OAKWOOD 2010

Dear Friend,

We want everyone to know that we are embarking on a new project called OAKWOOD 2010, to develop the life of our fellowship. Our purpose is to establish mission as the driving motive in our work together.

Please begin to include this fresh endeavour in your prayers. We want to know the power of the Spirit of God in every step. There is no other way the Lord Jesus Christ can be made known.

The beginning of OAKWOOD 2010 was just before you called me as Pastor here. I was asked, ‘How can you help us in our outreach?’ From that time I began to realize that there was a real desire in this church to fulfil the mission of God in Jesus.

As I began to get to know the fellowship, I discovered that the seventy-fifth anniversary is coming up in the year 2010, and I felt this might be a good target in developing our local work in the gospel.

I shared with the other leaders that it seemed right to start to look at the way forward together, and we decided to spend a day together considering this with prayer. The focus of this day was the priority of mission in the work of the church.

My proposal of OAKWOOD 2010 was shared with all the deacons and elders on Saturday 29 September, when we had a strong sense of purpose together, and felt the presence of the Lord with us. We agreed that we should bring this forward to the church meeting.

As a fellowship we have agreed that we will make Oakwood Baptist Church mission centred by 2010. That is what OAKWOOD 2010 is all about. It is about becoming a mission centred church.

Of course, in all that we are the Lord Jesus Christ must be supreme. He is everything to us, the beginning and the end. But when we hear his voice to the church we know that his mission is our mission. We are fulfilling his command to go into the world and make disciples.

So OAKWOOD 2010 is a way to obey the word of Jesus. When we say we want to make Oakwood Baptist Church mission centred in 2010, we mean two things. We will work towards making mission the priority in all our work by that year, and we will plan special action in mission during that seventy-fifth anniversary year.

Please pray as we begin to share more fully what OAKWOOD 2010 means. The leaders will be bringing a fuller picture of what we believe we should start to do by the beginning of the new year.

But the first event in this new project is a DAY OF PRAYER on Saturday 1 December. This will be from 8am to 8pm, with a gathering at the beginning and end of the day, and the church open for prayer in the hours between. Please set this day aside now, and plan to be there.

We want OAKWOOD 2010 to be born in prayer, so there will be a great sense of dependence on God in all we may do, and the life of the Holy Spirit in it all, that the Lord Jesus Christ may be revealed.

Your Pastor,
Gordon

‘HE WHO BEGAN A GOOD WORK IN YOU WILL BRING IT TO COMPLETION’ Philippians 1v6