Eric Camp

Capacity—it’s how much you can handle and how much you can produce.

The same is true when your business expands or your church grows from 30 attenders to 100 attenders. A funny thing can happen, though, as you stretch and grow. You can reach a leadership lid, a ceiling on what you can manage on your own. Suddenly the things that got you here won’t get you there—there to the next level you’re shooting for.

I hope these five “C”s can help you work past that lid and increase your leadership capacity.

• Build your Confidence.

When we hit our leadership lid, we can start talking in the ‘language of the lid.’ We belittle ourselves, tear ourselves down. We say, “No matter what I do, it’s not enough.”

And with just our own strength, sometimes we really can’t do enough. But we need to realize that we are so much stronger because of Jesus in us. You are not the worst version of yourself. You are not who others say you are.

You are who God says you are. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead works in you. Build your confidence, and secure that confidence in who God is.

• Expand your Connections.

Show me who you listen to, and I’ll show you who you are becoming. When we’re around people, they rub off on us. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you’re feeling stuck under the leadership lid, find some new people to learn from, people who are already where you want to be. Don’t try to copy exactly what they’re doing. Instead, learn how they think.

• Improve your Competence.

Sometimes, we continue doing the things we’ve always done and expect them to bring us the same success they did five or 10 years ago. If we’re honest, we’ll see that things change around us, and we need to learn new skills so we can continue to impact our area of ministry.

If you’re not sure what things you need to improve, ask your family, your friends, and trusted teammates. The things that you need to improve are often completely obvious to those around you!

Some areas to look at for developing your competency are: communication and listening skills, delegating, giving and receiving feedback, encouraging, hiring, work ethic, technology, casting vision, and running meetings.

• Strengthen your Character.

As you work hard and start to see success, remember to put as much importance on developing your character as on developing your ministry or business. If you aren’t strengthening your character now, you’re inadvertently weakening your future capacity.

Check for character leaks now, and stop them before they become major problems. Look at your marriage, your walk with God, your prayer time. Do you tell white lies, deceive others, or live with secret sin?

If you’re doing something privately that could cost you publically, stop now, repent, and strengthen your character against it. Eliminate character issues while they’re still small. Be honest with yourself. You’re only as strong as you are honest.

• Increase your Commitment.

Strengthen your capacity by taking your commitment to the next level. Reinvigorate your passion. Recommit to your cause.

True commitment is the difference between “I kind of want to do something” and “I will do this at any cost!” Instead of just thinking about going on a diet, say instead, “I will radically commit to living a healthy lifestyle.” Do you see the difference in the level of commitment?

If you want to improve your marriage, commit to honoring God and your spouse.

If you want to reach people for Christ, do anything short of sin to show them His love.

Yep. We saw you at church on Sunday. Did you think we wouldn’t notice you?

As soon as your car pulled around the bend, the Parking Team radioed to each other that you had arrived. We watched you walk from the parking lot to the building before we opened the church doors for you.

Then in the lobby, you tried to blend in with the crowd as you went through the Sunday routine, like checking in children, grabbing a cup of coffee (caffeinated, of course!).

When you came into the auditorium, we saw you walk, walk, walk up the stairs to the top of the balcony, It’s where people go when they seek anonymity….but it’s also the folks we see the best from the stage. (Did you know that?) During worship, we heard you sing the wrong words a couple of times. Then when I asked everyone to bring out their Bibles you had nothing to open.

Yep. We saw you.

But, did you see us?

Did you notice us smile at you when we opened the door and when we handed you that cup of coffee or message talk points? We prayed for you that morning, too, because we know sometimes getting everyone ready and out the door takes an amazing amount of negotiation skills and patience. When we watched you walk up the stairs, we silently praised God that you made it. And those lyrics? Even Matthew messes those up every now and again. (Seriously.) And a Bible? Those things are heavy! No worries if you don’t bring one. That’s why we put the Scriptures on the screen.

But, here’s the truth about this open letter. It’s to all of us. Every. Single. One. Of. Us.

We are all sinners. We all fall short of God’s perfect plan for us, but God loves us anyway. His grace is bigger than our past and our sin.

So, when you come to church on Sunday, know that the smile we give you is one of understanding. It’s a smile that says: Welcome to Oasis, where things and people aren’t perfect, but our Father is. We trust you can relate.

See you this weekend!

An Oasis Christmas

Easter weekend was a great weekend for us at Oasis.Church as much as it was for many others! Record Crowds, salvations, incredible stories of life-change.

