Olive Tree Church

Ross Rodger: How to fight like a girl. If the stereotype is correct then fighting like a girl means using words not fists. Talking out your frustrations instead of acting them out. Doing reps to get your emotional intelligence buff and your self awareness sharp, instead of relying on big muscles and pointy sticks to intimidate. If that’s what fighting like a girl is, it requires much more courage and promises far better results! This Sunday is about how to stay safe when you’re in the relational equivalent of a Middle Eastern bar fight with only an English/Afrikaans dictionary and potato samoosa for protection.

Natalie Naude: How To Fight Like A Girl If the stereotype is correct then fighting like a girl means using words not fists. Talking out your frustrations instead of acting them out. Doing reps to get your emotional intelligence buff and your self awareness sharp, instead of relying on big muscles and pointy sticks to intimidate. If that’s what fighting like a girl is, it requires much more courage and promises far better results! This Sunday is about how to stay safe when you’re in the relational equivalent of a Middle Eastern bar fight with only an English/Afrikaans dictionary and potato samoosa for protection.

Gary Blair: Watercooler Conversations You know the spot at work where the gossip always happens, but do we know why it happens? Conflict and judgements are far easier to discuss with just about anyone other than the person in question. That’s because we’re all either fighters or flighters, we bully or get bull-dozed, so we avoid the very person we should be talking to! Can two people disagree and remain convinced that both of them matter just as much? 

Gary Blair: Water Cooler Convos Relationships are hard. What did that look mean? Can they be trusted? What are my boss’s intentions really? Why am I so easily offended by her? Why am I so good at offending him? Is anyone really what they seem? What if everyone is actually an alien inside a realistic human suit and I’m the only normal one? These are common questions that many of us ask.  Even when we have lots in common relationships are a high stakes game with no guarantees, but God also created us male and female, and uniquely different, which adds even more beautiful complexity. In our next series we’re going to investigate some of the things that God has said about how relationships of all descriptions can thrive because we all know we need some help. You know the spot at work where the gossip always happens, but do we know why it happens? Conflict and judgements are far easier to discuss with just about anyone other than the person in question. That’s because we’re all either fighters or flighters,

Paul Taylor: Water Cooler Convos You know the spot at work where the gossip always happens, but do we know why it happens? Conflict and judgements are far easier to discuss with just about anyone other than the person in question. That’s because we’re all either fighters or flighters, we bully or get bull-dozed, so we avoid the very person we should be talking to! Can two people disagree and remain convinced that both of them matter just as much? Can honour and honesty co-exist? If we all learned the gracious assertiveness Jesus described in one of his lesser known sermons, the water cooler might have to go back to being a place to get a drink! 

Ross Blair: It's right but it's not fair. God seems to think no relationship is truly private. He wants in on all of them. Not just to give advice but as an active member… even in marriage. And that should put us on high alert because God has a very strange way of doing relationships. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, work for earthly masters as if you were working for Jesus,” etc. etc. This upside-down principle is at its most extreme when it comes to submission; the idea of following, honoring, even obeying people who don’t deserve it. This Sunday we look at what is at stake for our relationships if we never engage with this idea, and how it might be the most beautiful instruction of all.

Ross Rodger: Compete vs Compliment/Complete (Add your strength) Marriage, work, parenting, friendships… society thinks it has figured out the solution to pain in all of these areas. Fairness! If we could just force everyone to play by the rules, to give everyone an equal chance, make sure nobody is disadvantaged, left behind or made to feel different... then we would have cracked the code. But what if there is a higher standard than fairness. What if there is a solution to bias that doesn’t have to remove diversity. What if the alternative to competition doesn’t have to be conformity, but can be to compliment different strengths? This week we look at the unexpected foundation for all truly beautiful relationships (spoiler: it isn’t fairness)

Siya Mandonsela: Friend or Fling Do your friends actually like you, or just how you make them feel? Are the people we give our time and energy to really that important, or are we actually most interested in what we can get out of them? When we’re brutally honest, we’re pretty bad at friendships because we’re pretty consumeristic about them. God has a different way of doing relationships that avoids shallow and avoids needy co-dependance, this week we’ll investigate true friendship not just fling-ship. 

