OAK HILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

By: The Session

/These are questions that have been submitted by the congregation and addressed at the Congregational Meeting on Sunday, May 16th concerning this time of transition at Oak Hills. We are so grateful for the honesty of the questions, and for your willingness to let the Session think through these questions ahead of time. Below are the thoughts of the Session as presented at the Congregational...

By: Pastor Russ Ramsey

When you think of the Old Testament character Sampson with his long hair and strength, what do you picture? Is his hair dark? Blonde? In braids? Does he have bangs? And what about his physique? Is he built like a linebacker? Or since his strength is God-given supernatural strength, would he need to be any bigger than a place-kicker? Everyone who has heard this and other Bible stories has...

By: Pastor Russ Ramsey

You know those little yellow flags NFL referees tuck in their belts? Those flags, as I’m sure you know, are in case someone commits a foul on the field during the game. Sometimes a quarterback or wide receiver takes a hit—I mean the poor guys gets his clock cleaned. Was it legal? Look for the flag. No flag, no foul. Those little flags also tell you who the guy next to you is...

By: Pastor Russ Ramsey

I love books—especially used books. I love the feel of a well bound volume in my hands, the musty scent of old paper, the markings of discovery or disagreement left by someone else who had, at some point I’ll never know, settled down with the same volume to read the same words. I wonder how the words hit them. I wonder if they liked it. I love being surrounded by my own shelves...

By: Russ Ramsey

Vision Sunday (which we celebrate on the last Sunday of every August) is, in many ways, our “New Year” celebration as a church. Our community here at Oak Hills has so many individuals and families living by semesters that the end of the summer is, for all practical purposes, the end of the previous year, and the beginning of September is the start of a new one. The past year has been...

By: Russ Ramsey

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Jerusalem, and you find yourself at the church of the Holy Sepulcher—one of the possible sites for Jesus’ tomb—and if you look up and to your right before entering, you’ll see an old wooden ladder on a ledge resting against a window. Its story requires that you know something about the church itself. For centuries six different Christian...

By: Russ Ramsey

The church I grew up in was one which operated on a liturgical calendar—a schedule of worship which ensured that the “big events” of the faith were observed and celebrated. The colors of the vestments in the sanctuary would change during the different seasons of the liturgical year. During Advent it was dark blue. Lent and Easter were purple and those days between Easter and Pentecost...

By: Russ Ramsey

“Pontius Pilate sought to release Jesus.” —John 19:12 Think about that for a second. Doesn’t John's statement therer sound loaded with implication? It sure does to me. Though Pontius Pilate ultimately became the man who ordered Jesus’ crucifixion, there were several points along the way where his actions were intended to prevent Jesus’ death. Consider the following instances:...

By: Russ Ramsey

There is a scene in the film A River Runs Through It where the narrator, Norman Maclean, describes his education, saying, “I attended the school of the Reverend Maclean. He taught nothing but reading and writing. And being a Scot believed that the art of writing lay in thrift.” The scene flashed to a young Norman handing a paper to his father. His father scans it and hands it back,...