Of those who responded - 82% said they appreciated the use of videos in our sermons.
Of those who responded - 68% said they would keep the Homecoming as an annual event.
Of the 32% that said they didn't want it as an annual event - can you share why?
I'm going to redo the encouragement post for Dione Bowlding, our Youth Director. The first post was on July 1 but was soon swamped under by all the Street Reach posts. How about a revisit?
Dione grew up at Mt. Oak and is nearing his under grad degree. He has been our Youth Director for several years and was on volunteer staff before that time.
I will begin by saying Dione has a real heart for the youth. He is very creative and is willing to do most anything to reach a young person for Jesus. He loves to worship God and to train others - equipping them for worship.
He is pleasant to work with and is growing in his abilities and his work ethic. I am glad to call him friend and to work with him in ministry at Mt. Oak.
How about you? What can you say as a word of encouragement for Dione? How about something about Street Reach or any ministry Dione has helped direct?
How about some praises for the Street Reach Team and for the ministry they shared for a week!
What is your favorite praise or worship song? You can list a few if you would like. They can be traditional or contemporary. I would like us to use people's favorites as often as possible in worship so share with me your favorite.
Of those responding 62% said they planned to attend the Revival while 48% on another poll said they had never been to a revival.
A revival can be many things. It can be an old sawdust camp meeting where the focus is on reaching the lost and saving souls. An awesome event if you have never experienced this type of service.
Our revival will be a time of renewal (although the Gospel is compelling and some may receive Jesus for sure). Renewal revivals are all about renewing our Spirit and uplifting the church to inspire them to be more and more faithful to Jesus.
Won't you attend our revival on July 27-30? The services start at 7 pm each night.
How about some comments about what you have experienced in revival services? There was a long comment in the E-News last week and I will try to cut and paste it for this blog.
Of those who responded 95% said the Homecoming was exactly what was needed.
Most everyone I have spoken to believes it was a success and that it was a great day!
How about some comments about the Homecoming? Would you make it an annual event? Why or why not? Would you be willing to help next year?
If you wouldn't make it a yearly event - why? And how often would you have it?
Tonight I attended most of the Saturday night worship service which this week was led by the youth from Street Reach.
WE HAVE YOUTH WE CAN BE PROUD TO CALL OURS!
I have visited their work site all week and have found them working and being friendly. I have heard the people they have helped sing their praises. I had a young women stop her run through the neighborhood to ask questions and she was full of praises for their efforts.
Now, tonight, they end their week in worship and it was very moving and Spirit filled. I'm tickled to say I am from Mt. Oak - because the youth are top notch!
The praise team brought us into the presence of God tonight. Between some of the songs several members of the team read Scripture or prayed or called us to present ourselves to God and it was powerful. They lead worship tomorrow and I know they will be filled with the Spirit from this week.
Plan to be here to say - well done - to the youth for this week of mission. Thanks also to those who led them this week. Not only their leaders but others came to the work sites and worked!
God bless you all and remember to be a blessing to someone today.
I wondered how renting a bowling alley would work. But last night we filled the bowling alley to capacity and then some. People had to wait for a turn at a lane.
The band was awesome and I saw a number of people touched by the worship time the whole night. I was singing along with them as I took my turn at bowling (was that an adventure - shoes and duck pin balls from 1971 - ten pin ball from 1976 - and not bowling for 20 years - all good excuses for the way I bowled).
I met a number of people and shared some time with them in between games and and after I put my toys away. How about sharing some of your experiences at the Bowling alley.
Monday, the team started to split up to clean houses whether it was cleaning front yard or backyard. The first house we went to was the only house we went to. This lady had problems with the plants and the tree. The bad thing was that she was getting lots of complaints form the city. When we got to the lady's house, we split up in to two teams. One team went into the backyard, another team went with Dione. The team that stayed was with Jason and went into the backyard. The first thing we did was remove any loose or broken bricks, then we pulled out tons of weeds and trying to get the lawnmowers working. As we were doing that Dione's team came to help us out. Plus we got gloves for working. Later on we went to the front yard to pull weeds from the ground, and pull branches and vines from the tree. While we were busy working, the lady called up Bowie Blade to tell them what we were doing for her and then took a picture. Afterwards, we had a lunch break and got back to work the lady was so happy we did that for her. After working six whole hours, we went to church. While we were at church, some of us went to other houses to take a shower. When we got back, we had dinner. After dinner we started sports nights.
