GREAT OAKS UPDATE · January 16, 2010
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Launch Team Meeting Review
Greetings!
On Wednesday night our Villages joined together for
a Launch Team meeting at our home. We covered lots of material. For those who
weren't there, we want you to know what we discussed. For those who were there, I hope this will be a helpful review.
We are moving our Sunday Services to 10
am at West Middle School on February 7. We are also preparing to launch a major
publicity effort in the near future. A lot needs to happen. We will explain in this
email.
Enjoy!
Paul
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Village Times & Locations January 19-20
Visit our Great Oaks Website where you can learn more about Villages. Also visit our Great Oaks Calendar where you can get up to date info on times and locations.
Last
week we looked at lifestyle habits of Great Oaks members that help us
remain Grounded in Christ and Community. This week we'll look at habits
that help us Grow in Love, Character and Wisdom.
Tuesday Evening Village
TIME: 7 to 9 pm
LOCATION: The location of this Village changes each week.
Home of Dave and Terri Trombka
5533 Folkstone Dr.
Troy MI 48085
DIRECTIONS: Click here for Map
Wednesday Evening Village
TIME: 6 to 8:30 pm - begins with dinner together
LOCATION: Home of Paul and Tammy Bradford
876 Peach Blossom Lane
Rochester Hills, MI 48306
DIRECTIONS: Click here for Map
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Sunday Plans
Sunday, January 24 Location Change - 6pm Service at Bradford's Home
Our final Sunday evening service is being moved from Kensington to the
Bradford's home. As you who attended know, we had to compete with the youth
group rock band on January 10, which was quite distracting. So we're going to have a blast packing into our
family room (we should all fit fine). The children will go down to the basement
following worship. We will have our Great Oaks band leading worship and I will
be teaching, just as normal, though things will be a bit more informal, as you
can imagine. So, we'll see you at our place (876 Peach Blossom Lane, Rochester Hills, MI 48306) on Sunday, January 24 at 6 pm!
Sunday, February 7 we will begin meeting the 1st and 3rd Sundays at West Middle School!
Meeting on Sunday mornings in a rented facility is an important next
step of faith in our new congregation's journey. The step is strategic because
it allows us to more fully develop our own identity as a congregation, and
provides a great time and place for guests and newcomers to join us. We will meet the 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month at 10 am.
West Middle School
Sunday, September 26 public launch
We are planning to begin weekly public services on September 26. In the
meantime, we are meeting weekly in Villages, our informal church services that
meet in homes. Villages are a foundational strategy in our vision to reach
people far from God and help people grow strong in the Lord. We hope to more
than double our number of Villages by September. Developing a network of solid
Village church services is vital to the ongoing vision God has given us.
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You can give to Great Oaks Church online. Online giving is convenient and secure. Just click here to go to our online contribution site. If you've not given before there are brief and clear directions to get you started.
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Want to Learn More about Great Oaks?
Great
Oaks Church is a new church plant in Rochester Hills, Michigan. You are welcome wherever you find yourself in your life or spiritual journey.If you would like to learn more about Great Oaks, visit our website, or email
Past or Paul Bradford. You are also welcome
to join us at any of our events or activities.If you aren't on our emailing list, you can sign up by clicking below.
We have four different subscriptions you will be able to select from:
Great Oaks Update (1-2x per month) keeps you up to date Great Oaks happenings.
Member & Attender News (1-2x per month) provides info for those attending Great Oaks.
Bradford's Prayer Team (1-2x per month) for people who are praying for the Bradford family & the Great Oaks church start.
Bradford Family Newsletter (2-3x per year) updates you on what's happening with our Pastor's family.
You can subscribe or unsubscribe to any of these at anytime, or edit your contact information, by clicking the "Update Profile/Email Address" link at bottom of this email. Archives of past mailings can be viewed by clicking here.
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Learn your gifts & personality!
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What needs to happen by Sunday, February 7?
Prayer team
We desire to build a prayer team to pray in a focused way for Great Oaks
as we move forward. Prayer team members will receive regular updates on prayer
needs.
Please contact our Prayer Director, Patti Gibbons, if you desire
to be a part of our intercessory prayer team. You may email Patti at pbgibbons@comcast.net.
Set up team and Technical Team
Our Technical Director, Carlos Oxholm, together with our new Portability
Director, Russ Baker, will be directing a team that will set up for Sunday.
Unless the school has a Saturday activity in the cafeteria, which is rare, we
will be setting up Friday evening. We need 4-6 people for set up.
We also need a technical team. Ideally we
need two people for sound, two for video, and two for lighting, and two for
PowerPoint. With two in each position we will always have a backup.
If you can
help with set up or with the Technical Team, please email Carlos at carlosoxholm@aol.com.
