Eric Camp's Blog

Oasis Church Culture…

Eric — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:53:59 +0000

Church Culture

Every church and staff has it’s own unique culture and flavor. Here is a list of some of the Oasis Church culture:

1. We have a Jesus and Bible culture instead of a religious, stuck in tradition or motivated by denominational dogma or preferences. People don’t last long around Oasis Church who are religious, stuck in tradition or motivated by denominational dogma. We are all about Jesus, the Bible and loving people.

2. We have a very raw and honest culture. Most people who come to work at Oasis Church are shocked at how brutally honest we are about everything, whether good or bad. People always know where they stand at Oasis Church. Honest and open communication is what we are all about.

3. We have a volunteer culture. We value equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry. We equip our church family to do the ministry instead of hiring a bunch of staff. We like to have a lean staff and a massive amount of volunteers.

4. We have a change culture. We are always changing things. It’s a part of who we are. Change is easy for us. Our people respond well to change because it’s what they are used to.

5. We have a leadership culture. We value equipping others to do the ministry instead of doing the ministry ourselves. Doers don’t excel in our culture. People who love to equip and make others successful thrive in our culture and continue to rise to new levels of responsibility.

6. We have a strong work ethic culture. We value people who work extremely hard. People who want to coast, take it easy and are lazy don’t work well at OC. People who are extremely driven, have a great work ethic and who produce results thrive in our culture.

7. We have a diverse culture. We value people from every walk of life. We value every skin color and age group. Diversity is a huge part of who we are. We are very unified and very diversified at the same time.

8. We have a reaching people far from God culture. Every Sunday and Wednesday (youth ministry) people give their lives to Christ. We have a come just as you are and no matter where you are in life and experience the love of Christ culture. Every Sunday our church is filled with people far from God, and it can get really messy, but we love it.

9. We have an outreach and loving our community culture. We spend tons and tons of money investing into the hurting, broken, lonely, poor and lost in our community. We feed, clothe and help educate our community. We send our people out to do community projects. We have a huge heart to show the love of Jesus to our community and around the world in tangible ways.

10. We have a doing life together culture. We want to connect people to God and to others. We are passionate about connecting our church family in small groups, and we have tons of people connected in a small group and will be implementing a very aggressive campaign at the beginning of the year to further advance this! We have a culture where the church body ministers to one another, and they are not dependent on the paid pastors to provide all the ministry. Our church family cares, supports, encourages and holds one another accountable.

Some things that stresses me out…

Eric — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:51:49 +0000

1. When I don’t know where I’m headed with a series or a sermon: I’m a big planner, and I like to know where I’m going with a series or a message months out if possible. If I get a week or two out and don’t know where I’m going with a message, that messes with me mentally BIG TIME!

2. Staff: Staff are my greatest asset and my greatest liability. One of the most difficult and most important jobs of any leader in a growing organization is building the right team. You have to get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, and when I have the wrong people on the bus or the right people in the wrong seats, this can mess with me mentally BIG TIME!

3. Negativity. I do not do well with negativity at all! A negative comment can deflate my atmosphere quicker than sucking the oxygen out of the room! That is why on Sunday mornings before I speak at Oasis Church, I don’t know anything that is wrong because I cant let it get under my skin! We have a great team that helps keep that off of me because they know this. I am very selective who I talk to and visit with before speaking.

Remember, we all have weaknesses… I am just being vulnerable with mine. The Lord is still working on me!

How Leadership is done at Oasis Church…

Eric — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:50:06 +0000

Everybody who comes to work at Oasis Church realizes quickly that we have our own unique culture. I will quickly describe some of our culture to you.

1. Raw open and honest communication: We are a very open and honest environment. We will tell you when you or your area of ministry is doing great and we will tell you when you or you area of ministry is not doing well. We constantly evaluate and try to improve everything we do. We believe that everybody and every ministry can get better and we operate with that premise in mind. You always know where you stand at OC. Most people have never experienced the brutal honesty that’s a huge part of our culture.

2. Work hard and at a fast pace: We work extremely hard and producing results is required. Almost everybody we hire talks about the strong work ethic that’s required and the pace in which we move and get things done. Lazy people and people who are not results orientated don’t do well in our culture.

