Project C-2
* FYI: CrossWinds is one of our sending churches, as of now our church plant community is called Oak Life.
New Website/Blog!
We’ve created a great new online space to tell our story! www.oaklifechurch.com
Oak Life Church is a church in Oakland / East Bay that meets at the New Parkway Theater. Check it out!
Here We Go!!!
I cannot believe in just a few weeks we’ll be starting to gather at the New Parkway Theater. It’s been a crazy journey of God leading us, opening doors, shaping us, and calling us to what He’s doing here in the East Bay. And it’s still just beginning!
Sunday night we shared hopes and dreams for what Oak Life might become. It was so beautiful to hear the heart of our community and how God is shaping us to be a refuge, a place of creativity, a community of reconciliation/peace/justice, and to reflect God’s love that has no conditions to a world that needs it.
We’ve only got 2 more vision meetings at our apartment so make sure you can make it and be a part of what God is doing!
Below is the outline/plan of the next few weeks as we get closer to launching our gathering at the New Parkway. Be praying and be Stoked!!!!
Here is the breakdown of dates we went over on Sunday night which outline our schedule for our launch please be joining us in fasting on Thursdays and praying at 9:28 for this!:
8.24.14– Vision Sunday at CrossWinds. This will be a chance for our main sending church, CrossWinds, to pray for us and send us out. If you can be there this day, please try so that our CrossWinds family can give us the best send off possible! We will show up at CrossWinds at 8.
8.31.14 – First Sunday at the New Parkway. On our first Sunday morning gathering (10am), we’ll do some worship, prayer, communion, and practice setting up.
9.7.14- Oak Life Open House at the New Parkways. This Sunday will be a chance for us to invite people who might be interested in hearing about Oak Life. These people might be family or friends or people from CrossWinds. We’ll do some worship, share the vision, and highlight different ways people can help us get started as a church!
9.14.14 and 9.21.14- For lack of better words, we’re calling these two Sundays “Soft Launch Sundays”. Basically we’ll be gathering at 10 am and getting familiar with how a worship gathering looks for us.
9.28.14 – Oak Life Launch Day! After a year of God forming us as a community, this will be the official launch of our worship gathering at the New Parkway Theater. It will be a special and memorable time as we enter a new chapter of our story. The service will be at 10 am and we’ll do our best to invite our friends and family to join!
In order for a church to get planted, it has to be a community effort. So as we get closer to launching our service we are looking for people to join in a few different areas:
-Set Up Team
-Worship Team
-Kids Team.
Please be praying about how you might be a part of what God is doing in and through Oak Life Church!!!
So stoked!!!!
Chris Scott
Roots and Branches
As we continue to shape and form as a community one of the images that keeps popping up for us as Oak Life Church is the imagery of roots and branches. For our community there is a very important rhythm to who we are: an inward movement and an outward movement. Our roots are the things that anchor us and that we go deep in. Our branches are the ways we extend out into our community to provide perch and branch for those around us. This last week we were able to catch examples of our roots and branches being formed.
First, we gathered for another time of worship, communion, encouragement, and prayer at Aileen’s place. I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to experience worship together as a community and know that God is moving in our midst. Roots:
Then we sponsored a benefit show for The SOLD Project and their work in preventing human trafficking. Over 60 people came out! It was another incredible night of building friendships with our city, supporting local artists, and raising some funds for a great cause. Branches:
As we get closer and closer to launching a weekly gathering at the New Parkway Theater, I can’t wait to see how our Roots and Branches continue to grow! In fact, this week we’ve got two more awesome examples of the Oak Life rhythm: Our first annual spiritual retreat, and a community block party that we’re volunteering at.
We would love your help for the block party. It’s Tuesday August 5th, and we’re hosting a “Community Stuff Exchange”. It’s kind of like a book exchange, except with stuff. Basically, people can bring in stuff to donate and take whatever they want. The only catch is it can’t be crap. If you’ve got stuff to donate (household items, kitchen supplies, paintings, etc.) come by on Tuesday night and be a part of the exchange. Or you can bring it to our Sunday evening gathering if you’d like. Below is a flyer for the event:
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Chapters
The past 9 months have been an incredible time of growing and developing as a church plant. We’ve been able to become a community and connect to the community in some really beautiful ways. This first chapter has been all about listening to hear where God is moving and how God has called us to be a church here in Oakland. People have moved from other places to join us, others have stepped out in faith to join us where they already live, and many have been sacrificially giving of their time, talent, and treasure to help us create Oak Life together.
When the story of Oak Life gets told, I know it will include the stories of each person who has been a part this first chapter, because each person who’s been a part of this journey has made us who we are.
For example, last night at our gathering, our friend Angelica closed us in prayer. Her prayer and who she is, means so much to our community. As she prayed I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by how God is leading us in this journey and how her story is an encouragement that God is using Oak Life to reach people. This time last year we didn’t know that she existed, and she didn’t know we existed. Now she’s not only leading us in prayer, but she’s also our neighbor, sister, and friend. I can’t wait to see how God continues to write Angelica’s story and what’s next for her!
Angelica’s story is just one of dozens and dozens.
