When we talk about stewardship in the church, we are talking about what we do with what we have, whether it be money, natural resources, our gifts, etc. It is very easy to become selfish with these things, but Jesus calls us to a different path. The only way to affect change in […]

God loves to get things done through people. We often want spiritual growth to fall out of the sky but, more often, God’s preferred delivery method is the community of faith around us. I know that is a bummer for some of us… we wish we could sail off to “(fill in your […]

In his first poem on prayer, George Herbert (1593–1633) refers to prayer as the soul’s blood. What can he mean by this? Two things, I think.
First, I think he means that, just as the blood is one of the essential agents for sustaining our life, so prayer […]

Two metaphors unlock our understanding of God’s word and its role in our lives.  Isaiah says it is like “rain” that enters the parched earth causing it to flourish, yielding seed for the sower and grain for the eater.  If our souls are parched, the word of God quenches.  Beautiful.  Secondly, Peter calls God’s word […]

No. And yes. The master of spiritual growth is the Spirit and only he can guide us. But the Spirit works through people and the OPISO people want to help position you to sense the leading and work of the Spirit in your life. We have identified some basic traits of a […]

Prayer is an opportunity to sit down with the Creator of the universe, not merely some rote chore to be “performed” before each meal. Nowhere else in the world do we get this kind of easy access to power! The first step in developing a healthy prayer life is seeing it as a […]

We often think of patience as being able to wait for something - delaying gratification. However, the word means more than that. Patience is the bearing of annoyance, pain, or misfortune without complaint or irritation; quiet and steady perseverance.
Patience is a key component to spiritual growth, as stated in James 1:2-4:
“2 Consider it […]

Sunday morning church activities represent only a piece of the biblical definition of worship. Anything we do that brings honor and glory to God is worship and our ultimate goal in life is to have all our thoughts and actions transformed into worship. The relationship between Sunday morning and the rest of life is like […]

The purpose of this inventory is to help you uncover areas in your walk where there is potential for further growth. We’ve broken down what it means to follow Christ into several categories and this inventory will help reveal where you are strong and where you are weak. To start, you can click the […]

2000 years ago a few average guys strapped on their sandals, fell in behind a Jewish carpenter and began a seemingly ordinary trek across the dusty roads of Israel. By the end of the journey, however, their lives had been turned upside down. Soon the world was turned upside down as more and more people […]