Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue, Students, Summer

Why I have a Passion For Middle School Camp

Wayyyyyyy back in 2000, Sarah Loftin, me, and Laura didn’t know that we would be leading students together in the yaers to come!

The amazing Spring growth combined with the consistent rain reminds me that God can do amazing things in His perfect timing and in the right season. Right now, my season of life involves two amazing kids, my wife, and all the fun as well as stress that comes with it.  As the Middle School Pastor, I also find myself reflecting on my Middle School and High School season of life.  I ask myself, what was vital to my Spiritual Growth at that stage of life?  One major part of my Spiritual Growth was Summer Camp.  I still remember my 8th grade Summer as I made public the decision to follow God’s call into ministry.  God had been planting so many things in my life up to that point, and during that season, He sprouted a passion for spending time in His Word daily.

It was not by chance that God led me to Pacesetters Camp at Dallas Baptist University my Junior Summer.  I had many thoughts about my life in Christ, but for some reason Pacesetters was like the fertilizer to the passion God had been placing in my heart.  I found a camp experience that challenged me and stretched me to not only talk about Jesus, but take action for Jesus.  I remember that God impressed on me His compassion for the lost and the lowly that I was literally WRECKED for Him.  What God had been planting in me had risen up as a Passion to follow Christ.  From that point forward, that Passion turned to many steps of action at my church.  I saw the vision for my life.  I began to understand that God could use me to help the lost and the broken where I lived.  He had begun framing me to become a Servant Leader

We have been blessed to have the Pacesetters Leadership Camp plant that same seed of Servant Leadership in our Middle School students here at Oakwood.  That Servant Leader Camp, under the Glowing Heart Ministry organization, is still based in the Dallas, TX area.  Today, it has expanded to the donated campground called Focus Pointe Camp in Alba, TX.    Our students are challenged each afternoon to serve the surrounding communities near the camp and apply what they are learning about Jesus with action.  My prayer is for students to know the heart of the Father by finding Jesus, growing deeper in that relationship and showing the world around them His Love.

Pastor B Culture, Oakwood, Parent Cue, Spring

Reckless Love – Passion Video Devo

Have you been overwhelmed by the LOVE of JESUS lately?

In a world where we crave true love, look for authentic relationships, and seem to fail at the pursuit so much, it is refreshing to be reminded of the Love that Jesus Christ gave away for you and for me.  Jesus, himself, spoke of how this love works with those who follow him in John 15 below:

John 15:9-13

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

“To lay down one’s life for one’s friends” paints a picture of TRUE RECKLESS LOVE!  As Jesus spoke to His disciples, he meant for their impact to be simple, LOVE.  This overwhelming love from the Father was poured out in the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, so that we might be overflowing with the love of Jesus.

How can the overwhelming love of Jesus be an overflowing supply to your family, your friends, and those in your day-to-day life?

THANK YOU, JESUS, FOR YOUR RECKLESS LOVE FOR US!!!

Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue, Spring

Parent Cue: The Secret of Superman

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Superman. Seriously! I still remember the day my parents handed me a box from Sears and Roebuck that contained a red cape, blue tights with a red-and-yellow “S” shield on the chest. When I put it on, something magical happened. It transformed me from a shy six-year-old to a super hero with unique powers.

I was more powerful than my dad’s parked car.

I could leap tall fences with a single bound.

I was faster than our speeding fox terrier.

Looking back, I am absolutely positive that I could jump higher, run faster, and do more whenever I put on that suit. That was the year I got in trouble with my mom for running across the roof of our house in my red cape and underwear. It was just one of those days when I had to get suited up fast, so I left the tights off and just went with the cape. And don’t ask me how I got up on the roof. You should know. I flew, of course. At least that’s what I remember.

I don’t actually recall when I stopped believing in Superman, but his story did convince me of something that is true.

Good will ultimately win over evil.

READ MORE ON PARENTCUE.ORG

Pastor B Culture, Oakwood, Parent Cue

How Much Is Too Much Social Media Use?

How Much Is Too Much Social Media Use?

Even though they’re no longer a couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both recently confirmed they put safety measures on the Internet to provide boundaries for their children. They definitely plan to keep watch on their social media use as their children age. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently suggested he wouldn’t want his nephew on a social network. Years ago, Apple Founder Steve Jobs said he didn’t want his kids to even own an iPad. Why? It’s simple. Children’s health experts all agree that excessive use of digital devices and social media “are harmful to children and teens.”

On the other hand, so many of tomorrow’s jobs are going to be dependent on graduates having skills on computers and screens…

Read More Here

Pastor B Culture, Holy Week, Oakwood, Parent Cue, Spring, Students

Artistic View of the Stations of the Cross

I love to be inspired and look for creative ways to be reminded of the journey to the Cross during Holy Week.  Scott Erickson has a great way of merging today’s value in Art and the Spiritual Journey we all take to the Cross.  Hope this inspires you this week as well.

