I am writing this blog to state the official stance of Oasis.Church on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where I have the honor of being the Sr. Pastor along with my wife, Toni. First of all, what The Lord is doing at Oasis is AMAZING!!! Great Growth! Great Team! Great God!!!
HOWEVER… One thing you won’t see us do on social media is post our attendance numbers, number of salvations, number of baptisms, etc… WHY? For several reasons.
One of those being that “The Church” is much BIGGER than Oasis! There are some great churches on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I happen to have relationship with many, not all, but many of the Sr. Pastors of these churches. The last thing I want to do is appear to be bragging or prideful about what our “numbers” happened to be each Sunday. I don’t want to let pride swell up in me or our team nor do I want to alienate myself from other pastors and churches in our area and abroad. (We pastors are competitive and insecure sometimes!) I want to celebrate what Jesus is doing in other houses of worship as well as Oasis!
I admit, I haven’t always been at this place because when we first started Oasis.Church, we posted everything and even counted everything that was moving on campus as part of our “numbers”. I felt conviction about this as I was able to recognize that it wasn’t to honor and celebrate what Jesus was doing as much as it was to feed my ego and pride based on the “numbers” in comparison to other churches not only in our area, but abroad.
Some will say that it is important to encourage and motivate people that are a part of their church, and I get that, however, we must always remember that people from other areas and other pastors and other church people are also watching your every move and measuring you solely by your social media platforms. Not always the best practice, but it is reality.
At Oasis, we will celebrate the “wins” during our Sunday Experiences with the people who are present in house and on our online campus. Not on social media platforms.
Pastors and church leaders, we all need one another and should celebrate one another so we can actually demonstrate uniting “The Church” as a whole.
I haven’t arrived by any means, but the older I get and wiser I pray that I become, there are just some things that are not significant in the landscape of the influence that I have been entrusted with by The Lord. I don’t want pride to be any part of my spiritual DNA or motivation.
We don’t do massive advertisements anymore, we don’t allow stories to be printed about us in magazines that are trying to add us to a “list”, we are content on “Reaching people right where they are so we can connect them to everything that God has for their lives!”
Let’s build and unite HIS Church!
Have a great week!
Eric Camp for MS House District 111 