“Solace Home Teams” Kaye Schooley from Solace Church on Vimeo.

Immediately following the service we will go straight into our picnic.  We still need a couple of people to cook.  If you are interested, please respond to this e-mail TODAY.   We will be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs.   The church is providing those as well as the buns and all the fixins.  We are asking every family to bring a bag of chips or cookies (or both) and each family needs to provide drinks for their family.

Also, we will have 6 inflatables for the kids.  3 of the inflatables are water inflatables, so you may want to have swimsuits for the kids.  We will also have volleyball, football, horseshoes and more.  The picnic will last from 12pm-3pm. This is going to be a unique and memorable experience for our church. We have not had the opportunity to meet all together for several years now.  Don’t miss out!  Hope to see you and your family there!

Jay

“Solace Home Teams” Tony Swart from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Dave Bauer from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Nick Klenovich from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Bow Buckner/Crossroads from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Jerry and Kaye Schooley from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Tim Bridwell from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” JJ Johnson from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” John and Brandy Claybourn from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Josh Voss from Solace Church on Vimeo.

“Solace Home Teams” Joe Sexson from Solace Church on Vimeo.

Untitled from Solace Church on Vimeo.

Our speaker this year will be Mike Wade.  Mike has been a Pastor for many years and is currently the state Executive Director for Free Will Baptist.  Mike has great wisdom on marriage and will be sharing along with his wife, Janine. 

You will receive a card with the times and details in your hotel room when you arrive.  Just go to the front desk and tell them you are with Solace Church and give them your name.  They will give you the key to your hotel room.

Breakfast on Saturday will be from 6:30am-8:45am.  The first morning session will begin at 9am.  Lunch will be at noon and we will be on your own and we will also be checking out of our rooms at this time.  We will meet back at the Hotel at 1pm and the events will end around 3pm.

If you have not signed up and plan on attending, we need you to call our church office at 918-447-9991 right NOW to let us know.  We are turning in our room list today and need to get you on the list.  If money is an issue, we do have scholarships available, so don’t miss out on this amazing weekend because of that.  If you have not paid, you can bring a check or cash by the church office.  If that is not possible, you can pay on the day of the event, but it would help us greatly to get the payment before then.  The cost is $90 per couple or $100 if you would like the breakfast included. 

If you have any questions, please call the church office or reply to this e-mail.  This year is going to be a lot of fun and just a great time to get to know other couples.  But, most importantly, it will be a time to reconnect and re-energize our relationships.  Don’t forget that Satan would love to destroy your marriage and it’s events like these that allow God to strengthen and sustain your marriage.  So, make sure you are signed up and ready to go. 

We want all of our couples to have marriages that last Til’ Death!

See you there!

Jay

This Sunday I announced that we are now officially under contract on a 32 acre piece of property in Berryhill.  Below is a picture of the property layout for you to see.  It’s located on W 46th St just off of S 49th.  It has plenty of frontage along Gilcrease Expressway where 46,000 cars a day pass by. 

We are in the very beginning stages of this process, and there are many steps that will be involved in getting to the closing date which is set for August 15th.  Starting tomorrow (Wednesday) you will be able to go online at solacechurch.com and get up to date information on the progress.  There will be a front page banner you can click that will take you to the page or you can also go under “The Church” tab and find the link to the page there.

This is a very exciting time in the journey of Solace Church!  With this excitement, though, comes the incredible reality that “where much as been given, much will be required”.  That’s why we are committing ourselves to 3 very important things.

1.  Continual prayer and fasting for clarity and wisdom.  I invite you to join me as we daily seek God’s direction and leadership in this process.  It is His Kingdom and it is His church that we are helping to build, so we must have His guidance, for as Jesus clearly said in John 15 – “apart from me, you can do nothing.”

2.  Clear Communication.  We have a huge desire for you to stay very well informed in this entire transition.  We realize that the enemy can and will seek to cause confusion, so we want to make sure we give you as many details as possible.  Much of that information will be given online through our website, our blog, facebook, and twitter as well and other video and written avenues.  We will not be using service time every week to give you the details because we believe that we must be effective through this transition at continually loving people and loving God.  We will continue to lead in worship and to preach the word in powerful and creative ways so that lives will be changed for eternity.  With that said, there will be occassions when we do take time in a service to update the entire church at once.  We certainly want to celebrate the “wins” together when the time is right!

