making more & stronger followers of Jesus Christ

– OUR MISSION –

WHY LIVE OAK EXISTS…

Live Oak is a non-denominational church that was founded in 1993 with the purpose of making more and stronger followers of Jesus Christ.

We believe a life that is meaningfully connected to Christ and Community is a life that thrives.

We want to see families and individuals connecting to and pursuing GOD, GOD’S WORD, GOD’S PEOPLE and GOD’S MISSION.

Live Oak believes our greatest impact is to be made ACROSS THE STREET, ACROSS THE GLOBE and INTO THE NEXT GENERATION.

Want to learn a little more about Live Oak’s roots and how we got to where we are today? Check out our 30 Year Video, produced in October 2023 for our 30 Year Anniversary!

LIVE OAK STRUCTURE

The cornerstone of Live Oak’s structure is Jesus Christ. We ALL submit to His authority in our lives by abiding, and He calls everyone to be a minister and into service. We look to affirm those he is already calling into leadership. We believe in a plurality of leadership as demonstrated in Scripture.

3 Teams Oversee Live Oak Community Church:

STAFF TEAM

Equipping and leading those who call Live Oak their church home

Meet Our Staff Team

Elders

~Spiritual shepherds, overseers and vision-setting

Our current elders are: Mike Buchanan (chairman), Philip Archinal, Brian Sanderson, Doug Halcomb, and Mark Porter

Board of Directors

Day to day business affairs (finance, personnel and budgeting)

Our Board of Directors is:
Brian Sanderson (Chair), Amy Goble, Abie Rampy, Mandee Lawlis, Doug Halcomb, Mark Porter, Jeff Jaynes, Byron Tyler, Troy Vandeberg

our values…

people matter to god

  • We believe you will never lock eyes with someone who doesn’t matter deeply to God, including the person in the mirror.  People matter to God.  All people. Always.
  • Everyone who comes to Live Oak will be treated with dignity and respect, as an image bearer of God.
  • We have a heart for ALL who are not yet near to God and seek to know and love these people through personal relationships and by supporting local and global missionaries who can reach those we might never know.

 

GOD’S WORD MATTERS

  • The word of God guides all of our teaching, discipleship, and programming.  
  • We desire to remain doctrinally pure while being culturally relevant. 
  • We also believe when someone reads and reflects on Scripture it is catalytic to their faith.

 

THE NEXT GEN MATTERS

  • We see the next generation as one of our primary missions fields.  
  • We seek to connect with them through meaningful relationships that endure over time, with leaders who care.
  • We invest a disproportional amount of our resources, both time and money, into our next generation ministries.
  • We want to equip our next gen, from our littles to our college-aged people, to be a disciple of Christ who walks with the Lord in a personal relationship.

 

NEXT STEPS MATTER

  • No matter who are you have a next step in your spiritual journey.
  • Next Steps include…deciding to follow Jesus, getting baptized, engaging God’s Word, giving of your time and money, serving, and every single part of becoming more Christ-like.
  • Taking next steps is transformational to our faith.
  • We always encourage next steps from the front platform and through personal, across-the-table, relationships.

 

CIRCLES MATTER

  • We believe lives are transformed in the context of Christ and community.
  • It is when people are doing life together in small groups and serving together shoulder to shoulder that our faith grows best.
  • This is why we are a church of small groups and serving teams.

 

MONDAYS MATTER

  • We believe every person is a missionary and where they find themselves on a Monday morning is their personal mission field. 
  • We seek to equip and come alongside Live Oakers as they head into their Monday to be a light in the world.
  • We support vocational missionaries who find themselves all over the world on Monday mornings

our values…

people matter to god

  • We believe you will never lock eyes with someone who doesn’t matter deeply to God, including the person in the mirror.  People matter to God.  All people. Always.
  • Everyone who comes to Live Oak will be treated with dignity and respect, as an image bearer of God.
  • We have a heart for ALL who are not yet near to God and seek to know and love these people through personal relationships and by supporting local and global missionaries who can reach those we might never know.

GOD’S WORD MATTERS

  • The word of God guides all of our teaching, discipleship, and programming.  
  • We desire to remain doctrinally pure while being culturally relevant. 
  • We also believe when someone reads and reflects on Scripture it is catalytic to their faith.

THE NEXT GEN MATTERS

  • We see the next generation as one of our primary missions fields.  
  • We seek to connect with them through meaningful relationships that endure over time, with leaders who care.
  • We invest a disproportional amount of our resources, both time and money, into our next generation ministries.
  • We want to equip our next gen, from our littles to our college-aged people, to be a disciple of Christ who walks with the Lord in a personal relationship.

NEXT STEPS MATTER

  • No matter who are you have a next step in your spiritual journey.
  • Next Steps include…deciding to follow Jesus, getting baptized, engaging God’s Word, giving of your time and money, serving, and every single part of becoming more Christ-like.
  • Taking next steps is transformational to our faith.
  • We always encourage next steps from the front platform and through personal, across-the-table, relationships.

CIRCLES MATTER

  • We believe lives are transformed in the context of Christ and community.
  • It is when people are doing life together in small groups and serving together shoulder to shoulder that our faith grows best.
  • This is why we are a church of small groups and serving teams.

MONDAYS MATTER

  • We believe every person is a missionary and where they find themselves on a Monday morning is their personal mission field. 
  • We seek to equip and come alongside Live Oakers as they head into their Monday to be a light in the world.
  • We support vocational missionaries who find themselves all over the world on Monday mornings

OUR BELIEFS

Below are Live Oak’s beliefs, which are founded on God’s holy scripture. These beliefs have been in place since Live Oak’s beginnings in 1993.

