New OAG Website Is Here!

We are so excited to announce that our new website is now live and available for your browsing pleasure! This new site is not only going to be an informational resource, but also a portal and hub for Christ followers to converge in Middle Tennessee. We hope that the site will serve as a tool to connect people and further the kingdom of God in our communities. Be sure to bookmark it!

Following is an explanation of the various pages within the website that we would encourage you to utilize:

Upcoming OAG Events
Check this page on a regular basis, as we will announce upcoming OAG events throughout the year. You can also search the calendar for events planned far in advance.

Get Involved
Click on the tab that most applies to you/ most interests you, and check out the benefits of becoming part of the OAG network! If you are interested in joining, volunteering, or beginning a community partnership that will have great impact in the city, please send us an e-mail at office@operationandrew.org. All are welcome!

Donate
Help OAG continue it's work in Middle Tennessee by supporting with a monetary gift. OAG is a registered 501(c)3 organization, and all gifts are tax deductible. Thank you for your valuable support!

Get Connected: Events and Happenings
This calendar is devoted to spreading the word about local events hosted or sponsored by members of the OAG network. Does your church or organization have an event coming up that you would like to share with the public? Please send us the event information to office@operationandrew.org and we will post it!

Get Connected: Kingdom Connections
Connecting local resources with local need is one of OAG’s main objectives, and this is a place where you can do just that. Participating churches, businesses and organizations can utilize this page connect with each other and share needs and resources. Does your church need choir robes? Sunday school chairs? New flooring? Does your business have computers that you need to get rid of, but you aren’t sure where to take them? Is your company looking for a service project within a local church, but don’t know how to connect? This is the perfect place for you to share your needs and resources within the body of Christ. Submissions will be taken at office@operationandrew.org.

Blog
The OAG blog will be utilized to share recent news and updates about the organization, as well as sharing stories of real people in the community who have been positively impacted by the OAG ministry. This will be a place to "tell the story".

Get Connected: Partnering Churches
This is a current list of partnering churches in alphabetical order, with links to each church website.

Get Connected: Community Organizations
This page is devoted to listing organizations within our community that are committed to serving those in need. If you are interested in volunteering, or are looking for help for a friend or loved one, please click the organization name to link to their website.

Prayer Network: Calendar of Prayer
This calendar is designed to keep you informed about prayer meetings and activities that are taking place in the Nashville area. All participating churches are welcome to submit prayer group information to office@operationandrew.org.

We hope that you enjoy our new site, and are able to utilize it to connect with other believers in the city and be encouraged in your faith!

Join the Movement!

Steve Flanigan
Senior Pastor, Hope Center

www.hopecenternashville.com

hopecenter@integrity.com

615-279-9466

I love Nashville, Tennessee! From the first time my wife, Sandy, and I drove through the area, scoping out the land to find a place to live and where our kids would go to school, we fell in love with this place. But I think the biggest reason that we love Nashville is because of our call from the Lord to move here.

Nashville came as quite a culture shock. After living in Hollywood, one of the armpits of the nation with the traffic jams, smog, and big city syndrome where nobody says "hello" or looks you in the eye; well, it was a pleasant surprise to be in an area where people would actually talk to you and seemed to be concerned about your well being.

But we soon found that there were, just as in any area of the world, some serious spiritual problems. The "southern hospitality" many times was an inch deep & a mile wide. And the racial prejudice really hit us hard. In L.A., everything you do is multi-racial. But it's different here.

As the Lord led us, we felt moved to plant a truly multi-racial congregation that would reflect what heaven might be like- every tongue & every nation. We call our local church family Hope Center on 12th Ave, just south of the Edgehill projects. It's a beautiful picture of Black, Hispanic, Asian & white people worshiping together, loving and serving one another as we grow deeper in relationship with Christ & each other.

The Operation Andrew Group came at the perfect time. With "hearts for" and a "call to" the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-19), they have created an atmosphere of mutual respect between pastors of different denominations, different size congregations, different styles & different ethnicities! Wow, what a breath of fresh air! This is what we are all called to, but it sometimes takes a "movement" to get some of us to move. God has done a powerful work here in just a few short years through Charles McGowan & his team ... and it's only just begun!

The vision for the Middle Tennessee area pastors to come together & change our world has given the rest of us a greater drive to get on with Kingdom building rather than just focusing on our little six square feet of life. I've grown in deeper relationship with other pastors because of various OAG events such as the Lunches to Learn, Honors Banquets, and Community Outreach opportunities- what I call "excuses to get together".

I'm honored to be a part of this timely organization, no- this organism, this living breathing part of the Body of Christ, and I encourage all to get on the bus, get in the boat, be a part of the team... it's a movement! Get ready to change the world! Look out Nashville, the Church is on the rise!

Operation Andrew: Installing Windows and Doors Since 2000

David Gould
Senior Pastor, First Wesleyan Church
http://www.nashvillefirst.com

Have you ever been the new kid in town? When God led my family to minister at an inner-city community church in East Nashville a few years ago, that’s all I knew about our call. In other words, I really didn’t know anyone else in Nashville. It is a wonderful city, full of life and opportunity… and music. I’m finding it’s a great place to raise a family. Spiritually, it is a dynamic city as well. We all know the numbers… over 700 churches in the Nashville area… more churches per capita in Nashville
than any other city… But in some ways it is can also be a closed community. Often times, even churches are closed up during the week. I didn’t know the pastors from neighboring churches because the only times they were in my neighborhood was on Sunday when I was kind of busy.

