The Oasis

Hospitality & Healing

When we look at the life of Jesus we see two key components: first of all, he welcomed all people, especially those rejected by the established culture and religious leaders. He reached out to women, children, ‘blue collar workers,’ foreigners, slaves, eunuchs, divorcees, the phycially and mentally ill, as well as drunks, prostitutes, and tax collectors. He didn’t expect them to clean up their act and get their lives together first. He simply extended God’s love and mercy to them as they were. As his followers we are asked to do the same.

Secondly, most of us have been wounded – by Life in general and some-times by the Church –its people and practices. The Oasis is a place where we seek healing from those wounds. We understand ‘salvation’ to not just be an after-death hope but an everyday possibility, for it comes from the Latin term salvos which, in turn, comes from the biblical Greek sodzo, which means ‘to heal, to make whole.’ At The Oasis we address those things which have wounded us, those places where we are disconnected – from God, ourselves, and others – and those parts of ourselves and our community which are not yet whole.

Therefore, welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed us to the glory of God. (Romans 15:7)

Welcome people who are weak in faith, but don't get into an argument over differences of opinion. (Romans 14: 1)

If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 12: 47)

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3: 17)