family to the Welsh border to stay in a Yurt for a very refreshing “glamping” (camping but with home comforts) experience. As part of the experience each evening we lit a campfire. The camp fire became the focal point in being together as well as the means by which we cooked our food. The campfire became a highlight of our holiday as it was a moment where we gathered together, shared stories and laughed. As the evening crept in the campfire also became a place of comfort providing warmth and light as well as provision through us cooking food.

As we enter this new term I want us to keep this image of the campfire in mind. Within the opportunities and challenges we each face to value the moments of gathering together. To see those gathering moments like a moment around a campfire that remind us we belong, give opportunity to share, stand with and laugh together. Moments to know comfort as well as provision as ultimately as we gather together we gather around our loving God who is Father, Son and Spirit.

Hebrews 10: 24–25 “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” (The Message)

Women’s Deeper: Lunch

Sunday 18th September: After the second morning meeting (which runs 11:45am-1:15pm), the women of Oasis will be gathering for lunch in the Old Players Dining Room at Edgbaston. Food will be provided, so all you have to do is turn up and enjoy an afternoon meeting new people, connecting with friends, sharing life and hearing stories. Whether it’s your first time or your five-hundreth time at Oasis, come and join us for what promises to be a great time of community as we kick off our Autumn 2016 series of Women’s Deeper events.

Momentum Thirst

Sunday 18th September: Momentum Thirst is back for the Autumn Term with more opportunities to gather together to seek God, build community and share life. We’ll be hanging out, worshipping together and continuing our focus on growing in God throughout different areas of live. We start the evening with a free, cooked meal together, before a time of worship and teaching/discussion in an informal atmosphere. Join us in the Old Players Dining Room (RES Wyatt building) at Edgbaston, from 6pm-8pm.

Welcome Lunches

Sunday 25th September, Sunday 2nd October, Sunday 9th October: The start of the new academic year often brings new people to Oasis…and if that’s you, then you’re incredibly welcome! We’d love to get to know you more over lunch, so why not join us after the second meeting for a free meal and opportunity to find out more? Whether you’re a student, someone who’s moved to the city for a new job, or have just come across Oasis at this particular time of year, join us at 69 Odell Place (just across the road from Edgbaston).

Creative Worship Encounter

Sunday 25th September: CWE is a place to come and worship in an open, creative and relaxed way. There’ll be lots of different creative expressions and strands, all united by a common desire to encounter God’s presence through worship. Come prepared with readings, poetry, art, music and more, or just turn up and enjoy! It’s on from 6:00pm-8:00pm at Edgbaston, and all are welcome. For more information on all things CWE, join the Facebook Group.

Week of Prayer

Monday 26th-Friday 30th September: We love prayer at Oasis — it’s at the heart of everything we do — and so at different points of the year we give over an extended period of time to seeking God through prayer and worship. This will be our second Week of Prayer in 2016, as we seek God for our community, city, nation and the nations.

Every day, we’ll be praying from 6am to midnight, with different individuals signing up for hour-long slots - sign up for yours on a Sunday or by using the form here. We’ll also have two times of gathering together: Wednesday evening from 8pm-10pm at Edgbaston, and Friday evening from 11pm-midnight at a location to be confirmed.

Catalyst4theworkplace

Saturday 8th October: An event being run by our family of churches for everyone and anyone in work; celebrating how we are and how we can be revealing Jesus and His Kingdom in the unique work environments we have been placed. The day is all about connecting, sharing stories, being inspired and getting equipped. Oasis has the great privilege of being able to help host the event at Edgbaston Stadium in a suite at the front of the Ground, so it would be fantastic to get as many of us as possible along for the day. It’s totally free, and you can book on here. This is all part of who we’re called to be and what we’re called to add in to our family of churches. Whether you can attend as a delegate, or are come along and help us host and facilitate the day, please do get along and play a part in what promises to be a fantastic event.

Impact

Tuesday 11th October: Another night of fantastic live music at the Hare & Hounds awaits, headlined by the superb Mondo Royale. Check out the video to their track “Day & Night”, and then come along and enjoy them live, along with a number of fab support acts, for a bargain price of just £3!

The Great Birmingham Run

Sunday 16th October: It’s almost time for one of the Birmingham’s most iconic events; the annual half marathon through the streets of our city and past some of its biggest landmarks. Oasis has a unique role to play on the day, as the route progresses around Edgbaston Stadium and right past our front door! There’s no parking at the ground and a number of roads are closed, so it is a challenge to get in, but also provides us with possibly our best opportunity of the whole year to love and serve the city. Come and join us from 10:15am to celebrate the city and cheer on the runners together.

Summer in the City

Back at the start of the year, part of our 2016 vision was about building depth and breadth in the things we’re doing as a church; not necessarily starting new things, but increasing the capacity of what we’re already doing and expectation of what God can do through it. Over the summer months, we’ve seen that bear fruit in two significant ways for different areas of Oasis Life.

Back in July, we had the immense privilege of spending a day offering free, fun, family activities at the England v Pakistan Test Match at Edgbaston - who would have thought several years ago that something we were running would be announced over the tannoy to 20,000 at a major international sporting event!

Another exciting development was the opportunity to bring live music to The MAC, when they invited Impact to become part of their ‘Summer Sessions’ series of Friday evening gigs. So, for an hour every Friday, we helped provide music to go out across Cannon Hill park, featuring artists connected with Oasis such as Joanna Karselis and Midsummer. Both of these stories are incredible answers to prayer, and represent huge steps forward in terms of relationship with the Cricket Ground and The MAC.

Michelle Thompson

A surprising small miracle: For about two years, I had had a relatively mild digestive problem called proctitis, which the specialist did not expect the problem to resolve itself completely although he said it might get a bit better or a bit worse! There was a special ‘healing-focused’ meeting at Oasis one Sunday in December in 2005 when I was pregnant with my eldest son. I thought since I had a problem, I ought to ask for healing so I went forward for prayer. I had never done that before and was embarrassed and not really expecting much to happen to be honest! I can’t remember who prayed for me but the proctitis resolved over the next 3 or 4 days and I have never had it in the 10+ years since then. Thank you God!!

Culture Making

At the start of our new series, ‘Building Culture’, Adrian recommended a book called ‘Culture Making’ by Andy Crouch. If you’re someone who would love to delve more deeply into the kind of things we’ll be looking at throughout the series, it’s well worth picking up. You can get it online here and here (other sellers are of course available!)

“It is not enough to condemn culture. Nor is it sufficient merely to critique culture or to copy culture. Most of the time, we just consume culture. But the only way to change culture is to create culture.” — Andy Crouch, Culture Making

Trumpet Call: National Day of Prayer

The World Prayer centre are hosting their annual National Day of Prayer in Birmingham on Saturday 15th October, from 2:00pm until 6:30pm at the International Convention Centre; different networks, denominations and church families coming together to stand in unity and pray for a move of God across our nation. Find out more on their website.

Thanks for reading this edition of Oasis Life; I hope you found it useful and enjoyable! If there’s anything you would like to add in to the next edition, please do get in touch with me, either by dropping me an email on richard@theoasischurch.com or by chatting to me on a Sunday. We’d particularly love to keep sharing stories of what God is doing in and through people!

Rich