3.  Count The Cost.  We are committed to doing our absolute best at preparing and planning so that we will not make the critical mistake of failing to count the cost.  While it’s impossible to plan for every roadblock and detour, we will use every resource we have available to lay out a clear path forward.  God has blessed us with some incredible people who have years of experience in construction, and many of them have already been willing to help walk through the process with us.  I am so thankful for the generosity of so many early on in this journey.  It is through the generosity of God’s people that God’s Kingdom purposes are accomplished!

Matt

It has been quite a while since (I)we’ve blogged.  The truth is that we have been extremely busy during the Easter season planning services and caring for people.  It has paid off though.  We have seen 30+ people give their life to Christ and we have watched dozens and dozens of new families come experience what God is doing through Solace Church. 

Also, I’ve been on vacation for almost two weeks.  I really needed the break.  It’s incredible how even doing something that you love so much can take a toll on you physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  On a personal note, our time in Hawaii was incredible.  I would highly recommend anyone going.  We are very glad to be back though.  We missed our boys and our family – that includes our church family as well!

I wanted to write this blog today to let you know that we are not taking a break this summer from ministry.  We have many exciting things planned, as I shared a few weeks ago, for you and your family to be involved in.  I hope that you’ll take advantage of all that will be going on.  We are also pushing full steam ahead on a new location for our church.  While I can’t share any details at this point, we are working on new negotiations that seem promising at this point.  As I shared with you, we are seeking to purchase land in the area, so be praying that we would be patient and prudent as God works in His timing.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know that I will be doing a series in the near future about generosity.  While we have a very generous church family, there are many who are still on the sidelines financially.  As I will share in the series to come, the generosity of many has brought us this far but it will take the generosity of many new individuals and families to get us to the next level of ministry!  I know God is going to use this series to make a huge difference in our church.

Looking forward to being back with you this next Sunday.  Until then – Love God. Love People.

Matt

Pastor Matt,

Thanks for the update on the building today.
When you took us back to connect-the-dot puzzles, I remembered how I often finished them.  Like you said, I would start with a unrecognizable picture.  I would start 1…2…3…4…5…  When I was about halfway finished, I would start to recognize the picture, so I would rush ahead and think I could finish the puzzle without looking at the numbers.  Then I would end with a 3-legged dinosaur.  So I would have to go back, find my mistake, erase, and finish by looking at the numbers.

Today, I appreciated that you said you would not go in a direction without being led by God.  You may think you see the full picture, but if you plow ahead without looking at God, you’ll have a mess and have to backtrack.  Bless you for not leading Solace Church to a 3-legged dinosaur.

Where one door closes, another opens

Being led by the Spirit is central to a church fulfilling it’s mission and purpose.  May Solace Church always wait on the perfect timing of God and always be willing to step out in faith when He opens the door!

Matt

-Shad

With all that said, I am actually really excited about this retreat.  It is a great opportunity for these students to get away and really focus on God.  And it’s a great chance for them to connect to one another.  That’s why we call this retreat “Jolt”.  Because we want it to be this time that kind of sparks them.  A time for them to be re-energized and get back to what is important in life.

And as adults, we need a little JOLT in our life as well.  That can be done in many ways.  Reading the Bible, getting away to pray, inspiring music.  But, one of the best ways to get that Jolt is to be a part of one of our Home Teams.  This is a great way for you to get a little spark throughout the week.  It’s kind of like a little mini-retreat.  A chance to get away and share life with other people.  If you aren’t connected, you are missing out.  You can get involved today. 

Be praying for me and for the youth sponsors.  We will be living on Mountain Dew, Red Bull, and Monster the entire weekend.  Maybe if we drink enough of those we will be able to have 1/4 of the energy of one student.  Let’s just hope none of the students find our stash.  A Junior High student drinking a Red Bull is one of the scariest sights you will ever encounter.  I’d rather face off against an angry bear.  God grant me the serenity not to leave any students in the woods.  Amen.

Jay   

And that made me think, “I wonder when is the right time to stop thinking about that for my kids.”  I mean, at what point should I stop caring what they hear and what they see and how they talk.  For some reason, it seems like we stop caring when they become a teenager.  Like there is suddenly this moment when we no longer need to control that.  Don’t get me wrong, they need freedom to make decisions, but they still need boundaries and direction.  The problem is that a lot of parents are worried about being invasive and they just want to be their teenagers friend.  Guess what, THEY DO NOT NEED YOU TO BE THEIR FRIEND FIRST!  They need you to be a parent first and friend second.  They need direction.  They need someone to help them on this confusing journey. 

