Rationale:

The Oasis is a member church of Queensland Churches of Christ established in January of 2005, The Oasis has been founded on the desire to be a missional church (See appendix A for a definition of the missional church). Motivated by a deep passion to connect to and engage with our community The Oasis has sort a variety of servant hood opportunities across our community.

Over the last 3 years The Oasis has experienced considerable growth from 14 people to 200 people.

We are presently meeting in our second facility in 3 years. Our first facility with a capacity of 75 was quickly out grown between January and December 2005. It took us 12 months to find an alternative meeting space which we purchased for $1.75 million in December of 2006. During the 12 months it took us to find an alternative meeting space The Oasis hit a plateau. This experience helped us to understand the role an appropriate venue plays in the sustained growth of a church.

Currently we have facilities to suit a worship gathering of approximately 200 people with around 120 people attending on any given Sunday. Given our previous growth patterns and the expanding nature of our region we expect that we will out grow our current facility within 12 months.

The cost of our current facility, the expected cost of a larger facility and our continued growth has caused us to rethink our approach to future expansions. As a church that desires to be missional and remain closely connected to our community we are concerned that as we grow larger our desire to be missional will be an unachievable ideal.

Therefore we have set our course in becoming One Church meeting in Many Locations. We believe that by planting Oasis Hubs across our region we will be able to achieve our missional ambitions.

Hub Locations:

We have identified a number of areas that we believe to be strategically located to allow us to achieve this vision of growing larger whilst remaining small. Remaining small will allow us to respond quickly to community needs and stay connected and missional in our respective contexts.

We have identified 3 key areas in which to plant our initial extension Hubs; viz. Greenbank, Richlands/Forest Lake & Redbank Plains/Goodna. Over time we hope to plant more extension Hubs depending on need and The Oasis’ ability to expand. We have initially chosen locations that conform to a 10-12 minute radius around The Oasis Resource Center located in Springfield. This is a strategic decision that will allow us to base many of our training programs from our Resource Center. It will also allow the team to share a common office and therefore enhance the sense of team amongst the Hub Pastors. There is will be no mother Hub. All Hubs will carry equal value and will be given equal opportunity to inform the leadership of The Oasis. It is also expected that there will be services offered by The Oasis that operate exclusively from The Oasis Resource Center.

We expect that The Oasis - Springfield Hub will grow from 200 to 300 over the next 12 months. It is also our hope that each of our new hubs will grow to 100 each within their first 18 months. If this takes place The Oasis will grow from 200 at present to 600 over the next 18-24 months.

The Oasis will identify suitable facilities for each Hub to host their weekend worship gatherings. It is anticipated that these facilities will be leased for Sundays only. This will minimize facility costs, therefore allowing us to grow larger without significantly increasing our expenditure.

Hub Leadership:

Each Hub will have a Hub Pastor employed on a minimum of a 3 day a week basis. Hub Pastors will have the primary responsibility for leading the weekend worship gatherings and providing pastoral care to their respective Hubs. Hub Pastors will form part of The Oasis Pastoral Team.

It is important to understand that no single Hub exists in isolation to the larger organisation known as The Oasis. There is One Church  meeting in Many Locations

Each Hub will over time provide a member to the Board of Elders. The role of the Board of Elders is outlined in The Oasis Church Functional Guidelines (see appendix B for a full copy of the Church Functional Guidelines)

There will be some staff who will work primarily from The Oasis Resource Center located in Springfield. These staff members may choose to attend any of the hubs as their primary place of worship.

Each Hub will have a local servant leadership team responsible for ensuring weekend worship gatherings run smoothly. Each Hub will also have local Life Group Leaders who will be responsible for running weekly/fortnightly Life groups.

Each local Hub will be subject to the Leadership of the Pastoral Team Leader and the Board of Elders. It is anticipated that the Pastoral Team Leader will not lead any one Hub but rather they will provide overall leadership to The Oasis. The Pastoral team Leader’s role can be explored further in the Church Functional Guidelines and via their Role Description (see appendix C for the Pastoral Team Leader’s role description)

The Oasis Resource Center:

Our current facility is to be known as The Oasis Resource Center which may or may not contain the Springfield Hub. All staff will work at least one common day from The Oasis Resource Center.

There will be some services offered by The Oasis that will be based at the Resource Center such as:

 The Oasis Family Support Services
 Oasis Care
 Front Office support – monthly newsletter, etc
 Pastoral Team Leader
 Students Outreach Team
 Counseling service

The Oasis Resource Center will operate as the central office for The Oasis. It will be our only full time venue. This will allow us to minimize our facility expenses and avoid the duplication of expensive office equipment.

Regular Hub Activities:

All Hubs will run the following activities:

 Weekend Worship Gatherings
 Life Groups
 Monthly picnics in their local area
 Quarterly RAKs (Radical Acts of Kindness) at a school/s nearest to their Hub location

Hubs may also have other missional activities that are exclusive to their respective Hub depending on the community’s needs and the gift mix of those attending the Hub.

Hubs may choose to pool their resources for children’s, youth and seniors ministries.

Over Arching Guiding Principles:

Each Hub will share a commitment to The Oasis Core Cultural Values, Mission, Purpose and Vision Statements. (see Appendix D for a complete list and explanation of these statements)

As The Oasis is a member church of Queensland Churches of Christ, The Oasis will also adhere to the Red Book Policy and Procedures Manual as provided by State Conference)

Finances:

All Oasis Hubs will contribute towards a common budget. The Oasis will not operate separate bank accounts for each Hub. Rather one common bank account will be held and all tithes, offerings and receipted funds will be banked into the common master account.

All payments will be handled via our existing financial structures.

The Oasis Finance Team consists of:

 The Finance Team Leader identified as the Administrator/Elder in our Church Functional Guidelines. The Finance Team Leader will provide the overall vision and leadership to The Oasis’ finances in consultation with the Pastoral Team Leader and Board of Elders.
 A paid bookkeeper (currently 5 hours per week) is responsible for handling all payments and the maintaining of all financial records.
 Each Hub will have a receipts secretary responsible for over seeing the collection of all offerings, a team of offering counters and the banking of the weekly offerings.
 The Oasis’ annual financial statements are subject to the normal audit procedures in line with our Church Functional Guidelines

The Oasis Governance Structures:

The Oasis governance structures are outlined in The Oasis Church Functional Guidelines. It is important to remember that there is One Church meeting in Many Locations and as such there is one governance structure, one Pastoral Team and one Board of Elders

Summary:

We believe that The Oasis is well positioned to experience rapid growth over the coming years. We believe that this growth will not be at the expense of our core desire to be a missional church. We believe that the strategies outlined in this document present a way forward for the establishment of a dynamic missional church that values the individual and takes seriously the biblical mandate to engage our community in an authentic way. We believe that Hubs represent sound stewardship of our resources. We believe that this model will position The Oasis to take full advantage of the missional opportunities that are present in what is one of the fastest growing residential corridors in Australia.