An Open Letter to the Friends of Cornerstone:

In 2002 God led us to Four Corners to stat a church in a brand new community here on the back side of Disney.  What was once an orange grove is now a town much like the ones that you and your family live in.  Many of you were here along the way, stopping in for a time as Four Corners was a step along the path rather than God’s destination for you.  To you friends of Cornerstone, I write this letter.

By God’s grace, and your prayers and investment, the church continues to grow.  We are running over 250 each week in Worship attendance, and God has seen fit to bless our youth group with 30 teens, and our Awana has had a high of 66.  Small group attendance is way up, and the number of groups is multiplying.

Many of you know that last Easter we were able to move from the small 30’X 50’ lunchroom, over into the middle school room that can seat 300.  We purchased 200 new “pew-chairs” and had over 500 in attendance that day.  At times we seem to be overwhelmed with the potential of this growing community.

Along the way, many have told us that we needed to buy land before the price went up.  Yet, along the way it seemed to be just out of our reach.  It was cheaper when we ran 40, but 40 people could not afford it, and the same was true for 170, and so on.  There were times that we were close, even once to a vote, and a second time to a meeting with the county, but each time God closed the door.

The recent downturn in the economy and the growth of the church has brought us to a unique place where we really believe that “Our Time is Now!”  This month we have been holding a campaign at the church to raise $400,000 for this project.  We have been focusing on each member seeking God, and asking Him what role He would have them to play.

Many of our people are retired, or work for Disney, so ours is not a wealthy church by any stretch, but it has been inspiring to see God lead people to make extraordinary sacrifices.  Although every story has not yet been told, we are seeing lives changed by conscious decisions to put God and His work first.

On March 21^st our people will be making 3 year commitments to this campaign and on March 28^th we will receive our “First Fruits” offering.  The First Fruits offering is a way to kick off our giving by bringing as much of our commitment as possible on the front end, so that we can move quickly toward the next step.

I am writing you, to extend the First Fruits offering out for your consideration.  I believe that many of you, if you knew, would want to take a part in this offering.  Obviously, many of you are scattered literally all over the world, from Canada, to Europe to the Middle East.  We have set up a special place on our www.cbclife.net website for this purpose.  If you click the “Give Online Tab” you will be directed to a page where you can give to the Building Fund.  Obviously you can mail it in as well.

Ultimately your prayers are more important than your money.  We realize that this will be God’s project as this is His church.  Please pray for our church during this time, pray that we will be unified, that we will be full of faith, and that God will be glorified.

Together in Christ,

Joel Johns

Pastor

Our Time to Pray!

One of the things that I have learned in my Christian life and is more apparent than ever during this campaign, is the fact that the work of God cannot be accomplished apart from the power of God!  God’s power is what will provide for our church as we step out and buy land.  It will be His provision, and His guidance that brings it all together. 

Knowing this, it is imperative that we seek Him in prayer.  Last weekend we stressed the fact that if we are to succeed in this campaign it will be a result of each member and attender at Cornerstone seeking God, and asking Him what they should do.  I do not want this to be about our church or our community or myself.  I want everyone to pray.  We are doing everything we can to encourage our members and attenders to pray, but at the end of the day, it is up to you. 

Once the disciples came across a difficult demon that they were unable to cast out, and Jesus said to them, some of these do not come, but by prayer and fasting.  Literally, there will be some things in our life that cannot be accomplished apart from praying and fasting to God.  It is my prayer that we will all go to this place in prayer so that we can get to that place of blessing.

Our Time is Now!

Eight years ago, God began a work in this community through the birth our church here in Four Corners. We have seen over those years the purpose of meeting the specific needs of the people of this community.  Today, we take the next step in this process as we announce the beginning of a campaign that will result with the purchase of land for a future Multi-Purpose Worship Center.  As with any next step, there are details which will be discussed and revealed in the days/months to come, it is clear to our leadership team that Our Time is Now, to take this important step.  We will be sharing this incredible vision in the weeks ahead and it is our goal for everyone to have a part of this campaign.  Begin praying right now for God to do miracles in our midst! We truly believe Our Time is Now!

How to Pray for our Nicaragua Team

In less than a week we will be taking our 2010 team to our Hope Center in Tecolostote Nicaragua.  We will be working with some of our national pastors, doing some Evangelistic Work, and Children's Ministry.  Here is a quick list of some ways that you can be praying for us while we are gone.

1. Pray for God's favor
Without God's blessing, our efforts are nothing.  Pray that God would make our path straight and that he would help us to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as we travel, minister and share.
2. Pray for people to respond to the gospel.
Nicaragua is a religious and Christian country, but many Nicaraguans lack the personal relationship with God in Christ.  Pray that they will see the difference between religion and relationship.
3. Pray for Pastor Bruce as he preaches on Tuesday night
Last year, we had measurable amounts of opposition from other religious institutions in the city.  Pray that God would give him the words to speak and that people would not be dissuaded from coming out to the service.
4. Pray for the national pastors to be encouraged

We will be training in the areas of Leadership, Counseling, and music.  We want to not only provide them with training and materials, but we want to give them the encouragement they need as well.
5. Pray for the health of our team.
As our trip is only one week long, pray now that everyone on our team will be at their best for every day of the trip.  It is vital that spiritual work is not hampered by physical ailments.
6. Pray for the safety of our team.
Traveling out of the country presents its challenges, and we ask that you pray for our transportation both in the air and on the ground.
7. Pray for the spiritual growth of those on our team.
One of the most amazing spiritual experiences is to take a missions trip.  As we take this trip pray that our team will realize new levels of spiritual growth in their relationship with God.  Pray that they will come back with a renewed sense of God's work in their lives.

