A Note from the Pastor!

Community is not just fun, it is foundational.  Dallas Willard in his book Renovation of the Heart writes, “Spiritual formation, good or bad, is always profoundly social.  You cannot keep it to yourself.  Anyone who thinks of it as a merely private matter has misunderstood it.  Anyone who says “It’s just between me and God,” or “What I do is my own business,” has misunderstood God as well as “me.””

If you are a member I hope you have a growing sense of relational connectedness with the Oak Grove family of faith.  I hope so because we need you in so many ways.  We need your fellowship to have the joy God intends for our church family.  We need your gifts and abilities so that we can minister the way God intended and can be effective for the kingdom’s sake.  We need your wisdom and life experiences so that we can learn more of what it means to live as Christians in the days.  We need you!

You also need your church family.  When Paul uses the metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 he drives home the point that though we are all quite different (as an ear to an eye) we definitely need one another (for seeing and hearing).  Dallas Willard reminds us that if we are going to grow in our faith (spiritual formation) it will be because we are connected to other believers and living in community.  This is God’s blessed design.

As spring gives way to summer I hope you will use these days to strengthen the bonds of community by taking advantage of opportunities for fellowship, Bible study, and mission endeavors.  I pray none of us will be content with meaningless surface relationships but will take the necessary risk to receive the great rewards of community.  We need each other!

Serving Him gladly,

Steve