So, when Operation Andrew sent me an invitation to a pastors honor banquet, I excitedly told my wife about it. I was just settling in to my pastoral role at First Wesleyan Church. It was my first senior pastor position, so I knew I didn’t deserve any honor. But I try to never say “No” to a fine meal. We arrived to find people from many different backgrounds. Apparently I wasn’t the only pastor who liked to eat. But they weren’t there just to eat. They were fellowshipping. My wife and I were quickly swept up into conversation. We realized that we were surrounded by people who had been in ministry for much longer than we had. Some had even lived or had ministry connections in our part of town. Whether they knew it or not, they had become our ‘welcome wagon’, and in the process, opened doors for me in my new city.

After the dinner, I began getting emails about Operation Andrew sponsored, ‘Lunches To Learn’. I know… more food, right? At these lunches there is a topic of interest to the ministry community with a knowledgeable speaker. These topics and speakers provide a window to our culture and help us to see things from a different perspective. They are not just informative, but are again opportunities to meet other pastors and expand our network as we see common needs. I have enjoyed these fellowships, and always look forward to the email alerting me of the next one.

Operation Andrew seems to have a bird’s eye view of ministry in the Nashville area, so it can see the potential of a unified Church in middle Tennessee. By setting up these opportunities for pastors to meet and develop relationships, they are providing a much needed service within the church. What I have come to find through Operation Andrew is you don’t have to be the ‘new guy’ to be disconnected. ‘Disconnection’ doesn’t do anyone any good. It doesn’t help us accomplish our mission, and it doesn’t share the right message with the world.

When I think about the Church in general, I think about a building. Not that a building is ever the Church, but as she is referenced in the second chapter of Ephesians. Every strong building has a good foundation, walls, and a roof. The Church is to be a place of safety for those in trouble during times of cultural storms. It is a place to come home to for the wandering soul. But sometimes the Church, as a building, doesn’t seem to have windows or doors. This makes it more of a vault than a useful building. If the Church is a building, I see Operation Andrew in the ‘window and door’ business. They want to help us see the opportunity for ministry outside of ourselves, and they want us to be able to freely go in and out of our own areas so we can enjoy the benefits of the whole building… the whole Church. They understand how important it is for the building to be fully functional, not only for the edification of the believers, but also for the winning of the lost. If the world sees a building that isn’t functional, they will have no confidence (faith) in the Builder. Without windows, we can’t see out, and they can’t see in. Without doors, we are isolated… and even trapped.

I value the work of Operation Andrew. They have been a blessing to me since my first days in Nashville, and I look forward to installing windows and doors with them in the future.

National Day of Prayer Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, millions of people across the nation will join their hands and hearts in in observance of the 58th Annual National Day of Prayer.

Nashville will host it's own National Day of Prayer observance on the plaza of the Sommet Center from11:30am-12:30pm. The event is sponsored by Operation Andrew and the YMCA of Middle Tennessee. Please join us as we come together in unity to pray for our city, state, and nation. If you are not able to attend the downtown event, please visit the YMCA website to find an event at a YMCA near you.


The National Day of Prayer website discusses why we should pray for our nation:

"As American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, President Franklin Roosevelt called for our nation to unite in prayer. He also offered a prayer to prepare each citizen for the road ahead. "Let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee." The victory that followed on June 6, 1944-also known as D-Day-began the march to Berlin. Eighteen months later, WWII was over and one of the world's greatest evils had been defeated. The prayers of a nation had been a powerful force.

Prayer has always been used in this country for guidance, protection and strength-even before we were a nation or a handful of colonies. The Pilgrims at Plymouth relied on prayer during their first and darkest winter. Our founding fathers also called for prayer during the Constitutional Congress. In their eyes, our recently created nation and freedoms were a direct gift from God. And being a gift from God, there was only one way to insure protection-through prayer.

President Abraham Lincoln knew this well. It was his belief that, "it is the duty of nations as well as men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God." When it came to the fate of the nation, he practiced what he preached. Before the battle of Gettysburg, he turned to God in prayer. "I went to my room one day and I locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg." Won by the Union, Gettysburg was one of the turning points in the war that ended slavery and kept the states united. Today the need for prayer is as great as ever. Our nation again faces battlefields, along with an epidemic of broken homes, violence, sexual immorality and social strife. As the heroes of our nation did in the past, we must again bow our heads in prayer. We must ask the Lord to bless our leaders with wisdom and protection, and that we will have the fortitude to overcome the challenges at hand. If Roosevelt, the Pilgrims and Lincoln never underestimated the power of prayer, neither should we.

It is our goal that you, your family and friends would participate in the National Day of Prayer. We pray that the event impacts your life, and that praying for our nation moves from a one-day event to a lifetime endeavor. So join us on the first Thursday in May and pray with conviction that God would continue to shed His grace on thee.

The OAG Blog: Purpose and Vision

Hello friends, and welcome to the new Operation Andrew Group (OAG) Blog!

We are excited to begin this conversation and hear from you as we share our stories. The purpose of this blog is to support the mission of OAG:

"We are followers of Jesus Christ, united in service to help spiritually and socially transform communities in Middle Tennessee."

Now we know that spiritual and social transformation doesn't necessarily take place on a blog- but we do know that this can be used as a powerful tool to connect people who may not have connected any other way. We would like to hear from pastors, business leaders, congregation members, community volunteers, and everyone in between about what you are doing in your small pocket of the globe, ideally somewhere in the Nashville or Middle Tennessee area, to effect spiritual and social transformation, and to seek reconciliation in the name of Jesus. We hope to allow many guest bloggers to post here, and share their stories, their dreams, and the actions that they are taking in their community to enact God's kingdom.

We will also utilize this blog to announce upcoming events in the community, and encourage conversation about issues that affect followers of Christ in the Nashville area and beyond.

Once again, thank you for beginning this blogging journey with us! We look forward to the many things that will unfold as we move forward. Please feel free to add us to your RSS feed or Google Reader.

John 17:21