We understand that not everyone who attends Live Oak will be in 100% agreement with these beliefs. Those who might not agree are met with love and kindness and are welcome to be part of our church family.

It is important to us, however, to be transparent about our beliefs, because they are the foundation of our ministry, discipleship, leadership and teaching.

we believe…

The Bible

The sole basis of our belief is the Bible, composed of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament. We believe that Scripture in its entirety originated with God, and that it was given through the instrumentality of chosen men. Scripture thus at one and the same time speaks with the authority of God and reflects the backgrounds, styles and vocabularies of the human authors. We hold that the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant in the original manuscripts. They are the unique, full and final authority on all matters of faith and practice and there are no other writings similarly inspired by God.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21)

God

We believe that there is one true, holy God, eternally existing in three persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — each of Whom possesses equally all the attributes of deity and the characteristics of personality. In the beginning God created out of nothing the world and all the things therein; thus manifesting the glory of His power, wisdom and goodness. By His sovereign power He continues to sustain His creation. By His providence He is operating throughout history to fulfill His redemptive purposes. (John 1:1-5,14; Acts 17:24-28)

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the eternal second Person of the Trinity who was united forever with a true human nature by a miraculous conception and virgin birth. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father and voluntarily atoned for the sins of all by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone. He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. He ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of  the Father, where He, the only Mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own. He shall come again to earth, personally and visibly, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
(Acts 2:22-36; 1 Timothy 2:5-6)

The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life

The essential accompaniment of a genuine saving relationship with Jesus Christ is a life of holiness and obedience, evidenced in believers as they submit to the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. He was sent into the world by the Father and the Son to apply to mankind the saving work of Christ. He enlightens the minds of sinners, awakens in them a recognition of their need of a Savior and regenerates them. At the point of salvation He permanently indwells every believer to become the source of life, assurance, strength and wisdom, and uniquely endows each believer with gifts for the up-building of the body. The Holy Spirit guides believers in understanding and applying the Scripture. His power and control are appropriated by faith, making it possible for the believer to lead a life of Christ-like character and to bear fruit to the glory of the Father. (Acts 1:4-8; Galatians 5:22-23)

Salvation

The central purpose of God’s revelation in Scripture is to call all people into fellowship with Himself. Originally created to have fellowship with God, man defied God, choosing to go his independent way, and was thus alienated from God and suffered the corruption of his nature, rendering him unable to please God. The fall took place at the beginning of human history, and all individuals since have suffered these consequences and are thus in need of the saving grace of God. The salvation of mankind is, then, wholly a work of God’s free grace, not the result, in whole or in part of human works or goodness, but is a gift freely given by God through an individual’s personal repentance and faith. When God has begun a saving work in the heart of any person, He gives assurance in His Word that He will continue performing it until the day of its full consummation (Ephesians 2:8- 10; Philippians 1:6)

Human Destiny

Death seals the eternal destiny of each person. For all mankind, there will be a resurrection of the body into the spiritual world, and a judgment that will determine the fate of each individual. Unbelievers will be separated from God into condemnation. God’s judgment will reveal his justice in consigning them to perpetuate in eternal retribution their own rejection of God. Believers will be received into eternal communion with God and will be rewarded for works done in this life.
(Hebrews 9:27; John 14:1-6) (Hebrews 9:27; John 14:1-6)

The Church

There is one true Church universal, comprised of all those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Forgiver and Leader. The Scripture commands believers to gather together to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of baptism and communion as the ordinance established by Jesus Christ, fellowship, service to the body through the development and use of talents and gifts, and outreach to the world. The members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the one ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.   (Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:23-25 )

Sexuality and Marriage

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. We believe that God our Creator established marriage as a sacred institution between one biological man and one biological woman, and the idea that marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman, is conveyed in the Scriptures. Sexuality and the divinely prescribed boundaries for the expression of sexuality is also covered clearly in the Holy Scriptures, which limit sexual expression to the marriage covenant between one biological man and one biological woman. Sexual expression outside the marriage covenant as prescribed by God, including adultery, homosexual acts, cohabitation, bestiality, rejection of one’s biological sex, and all forms of fornication are not condoned in the Scriptures.  (Genesis 1:24-27, Matthew 5:27, Matthew 15:19-20, Romans 1:26-27,1 Corinthians 6:9-20; 1 Thes 4:3; Lev 20:10-21)

Baptism

Baptism is symbolic of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. It is an outward sign of an inward change of a life that has been surrendered to the lordship of Christ. It is a public proclamation of a person’s decision to be a Christ-follower. Baptism is an act of obedience in following the example of Jesus, who submitted himself to baptism. We believe that baptism does not save you. Only your faith in Christ saves you. However, baptism is a powerful symbol and witness to the new life one has in Jesus. At Live Oak we believe baptism is a next step for any one who becomes a Christ follower.
(Matthew 3:16-17, 28:18-20, Acts 2:41, 8:12, Romans 6:4, Ephesians 2:1,Col 2:12)

Stewardship

We believe God is the maker and giver of all things. Anything we have, including our time, talents, and treasure, should be held with open hands. When we “re-gift” the many things God has entrusted to us,
we take a powerful step of growth with Jesus.
A Christ-follower will have the posture of generosity when it comes to:
-Giving of his or her time.
-Using his or her talents and giftings to further God’s kingdom.
-Giving of his or her financial resources through tithes and offerings to the local church. (We believe that returning 10% of my income to the local church is a starting place for Biblical generosity.)
This posture of whole-life generosity is a mirror of the extravagant generosity of our God, who has given so much, including his only Son. (Leviticus 27:30, Malachi 3:10, Matthew 6:21)

Sanctity of Life

We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. We are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life. (Ps. 139.)

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10710 Frankford Avenue
Lubbock, TX 79424
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