Lutho Ngebeza: Friend or Fling Do your friends actually like you, or just how you make them feel? Are the people we give our time and energy to really that important, or are we actually most interested in what we can get out of them? When we’re brutally honest, we’re pretty bad at friendships because we’re pretty consumeristic about them. God has a different way of doing relationships that avoids shallow and avoids needy co-dependance, this week we’ll investigate true friendship not just fling-ship. 

Paul Taylor: Compete vs Complete Relationships are hard. What did that look mean? Can they be trusted? What are my boss’s intentions really? Why am I so easily offended by her? Why am I so good at offending him? Is anyone really what they seem? What if everyone is actually an alien inside a realistic human suit and I’m the only normal one? These are common questions that many of us ask.  Even when we have lots in common relationships are a high stakes game with no guarantees, but God also created us male and female, and uniquely different, which adds even more beautiful complexity. In our next series we’re going to investigate some of the things that God has said about how relationships of all descriptions can thrive because we all know we need some help. Marriage, work, parenting, friendships… society thinks it has figured out the solution to pain in all of these areas. Fairness! If we could just force everyone to play by the rules, to give everyone an equal chance, make sure nobody is disadvantaged, l

Raymond Meneses:  The Power of Pentecost. 

Ross Rodger: Compete vs Complete Relationships are hard. What did that look mean? Can they be trusted? What are my boss’s intentions really? Why am I so easily offended by her? Why am I so good at offending him? Is anyone really what they seem? What if everyone is actually an alien inside a realistic human suit and I’m the only normal one? These are common questions that many of us ask.  Even when we have lots in common relationships are a high stakes game with no guarantees, but God also created us male and female, and uniquely different, which adds even more beautiful complexity. In this new series we’re going to investigate some of the things that God has said about how relationships of all descriptions can thrive because we all know we need some help.   Marriage, work, parenting, friendships… society thinks it has figured out the solution to pain in all of these areas. Fairness! If we could just force everyone to play by the rules, to give everyone an equal chance, make sure no

Paul Taylor: How to be good at Decisions Most of us are constantly deciding. Our lives are made up, in large part, by all the decisions we’ve made till this point. Often the biggest things can be traced back to a series of small decisions that we barely noticed at the time, but life also has a habit of really upping the stress-levels around certain calls we have to make, often unhelpfully. We scroll through life at breakneck pace, choosing and deciding, pursuing or ignoring options with barely any pause, or with minimal information, and when we’re forced to slow down by a real conundrum the alternatives can be equally unclear or morally confusing. Can God help us? This Sunday we’ll take a quick look at contemporary insights before turning to the Bible in search of a Godly approach to decision making.

Lutho Ngebeza

Abonga Nkwelo

Ross Rodger: We start and end by faith: All the promises are by faith This week opens the issue that, not only are we saved by faith, but we mature and enter into the promises of God through faith. Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” but he also entered into the promise through enduring faith. We too, are saved by faith, grow by faith, and enter into God’s destiny for us by faith.

Jules Vidas shared her story of how God used her Comrades journey to impact her walk with Him. on Thursday the 11th July at KCC. Sadly the first few minutes of her talk was not recorded, but enjoy the touching story she shares.

Gary Blair: The results of justification by faith: What a privileged position! It is important to understand what Jesus has given us. All of God’s promises are for the righteous, and we are righteous in Jesus. We have peace with God, undeserved privilege, have hope for our future, are loved by God and considered His friends. This sermon is an absolute exaltation of His goodness and grace!

Glen Campbell We are set free from the consequences of sin AND it’s power. We are NOT set free from the consequences of sin to sin with impunity. God graciously dealt with the consequences of sin and it’s power over us, and set us free from sin so that we could serve God. Paul does not threaten believers with consequences with sin; he states that it is inconsistent with God’s work in their lives and their new identity.

We are very excited to announce that we are running the wildly popular and hugely helpful parenting course again. We’re hoping you will join us in inviting the whole neighborhood to come and laugh, learn and leave with amazing new tools for the challenge of parenting. The course is called “loving our kids on purpose” and is presented in video sessions by world renowned family and relationship expert Danny Silk. It runs for 8 weeks. Dinner will be provided! and we would love you to join us. Sign up on Sunday at the Information Desk or email us at kloof@otc.org.za for any other details or questions.