Mission & Vision
Oaks equips local churches to be rehabilitative communities for people in the healing process.
Bridging the gap between counseling and community
Oaks exists to equip local churches to be rehabilitative and resilient communities for people in the healing process.
Most healing doesn’t happen in the counseling room. Clinical counseling offers critical expertise, but it is limited by what can be accomplished in a 50-minute session once a week. The other 80% of the healing process happens in everyday life—in relationships, in community, and in the rhythms of discipleship.
At the same time, many church ministries feel unequipped to walk with people through acute suffering, trauma, grief, addiction, and other deep struggles. Leaders want to help, but they lack the training, structures, and confidence to support someone through an intensive healing process.
Oaks fills this gap. We come alongside churches to develop the ministry structures, trained volunteers, and collaborative relationships with mental health professionals needed to become genuinely rehabilitative communities. We meet the immediate felt need, get to the spiritual and emotional root, and walk people toward resilient discipleship through agency.
We do not replace church ministries or function as a counseling practice. Instead, we help churches take hold of the ministry of healing Jesus has given to his body.
Four pillars of the Oaks mission
Everything we do flows from a single conviction: the local church is designed to be a place of healing.
Personal Healing Engagement
Helping individuals engage their own healing with God through one-on-one advocacy relationships, restorative prayer, and guided spiritual practices that address root issues rather than just symptoms.
Church-Based Support
Building rehabilitative relationships through ministry structures including trained advocates, support groups, collaborative care, and coordinated connections between church leaders and participants.
Education
Training churches on biblical perspectives integrated with psychological knowledge through podcasts, written content, conferences, and workshops that equip leaders and volunteers to care well.
Community Collaboration
Fostering unity among gospel-centered churches and Christian healing professionals through shared resources, consultation, and a collaborative network working toward the same mission.
Oaks Podcast
Biblical clarity of psychological issues. Conversations at the intersection of theology, psychology, and the local church.
Browse episodesBoard of Directors
Oaks is governed by a board of directors who bring together pastoral leadership, clinical expertise, and a shared commitment to the healing ministry of the local church.
Jill Reasa
APSW
Pastor Lance Ratze
Alexi Gibson
LCSW
Dr. Angela Hawkins
Pastor Nic Gibson
Nearly 70 trained volunteers
Our volunteers serve as advocates, group facilitators, restorative prayer facilitators, and administrative support across our growing network of partner churches.
Statement of Faith
Oaks Ministry Collaborative is a gospel-centered, Christian organization (John 3:16; John 14:6; Acts 16:31). Our beliefs and practices align with those stated in the Apostles' Creed.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Human Purpose
Creation: God created humans in his own image as male and female (Genesis 1:27) and declared his creation “very good” (Genesis 1:31). He has blessed men and women to be fruitful, to cultivate creation, and to subdue chaos (Genesis 1:28; 2:15–25).
Christian Mission: Our mission first and foremost as Christians is to make disciples (Matthew 28:18–20) as ambassadors of Jesus Christ, through a ministry of reconciling people to God (2 Corinthians 5), and subsequently, to each other, so that his people live together in unity (Ephesians 4).
Human Suffering
We believe that human suffering exists because of the interaction between indwelling sin, the curse, the fear of death, the world, and devils.
- Indwelling sin means that since the fall of mankind, sin has been original and innate to every human being. Therefore, every person is born naturally bent toward rebellion against God and his ways, causing harm to self or others (Genesis 3:6–13; Romans 3:9–20). We are unable to redeem ourselves from the power and consequences of our sin apart from the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1–9; 1 Corinthians 15:56–57).
- The curse is a result of original sin and further frustrates human efforts to produce salvation through our own efforts and relationships apart from God (Genesis 3:14–24).
- The fear of death and death itself, are consequences of sin (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 2:14–15) and the result of sins done against us. The fear of death plagues humans through haunting reminders of the gravity of sin and our impending finality.
- The world encompasses false gods and their counterfeit promises of life and happiness, reified in the cultural systems and mental schemas of people living without devotion to God (Matthew 6:19–34). It is a spiritual reality rather than a reference to God’s good creation.
- Devils or demons (also called powers or principalities) are preternatural beings who actively attempt to distort the truth of God into a lie to destroy the relationship between God and his people (Genesis 3:1–4; Ephesians 6:10–19; 1 Peter 5:8).
Human Healing
Because of the comprehensive and complex nature of both human purpose and suffering, we believe that a Christian approach to healing is holistic, encompassing emotional, spiritual, physical, and relational integration as a process punctuated by specific moments and modalities.
- Creation through theological anthropology and scientific dominion. The riches of God’s truth and goods are available to all people, whether Christians or not, through common grace (Psalm 24:1–5; 1 Corinthians 8).
- Salvation and spirituality is God’s healing through redemption and freedom when we are released from the bondage of the world, the flesh, and devils (John 8:31–32; John 10:1–21).
- Discipleship is God’s healing through formation. God’s discipline is gracious, loving, and healing (Hebrews 12:1–13), forming and strengthening us to be mature, resilient, and equipped by our own restoration to participate in the work of restoring others (Isaiah 61:3–4; 2 Peter 1:3–11).
- Miracles are God’s help and signs in punctuated healing. Healing is a gift of the Spirit facilitated through God’s people, manifested in an instantaneous breakthrough or absolution of pain. Physical healing is a representation of the deeper spiritual healing and freedom Jesus offers (Luke 5:24; John 14:12–14; 1 Corinthians 12:9).
- The Church is God’s formational ecosystem of grace and truth and redemptive family (Psalm 68:5–6; Isaiah 54) in which together we practice spiritual healing and freedom (James 5:13–20).
Based in Madison, Wisconsin
Oaks is rooted at High Point Church with 70+ trained volunteers serving across our growing network of partner churches.
Oaks Ministry Collaborative
7702 Old Sauk Road, Madison, WI 53717
at High Point Church