3. Leadership is required: Our leadership staff must be leaders and not doers to be successful. Our culture requires our leadership staff to produce results through other people and not through themselves. We are a culture that develops leaders to lead and work through large groups of people. Our leadership staff must be able lead leaders to function well in our culture.

4. Volunteer driven: We strongly believe that the leadership teams job is to equip God’s people to do the work of the ministry. We purposely staff lean and require our executive staff and administrative staff to use volunteers to do the work of the ministry. Most churches have 1 staff member for every 80 to 100 people. We have 1 Executive staff member for every 200 or so people because we are a volunteer driven culture.

We have just adopted this principle and will launch full scale in January 2012.

Welcome Aboard Robby Myrick, Eric Suire and Pamela Albanese to the Executive team!

Pain… Pushing Through!

Eric — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:46:53 +0000

1. It’s painful when you have a dream or a goal for your ministry and it doesn’t work out like you thought it would. Leaders push through the pain, pick themselves up and continue to move forward.

2. It’s painful when people you don’t even know begin to attack you or your ministry. Leaders push through the pain and keep their attention on what Jesus has called them to do. They don’t get distracted.

3. It’s even more painful when people you know well begin to attack you or your ministry. Leaders stay close to Jesus, keep their focus on the vision and keep a tender heart while developing thick skin. Leaders learn to push through the pain.

4. It’s painful when people leave your church. Leaders learn to stop taking somebody leaving the church personal. They focus their attention on who they still have and don’t fixate on who left. Leaders push through the pain because there are more people who need to be reached for Christ.

5. It’s painful when a friend turns their back on you or the vision. Leaders push through the pain and allow God to heal their hearts so that they will continue to make friends and trust people. A leader has to have some close friends that can walk alongside of them throughout the journey of life and leading.

6. It’s painful to have to let go of an unproductive staff member or a staff member who just isn’t a fit with your team or culture. Leaders push through the pain and realize they are responsible to manage God’s resources well, and having an unproductive staff member isn’t good management.

7. It’s painful to push through pain! Leaders realize that their leadership and the organization they lead will only rise to the level of their pain threshold. If a leader stops pushing through pain, they stop growing and so does their organization.

Keys For Effective Communiction

Eric — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:44:54 +0000

1. Preach the Bible.

2. Don’t preach your opinions.

3. Help people apply the Bible to their daily lives.

4. Take time to teach on issues and subjects that people are facing in their daily lives.

5. Make it your goal to make disciples.

6. Always teach and preach with love.

7. Don’t teach and preach with a condescending and negative approach.

8. Spend time praying and hearing from God about what to preach.

9. Use illustrations to help your points come alive and to help people understand and apply the message.

10. Take time to study. It takes me anywhere from 7 to 15 hours of studying, fine tuning and going over the message before I’m ready to preach it.

11. Use humor. Laughing helps people drop their guards, and it helps you connect with people.

This is really sad…

Eric — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:39:05 +0000

Very sad that this kind of stuff happens in the church today… And we wonder why people run from church!! This really shocked me! Read the story below…

Church Bans Interracial Couple

On November 27th the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church voted 9 to 6 to ban interracial couples from church services or functions, with the exception of funerals.

According to ABC News…

Stella Harville, 24, and her fiance Ticha Chikuni, 28, are the couple that prompted the church’s actions. Harville is white and Chikuni is black. The couple met at Georgetown College in Kentucky, where both were students, and they plan to marry in July 2012.

Harville is in graduate school in Indiana and Chikuni is working at Georgetown College, but when the couple visits Harville’s parents in Pike County, Ky., they usually go to church with her parents.

Harville’s parents Cathy and Dean Harville have been church members for decades. Cathy Harville has taught Sunday school at the church and Dean Harville was a deacon there and is currently the church’s secretary. They consider the church’s 42 congregants their family.

But after a service in June where Stella Harville and Chikuni participated by singing and playing the piano for a hymn, the family was shocked when then-pastor Melvin Thompson approached them after the service.

“There seemed to not be a problem and then all of a sudden the pastor at the time came up to [Chikuni] and told him he could not sing anymore,” Harville said. “That floored us. We wanted to know why.”

