“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” - Matthew 6:33

The Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ has been advancing through the ministries of The Oaks Community Church in 2023. We are praising God for the marvelous things that He is doing. Many people have made decisions to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, 23 people have proclaimed their faith in Jesus and been baptized in water this year, dozens are pursuing growth through our disciple making pathway, and many have been filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit through our Rivers Retreats.

God has birthed a brand new church in our midst in 2023. The Oaks Indian Community Church now has 30 people who are worshiping the Lord on Sunday afternoons. Recently in our newly remodeled prayer room the first person to receive Christ was a man from Punjabi Sikh background. After praying with several members from the Indian Fellowship and from The Oaks, we were able to immediately give him a Punjabi language Bible. He was absolutely thrilled!

This week we had hundreds of people from the community on our church campus at our annual Harvest Festival. It was a wonderful night of ministry. Praise be to God that 45 children and adults made decisions to receive Christ as Savior at the Harvest Festival! This took place at the completion of our “Salvation Maze” which was set up in the church lobby for people to go through and then hear the gospel.

The kingdom of Christ has been beautifully advancing through our church body in 2023 through these efforts and many more ministries that take place on a weekly basis. We have heightened our focus on spreading the gospel throughout this year by initiating and pursuing evangelistic ministries such as Alpha, Acts of Kindness, Summer Vacation Bible School, and participation in the Billy Graham Center’s Church Evangelism Institute which is helping us learn to “BLESS” our “FRANCS” – Friends, Relatives, Acquaintances, Neighbors, Coworkers, and Strangers – and share the love and gospel of Jesus with them. I thank you for being a part of this kingdom surge.

As we finish this year we want to finish strong and healthy in every dimension of our church life. An important area of challenge we need to seek God’s help in is related to our church finances. As the kingdom has advanced through our church family our giving has been under budget throughout most of the year. We have been using financial reserves to meet our monthly obligations. While our staff has worked diligently to control our expenses, we still find ourselves approximately $100,000 below our budgeted income through the first 10 months of the year. We now need to have a kingdom surge of faith and courage in giving to follow our kingdom surge of ministry and witness.

With the struggles going on in our country and internationally, fear often fills our hearts and we think we cannot give generously to the Lord’s work. But God is greater than the fears in our hearts. He wants to fill us with faith so that we can do exploits for His kingdom even during difficult times. As it says in Daniel 11:32: “But the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” This is our leadership team’s prayer for our church family right now that we will have kingdom faith and that we will have a surge in kingdom generosity and giving.

Would you pray in agreement with us and our entire church family? Let’s ask the LORD to meet all the financial needs of His ministry at The Oaks as we complete 2023.

We are praying for God to supply $280,000 of general fund giving in the next two months before the completion of this year so that we can finish in the black. Let’s ask our Father to empower us and lead us in a kingdom surge of giving that will support the advance of His kingdom ministry taking place through The Oaks in 2023 – and then to the glory of Christ in even greater measure in 2024!

As God leads you, you can give online by pressing the blue “Kingdom Surge Offering” button or in person at church or by sending a gift through the mail.

May King Jesus be glorified in our courage and faith and giving and witness for His kingdom now in 2023 and for His further glory in 2024.

- Pastor Dr. Gary Barber