Hospitality Team
Our Hospitality Director, Julianne Doherty, needs greeters (2),
ushers (2) and refreshment hosts (1) to volunteer on a rotating basis. To
date we have Terri T, Ann B, Kelly F, Ed U and Larry J on the team, but would
welcome a few more friendly faces.
If you believe hospitality is a place
you can serve, please email Julianne at julid76@aol.com.
Children's Ministry Team
Our Children's Ministry Director, Katie Oxendine, needs workers
every other week at Sunday services to help with toddlers or the children's
teaching time. Currently, 2 workers (male and female preferably) are needed but
if more volunteer then a rotation schedule could be created.
If you are
gifted with children, please contact Katie via email at katie.oxendine@gmail.com.
For security reasons, all children's workers will need to go through a
background check, so please contact Katie soon so she can get that process
going.
Pastoral Advisory Team beginning
As Great Oaks grows we need a team of people to give me input to help in
decision-making. This team will have an advisory role, which means that while
it won't have formal authority, it will have important influence, since members
will provide insight and perspective on decisions that need to be made.
Members of this team need to be people who are coming faithfully to a
Village and our Sunday gatherings so they are in touch with what is happening
at Great Oaks. They need to be truly committed to our vision as evidenced in
giving and participation. They need to be committed to our Lord and his mission
in this world. The team will meet monthly.
If you believe this is a role where you can contribute to the growing
vision of Great Oaks, contact Pastor Paul by cell phone (248-824-3662) or email
(paul@greatoakschurch.org).
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Church Launch Status Report
Financial report
General Fund Balance at the end of 2009 was $55,364. The Reformed Church
in America has contributed $75,000 so far this fiscal year (June 2009 to July
2010) and will contribute another $25,000 before this summer, but these
contributions will be ending soon. We need $10,750 per month to cover essential
ongoing expenses (rent of West Middle School, office related expenses, pastoral
income & benefits, website costs, and our 10% tithe which we are currently
giving to an inner city congregation in Detroit). Our average monthly giving
from July to December has been $2,700, which is $8,050 short of what we need.
While our shortfall hasn't been a problem up to this point due to outside funding, we need to start paying our own way soon. We need to maintain a healthy General Fund Balance to cover
publicity and to purchase equipment as we move towards our weekly public launch.
With this in mind, I ask our Great Oaks team members to earnestly
consider giving a percentage of your income to Great Oaks, a tithe (10%) if you
are able. We give in faith that God will provide our personal needs. I am confident
that through our current team, and through others God will bring in the next
few months, we will be able to fully meet our needs. God is able.
Benchmark progress
Our goal is to have 80 adult team members and no less than 4 Villages by the time we go to weekly
Sunday services on September 26. If we count all who have expressed commitment
to Great Oaks and those who are attending faithfully, we have 35 adults and 2 Villages, so
we're just under halfway to our goal. The increase will come through personal
invitation and through publicity. Together we can do this!
Children's Ministry in Village
Our Children's Ministry Director, Katie Oxendine, reported that we are seeking to hire a College student
from Rochester College to provide a children's program at our Village meetings. This will be important as we all invite more families with children to join us.
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Next steps in growth
Publicity for growth
We are working with Ivan French, a Christian consulting and marketing
expert, who has worked with dozens of new church launches. We have accepted his
recommendation to follow a several step process to help more than double our
core team and number of Villages. -
Establish a Prayer Team to ask God's blessing on our daily efforts
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Ask each present Core Group member to submit a list of at least 10
couples and singles to serve as our contact database, with a goal of 400 adult names.
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Develop a core group recruiting document and other tools to make it
easy and productive for you as team members to recruit people. More details will come soon.
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Mail out hand addressed envelope with first class postage stamp to 50 of the
submitted names at a time and invite them to attend a light dinner/Q&A
meeting.
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Seek to obtain local newspaper editorial articles, and run small ads on
religion pages, to attract Christian prospects. With permission, send mailings
to selected people from the Kensington database.
We're asking each team member to submit the names and addresses of at
least 10 couples and singles that you know that may be interested in Great
Oaks. Please get the names to us by the end of the month. We will be sending
them a brochure and DVD we will be producing. We'll let you know when the mailing goes out so you
can follow up with your friends as you feel it is appropriate. You can just
sent those names to my email, Paul@GreatOaksChurch.org.
Thank you!
Invitational growth
Even more important than our mailings are your personal invitations to
friends to come to a Great Oaks Village or Sunday Gathering. We hope the
publicity material will be a tool to help you invite.
Jesus tells us, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it." (Matthew 16:18) We invite, but the Lord himself with draw people
and establish Great Oaks. By his grace, we will see great things. |
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Great Oaks Church
email: Info@GreatOaksChurch.org
phone: 248-824-3662
web: www.GreatOaksChurch.org
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