Sports Night went really well. Everyone was divided into seven teams. In the end a team which was a very good team named Team DAVID won the entire night there were a lot of sports such as Knock Out, Ultimate Frisbee, Penalty Kick, Hula Hoops and a whole bunch of other sports. To make a long story short Monday went very well but the best has yet to come.
- David Mensah
Today the team finished the job they started Monday and the one they started Tuesday and they started a fourth job (they did one job yesterday complete).
Here are some pictures that they have taken.
http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm94/JnelPhoto/Street%20Reach%2008/
Dinner and a Movie was a great success with 100 plus people attending. Several people asked for this to be repeated.
Jason and Dione talked with me tonight and they both said the youth were doing a marvelous job. The only complaint we hear is about the heat, not the work.
If you haven't been out to the work sites yet, please come out Thursday or Friday.
I visited the Street Reach team today around lunch time. Part of the team was finishing the job they started Monday and part of the team had started another job.
They continue to work hard (most of them - lol) and they continue to draw praise from those they help and from the neighbors who see how they are improving some troubled yards.
Keep them in your prayers... They are learning to use powertools and rakes and all sorts of things - lol -
From Saturday to today (Tuesday) great things have happened. The youth are really excited and full of energy. They have been serving from the first day. They cleaned out the attic of the old parsonage (now the office building). They set up and ran the games at the homecoming picnic. They have bent over backwards in serving a family that is in need in our community. Great things are happening and I am so proud of the whole team. More to come! God is Good!
Dione
The team left this morning and according to the plan will split into two teams and work on two homes. I will visit both sites and try to bring you the latest news.
By the way, if you visit the site and want to tag something onto one of these posts - you can do so with the anonymous tag but please leave your name in the post.
The youth - some of them - read this each night in the Upper Room. It would bless them to hear others pat them on the back for the work they are doing.
While you're reading this - pray for John Davis who is near death. Also we have two members that I know of that are out of work. Pray for them. Pastor Charlie is ministering to a friend who is facing serious surgery today. Pray for him and them. And finally, today is Best Years, pray for those who gather and those who prepare for them. Thank you.
Yesterday, the church had its first ever homecoming celebrating the first year Pastor Ray came to our church. Many old friends that used to come to our church had come back to visit. The homecoming also included the street reach team. We were noticed by the church at both the 8:15 and the 10:30 services. During the 8:15 service, we were setting up tents for the picnic, and discussing about the jobs we had during the 10:30 service. Whether it was helping in children's church, the nursery, or ushering. We all did our best during that time.
For the 10:30 service, Pastor Tim Webster came to preach a sermon and it was great. After the 10:30 service, the picnic began and during the picnic, we all had jobs to do inside and outside such as DDR, Wii sports, and Guitar Hero. Outside, the inflatable games, and water slide, were set up and it was exciting and fun. To get ready for inflatable night at Amped, the team deflated the machines, rolled them up, and moved then to the Fellowship Hall. Around 6:00 we inflated the machines back up again which began Amped. This was the one of the most exciting nights at Amped having thirteen new people and a total of 80 youth! Monday through Friday starts the real events of street reach and there will be a lot of work to be done but hopefully we will have fun as we get the work done. Street Reach is described in two words and those are service and fun.
I found the youth - it was easy to find them - in the M-Section of Bowie. I drove through and found a sea of red shirts all over the yard.
They were working on a home where trees, weeds, grass and most everything else was overgrown. When they arrived they could not see the side or backyard. When I arrived they had already trimmed the trees and gotten vines out of them in the front yard. They were clearing the roof of limbs and cleaning the gutters. There was a pile of weeds, branches and trash growing by the curb. They were heading to the backyard.
The woman of the house was in tears that our youth would come out and help her. She was an older woman taking care of grandchildren. Not sure of all the family situations, not our business, but she was in need.
Her neighbor came out and thank the youth as well. I am proud of our young people and their leaders. They are showing the love of Jesus.
As I arrived this morning I found the youth and leaders preparing to leave for the day. They looked tired already (the birds must have awakened them early again). But they said they were ready for the day.
Pray for today - the first work day in the community. If you would like to visit with them today, their first work site is on Majestic Lane - you can't miss them. I will go by mid day.