I know what you are thinking.  “You don’t understand.  You don’t have teenage kids.”  You are correct, my kids are still little.  But, I am constantly surrounded by teens and I can tell you that being your teenagers friend is not what they need.  They need the discipline.  They need you to give them direction.  

I recently did a questionairre to our youth group.  And in that questionairre the number one show that they put down as their favorite was “Jersey Shore.”  I don’t know if you know this show, but it is complete and total trash.  I am okay with you making a sign that says, “God hates Jersey Shore.”  It has noting in it but sex, cussing, drinking and degrading women.  And that is the most popular show.  And the favorite band or singer – Eminem and Lil Wayne.  Now don’t get me wrong, Eminem is the greatest rapper of all time, but that doesn’t mean that his songs need to be on your students iPod.

I’m not saying take all of the bad things away and control everything they do and make sure they don’t hear a single cuss word.  I’m just saying, how much are you allowing those things to influence your kids?  Because they are.  You need to be the most influential thing in their life (outside of God, of course).  Don’t think that discipline and boundaries are going to send your teen of the deep end.  Deep down, they are craving those things. 

It also starts by being the example.  Actions speak louder than words.  What kind of example are you being for your teen?  What kinds of things do they see you watch and say and listen to? 

They are shaping their character.  And we don’t want MTV and Eminem to mold them.  They need parents to lead them down the right path.  And for those of you who don’t think this is a big deal, know this:  The things a teen hears and sees leads to thoughts, thoughts lead to actions, actions lead to habits, habits lead to character and character will ultimately determine your destiny.  They are shaping their destiny during their teenage years.  What are we doing to make sure it is God’s path they are heading down? 

Something to think about, because, like you,  I love these teens and I know that we want the best for them.  This is my experience from what I have seen in 8 years of youth ministry.   

Jay

From Cecil:
I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m doing fine.  I’ve been in here (Tulsa County Jail) since January 6, 2011.  Still waiting to go to prison.  10 years is a big chunk of life to lose, but as I think back, I wasted 15 years, day by day doing things I thought were pleasing me.  I know now I was just living for the wicked ways of the world and destroying my body, my soul, but most of all, my spirit.

Just for the record, since I’ve ben locked up, actually a couple of weeks before, I knew what the outcome was going to be.  The Lord put it on my heart that He was going to place me where I could get myself together and rebuild the relationship we once had where the only thing I had was Him….The Lord Jesus Christ, my/our personal Lord and Savior.

Every since I’ve been here, me and the Lord, we eat breakfast together, we eat lunch together, we eat dinner together, we pray together….everything I do, He’s right here with me, and I have never felt better about myself as I do now.  It’s so strange to me that as I’m doing time for a crime as wicked as it is that the Lord brought me to a place full of bitter, mean, and angry people to get me back on track and bring these people out of darkness and show them there is light.  When there is light, there can be no darkness!

I personally want to thank all of you who stand behind and support and love me just as I am.  You should know it wasn’t a waste of your time because with all your prayers I’m finally getting where God wants me to be.

Thank you for everything.  I love and miss everyone.  May God’s light shine in all your lives as it shines in mine.

Cecil Goddard

Feb 11th:
No text; got to actually talk with him! Other than a giant poisonous snake under his tent, all is well! He has gotten to lead a construction crew in the building of a church far out in the bush. He was nervous to drive it alone without a guide, but Mike gave him a truck and sent him out. The church is complete and they will worship there on Sunday. Jeff is working on another crew at a school and loving it. Christina got to be part of the eye team that went out to a village that has never received eye care before. She was so excited! Shad sounds so happy and blessed, but also very tired. Pray for their strength and refreshing as they accomplish huge projects in a very short time.

We had our first work day today. It went pretty good. Some of the guys worked at a nearby school. A few of the boys I worked with last year were hanging out up there. Also, bini was there, they said he was asking about me, so I am going to go head up in the morning with mike to see him. I am going to work at a church tomorrow that one of our doctors donated material for so we can have service there this Sunday. I am loving this! As soon as we drove in yesterday, all the memories from last year came flooding back. I can tell already that is will be hard to leave next week.

~ Matt