Saturday, May 12, 2007

Spiderman

Well I took the plunge. Amy and I fell and went to see the latest Spiderman movie. There was a lot of good scenes and a lot of akward scenes. Probable the most akward moment is at the end when everyone clapped just to realize that the movie was still going, and going. The movie tried to do just too much and do two movies in one. It may be due to the fact that the dude who plays spiderman has been a problem for the producer contractually. The movie has a lot of redemptive spiritual lessons that we can take away. 1. Not even Spidey is above falling into sin. 2. My favorite quote. "If you want forgiveness try religion." close. And 3. Spiderman goes to the church to overcome the darkness of venom. overall it was a great movie, in fact it was three great movies in one. A good lesson for this preacher, that it does not matter how good the content is, too long is too long. Tomorrow, I am letting everyone out early! (So you can beat Community of Faith as you take mom to the restaurant)

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Mother's Day


I like Mother's Day. Most of the pseudo holiday's created by card companies I can do without, but my mom is so great that I love mother's day. My gift is a little late this year as it just went out today, but I am praying that it gets there on time. The cool thing is that my mom won't care if it is late, she will read this blog and call me anyway. I hope you remembered your mom, or the woman who mothered you with a special recognition. If not, bring her to church on Sunday and we will do it for you. Gone are the oldest, youngest, and mom with the most kids type of gifts. We tried doing the fattest, the ugliest, and the most obnoxious mom one year, but it did not go over too well. So... this year every lady in church will receive one of these nice little boxes. I cannot divulge what the contents are, but I know it will be a hit.

Happy Mother's Day Dan

Every year, I wish Pastor Dan Jeffers at Park Street Baptist in St. Petersburg Happy Mother's Day. I don't want to forget that they are the ones who gave birth to Cornerstone.
The church is the bride of Christ, and like every bride it is natural that it gives birth and becomes a mother to the next generation of churches. Park Street did not have a C-section either. They did it the old fashioned way. By that I mean that it was a painful process. They invested heavily financially towards continuing my salary for six months, then continued to donate $300.00 each month for the rest of the year.
On top of that I was a big baby. Thanks Dan, and Park Street for giving us birth, and we look forward to giving you some grand kids soon!

Four Corners Gator Cook-Off

Several have asked why we chose not to set up a booth at this year's Four Corners Gator Cook-Off. I will mention it here, as an insight to who we are, but also as a bit of an editorial on the event. First, I must admit that we did not participate last year.(2006) This was due to the fact that we did not know about the event until it was too late to put anything together. At that point we made plans to be involved in this year's event, and were excited to see it announced several weeks in advance in the Reporter. However some things had changed, and significantly affected our decision on involvement in the event.


Primarily, (Soap Box ALERT) They moved the "Four Corners" event into the heart of Touristville, by having it at Formosa Gardens, just between Animal Kingdom and the old Splendid China. A great place for events, an area we all visit, but definitely not Four Corners. This was an obvious attempt by the organizers to increase revenues and attendance. As a local group, I am thankful for our tourists, but if I wanted to meet crowds of out of towners, I could do that anywhere. The Gator cook-off was billed as a community event, but it was moved outside the community and designed for people outside the community.


Secondarily, I was uncomfortable as a parent with the strong focus on alcohol. The event was originally scheduled to be at Four Corners Elementary School in 2006, but moved to Champion's Gate when the organizers were informed that alcohol would not be permitted. This year, they come back with a "Beer Garden" I don't know what gets planted in a beer garden, but I know the weeds that can grow there. I do not want my kids to be around much drinking. I do take them to ball games, and maybe that makes me a bit of a hypocrite, but it seemed that the beer garden was one of the attractions for the event. For me? Not so much.


I read in this morning's paper that they had about 1,000 people show up. a good amount I guess, but I would venture to bet that they were hoping for more. The two things that I found a bit interesting: First, is that for the photo, they took a picture of the Realtor playing the ball toss at his own booth. Why? Probably because no one else was there to be pictured. Did they not have pictures of any local families to include? Second, there were only 5 participants in the gator cook-off. Only 5 individuals were in the running. That means that if I took raw gator meat, I would have come in sixth place. No wonder the reporter failed to find many who were enjoying the gator meat.