I will report what I find when I return to the office. Thanks for your constant prayers for this mission project.
Report from the youth on Saturday
This Saturday was the beginning of street reach. At first, not many people were there and due to weather the luggage was put on the stage instead of outside. Everyone met up in the upper room to get our “debriefing” on what was happening this week and then we went out to set up camp. Setting up camp took a little while since more and more people started to show up. Soon after, we went into the church to prepare for the events that we were doing this week such as, water night, inflatable night, and many other fun activities. The thing that took us a while was cleaning out the attic in the parsonage. There was so much unused stuff up there and some things that were old, dirty, and not even opened. There was a lot of trash that had to be thrown away causing the dumpster to fill up more and more as the day progressed. After we finished cleaning up, we headed down to the tents to chill for a few minutes while being told of a surprise that was so fun. Around five or six o’clock, we all split up into two teams to go on a scavenger hunt driving around Bowie with Dione and Jason as chauffeurs. The first clue, which was a practice clue, had us all stumped. And about five minutes later, the scavenger hunt began. The first place we went to was both funny and embarrassing. We all just stormed into Olive Garden and people were shocked. Could you believe it? After we came out Olive Garden, we had to go over the clue once again. The hint was, eat your spinach with Olive oil. Could you believe what the answer was? It was Popeye’s. Unbelievable! As soon as we all went to the restaurant, we had dinner and continued the hunt. At the end of the hunt, we all went to Baysox stadium to watch the Baysox take on the Erie team and the Baysox win 6 to 4 making their record 3 and 2. At the end we watched the fireworks and the fireworks were amazing. They were actually better than the Fourth of July fireworks. At the end we went back to church and had a good night sleep.
Wow - if you missed it - you missed it- the event of the year - God was present and we were in awe as Tim said in his message.
Mark and Tim did a wonderful job bringing the Word of God. I can see why God has blessed their ministry at Mt. Oak and now in other places. God has a hand on those two young men. I was blessed by both messages.
Everyone, and I mean everyone was blessed by the gathering. There were folks that hadn't been to Mt. Oak in 10 years or more and they had a wonderful time coming home and felt at home.
Thank you to the Mt. Oak folk who opened their arms to visitors and former members. You showed the love of Christ and it showed!
Thanks to those who worked this event. Your efforts did not go unnoticed. I tried to walk around and thank everyone, if I missed you, please forgive me. Thank you!
The cooks thought they had too much food - so instead of multiplying the food, this time God multiplied the people. It was awesome. Thanks to men who fished yesterday - without you we wouldn't have had enough food. What a blessing.
Again, those who served all day - thank you. It amazes me the number of people with a servants heart at Mt. Oak - I sit here in my office at the close of the day and there are still a number of people working to clean up and finish the day. You are amazing and I will not forget you!
Numbers aren't in yet, and they aren't the tale of the story - but I believe it was the biggest day attendance wise since I have been here - well over 600 I think. I pray that some who are not planted in a church will be back - they had to felt wanted and welcome. Thank you all. I'll report on the poll about the number of visitors when I get the report Monday.
More later as stories come in and as God brings the harvest from your efforts.
Again, thanks Mark and Tim. Kevin, we look forward already to next year. Hope you all can make it next year. People have already put in their reservation.
The first Annual Homecoming/Family Picnic was a huge success because God was present and we made into and out of His presence and we still live! Praise God.
The place looks marvelous! Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this a special day.
The pavilion never looked better. The new awnings are first class - thanks to all who worked on them.
I'm praying for good weather - how about you?
I expect an Easter size crowd today - make sure you make everyone feel welcome - please.
I hear-by place a moratorium on all negative talk and stories. Today is about positive talk and remembering the good.
When I arrived this morning at 6:30 am I found the camp up and moving. Some of the city folks were surprised at how loud and how early the birds sing! Of course they are camped right behind the large trees lining one side of the gravel parking lot - a great place for birds to live!
Most that I asked said the night was great - the storms missed them mostly - and they had a good night. This team is excited about serving Jesus. If you see them in their red shirts today, tell them you are praying for them and proud of their service!
By the way - Homecoming is today - come for the day starting at 8:15 am - Mark Stephens is preaching and at 10:30 - Tim Webster is preaching. The picnic will require one thing - a bulletin from one of the services - lol - just kidding.
By the way - Dione looked very tired this morning!!!
