Onwards and Upwards: The Church with a Vision

Jon Wright

5th June 2005

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)

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Oasis Spending May 2005

10F rent

9F rent

Salaries

Missions

Misc

Fringe benefits

Boys+Girls house

Electricity

Stationary

Phones

Adverts

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