Good morning, church family! It’s wonderful to see everyone here today. Let me take a couple of minutes for a quick church family talk about what’s coming up next.”
First, I want to say how thankful I am for this church. Serving with you is a real joy. God is doing great things among us, and our leadership team has been praying and planning to keep that momentum as we move into the next season.
Over the past two years, we’ve poured a lot of love, prayer, and effort into building our church’s discipleship program. It’s been amazing to see some of you grow in faith and build your lives on the Biblical truths that shape Oamaru Baptist Church.
The newly formed Life of Christ Book 1 group will hold their first meeting this afternoon. Praise the Lord! We now have two Life of Christ groups.
But we’re not stopping here. We build deep roots in discipleship so we can grow strong branches. Our vision is to become a sending church. We want our discipleship tracks to launch future church planters, pastoral leaders, and ministry workers who will share the Gospel far and wide. Finishing “The Life of Christ Book 3” would enable our “Lifers” to just do that.
For the past four years, God has led us into a season of growth and sustainability, and we’re still moving forward. Our main goal now is to make sure our church is healthy, mature, and ready for whatever comes next.
Just to be clear, everyone is welcome to be part of our church family, no matter your religious or theological background. However, since we are a Baptist church, anyone stepping into leadership or ministry roles needs to uphold our Baptist faith and doctrine.
Thinking about our vision, I remembered the Oamaru Rowing Club at the harbour and the rowing teams training and practising at Friendly Bay.
We know that if everyone rows at a different pace and in different directions, it could just spin in circles, water splashes everywhere, arms get tired, and you don’t go anywhere. Worse, you could even capsize. We don’t want that for OBC. We must be rowing together in the same direction toward our vision, always.
Scripture tells us in Ephesians that a healthy church is a unified church, where we all row together in the same direction, with the same heart, and share the same Biblical beliefs. This matters even more when God is leading us into a new season.
I want to make sure our communication is as clear as our direction. I value integrity and transparency in our church family. I’m not perfect. If you have any questions or thoughts about where we’re heading, my door is always open. Please feel free to come talk with me so we can have honest conversations as brothers and sisters in Christ.
To keep our church moving forward, we need to cover our ministries in prayer. This week, please pray for our discipleship classes, our children and youth ministry, our women’s and everyone’s bi-monthly fellowships, and our Young Adults’ Parents group.
Since we’re training future leaders, our discipleship and volunteer programs matter more than ever. If you haven’t joined a discipleship group yet, now is a great time to start. Whether you’re new to faith or have followed Jesus for years, there’s always room to grow.
We want to build a team of joyful, teachable people who are eager to support our church’s vision and help keep us united.
Let’s keep praying for each other, keep smiling, and run and row this race together with all we have.
We can’t know exactly what the next few years will bring, but our faithfulness and commitment to obey God and his Great Commission will make a big difference.
Thank you!
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