Prodigal Family- Local Edition

Hello OC Family - Josh has been teaching us about the parables of Jesus on Sunday mornings. For the past two Sundays he has focused on the Prodigals. I love the image of the father seeing his lost son a long way off, and being "filled with compassion for him, he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15:20). This is the kind of Christian I want to be and I'm convinced it's the kind of church OC desires to be - a church that is filled with compassion and opens our arms to embrace a sinner coming home to God.

OC is in a very exciting time, Doug Sanders was relentless in serving the Nashville community and our OC family. When he moved on last fall, an exploratory team was assembled with the blessing of the elders, to consider what OC needed most as a growing congregation. It was decided to divide Doug's job into two different responsibilities - one that would have a "Reaching In" focus and another one that would have a "Reaching Out" focus. In June, Eric Livingston began as our new Community Life Minister to enhance our connections within the OC family primarily through our LifeGroups and Adult Spiritual Formation classes. With a growing congregation of more than 1500 members we are challenged to help integrate our new members into the life and activities of our OC family as quickly as possible. And recently, Rob Touchstone accepted our offer to serve as our new Missional Discipleship Minister to help us reach beyond the walls of OC to develop missional communities throughout the Nashville region. We want to embody the Jesus Way in our neighborhoods, cities, and world. Our leadership wants to help the OC adults be disciples by serving, loving and mentoring other adults just like we do so well with our children, students and young adults.

Rob has been with the Tusculum church for over 10 years serving as their youth minister. He has also been involved with establishing a coffeehouse called The Well (in Green Hills), which is an outreach venue to help establish missional communities among people who may never set foot in a church building. We look forward to Rob joining our ministry team on August 1 and what God will do in the partnership that Eric and Rob will have in helping us become the compassionate people of God reaching out to our communities with His loving arms.

I'm grateful that God has brought together an amazing team, of which you are all an important part, to build and strengthen His Kingdom at OC and throughout our world. Keep praying for God's Spirit of unity as we move forward for His glory and honor.

P.S. If you were not at OC yesterday, please be sure and listen to Josh's excellent teaching at this link.

In Him,
Mike Runcie