Discovery Online
Discovery Online is the first step to Membership at Oso Creek. The purpose behind Discovery Online is to connect with those of you who are considering Oso Creek as a home for your faith journey.
There are two things we want you to experience as you navigate through Discovery On
line:
1) Understand more about who we are at Fellowship of Oso Creek and where God is leading us.
2) We want to learn your story and and discover how we can serve and equip you.
In the following pages you will first discover information about us. Our Story, What We Believe, and Our Purpose and Plan.
We would invite you to read through this information thoroughly. If you are interested in joining us in this journey, we would ask you to then fill out the Discovery Questionnaire at the end of this page. The Discovery Questionnaire is is information about you and your spiritual journey. When you complete this questionnaire and submit it, you will automatically be registered for the next Discovery Dessert on September 20, 2009.
The Discovery Dessert is a Sunday evening (very informal) gathering held at Pastor John’s home from 6:30-8:00pm. The purpose is to further introduce you to our staff, some of our leaders, and to answer any questions you have about Fellowship of Oso Creek.
At the conclusion of the Discovery Dessert, we will talk about the Fellowship of Oso Creek Membership Covenant [click here to download] and you will have the opportunity to become a member of Oso Creek.
If you have questions about any part of this information – or this journey – please click here and email us your questions or call the Church office (361.993.4463).
Thanks for your interest in Oso Creek . . . . Let the Journey continue!
Our Story
It’s hard to capture any church’s identity in just a few words, but our attempt would be to say that Fellowship of Oso Creek is an authentic, God-centered, on mission Church whose passion is to see lives transformed. Here are some excerpts from our history:
1997
- Easter Sunday: A core group of 23 adults and 9 children held it’s first worship service.
- November: we started meeting at Dawson Elementary School, and shortly thereafter began to search for a full-time pastor.
1999
- July: John Bradshaw became our first Pastor
- November: We began a Children’s Worship service – ‘Fun Time Express.’
- December: We moved our Sunday morning worship to Blanche Moore Elementary.
2000
- January: The first small groups started meeting (called Life Groups)
- Junior High and High School groups were launched.
2001
- We became a full-fledged (incorporated) Church. Two additional part-time staff members were added.
- December 28th: Our current campus of 20-acres was purchased.
2002
- A part-time student pastor was added to the staff.
- Spring: A Site Develo
pment team began the process of seeking God’s heart for the future development our campus.
- September: God miraculously provided to completely pay off the property!
- October: Master Site Plan was completed.
2003
- With much prayer and seeking about God’s vision, we purposefully moved towards becoming a Cell church – a church oriented around small groups.
2004
- The vision for an ‘Equipping Track’ began to bear fruit as we had our first Men’s and Women’s Encounter Retreats. Post Encounter sessions followed.
- December: We moved into our first building on our campus-an all purpose building that seats 500 in the ‘Living Room’ with space for 150 children on Sunday morning.
2005
- This was a year of incredible growth, doubling our attendance to nearly 400. (We had to add a portable building for the middle school students).
- It was an exciting year with the Franklin Graham Festival, caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors, and we added a second Celebration in September.
2006
- This was a year of learning about being on mission as we began to intentionally reach out to the Rancho Vista subdivision across Yorktown and extended our mission reach to Durango, Mexico.
2007
- We continued the journey by adding Kid’s Day Out two days a week to reach out to families.
- We introduced a new Vision Statement – Your Family for Life’s Journey.
- The Church “Left the Building” on two different Sundays as we had Serving Sundays and began serving our community through Serving Saturdays each month.
- September: Everybody pitched in and we finished our awesome playground designed to bless our neighbors.
- December: We ended the year with Advent Conspiracy and gave over $3,000 to compassion instead of consumption by giving to Living Water International to provide fresh drinking water to people in (country or region)!
2008
- July – Steve Garcia came on board as full time Worship & Media Pastor
- November – Partnered with the City of Corpus Christi to be the Corpus Southside Recycling Center
- December – Had first Volunteer Banquet
- Decemeber – Gave over $7,000 to Living Waters International and Mission 911 through Advent Conspiracy
2009
- April – Brought back annual Easter Festival after a 3-year hiatus and over 1,000 people came!
- July – Partnered with Glocal Ventures in a long term relationship to be involved Kingdom development work in Vietnam
- Hosted WCA’s Leadership Summit for our City for the first time
What We Believe
Everyone follows something. We are called first and foremost as Christians to follow Jesus. We are called to live in and live out the Kingdom of God.
It is very difficult to capture what that means in a few short statements or even hundreds of pages. Following God is not about rules and regulations, but about relationship and reality.
At the same time there are some very important principles that express what it means to follow God. These are so important that we believe we must have unity in these truths.