    Pastor Brandon

The Stations of the Cross began as a practice that pilgrims would have when they were retracing Jesus’ finals steps in Jerusalem up to the hill where he was crucified. Wanting to share that practice and experience with people who couldn’t make the trip to the Holy City, they created these stations of meditation that became in itself a tradition. Today, you can find this tradition on the inside of many churches.

This journey to the cross is not only a meditation of Jesus accomplishing what he came to do –  the redemption of  humanity through his own willful sacrifice – but it’s also a contemplation of Jesus silently participating in some of the worst aspects of being human.  We see him being tempted. Betrayed by a friend. Convicted in an unjust system. Pain.  Mockery.  Public humiliation.  Broken family relationships.

He was one who was not separate from our own pain.

I don’t think our deepest question is “Is there a God?”

IS GOD REALLY IN THE MIDST OF ALL OF THIS?

check out more from artist Scott Erickson here 

Pastor B Culture, My Life, Oakwood, Parent Cue, Winter

A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Sex and Dating

From Pastor Brandon

After ministering to Middle School Students for a decade, I am now on the parent side, along with you, asking how I can speak Godly Wisdom into my own two children before they enter Middle School, so that I might be focused and equipped to hand them over to the loving Father in this phase of life.  With all the messages our culture is speaking on the issue of sex and dating, this short Parent Guide is a simple tool for you to use in preparing for a conversation with your preteen or growing teenager.  Mark Oestreicher is a Middle School expert, and Joel Mayward is a fresh voice, as both take steps to give you a brief theology on sexuality, reveal cultural myths, as well a church myths, and give specific helps for each gender, setting boundaries, and dealing with personal sexual issues.  This book is a great springboard into diving in deeper on certain issues and pointing me in the right direction to face the truth in our modern day culture.

Description

Helping your child make wise choices about sex and dating requires more than just one chat. It’s about building bridges of ongoing dialogue throughout the teenage years.

But youth workers Mark Oestreicher and Joel Mayward realize many parents don’t feel comfortable or prepared to have these kinds of conversations. That’s why they wrote A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Sex and Dating—to equip you to initiate healthy, honest discussions with your teenager. This book will also help you understand some of the relevant trends and issues in today’s youth culture.

Your role as a parent is to do more than provide your teenager with information about sex and dating. You have the opportunity and the calling to help your child live wisely and honor God in this sometimes tricky, occasionally awkward, and always vital area of life.

Click Here to purchase

Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue, Winter

Great Expectations Series Sundays in Feb

WEEK 1

The space between expectation and reality in relationships can be difficult for middle schoolers to understand. Often, the only idea of what a relationship should look like for someone their age comes from what our culture and media portrays, not from their personal experience.

Romans 12:1-2

BOTTOM LINE

God’s design for sex is better than the world’s design for sex.

 MORNING TIME

Talk with your student about expectations they have for both themselves and others. Help them see the difference between realistic and unrealistic expectations, and talk with them about healthy ways to respond when their expectations aren’t met.

REMEMBER THIS:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6 NLT

little girl spraying a car with a water hose in a sunny afternoon, rubber hose, pour water on over

My guess is that in your house—like my house—there’s a constant tension between rules and relationships.

Your nine-year-old is supposed to help wash the car, but instead decides that riding his bike is a far more important to the functioning of the universe than cleaning your dirty minivan.
How do you respond?

On the one hand, you need . . .
rules—boundaries, guidelines and limits that make life work and shape character.

On the other hand, you need. . .
relationships—love for each other, respect and even some basic kindness.

But rules and relationships always seem to be in tension with each other, don’t they?

Clamp down too hard on the rules, and the relationship suffers. Or work hard on relationship and the temptation is to slack off on the rules.

To make matters more confusing, in most families, one parent tends to be the relationship parent and the other tends to be the rules parent.

If you’re like me, a rules guy, you are tempted to ground your nine-year-old for life, pull all video gaming privileges and be angry enough that most observers would assume you discovered your son had joined a street gang, not failed to pick up a sponge.

If you’re more the relationship type, you’ll abandon your bucket in the driveway, get on your bike and go have a picnic in a green field with your new found best friend while gentle music plays in the background and your rules-loving spouse drives the car to the junkyard in protest.

Left unchecked. . .

The rules parent thinks the relationship parent is a left-leaning hippie type left over from the sixties who thinks love can solve every problem.

The relationship parent becomes convinced they have married someone who should probably quit family to become a drill sergeant, robot or warlord.

Recognize the tension? So what do you do?

READ MORE ON THE PARENT CUE BLOG

 

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