Eric Camp

What a day at Oasis Church yesterday!!! WOW! What an amazing way to start the “At the Movies” series for this year. 29 people gave their lives to Christ, 3 where water baptized, and the crowds were GREAT for both Experiences having a packed house at both Experience times!!

This series, as it is each year, is one of the biggest events we do all year. There are 3 more weeks to the series and I am highly encouraging you to invite your friends and loved ones each week!!

Speaking of inviting, YOU are the reason we witnessed such life-change and almost 30 decisions for Jesus yesterday! Because you invited and got people here, The Holy Spirit moved and lives were changed forever! That is the way it supposed to be done! Thank you Oasis family for “owning” this great movement of what God is doing here on the Coast.

Over the past 3 weeks, we have witnessed around 50 people give their heart to Jesus. Now encourage them to take the next step and go public with water baptism. The 1st Sunday of every month and the 1st Wednesday of every month is when we schedule those, however, if enough people are ready to take that step, we will make it happen at any Sunday Experience this month! Just call Megan in the Admin office or email her at office@oasisonline.tv and let her know! The Phone number is 228-762-5639.

GROWTH TRACK // Discover Oasis… the next class is Sunday night of this week and next. 6:00 in Higher Grounds. REGISTER NOW! You can register online at the OasisOnline.tv website. If you want to know more about Oasis, become a member, and/or discover your purpose and destiny in this life, you need to attend these meetings!

More news and information will be posted from our staff on the Oasis Facebook page. Please “like” the page if you havent already…

If you missed any previous Oasis Experiences, you can watch Oasis OnDemand by clicking this link:   Oasis OnDemand

Have a great week!!!

Probably one of my favorite sayings is “It is what it is!” Sometimes there are no explanations and there is no reason to get unraveled because it just is what it is! So, for my blog post today, I am going to give you some “It is what it is” scenarios involving Oasis Church to help you better understand why we are having to do some of the things we are having to do and why we just want to do some of the things we are going to do…

1.  Onsite Security with the Pascagoula Police Dept. and Oasis Security team.

The world we live in today is one that is massively different than the one even 10 years ago. You cant even go to a movie today without a small grade of fear that someone is going to open fire and shoot people in a movie theater. At Oasis, we reach out to our ENTIRE community and even bus in young people that otherwise wouldn’t have a ride and some of these kids are very un-chuched and uneducated on integrity and morality. We are combating the culture shift with intentionally going after them to reveal to them and educate them on what God’s Word says about them and to help them discover relationship with Jesus and destiny and purpose that He desires they live in. With that, for the security of all people and just in case of an event that someone doesn’t behave appropriately or just in case someone comes to campus with the mind of causing harm, we have uniformed officers on our campus to insure safety and security and to give you peace of mind that everyone will be safe. There hasn’t been any drastic situations or problems, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been. We believe in insuring that people are safe and securing a safe and fun learning environment for our kids all the way up to senior adult. On Sunday mornings, you will notice more of a presence of police personnel to assist with traffic overflow and again, for just safety for everyone. We love God. We love people. And I take very seriously doing all that we can to insure the utmost safety and excellence in taking care of everyone who come on campus at Oasis Church. We even have plain clothes security personnel too and all these folks are there to help you and to assist you as well… “It is what it is!”

2. Higher Grounds Cafe Possible Closing

Until we can relocate Higher Grounds to the main lobby area, we may have to close day to day operations during the week due to the lack of customer support and revenues on a day to day basis. The accessibility of the facility is not great and we understand that. Once relocated, it will be at the main entrances of the main building and hopefully will have a drive through for ease of access during the week if we see the opportunity to open back up during the week. Being as I personally take the responsibility of being a good steward along with the trustees of Oasis Church, I cant justify investing thousands of dollars just to keep it open during the week when on the weekends it would generate a profit that could benefit our children’s ministries and student ministries. More information coming soon… Another one of those “It is what it is” situations!

3. VIP and Parking attendants on Sunday mornings

Fortunately, on Sunday mornings, especially at the 11:00 Experience, we are experiencing overflow crowds and parking congestion. AWESOME!!! With that, we are instituting a parking team to recognize VIP Guest, 1st timers, and also a definitive process of entry and exit onto campus to help fill the parking places from front to back and to insure all vehicles are parked in the same direction. We want to welcome our 1st Time Guests, VIPs, from the moment they pull onto campus and we want to also make it easier to park and flow during transition times and at the end of the Experiences. Thank you for understanding and for helping us to continue to operate in excellence in every area! There will be someone in the parking lot that will direct you and park you as you enter the parking lot. No one will park just wherever they want to, we are going to park you in the next available spot to insure we get as many cars onto campus and to keep the flow of traffic for ease of access and exit. There will be marked exits and entrances  to assist you with this guideline… This is a GREAT problem to have and “it just is what it is!”