We follow a saying that many have used before us: In Essentials Unity, in Non-Essentials Liberty, in all things Love.
In Essentials Unity: We want to be unified in those essential beliefs of our faith – the truths the Bible is very clear about. Here are what we consider to be the Essentials:
1) There is one God, Creator of heaven and earth, who exists eternally as three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each fully and infinitely God yet personally distinct from one another.
The Father is the first person of the Trinity – He is infinitely perfect, the sovereign Lord, holy Judge, loving Father, and intimately acquainted with all our ways.
The second person of the Trinity, the Son, has always been with the Father and has always been God. He came to earth, assumed a human nature being born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, willingly died on the cross as our substitute, and rose again bodily. Now, He sits at the right hand of the Father as our advocate and will some day return in power and glory to consummate history and fulfill the plan of God.
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, convicts the world of sin and draws them to Christ. He regenerates and indwells all followers of Christ and empowers them to live Christ-centered lives.
2) The Bible is God’s unique revelation to all people. While written by holy men, its words are God-breathed. Therefore, the Bible is wholly true and completely reliable. It is the framework by which we judge all truth.
3) All people are created in God’s image and have boundless worth. Yet, as a consequence of Adam’s fall into sin, all of mankind is sinful and condemned. Apart from new birth in Christ, humanity is spiritually lost and without hope of spending eternity with God.
4) The offer to be saved from the penalty of our sin and reconciled to God is God’s love-gift to every person. Rightness with God cannot be earned through any effort of our own, but only received by exercising faith in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice on the cross.
5) All believers in Jesus Christ are members of His Universal Church . The local church is a unified community of believers who meet to worship our Lord, observe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to grow in maturity for ministry, to fellowship with one another, and to fulfill the Great Commission.
6) As God completes His plan for the end of this world all those who have died will be bodily resurrected. Believers will spend eternity with God, while unbelievers will experience everlasting separation from God.
In Non-Essentials Liberty: We want to have liberty with others where God gives us liberty. For example, when it comes to exactly how God is going to bring about the end times, or what we wear or eat or drink – the Bible is NOT dogmatic. So we don’t want to unnecessarily divide ourselves.
And when we disagree, we want to do it in love. Knowing that God is ultimately in control and NONE of us can fully understand the mystery of the Creator.
One area where many people want to know what we believe concerns baptism. There are many different interpretations and traditions connected with biblical baptism.
We do ask all Creekers to be baptized as a first step of obedience in following Jesus. If you have already been baptized elsewhere – subsequent to placing your faith in Christ – that’s great. We don’t ask you for a ‘do over.’ God is more interested in our heart obedience than a particular location or method of baptism.
Here is what we believe about baptism (and we encourage you to look at the passages listed):
Baptism
Who Should Be Baptized?
Everyone who has exchanged their old life for new life in Christ. (Acts 2:41; 8:12-13; 18:8).
Biblical Baptism is not just a ritual, but a public profession of what God has already done in your life. It’s an outward symbol of what has already happened in your heart. It’s like a wedding band. Wearing a wedding band does not make you married, but it’s an outward symbol of the commitment that you’ve already made in your heart to your spouse.
In being baptized you are publicly identifying yourself as a follower of Christ and saying that you are going to follow Him! (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 6:1-11).
Why Should I Be Baptized?
1) To follow the example set by Jesus (Mark 1:9)
2) Because Christ commanded it! (Matthew 28:19-20)
3) It declares my unity with Christ (Romans 6:1-11)
Baptism is commanded for all Christians as a first step in following Jesus. Baptism in no way causes you to be saved from the penalty of your sin, only trusting in Christ provision saves you (Ephesians 2:8-9). BUT, there is always blessing when we follow Jesus. Obedience brings blessing and when you choose to follow Him by being baptized you should expect to be blessed!
When Should I Be Baptized?
As soon as you’ve believed! (Acts 2:41; Acts 8:35-38)
At Oso Creek we normally do baptisms on a monthly rhythm. If you’re interested in being baptized please (click here) and let us know your interest . . . Or, when you attend the Discovery Dessert you will be give an opportunity to sign-up for baptisms.
If you still have questions about baptism, I would invite you to listen to this message by Pastor John on this topic. (Click here for message)
Our Purpose and Plan
Fellowship of Oso Creek is a community of ordinary people with diverse backgrounds. We all have in common the challenges and struggles of this life and yet we are unified by Jesus, the One who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6)
We believe that following God should be exciting and life changing as it’s lived out together. Following God is not a destination, but a journey. We envision being: Your Family for Life’s Journey
The PURPOSE of Fellowship of Oso Creek is to see lives transformed.