People are interested. 140 hits on the blog page since Saturday morning - with 20 hits this morning by 7 am.
The youth are putting together a report from yesterday and I will post it when I get it.
See you today.
The youth are on campus - the camp is up - thanks for the Boy Scouts and some others.
The youth cleaned out the attic in the Office Building (the old Parsonage). Threw a lot of stuff out but found some valuable stuff as well. Thanks team.
They are teaming building tonight. Pray for their first night on campus - and the week away from home.
More later when Dione checks in.
By the way, today is on of the campers 17th Birthday - do you know who?
I will attempt to keep a running account of the Bowie Street Reach '08. I will visit the work sites, attend the evening programs and report here what God is doing. I hope this makes you feel more a part of the mission work you are doing through our Street Reach team.
Don't stay away because you can read the updates. Rather let the updates excite you to be part of the work for Jesus. The more who help the more God can accomplish.
Remember the evening schedule:
· Sunday July 6th – Inflatable Night
· Monday July 7th – Sports Night
· Tuesday July 8th – Water Night
· Wednesday July 9th – Dinner and a Movie Night
· Thursday July 10th – Block Party (in service location hopefully)
· Friday July 11th – Bowling Night at Bowie Lanes (off 450 behind Blockbuster)
· Saturday July 12th – The Big Event – a night of worship and Good News
How can we enhance our worship services?
What ideas would you have to draw us into a deeper worship of God?
What have you seen or experienced at other churches that you would like to see at Mt. Oak?
Are you excited about worship? If so, why? If not, why not?
Leave your thoughts and comments. Remember, if you use the Anonymous option you must leave your name in the post or contact me and let me know who you are (ray@mtoak.org).
The rain has poured down this spring and summer. I mean it has really come down in sheets. There is usually a river going by my office at home when it rains hard. The cats and dogs have long ago gone inside. If I went outside during these rain storms I would get soaking wet in no time. It would be like diving into the ocean or a pool, I would be soaked from head to toe in an instant.
Oh, if the Holy Spirit would pour out on us like this? Oh, wait, that is how the Holy Spirit comes; Acts 2:1-4 – 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. So you ask, why aren’t we soaked in the Spirit? Mainly because we treat the soaking power of the Holy Spirit like some do the ocean or the pool. They don’t go to get soaked, they go for the atmosphere, the sun, the crowd, and maybe they go over to the edge of the pool or down by the ocean and stick their foot in but only a little.
Too many come to church for the same reasons. They don’t want to be soaked in the Spirit and be really Christian, they want to be an acceptable Christians and enjoy the crowd. Folks, you know what God will do with those who are lukewarm don’t you? Revelation 3:15-16 – 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Oh, what God could do with a soaked church. Oh, wait, we have seen what God can do with a soaked church. It was called the first century church and they added thousands to the church daily. In the United Methodist Church as with many churches and denominations, we are losing members and worship attendees right and left. Could it be that we are not soaked in the Spirit, but merely coming for the atmosphere? Think about your level and your church’s level of commitment to being soaked in the Holy Spirit. It may just reflect greatly on your walk with Jesus. What do you think?
Have you heard about the gospel of Judas? To quote Christianity Today - When the Gospel of Judas was unveiled in April, much of the American press and public were bowled over by this "lost" Gospel's claims that Judas was Jesus' favorite, that he was the only disciple who understood Jesus' mission, and that Jesus told Judas to hand him over to the authorities, so that Judas would "sacrifice the man that clothes me." What are your thoughts about this book?
Do you listen to any podcasts? If so what ones?
I listen regularly to Andy Stanley (North Point Ministries), Ravi Zacharias (Let My People Think) and Catalyst.
Do you download the Mt. Oak sermon's podcast? Do you recommend it to anyone?
Today I want to start an encouragement post for Dione Bowlding, our Youth Director. Dione grew up at Mt. Oak and is nearing his under grad degree. He has been our Youth Director for several years and was on volunteer staff before that time.
I will begin by saying Dione has a real heart for the youth. He is very creative and is willing to do most anything to reach a youth for Jesus. He loves to worship God and to train others - equipping them for worship.
He is pleasant to work with and is growing in his abilities and his work ethic. I am glad to call him friend and to work with him in ministry at Mt. Oak.
How about you? What can you say as a word of encouragement for Dione?
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