Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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 21st our people will be making 3 year commitments to this campaign and on March 28th 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