More to come…

This past Sunday, we continued in the “Soul Detox” (#SoulDetoxOC) series at Oasis Church as we are attempting to lead people on a journey of life and Freedom as they overcome the issues of the soul. We witnessed at least 11 People giving their lives to Jesus!!!! That was the highlight of the day!

I encouraged our church to begin a 21 Day Fast and Prayer initiative to get our focus and priorities back on track.

Scripture Records an account where a man brought his son to be delivered from a demonic spirit and the disciples were unable to cast it out. (This has been the basis for our drive on this 21 Day initiative) The Man then took his son to Jesus and here is what happened:

(Matthew 17:14-18) When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.

Unbelieving: not connected to God.

Perverse: too connected to the world.

Unbelieving means not being connected to God and Perverse means being too connected to the world. The solution to this issue is what we find next in Scripture when the disciples themselves confronted Jesus in private. They came in private because they were embarrassed that they couldn’t do it… Here is what happened:

(Matthew 17:19-21) Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Jesus gave the answer…

Prayer connects us to God.

Fasting disconnects us from the world.

Our Souls are in constant attack and turmoil… Most of all our struggles and issues lie in the soulish realm of who we are. Our intellect, our emotions, our thoughts are all soulish realm.

By getting back to Prayer for at least 5 minutes a day and fasting anything that captivates our attention, we can live and experience more of the supernatural power and authority of God in our lives. We need this power and authority in order to live in the full victory that we are entitled to in this life.

You can watch the video from Sunday morning or any other previous Service Experience by clicking here: http://vimeo.com/oasischurch/videos.

Join us on the journey for the month of July as we continue in this series on Sunday and Wednesdays.

“At The Movies” will start in August…  This is always one of our biggest series of the year! Invite Cards are being printed for you to begin inviting people to this life-changing series as we incorporate various movies and scenes from movies to The Power and Application of God’s Word.

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July as we celebrate our Great Country’s 236th birthday!!!

Thanks for reading…

For Pastors and Church planters, Father’s Day is usually a difficult day because statistics show that Sunday as being one of the least attended Sundays of the year. That was the case for Oasis for Father’s Day 2012 as we were down in actual attendance in the hundreds. For whatever reason, men do other things as priority on Father’s Day instead of going to church.

We had 2 great experiences at Oasis and you can watch the message here if you would like: http://vimeo.com/44206892.

I realized this morning that I have not posted a blog in sometime and I want to make a better habit of doing so in order to stay current on conversations about Oasis Church, our family, and etc. for all our friends, family and church family.

I am excited about starting the new series this weekend “Soul Detox”. Craig Groeschel wrote a book with that title recently and after reading the book, I felt it would be a great early summer series for Oasis Church in dealing with Emotional and issues of the soul. I hope you can join us for the start of this series next Sunday at 9 and 11am.

This week will be a somewhat challenging week for me personally. I have some pretty substantial decisions to make in order to better position myself and Oasis for the future of what I believe The Lord is calling us to along the Gulf Coast. Pray for me and the leadership of Oasis this week! Transitions abound in almost every area of life for most people right now and I am under the understanding that is part of God’s plan for us all in these days in which we currently live. We just have to stay the course and remain faithful every step of the way… He wont take you to your NEXT if you aren’t faithful with your NOW.

Now that Father’s day is behind and summer is in full-swing, we are planning the July and August teaching/preaching series that might include for August “At the Movies 2012”. We haven’t 100% decided on that series for this year, which is usually the largest attended series we do all year with well over 1000 attending each weekend. We do that series in August usually as our back to school the series. The reason we haven’t made it concrete has more to do with production and staffing than anything else. Would you be excited about “At The Movies 2012” and invite hundreds to attend if we did it???

I encourage all ladies to register today for the Next “Savour Sisterhood” Gathering by clicking here: http://savoursisterhood.com/events/ .

Ok… enough rambling for Monday morning… I have 3 staff and leadership meetings today and some church planters to help coach!!! Let’s do this!!! Have a great day and thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings today….

For all the Oasis Church Family in Pascagoula and abroad:

I announced at the 11:30 Experience on Sunday that we would be returning to 2 worship Experiences beginning THIS WEEK at 9:00 and 11:00. I first want to thank everyone for being flexible with us as we added the 3rd worship experience Easter weekend and continued in that structure until we resolved the overcrowding in the Children’s Dept and parking areas. We know this change back to 2 Experiences will be temporary as we are experiencing major growth and at some point in the future will need to add another Worship Experience on a consistent basis. We decided on these times as it would be an easier transition from the current 3 Experience times and also those are the times we were meeting prior to Easter.