In conclusion, I truly love the idea of the cook-off and think that it can be a success that our community really rallies behind. However, they must, in my opinion come home. It must be focused on the community, not the industry. They must reach out to local churches, and organizations, in addition to businesses to really bring it home. Next year, if there is a next year( I hope there is), and if they are in Four Corners, I am going to cook up some gator meat with my special recipe and win one for the home team!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Gimp

A little note for you photo manipulation types out there (you know who you are.) This week I have been test driving a new release of the Gimp program. It seems to do all that Photoshop can do without the $650.00 price tag. It does have a learning curve and is still a bit awkward, as all freeware is, but there is no way I am going to pay
$650, no matter how user friendly it is.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Cornerstone Wear


A new internet store featuring CBC apparel is now open. You can buy everything from T-shirts to hats and refrigerator magnets, all sporting our cool church logo. All the proceeds will go back into the Tabernacle Project of improving our facilities. You can visit the store here.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Nursery Catacombs Idea Flops

Here is a link to a great article from Lark News. For those of you praying and giving to our Tabernacle Project to improve our kidZone, you will appreciate the wisdom of our staff after you read this.

Monday Meeting Download

What a great day off. We went to Joe Murray's meeting today and heard two outstanding messages from Russell Johnson at IBB in Miami and Mike Stancil from Calvary Baptist in Taylorville IL.

Russell Said:

We have to decide if we are going to have a espresso or decaf church. Too often we settle for a decaf ministry when God has called us to ministry through His power.
1. Focus on being the church not building the church. Eph. 4:1-3
2. Focus on what unites us, not what divides us. Eph. 4:4-6
3. Focus on equipping others instead of personally doing ministry. Eph. 4:11-12
4. Focus on maturity, not micromanaging people's lives. Eph. 4:13-14
5. Focus on relationships more than programs. Eph. 4:15
6. Focus on the church as an organism, not an organization. Eph. 4:16

Mike said:
We got into this business (ministry) for Pentecost, but we usually get out over the cost.
God has called us to supernatural ministry. Most of us settle for being less than a superhero.
Timothy was a screwed up pastor.
1. He was young - I Tim 4:12
2. He was sick - I Tim 5:23
3. He wanted to bolt - I Tim 1:3
4. He had settled - II Tim 1:6
5. He was timid - II Tim 1:7
6. He was ashamed - II Tim 1:8, 12, 16

Therefore:
1. Stir it up - II Tim 2:6;
2. Preach it - II Tim 4:2
3. Speak Up - II Tim 2:3

Don't back up, don't shut up, don't give up.

Because:

You never see kids playing Clark Kent, but sometimes you do see pastors.

Be a super hero!

Monday Meetings

Just to backstage you a bit. Today Gabe, Chuck Stephens, and I are going over to Church @ Harmony for a meeting with Joe Murray. He is our church planter on the other side of Kissimmee and is doing a fantastic job. There will be about 40-50 other pastors from around the state, meeting for the purpose of duplicating ministries like Joe's in other new towns. It should be fun. Also, on Wednesday we meet for a lunch with the guys from ReproducingChurches.com. The reproducing churches network consists of churches that are new, and have a DNA to birth a new church built right in. It is really cool to be able to meet with so many other churches that are doing the same thing we are and to encourage one another to make babies (Churches that is)! I say that with a little tongue in cheek, but in truth it is God's design that all churches give birth. It is not enough for us to just send $50 to support someone Else's baby. We must reproduce or we stand in opposition to God's plan.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Heroes @ MGM

Some of my heroes went to MGM today. Just after the second service Seth and a team of 10 volunteers took the youth to MGM for the day. Seth and Robyn are doing a great job with our fledgling youth ministry and they are really beginning to create some forward MO. I can't wait to see if someone took some pictures that we can post here.