In this first chapter of Oak Life, I’m so amazed by God’s love seen in Rachel’s hospitality, Sara’s passion and heart and hopefulness, the McGarvey’s consistent involvement and leadership, the McGill’s with their sound system and support, Aileen’s wisdom/sincerity/worship/friendship, the Jones’ willingness to move here and open up their home, Jardel’s faith and friendship, AJ’s belief in us, Jenna’s willingness to jump in and serve/lead, Matt and Erika’s talents and great ideas, Kevin’s support, Greg’s creativity/heart/friendship, the Horner’s overwhelming love for all, the Kerstien’s hospitality/prayers/sincerity/support/friendship, Tomas’ heart for Oakland, the Hara’s willingness to join and support/lead/be a part of it, Dwight’s friendship, the Galvin’s excitement, Clay’s perspective and positivity, Darrel’s kindness, Ana’s faith, the generosity of our sending churches CrossWinds and NVC, and the list goes on and on and on….
Within weeks we’ll be entering into the next chapter of Oak Life. We’ll be starting other small groups, serving in more places, and launching a worship gathering in a public space, the New Parkway Theater.
Please be praying for us, and please pray and seek God because maybe you’re being called to join us in this great adventure! Feel free to check the upcoming events tab to come hang with us soon!
Still Buzzing…
Wow, what an encouraging week for our little church plant family, Oak Life. Both the Thursday night worship gathering and our Sunday night vision small group were filled with a deep sense of connection to each other and to God. Our friend Aileen opened up her place for us to do a worship night on Thursday, and it was so good. I got home and posted this afterwards, because I couldn’t stop thinking about how rad of a space it was for us to reflect and worship together:
“So we just got back from Aileen’s place here in Oakland. My mind and heart are still buzzing from an incredible time of community and God showing up, or maybe a better way of saying it is us becoming more awake to his presence. The lack of enough seating didn’t seem to stop us from entering into a really sacred space. One of the more memorable parts was when Aileen’s neighbor came to join our worship after hearing us out the window and shared how touched she was by it all! So awesome! We’ll definitely have to do this again…”
Then on Sunday we had a great conversation and time of hanging out. We got back to the Book of Acts and were reminded again how God’s love bursts through all of the walls we create in our world and in our lives.
It seems like each week I’m blown away by how God is shaping and growing us- and it’s just the beginning! The next couple months will be big for us as we begin to move towards gathering on Sunday mornings at the New Parkway Theater! Please be praying for us, and also be praying and seeking God, because maybe he’s calling you to join us in this!
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We have a name!
A couple big things happened last week for our community:
First, we selected a name! Oak Life Church.
This is a big deal for us, as we’ve been on a process over the last 8 months developing an identity and forming. Now we’re getting closer and closer to being born! Please be praying for us as we continue to forge our identity and move towards birth!
The meaning behind the name is drawn from John 15:5 and comes from our sense that the best metaphor/images for who we are is related to the picture of a tree with roots and branches. Our roots are our inward focus and includes our values, scripture, discipleship, tradition, and place. The branches part is our outward focus that provides perch and shelter for the world around us. Our hope is to create a life with deep roots and wide branches. People talk about the “good life”, the “high life”, the “thug life”- we long to live the “Oak Life”.
Also, we started a facebook page– Feel free to like us and invite others to do the same!
Identity Being Forged Pt. 3
So we’ve almost landed on a name that represents who we are. It’s possible we’ll decide this Sunday- be excited that this church plant is becoming. Sunday night’s conversation brought out some important themes and birthed some great ideas. It’s happening!
Meanwhile, church is already happening in so many ways. Community is being built, hope is being offered, and God is moving! For instance, some of us were able to offer our exceptional driving skills on Saturday afternoon to the Burma Refugee Family Network and a field trip to the Alameda beach for some of the families who have been placed here in Oakland. It was so cool to see our church plant community serve our friends who are new to America and have had a long road getting here. What a cool picture of church!
Below a couple pics from Saturday. Please be praying for us as we continue to develop and move towards a launch this Fall!
Identity Being Forged Pt. 2
The last few weeks of Sunday night conversations have been awesome. Yesterday we landed on 8 values that we’ll now be fleshing out further. As I look at these values I’m so excited about the group that God has brought together and how these values will continue to shape our identity and our community.
Here is what we have so far (this is a work in progress).
Deep Community
Compassion (includes: generosity, forgiveness, mercy, listening)
Diversity (includes: Communal learning, celebrating various perspectives, etc.)
Peace and Justice
Intellectual Engagement
Creation Care
Creativity
Contextualization/Incarnation
This Sunday evening we’ll be talking through these, looking for themes, and proposing names for our community. So stoked. Be sure to be here and be thinking of names!
Also, a quick update on some things highlights from the last few weeks, pics below:
-Some of us were able to serve at the Camp Sweeny Garden by helping to plant trees and do some gardening
-We had another great picnic last week along Lake Merritt and met some new friends.
Identity being forged
Each week our church plant community is getting closer to birth. Just like a new life takes time to develop in the womb before it’s ready to be born, our community has been developing as we do our best to follow Jesus in our context. Over the last few months we have been maturing and becoming a family and we’re now entering a new and exciting chapter of our early life together, discerning our identity.
Instead of starting with a name and a set of values, it’s been our aim to start by just listening. We’ve done our best to listen to God, to our own stories, and to our city. As we listened and continue to listen, we’re noticing where God is moving. As we’ve been reflecting on scripture, engaging our city, and developing community, we’ve been asking the question, how does God want to move in us and through us?
Over the next few weeks our hope is to identify some things about who God wants us to be as a church. Specifically, we will be identifying some of our values, and from our values choose a name that fits our identity.
This is truly an exciting time: we get the privilege to to see God move and witness a church being birthed. Each Sunday night at 6pm we’ll be gathering for community and to listen to where God is leading us. Would you pray for us in this important chapter of our church plant, and also pray about joining us?
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Oak Life 