The next week, Cathy and Dean Harville met with Thompson and were shocked to hear their pastor say that members of the congregation had said they would walk out if Chikuni sang again. The parents wanted to know exactly who had a problem with their future son-in-law.

“‘Me, for one,’” Cathy Harville said that Thompson replied. She said he added, “‘The best thing [Stella] can do is take him back where she found him.’”

As per Pete Wilson, he is quoted below and I concur 100%!!

“But as far fetched and as radically misguided as this story is I think it’s important for us to remember how easy it is to miss the mark when we start putting our own personal preferences ahead of God’s Word. Nothing destroys a church quicker than a self seeking agenda that isn’t committed to the truth of the Gospel. Every time an individual makes laws requiring more of us than what God requires, human pride and the desire to control others enters the equation. It continuously amazes me how we can complicate what God made so simple.”

(((UPDATE))) Ok, so the church this past weekend changed their mind and reversed this decision. Great choice! I just hope it was under the conviction of their hearts and not just because of such negative media exposure about their decision. Let’s be the church people! BLACK, WHITE, GREEN, YELLOW, WHATEVER!!! Ok, I’m done now…

Some personal insights about me…

Eric — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:04:42 +0000

Why I Am Brutally Honest

1. I don’t like fake. I hate it. I feel that is one of the biggest problems in the church today is fakeness! I feel like a plastic person not sharing what’s on my heart and mind.

2. It keeps my relationships healthy because my rawness causes me to deal with issues quickly. I have learned to balance this over the years.

3. I believe employees need to know where they stand, whether good or bad. I think it’s unfair for an employee to be blindsided. Everyone benefits!

4. It keeps my heart free from anger, hurt and bitterness. Because I’m honest with people, I don’t let junk build up in my heart. I talk it through, cry it through and work it out so that I can live free in my heart. This has taken time for me to adopt in ministry. In the business world, it was a different deal as I didn’t have the problem with this as I did earlier in ministry. I have learned that for the benefit of me and all those around me, being honest and dealing with it keeps it from my dinner table at night with my family too!

5. It encourages people. I’m brutally honest about how awesome people are and how I believe in them. My rawness can be very encouraging too!!

6. On the flip side, my honesty can be discouraging to people. I have learned over the years that timing with my honesty is key. This is a constant work in progress. Believe it or not, my wife Toni has helped me with this more than anyone!

7. Because of my brutal honesty, I am an easy person to read. You know if I’m happy, sad, mad or glad.

8. Over the years, I have learned that tone, when I share brutally honest facts, is key. My tone is much better today than it was a few years ago. However, there is still room for improvement!

9. I am brutally honest because I really care about people. I want what’s best for people, and I believe being honest only helps people who want to be helped.

10. I really believe in people, and I am honest so that I can speak to their potential. I believe in developing people, and I have found that the best way to develop people to be all God wants them to be is to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses.

What Makes me Smile!

1. Date night with my wife! Gives us opportunity to reconnect with one another and keep the marriage healthy!

2. Eating dinner around the table as a family!

3. Working with people who deeply love God and me

4. Working with people I like

5. When somebody appreciates me for what I’ve done or my investment into their life

6. Going to work makes me happy. I truly enjoy and feel called to what I do.

7. Talking to my pastor friends around America always encourages me.

8. New Challenges to accomplish more!!!

What Gets Under My Skin

1. When people say one thing and do another

2. When people take advantage of me

3. When a church leader says they want to meet with me to ask me questions and spend the entire time talking about themselves

4. When people don’t put roots down at one church because they attend four different churches

5. When people are late and don’t notify others that they will be late

6. When people don’t say thank you!!!!!!!

7. When people talk down to others

8. When people are religious and driven by tradition instead of following Jesus!

9. When people think their denomination is the best, so they tear down other denominations

10. When people shun others because they are hurting, broken, trapped in sin, a different race or because they are poor

11. Last but not least… NEGATIVITY! I cannot deal with a negative attitude or a negaholic… This is a big weakness and probably the largest thing that gets und