However, there is another side of Easter that I have discovered through the years of being a Pastor. That is the side of comparison and isolation. We as pastors leave our church campus feeling on top of the world for all that happened and the crowds we had only to get on social media and see that a church down the street had twice as many (or more) people than you and many more salvations than you had. We then feel insignificant. We then isolate ourselves and allow ourselves to believe that we are just not as significant as XYZ Church that our friend pastors or the one down the street. I believe this is a poison that we simply cannot allow ourselves to partake of!

There was one year I absolutely went into a depression because of some events that occurred in an Easter Experience as well as doing what I stated above. We had a great weekend that year, but I quickly allowed the heart of gratitude and humility turn to bitterness and self-defeat that led to isolation and depression.

At Oasis, we don’t post the attendance numbers or the numbers of people who committed their lives to Jesus on social media anymore. I chose this route primarily because I didn’t want to be appearing to be playing the comparison game with my friends in our region who pastor great churches or with others around the nation and the world. I even declined interview for our church in a well-known publication that wanted to highlight our church on one of their yearly lists. I chose this simply because only pastors and church leaders read this particular magazine and I don’t want to appear to be bragging or gloating over all the The Lord is doing in our church.

I love to see and hear all the pictures and stories from my friends on how Easter went for them and their church! I know the quickest way to communicate with our church members and friends is through social media posts. Again, I am not frowning on that. It is not the issue of the one posting many times as it is for the one viewing it and comparing themselves to the success of others.

Pastors, be encouraged today regardless of what your numbers were this weekend! He is Risen! Lives were changed, people were saved! And that is victory! Don’t allow yourself to fall into that trap of comparison! Be thankful for each life you had the opportunity to impact! Every ONE counts! #DareNotToCompare

We started a new message series at Oasis this past weekend discussing Miracles.

What’s My Part In The Miracle?
When you look at the miracles in the Bible, you see two themes consistently emerge when it comes to the person involved in the miracle.

1) Many biblical miracles were the person’s own initiative, not necessarily God’s.
• Like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.
• Or Namaan who went to Elisha for healing for his leprosy.
• Or the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant.

And

2) many biblical miracles involved the person’s natural action, not just God’s supernatural intervention.

• Like when the Israellites had to walk through the Red Sea after God parted it.
• Or when the blind man had to wash himself in the pool of Siloam.
• Or when Joshua and his army had to march around the walls of Jericho before it fell.

The bottom line is that when it comes to the miracles you want to see in and through your life, God wants your involvement. I’ve said it before, but most Christians don’t want miracles, we want magic. We want God to wave a magic wand at our problem or need.

We want God to send the money out of the sky. God forbid we would cut up our credit cards.

We want God to heal us of our physical ailments. God forbid we change our eating habits or start exercising.

We want to see God do miraculous things through us. God forbid we get off the couch and give God a platform off of which He can work.

Of course God’s miracles involve His unmistakable power and provision. Otherwise they wouldn’t be miracles. But they also require your initiative and involvement.

Maybe we could sum it up like this:
• Without God, you cannot.
• Without you, God will not.

Ask yourself two questions today.
1) What miracle do you need or want to see God accomplish in or through your life?
2) What involvement is God requiring from you before He accomplishes the miracle?

Have a great week!

Oasis Family!!! What a great night this past Wednesday for our first Wednesday Experience at Oasis.Church! I thank each and everyone of you who were there as it was the largest attended First Wednesday in the history of Oasis! If you happened to miss the Experience, you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/151048394

A couple of things I want to share with you today…

I made some big announcements last night, the one primary was being a better Follower of Jesus. Watch the video if you missed it. This 21 days of prayer and fasting is a great opportunity to set your priorities and perspective on this upcoming year and what The Lord wants to do in and through you. I hope you have been able to join us each day at 6:00am in prayer and also fasting in some regard during this 21 Days.

Many have asked about the d’Iberville, MS location that was scheduled to launch on January 31. We are not going to launch our second campus on that date. Our trustees are still working out facility opportunities and many things have yet to align for us to successfully launch this campus. We are still looking at some point in 2016 launching a campus in Harrison County. Stay tuned.

The Jackson County ADC (Adult Detention Center)campus is still in the works. We will know within the next week or so when we will be able to go live inside the ADC. Again, stay tuned as we will keep you posted.

Lastly, when I announced my resignation Wednesday I challenged everyone else to resign as well. (Watch the video if you missed it). I believe this to be key for life and freedom that Jesus died for us to have. Let’s be the church like never before this year! 2016 will be the best year of our lives if it is the best year of our lives spiritually!

See you Sunday for part 2 of “Free Indeed” series OR Saturday at 9:00 am for Prayer!