'Build an Extraordinary Life' is an ongoing Oak Arbor theme exploring how ordinary spiritual choices can open our lives to the Lord’s presence and lead to greater peace, purpose, connection, and joy.
Through Sunday messages and shorter sermon series, our pastors will explore different building blocks of an extraordinary life — including meeting the Lord, prayer, repentance, service, relationships, and spiritual growth. Pastor Erik’s book, Build an Extraordinary Life, offers another way to go deeper into these same ideas and put them into practice.
WHAT IF THE EXTRAORDINARY GROWS OUT OF THE ORDINARY?
We long for lives of deeper purpose, lasting joy, and genuine peace. Yet most of us are living very ordinary lives — working, caring for people, navigating relationships, making decisions, and sometimes simply trying to get through a difficult week.
The hopeful idea behind Build an Extraordinary Life is that we don’t need extraordinary talent, heroic accomplishments, or exceptional discipline to live differently. An extraordinary life can grow out of the ordinary choices we make every day.
As we learn to welcome the Lord into those choices — choosing compassion over anger, integrity over convenience, usefulness over self-interest, forgiveness over resentment — something begins to change. Our ordinary lives become places where the Lord can work.
BRINGING THE LORD INTO EVERYDAY LIFE
An active spiritual life is not separate from everyday life. It happens within our relationships, our work, our struggles, and the choices we make when no one else is watching.
As we choose what is deeper and more lasting, the Lord can gradually reshape the way we see ourselves and others. Relationships can become stronger and safer. Our choices can carry more meaning. And even in difficult circumstances, we can begin to experience greater peace, purpose, and hope.
An extraordinary life is not about becoming an extraordinary person. It is about allowing the Lord to bring something extraordinary into the ordinary life we already have.
YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW SOMEONE LIVING THIS WAY
Most of us have known someone whose way of living made a difference in our lives — a teacher who believed in us, a family member who listened when we felt alone, a friend who challenged us when we needed it, or someone whose quiet kindness made life a little better.
Their lives may have looked ordinary from the outside, but their presence mattered.
We can become that kind of person in the lives of others.
Oak Arbor Church is exploring how we do that — how we build lives with greater meaning and purpose, stronger relationships, deeper connection with the Lord, and more lasting joy and hope.
GO DEEPER WITH THE BOOK
Pastor Erik Buss’s book, Build an Extraordinary Life: Ordinary Actions That Build Something Extraordinary, explores the spiritual practices behind this journey in greater depth.
Each chapter focuses on a practical building block for spiritual life and includes ways to begin putting these ideas into practice.
MESSAGES & SERIES
BUILD AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE
September 6th
What does it mean to build an extraordinary life? We begin with the idea at the heart of this theme: that something extraordinary can grow through the ordinary choices we make every day.
NEXT SERIES: MEET THE LORD
September 13 • 20 • 27
An extraordinary life begins with our relationship with the Lord.
Over three Sundays, we’ll explore what it means to recognize His presence, welcome Him into our lives, and discover how following Him can shape the way we understand, choose, and live.
Join our livestreams on YouTube or Facebook at 10:30am EDT, September 13th, 20th, and 27th, or join us in person!