Are you looking for a Church that:
Believes God is Love and that Jesus
reveals Him completely?
Follows the Teachings of Jesus?
WE ARE ALL ON A JOURNEY
Oakbrook Church views our missions and outreach ministries to be an essential aspect of our calling to love God and love our neighbors, and to be good stewards of God’s creation. These ministries give opportunities to our people to put into practice the teachings of Jesus and grow as his disciples. Our hope is that through these outreaches the kingdom of God expands as the hungry are fed, creation is renewed and restored, the nations are discipled, and peace is pursued.
We hope you will come and join us on this journey.
food ministry
Oakbrook's Food Ministry has had the pleasure of serving thousands of families in the Northern Virginia area for over 10 years on a weekly basis. Our ministry is transitioning and will no longer be open for food pickup. We will be focusing on assisting families in immediate need and emergency cases only going forward.
Stewards of Creation
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;”
Psalm 24:1 - NIV
Throughout Genesis God calls His creation ’good’, yet we see that our world is not perfect, not fully redeemed. When we love others as ourselves our actions move us toward redeeming the things that are broken for the sake of those who live in it. Oakbrook’s Stewards of Creation have planted trees on abandoned coal mines throughout Appalachia, helped to restore the oyster population in the Chesapeake, adopted a local stream where we learn about our watershed and how to keep it clean, spent time in nature observing birds and other wildlife while appreciating it, resolved to recycle and tried to reduce consumption. These efforts of redemption are small acts of loving God’s creation.
Our hearts are open to hearing what God has for us in the future. We hope you will join us in finding new ways to bless our neighbors through the care of each other and our shared environment.
Nature walks
Monitoring the health of sugarland run
Recycling tour
Tree Planting throughout Appalachia
Oyster Shell Washing for the health of the chesapeake
International Missions
Oakbrook Church teams have conducted numerous short-term international missions trips over the past 25 years. These trips not only serve to bless the people’s among whom we minister in different ways, but also give our people unique opportunities to live out the teachings of Jesus and become more faithful disciples in the process.
Oakbrook short-term mission teams and missionaries have ministered in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Wales, Poland, Russia, Togo, Benin, Zambia, Israel/Palestine, Pakistan, and India. These teams and missionaries have evangelized, taught a huge variety of classes, led children’s and youth ministries, worked with the homeless, gang members, and alcoholics, provided food for the hungry, assisted in medical missions, performed construction, and conducted peacemaking and reconciliation meetings.
The church has formed special relationships with these unique ministries:
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Asociación Equipando de los Santos Internacional (ASELSI) based in Chichicastenango, Guatemala
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The Ministry of Jesus centered in Dapaong, Togo
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Roots in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank
PeaceMaking
In order to faithfully follow Jesus, Oakbrook Church believes his disciples must obey his teachings. One of Jesus’ most challenging teachings is: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). In other words, we are to live in way that transforms our enemies into friends. We are called to be reconcilers in our own relationships and mediators who bring about reconciliation in the broken relationships among others. Jesus described such people in this way: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
Accordingly, Oakbrook Church has taken proactive steps to build relationships with those who are different than we are, and perhaps know and understand God differently than we do. We have built close friendships with the clergy and other members of our local Jewish and Muslim communities, and our pastors meet monthly with the faith leaders of other churches, synagogues, and mosques as a part of the Herndon-Reston Interfaith Clergy group.
Further, Oakbrook Church has sensed a calling to be active peacemakers on the ground in the West Bank/Judea & Samaria between Jews and Palestinians. This has involved numerous trips to Israel-Palestine designed to build relationships with neighboring Jews and Palestinians and then bring them together in meetings, to help bring down the walls of fear, mistrust, suspicion, stereotype, and hatred that exist between them. These efforts have produced great fruit as a unique organization called Roots was created in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank by Jews and Palestinians who live there. Roots defines its mission as “fostering a grassroots movement of understanding, nonviolence, and transformation among Israelis and Palestinians.” Oakbrook Church stays in close touch with the leaders of Roots and continues to offer advice, counsel, and financial support to this amazing organization.
On Sunday, March 10th, 2024, Oakbrook Church and Floris United Methodist Church co-sponsored an event in which Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Noor A'wad from Roots/Shorashim/Judur shared their personal testimonies, a brief history of the Roots organization, and how Roots is working at the grassroots level to bring about connection and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians who live close together in the West Bank. The event was hosted by Floris UMC.
Building Bridges with Native Americans
Oakbrook Church is inspired by Jesus's purposeful efforts to cross existing divides within the culture of his day in order to connect with and embrace marginalized and oppressed peoples. We see these actions as beautiful examples of God's love for all people and his inclusion of them in his family. Accordingly, Oakbrook Church feels called to proactively build personal relationships with the historically-persecuted Native American peoples in our nation. We recognize that the Christian Church played a central role in the many injustices that our nation has carried out against Native Americans in its history, and therefore the burden lies with us to reach out to those that we have wronged. In addition, we realize that life on so many of the Native American reservations is extremely difficult and that the people face numerous hardships and challenges. We believe that over time we can build relationships of trust with them and then together find ways to improve their lives and right some of the historic wrongs. In addition, we believe that our own faith will be strengthened and deepened through learning about indigenous spirituality and its many commonalities with our own Christian faith.
First steps were made when five members of the church journeyed to the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in May, 2023 and made numerous connections with the Lakota. We are very grateful to Pastor Dan Johnson and the staff at the Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center for hosting us on this trip and facilitating our meetings with the Lakota people. A second trip was taken by John Moyle in early August, 2024 during which he immersed himself fully into Lakota culture and spirituality. Virgil Red Cloud Goode arranged for John to attend and experience a Sundance on the Rosebud Reservation, join in a inipi (sweat lodge), and smoke the chanunpa (peace pipe). In addition, he was able to meet with numerous Lakota elders to learn more about many aspects of Lakota spirituality. The Lakota concept of mitakuye oyasin (translated as "All my relations" or "We are all connected") beautifully captures the interconnectedness of all of creation and can inspire Christians in their work of reconciliation and care of creation. He also was able to attend the Oglala Lakota Wacipi (powwow), an annual celebration of Oglala Lakota culture and pride. Future trips are forthcoming in which Oakbrook members will be able to deepen our relationships with the Lakota and learn more about their spirituality.
Advocacy for Marginalized and Persecuted Peoples
Oakbrook Church believes that an essential part of the gospel is to stand alongside and build solidarity with the poor, oppressed, marginalized, persecuted, and mistreated peoples of the world in order to shine a light on the injustices that they face and call out and expose the systems, organizations, and peoples of power and that use, oppress, and/or exploit them. We understand that this prophetic ministry plays an important role in raising the awareness of God’s people to the injustices of our world. This type of advocacy ultimately contributes towards righting these wrongs and liberating those peoples who are discriminated against.
Oakbrook members have advocated on the behalf of Native American communities (e.g., the Standing Rock Sioux of North Dakota), African-Americans mistreated and abused by U.S. law enforcement officials (through Black Lives Matter demonstrations), and undocumented Hispanic immigrants/refugees (especially children) abused and incarcerated upon entry into the United States.
In addition, Oakbrook members marched in solidarity (in March for Our Lives) with school-aged children from around the U.S. calling for gun control legislation following the numerous school shootings which have plagued our nation.
Standing Rock
Black Lives Matter
Lights For Liberty: protest against migrant detention camps
March For Our Lives
