“Right living; there’s a way it ought to be …”

This became the topic of my conversation and interview with Pastor Tim Sheets of The Oasis church in Middletown and author of “Armed and Battle Ready.”

“We are living in ‘defining moments’ in history. The church has become way too passive and uninvolved. It’s time to step up and influence our culture again ‘Armed and Battle Ready,’” Sheets said.

The church should play a key role.

There are seven mountains of influence, he said: Family, business, religion, arts and entertainment, media, government and education.

One of the strategies of Sheets’ ministry is to influence education. “In the last five years, we are influencing thousands of kids to go into schools and become salt and light. We are looking for 30,000 students to become teachers and principles, while encouraging them to get the highest degrees possible. The purpose is to instill and inspire God’s perspective of whom or what they can become and that everyone has a purpose and destiny. It’s amazing that many college students do not have a clue of what they want to do or become,” Sheets said.

Prayer can influence all of these mountains.

Sheets began three years ago a reformation prayer network. “The idea began with praying in the church around the clock for seven straight days. All hours throughout the night, there’s someone in the church praying. We are praying for the nation, our communities and our president and for revival. To attack this passivity within the church, we have requested churches across the state to participate.”

Oasis provides an Olympic torch to each participating church for its assigned week. “The churches in turn recruit people within their congregations and assign each hour to fill up 24 hours a day for seven straight days. There are people praying in the actual churches around the clock during their assigned seven days. We have had two prisons within Ohio that have participated and the prison has agreed for assigned inmates to pray in their chapels. We have had 514 churches participate thus far, which includes the passing out of 10 torches. One of the churches is in Florida. Churches of different denominations pray about whatever they are led to intercede,” Sheets said.

What’s really fascinating is that an 80-year old man took a 2 a.m. assigned slot to pray in his church, Sheets said.

Sheets shares how “it’s time for the church to truly get involved while having a biblical worldview to right living… it’s how it ought to be.”

For more information, visit www.oasiswired.org.