Favor with your leader…

Eric — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:56:57 +0000

HOW TO GAIN FAVOR WITH YOUR LEADER…

1. Understand their vision and heart

2. Exceed expectations

3. Praise them publicly and challenge them privately, not the other way around

4. Put the team’s success before personal success

5. Submit and line-up your vision with your leader’s vision

6. Don’t cause your leader problems by doing stupid things

7. Bring your leader solutions and not just problems

8. Work yourself out of a job by developing others

9. Work hard so your leader never questions your work ethic

10. Have a positive attitude

11. Produce results that are evident

12. Ask your leader if there is anything you can do to move the organization forward

13. When you think your leader is making a bad decision, tell them before they go public, not after they go public

14. Share your great thoughts and ideas on how to move the organization forward

15. When your opinions and thoughts don’t get implemented, don’t get upset but instead support the decision privately and publicly

16. Manage your personal life well

Is Pride Creeping in?

Eric — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:09:09 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with some incredible pastors and Christian leaders. One of the things that I notice about these spiritual leaders is their humility. I am continually blown away by their humility. Today, I’m going to share some signs of when pride may be creeping into the life of a leader.

1. Pride is creeping into a leader’s heart when a leader is chasing after recognition instead of making a difference for Christ and His Kingdom. Oftentimes this can go unnoticed by many people, but the leader knows when he or she is secretly chasing after making a name for themselves instead of making an impact for the glory of God. God never called us to make a name for ourselves. God never called us to make ourselves great or famous. The goal of a Christian leader is to make Jesus great and famous. Be sure not to allow pride to creep into your heart by elevating your name instead of elevating HIS name.

One of the signs that pride may be creeping in is when you are playing the compare game. When you are constantly comparing your attendance, offerings, staff or building size to other churches, pride could be creeping in. The comparison game is such a dangerous game to play. Oftentimes we walk away from the comparison game feeling worse about ourselves than we should or better about ourselves than we should. We easily get put down or puffed up from the comparison game. God never called us to compete. God has called us to be faithful and fruitful where we are with what we have and not to compete with a church across the country or down the street. When your heart becomes competitive with other churches and church leaders, pride is creeping in. We ALL have to guard our hearts from developing a competitive spirit. We are all on the same team, and we are not a better follower of Jesus or servant of God because of numbers or popularity. Don’t allow pride to creep in!

Here are some signs of Pride Creeping into your life…

1. When you aren’t learning from other leaders

2. When you spend time with people and all you do is talk about yourself

3. When you won’t listen to and learn from people who lead a smaller organization that you

4. When you don’t listen to and learn from the people you lead

5. When you are defensive every time you are criticized

6. When you don’t have compassion on those who are suffering, hurting or trapped in sin

7. When you preach down at people as though you have arrived

8. When you want everybody to serve you

9. When you don’t serve anyone

10. When you justify why you are not obeying the bible in an area of your life

11. When you believe you could never fall into sin, so you don’t put boundaries in your life

12. When you don’t empower others to lead because you want to do it all yourself

13. When you always take the credit instead of giving the credit to the team

14. When you won’t raise up other speakers in your church and let them teach because you are hoarding the pulpit

15. When you start depending on self to produce the results instead of trusting God

A few more thoughts on leadership…

Eric — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:44:48 +0000

I have to admit, there are people, usually pastors, who speak into my life personally and through blog discussions that I read that impact me and my life greatly. In some of these posts, I will share some information and challenges that I have acquired through some of those relationships. We all learn from somebody… Who you learning and growing from?

THE BLINDSIDES OF A LEADER…

1. They want to be liked more than they want to lead: This doesn’t mean being a jerk; it means you lead and make decisions led by the Holy Spirit even when it’s not popular. It means everybody you lead may not understand or like every decision that you need to make, but you are still willing to do what’s best for the organization in spite of not being popular.

2. They don’t see potential problems quickly: Many leaders are always in a jam and solving a problem that could have been avoided. Mole hills often times turn into mountains if left unchecked, but many leaders think they will just disappear on their own. If you want to waste a lot of time, constantly let potential problems turn into big problems by doing nothing.

3. They don’t lead strong on the front end: If a leader leads weak on the front end, there is always a mess to clean up on the back end. I have learned that I would rather start off a little more firm when leading a person and loosen up, than start loose and then have to firm up. If you give some people an inch, they will take mile, and now you have a dilemma on your hands.

Leaders lead! So if you are a leader, begin Leading!!!