Each year the Oasis Pastors take the time to travel to a Pastor’s Conference, this year they traveled to Minnesota to attend the Desiring God conference. Here an inside look at why the trip is an important one and what the Lord had for our Pastoral Team.
Pastor Bubba, why do Oasis Pastors take the venture out to Minnesota each year to attend the Desiring God conference?
Every year the Oasis pastors look forward to sharing together a time of fellowship, prayer, brain storming, vision casting and in/depth teaching from the Scriptures with other visionary pastors and church planters from across the across the country and around the world. It is always a time of much needed spiritual refreshment, encouragement and rest…..A Time for Refueling for our mission in Amherst County and Central Virginia!
Pastor Brady, what was the focus of this year’s Desiring God conference? And how did it impact your time there?
Where sin increased; the rebellion of man; & the abundance of grace. It addressed false teachings in churches in American today and encouraged us to realize we are more sinful that we could ever imagine and more loved than we could ever fathom.
Pastor Jonathan, what session impacted you the most? Who was the speaker and how can you apply his message?
Dr. John Piper’s session Make War: The Pastor and His People in the Battle Against Sin was the most impactful message of the conference for me. One quote in particular stuck out to me:
All human suffering, especially the suffering of the Son of God, is meant by God to portray, for dull souls like ours, the unimaginable ugliness and offensiveness of sin — That’s why God subjected the world to this horrible futility (Romans 8:20) — to make plain how ugly and offensive sin is.
I was reminded of how dim my view of sin is. Each day is given to allow us to see the wretchedness and insanity of sin specifically in our hearts. We cannot take sin seriously until we see it for what it is and we can only see it for what it is when we see it in light of God’s holiness. We cannot go into the violent war against sin without a proper view of God’s holiness. Without this view we are blind. In fact, without this view of the holiness of God we are not even fighting. I left with a renewed desperation for God to show me the ugliness and offensiveness of my sin. May the slightest bend of my heart towards self be repulsive to me as it is to God.
Pastor Steve, what was the most memorable moment of this trip?
The friendship we developed with the taxi drive who picked us up from the airport who we found out was a fellow brother in Christ. We called him later and invited him to dinner where he shared his testimony with us.
Jared, why would you consider conferences like these vital to church pastors?
Even Jesus needed times of silence and aloneness with God the Father away from the crowds and chaos. “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone”Matthew 14:23. My natural rhythm as a man is to be constantly on the go, constantly doing. Pastors especially need to “be still and know that he is God”. We must acknowledge our desperate need for him in life and ministry. Conferences and retreats are vital for pastors to deliberately carve out multiple days throughout the year to seek the face of God for vision and clarity amongst the chaos that comes with ministry.
Kameish, while the Pastoral Team was out, what did you do to get renewed and revived??
We had some much needed time of fun (nails!), relaxation (movie night!), bonding (Barnes & Noble), AND digging into the Word! Nedra took us through an introspective study on the Book of James, especially viewing ministry life through the lens of Biblical truth. I most significantly recall the correlation made between James 1:11 and 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, a reminder that any works not done purely for Christ will be burned. It was certainly a time that allowed me to refocus my energies and the priorities of my heart.”
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