The Plan? For the parking area, the staff, leaders and dream team members will be parking in the far south overflow parking lot and on some of our adjacent property to the campus that is not designated for parking. This will help to open up parking spaces on the main parking lot and on the west overflow parking lot as well. Parking Lot Leaders Greeters will be parking you as you come onto the property. Please park where they direct you.

The Children’s Department is still a very busy place having over 150 kids on Sunday mornings and the late Experience is always the most crowded. First of all, we are asking all who can, consider moving to the 9:00 Experience if you are a regular 11:00 family to help AND for the 11:00, the children’s workers will move the older kids that are in “The Wave” to Higher Grounds for their study and discussion the 2nd half of the time they are there. Parents will be directed to Higher Grounds to pick your child up if her/she is in that group at the end of the 11:00 Experience. Thank you to all who are patient with us and for all the Dream Team members who are making it happen!

We are going to attempt this structure until we absolutely have to add the 3rd Experience permanently  or until we complete the construction of the addition we are needing to build. These are GREAT problems to have and we eager expect growth to continue as now over 1000 people call Oasis home! The future is bright!!

The facility addition… the vision is to expand the south lobby area and relocate the Administrative offices to an added office suite and relocate Higher Grounds to the ground level where the Admin offices are now. This would give the current Higher Grounds space to the Children’s Dept to give them a full running capacity in the Children’s building up to 300+ children at one time and designated youth ministries space. This would also make Higher Grounds easier accessible and expand the lobby area for easier transition and provide space for small groups to meet on campus throughout the week. This expansion has been drawn out and will add an additional 3000+ square feet to the existing main building with an estimated cost of $250,000 – $300,000.

With all this being said, funds are being raised now to help with the vision of expansion to the current building. You can make a contribution on the Oasis main webpage at https://oasisonline.tv/oc-connect designate it to building fund.

Questions have been asked about the relocation discussion that was talked about earlier in the year. At this time, there is not a facility in Pascagoula that is large enough that is available for us to acquire. The Old K-Mart building (Ingall’s) will not be available anytime soon and the cost of operations of that facility is larger than what we feel like we should accommodate as we can expand and/or build an entire new facility at less expense than the utilities and upkeep on that facility.

I hope this clarifies some of the questions that have been asked and gives you a clearer understanding where Oasis currently is and the vision before us. Thanks again for everyone for being flexible and generous in helping this vision and dream become a reality as we push forward being a life-giving church in South Mississippi loving Jesus and reaching people!

Have a great day and thanks again!!!

-Eric

1. Jesus is still head of His Church!

2. He Loves People and so should I!

3. People will always talk about you and take what you say out of context, they did Him!

4. Not everyone will love you and approve of what you are doing!

5. He is not a respecter of worship style, He just wants our heart! Sit, stand, clap, dance, shout, raise hand or not, Our heart surrendered to Him is what He looks at. Not the external demonstration! We do those things based on who we are and how we respond emotionally. It doesn’t change God’s view of you!

6. Find out who your friends really are, most people don’t really know until they make a mistake and then those who are really friends come through and those who are not leave and talk about you.

7. You will never be able to please everyone, so dont try!

8. People will leave your church if you do 1 little thing they dont like letting that 1 thing overshadow the 1001 things that you do that they love! Why? People don’t commit anymore and some believe everything you do should be about them.

9. According to Pete Wilson in his new book, “Empty Promises”, anything you put in front of or are more concerned about than God is an idol… We all have idols and sometimes the desire even for success is an idol in our life that we have to deal with… more on this later.

10. I am not perfect. Neither are you. Let’s not try to live like we are! BE REAL! Be you! There’s more life in the long run living a transparent open life! The End… rant over… Have a great day!

When I read this, I couldn’t help but think of so many leaders of church plants and churches. In our desire to build a great church and win people to our cause, too often we find ourselves saying “YES” to  things we really should be saying “NO” too. Special Thanks to Matt Keller at Next Level Church in Florida for helping me realize even more the importance of saying no!

1.  Saying NO is never easy.

I’m not going to deceive you into thinking that telling people no is  fun or easy or a flippant thing in any way. Just the opposite, it’s actually really hard! Especially when your church or organization is small! The last thing in  the world you want is for someone to leave because you wouldn’t care for their legitimately “good” idea.