Evian Roller Babies US

Sure. You've seen it, but watch it again, just because today is Friday.

What you don't See

What you don't see is Tania Heier taking the shoes off of her son Pablito and giving them to a boy in Nicaragua.  I am so proud of our team in Teco and all the hard work that they do and the sacrifice that they make.  As I stumbled upon this picture on a Facebook profile of a recent missions trip, I was moved to bring it to your attention.  THIS is the reason that we support Paul and Tania, and THIS is why we are building Hope Centers and THIS is why these people are accepting Christ.  Putting shoes to our faith!  How beautiful are the feet of them who bring the gospel!  I can't wait until we go again in February 2010, and want to invite everyone from Cornerstone to get involved in what God is doing in Tecolostote.

Steve Harvey Introduces Jesus

Steve Harvey, secular comedian, in front of a secular audience. He poses the question "How would you introduce God?" His response is amazing. Takes 3 minutes to watch. Well worth it.

Kideos

Josh Harris has a great link over at his blog for a new "filtered" version of Youtube for kids.  My kids 11 & 8 love to get online and see all the funny videos, but it is a full time job for me to keep them from seeing the junk that is somehow related to the other "tame" videos.  that said, there are two or three sites that may help....

1. Godtube.com -  This site was set up as a Christian site, but anyone can post to it.
2. Kideos.com - These are mostly imported & filtered from Youtube by registered parents.
3. Totlol.com - This site requires a membership, and may provide a greater security for what they might see.

Though the web is a dangerous place, and you should never let kids roam freely online, these sites provide a less risky place for kids to enjoy.

You can't provoke me!

It seems that church people who don't get involved fall into three categories... the uninformed, the uninspired, and the unprovokable.  Now, my spell checker is telling me that there is no such thing as "unprovokable", but I know because I have seen them with my very own eyes.  Over the last few weeks we have been promoting our small groups with a great amount of success, and as it stands right now we have more sign-ups than we presently average in attendance.  A feat that should not go uncelebrated, but along the way, I have kept a list of people who have not signed up yet.  I realize that some people have busy work schedules, and others are just so disconnected from church that they are not aware of the amazing thing that God is doing in our midst, but forgive me for wondering what in heaven's name is going on with those few who come every week, see what God is doing, hear the testimonies, and still stay unprovoked.  Now I need to be honest that there are only 2-3% of our people that I would categorize this way, but I am praying that God helps me to provoke them either in or out because the work is too great for mere observers.

What you don't know...

This week, between the TV camera and the repetition of a 24 hour news media, we have been privy to some amazing feats of immaturity.  Mark Twain once wrote "It's not what you don't know that kills you, it's what you know for sure that ain't true."    What Kanye, Serena, and Joe did not know [or realize at the time] was that they were all acting like 3 year olds in the line at Wal-mart.  Unfortunately there has been ample opportunity for them to learn from their mistakes, albeit the hard way.   

Ephesians 4:11-15

¹¹And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ...

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that God gave the church to help Christians equip themselves for the work, and for their maturity to manhood.  Now some might think that manhood is achieved at some certain age level, or by the number of hairs on one's chest, but  as we saw this week immaturity still likes to sneak out of the house. (sometimes for a national audience)  What we don't know as Christians is that most of us are woefully immature.  We act like spiritual children screaming for the candy, and demanding our way. 

So God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us the church, and in the church he gave us pastors.  Now as pastor is simply a shepherd who leads the sheep to where the good grass is growing.  See sheep tend to wander and need a shepherd to lead them.  God also gave them teachers.  Teachers help us get from a place of ignorance by graduating us one level at a time.  We need teachers so that we do not remain in immaturity.  The old proverb says "What you don't know can't hurt you." but in reality what we don't know, hurts us deeply.  Our own acts of selfishness and immaturity keep us from experiencing the life that God has for us.  Our tantrums hurt other people and embarrass us.  Our selfish ways cause us to always want the toys that the other kid is playing with and we are never satisfied.  

This weekend we start a new message series entitled DEEP.  Deep is a word that scares a lot of people because they fear the unknown, they fear what lurks beneath the surface, they fear getting in over their head.  In reality, these same fears keep them from getting in all the way.  Many Christians are drowning in an inch of water, claiming that they are experiencing the Christian life, but are never fully immersed in it.  Sure once in a while they sit on the edge dangling their feet over the side, but never really get immersed.

It is my goal that everyone at Cornerstone, and all Christians everywhere would realize the joy that comes when you stop splashing around in the shallow end, and dive into the deep.  Maybe for you that means getting in a small group, or perhaps reading a book without Fabio on the cover.  Whatever form it takes, it is my prayer that we will all, as Paul wrote, "grow up in every way."