Spiritual transformation begins when we put our faith in Christ, and continues as we offer our lives to God as ‘good soil’ for Him to work in.
As this journey continues the trajectory of our lives take on a more and more of a ‘Kingdom’ orientation meaning that we are increasingly driven by seeing God’s will done on earth.
Here is the PLAN to focus our lives on becoming ‘good soil’:
A Growing Relationship with Christ – We all need to have personal and corporate communion with God. We worship together on Sunday mornings, but our journey is dependent upon continually ‘remaining in Christ.’ (John 15:1-8)
Living in Authentic Community – Throughout the week you will find Creekers meeting in Life Groups and Discipleship Groups (DG’s). That’s because God didn’t make us to live this life alone but with authentic, transparent connections. (Acts 2:42-47)
On Mission Across the Street and Around the World – It is in the living out of our faith that the world around us is transformed. We challenge everyone at Oso Creek to give themselves away both locally and globally. (Matthew 5:13-16)
Being this ‘good soil’ is not a linear process but an organic journey. We want Oso Creek to be a place where people are continually taking that next step of the journey in following Jesus. One of our values is that we want to be ‘risk takers’ in following God! Not fearful but excited about following God.
Here’s a little more flesh on what it means to be ‘good soil’ and grow in Kingdom orientation . . .
A Growing Relationship with Christ . . .
Jesus said: “Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
‘Remaining in Jesus’ is the essence of a growing relationship with God. It is a daily process of listening to God and obeying Him.
Every Creeker is encouraged to be soaking in God’s Word every day. It’s the Spirit using the Word of God that transforms us.
We also have an Equipping Track with classes every semester to help us grow in specific areas of our relationship with God. These classes are normally offered on Saturdays. Click here to find a current schedule of classes.
And watch the video below where Susan Klaus – our Equipping Track Champion – shares about the Equipping Track.
Equiping Track Classes from Fellowship of Oso Creek on Vimeo.
Authentic Community . . .
We have a saying that ‘Christianity is not a lone ranger sport.’ God created us for community – first with Him and then with others.
One of the first ways that we build community at Oso Creek is through Discovery. (Discovery Online & the Discovery Dessert). Discovery Online (which you are doing RIGHT NOW!) helps you to connect to who we are and helps us to get to know you. Discovery Dessert is where you connect with the staff and leadership.
We intentionally do community at Oso Creek through our LIFE GROUPS. [Click here to find out more about Life Groups.] Life Groups are the heart and soul of community and life at Oso Creek. We expect every Creeker to join a Life Group because this is where you build relationships that help carry you on the journey.
Watch as Denise Rizzo tells about her Life Group:
Life Group Testimony from Fellowship of Oso Creek on Vimeo.
We also have Entry Groups that are targeted to a specific need and meet for a limited season (i.e. Homebuilders, Women’s Groups, Financial Peace University). The hope is that these groups will not only meet a real need, but also be an entry point for you to find an ongoing Life Group.
And maybe the most transformational groups we have and encourage everyone to be a part of are Discipleship Groups (DG’s). DG’s are made up of one or two other people of the same gender – and are a place where we push one another deeper into what it means to follow Jesus.
Watch as Greg Richmond describes how Oso Creek DG’s have impacted his life . . .
Greg Richmond DG from Fellowship of Oso Creek on Vimeo.
On Mission . . .
Our vision is that every Creeker be On Mission Across The Street and Around The World. What that means is that we are living for the Kingdom of God everywhere we go!
On Mission Locally – As a Church we regularly serve our community on Sunday mornings doing a Serving Sunday. This helps people get their feet wet with what it means to give themselves away and expresses to our community in a big way the love of Christ. (Check out this article in the Caller Times from a Serving Sunday during the Summer of 2009).
Our Life Groups are all On Mission in our community – serving a non-profit or other need in our City on a regular basis. Listen to this story of a Life Group being On Mission.
On Mission from Fellowship of Oso Creek on Vimeo.
Another way we are on mission locally (and this can be further than locally) is by helping Plant New Churches. We are joining with other local churches in helping to sponsor a Cowboy Church in Sinton, and are assisting other church planters in our City. We are always searching for opportunities to multiply ourself.
We are ALL encouraged to continually be living our lives On Mission everywhere we go!
On Mission Globally – In the Summer of 2009 we began a strategic partnership in Vietnam with Glocal Ventures International.
Click here to check out the On Mission page of our website to learn more about our international strategy and opportunities!
Continuing the Journey . . .
You’ve heard our story and our vision, now we want to hear from you! If you would like to continue on this journey, then go to the next section and let us know your story and experiences.
When you are finished click the submit button at the bottom and you will be signed up for our next Discovery Dessert for which you will receive a reminder call.