However, if we  don’t protect and fight for the purity of the culture we’re trying to  create in our churches, we’ll end up watering down who we are to such a degree that in the end it does more harm than good.

2.  Saying NO won’t make people happy.

Inevitably, when we say no to someone’s “good” idea, someone’s  feelings will get hurt. People won’t always understand why we’re making  the decision we’re making and some will leave mad. This is just a  function of the leadership journey. As a leader, making the right decision for your organization is what you get paid to do, and it times it will come with a price.

However, I have found that most people are pretty understanding when  they know the why behind our decision. Not always, but a lot of the  time. When we share our logic and heart, people can accept that and move  on. It has been my experience that people don’t want to be right as much as they simply want to be heard. As leaders, it’s our job to listen sincerely, explain our perspective and then make the wise decision for the organization that we ultimately  lead.

3.  Saying NO protects you, your family and your organization.

As our organization has grown, my responsibility to say NO has increased significantly. Because let’s face it, in a bigger organization, there’s money, facilities and the perception that we could accommodate more “good” things.

But I have had to learn the art of saying NO in order to protect my family, my schedule, my time, and my energy. Yes I’m a leader, but I’m also still a human being. And I must be wise enough to understand that I’m the only guy who can care for my wife  (well, there are others, but we’d all agree, we don’t want that!!!) I’m  the only guy who can be dad to my son, and I’m the only guy who can show up every weekend and share life-giving, vision oriented, engaging messages that allow the Holy Spirit to change lives at Oasis because that is HIS call on my life!

If I’m not prioritizing those things, then I’m not doing my job. That IS my #1 Priority.

4.  Saying NO allows you to stay focused on what you do best.

At the end of the day, when you say NO to something “good” you position your organization, your staff and your teams to focus on the best.

There’s something freeing about the word NO. Unfortunately, far too many leaders use it far too infrequently.

Application:

If you HAD to identify 3 things that you MUST say no to, what would  they be? In the next 24 hours,  do the hard but right thing and say NO  to them. In the end, you know you’ll feel better about it!

#AddingValue..

Easter 2012 was an exciting and interesting Easter at Oasis Church! The number in attendance was over 1000 in 3 Worship Experiences as we added another worship Experience to our lineup of Regular Service Experience times. We are going to “test drive” 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30 times for the next month or so not just to help accommodate the current crowds, but to make additional room for more! The 10:00 Experience was Packed at over 100% in seating, children and parking!

The emphasis I want to make in this email is that not everything we did was to appeal to “church people.” We make it priority at Oasis to reach the un-churched! We will do anything short of sin to do so! A lot of people will want to be negative and take away the 1 thing they didn’t like overlooking the 10 things we feel we did right!

We did make some mistakes that I know we will be suffering the negative feedback on. For those, I simply just apologize. The best judgment might not have been exercised in every single detail of the flow of the services, but interesting enough, AN ENTIRE FAMILY GOT SAVED STARTING WITH THE DAD WHO IS ABOUT 50 YEARS OLD! When asked what inspired him the most and what he liked the best, he said the dance to the Adele song because it made him feel comfortable from the very start!!! WOW!

I know everyone didn’t understand why we may have done some of what we done, but God worked in all of it and at least 50 people gave their lives to JESUS!!!!

We are now positioning ourselves to “Go Bigger” and reach more people by adding an additional worship Experience. Join us if you havent already and become a part of the family at Oasis Church!

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog, Have a great week!

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog today… Me and my wife both have been confronted recently on several different occasions by people asking us if we were leaving Oasis Church. One even said that “somebody” said we were “trying out” another church… This is very interesting on many levels.

First of all, these are all non-merited rumors. We are not, and have no plans to leave Oasis Church or Pascagoula for that matter. We birthed Oasis! This is where God sent us over 7 years ago and now we just celebrated 3 years of Oasis being a life-giving church on the coast!

I have no idea where this originated or even why. If we were “trying out” another church, whatever that means, then it seems we would have been gone on a Sunday. We haven’t been gone on a Sunday in almost a year! Just sayin…

I mentioned in a recent message about an opportunity we had 3 years ago in Indiana. Yes, it was a viable opportunity with a large ministry there, but that was over 3 years ago! That was even before Oasis was birthed!

Anyway, for those of you hoping this was true, sorry. We aren’t going anywhere! We feel rooted and grounded in this city and region and have invested our lives here.

For those of you who were concerned, I am sorry you had to be. There is no truth whatsoever to the rumor!

Thank you for loving us and loving Oasis and I eagerly look forward to the continued work and assignment that we all have been called to here in South Mississippi!

Have a great week! See you soon!!!

-Eric