Easter Update

Hello Everyone, Thank you for praying for our Easter Services. First, I want to thank all of our volunteers who worked to make this our best easter ever. Without your hard work it would have been a very difficult day. Second, I want to thank all of our regulars who got tickets and bathed the day in prayer. God answered those prayers. Finally I want to thank our guests for coming out and worshiping with us. The family of God is an amazing thing and total strangers can seem like life long friends in no time. We finished the day with several folks accepting Christ as Savior, and 344 in attendance. This is more that we could have imagined and we give God all the glory. I will do what I can to upload some Easter pictures over the next few days. Here is a picture Terry Miles took during the third service. I also just returned from the hospital and Mrs. Pauline and Eulin Francis are doing well. Also, Nita, our guest that was taken by ambulance (Chest pain) is still being checked by the E.R. but she is doing much better and wanted to thank everyone for their prayers.

Easter Ponderings at 4:30 a.m.

It is 4:30 a.m. on Easter Saturday. A few minutes ago I am lying in bed thinking about Easter. The main thought that consumes me is that Easter is about Christ. It is about worshiping the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I'm trying to fall back to sleep because in a few hours the weekend will start and it won't stop until Sunday night. I wonder if an Easter Egg hunt somehow takes away from our worship of Christ on Easter. I think about the fact that Easter Eggs and Chicks and the fake grass are all some carryover of pagan celebrations into the Catholic church. I wonder for a moment why the Catholic church would celebrate "pagan" holidays, how they could pervert Easter with fertility rituals. Then I think about the fact that Jesus could have scheduled His death burial and resurrection for anytime of the year. The pharisees were truly willing to kill him at any time. But he chose the season of his resurrection. I remember that as I studied for this weekend's message, that when Passover was instituted that it was to be the first month of their year. Another beginning. I thought it was kind of God's plan for the death of winter to give way for the resurrection of life to spring forth. I wonder if God was the one who scheduled this to be the time of the birthing of new lambs, new chicks, and green grass. That it was His intent all along that we celebrate new life, a new year at this Season. I stop thinking bad about the Catholic church, I stop thinking bad about the pagans, I lay there amazed at how God is in control of every detail and that when we just stop long enough to pay attention, that He will reveal Himself to us. He is GOD! One day we will stand before Him in Heaven. We will fall to our knees in worship. We will finally stop. And we will finally understand that it is all about Him.

Easter Photos

As promised, here are some Easter photos.

Easter Photos

Easter Saturday

Many times, we focus on His death, and on His resurrection, and leave out his burial. Today is the day we usually don't remember. In reality, it is a very significant day. In fact it is more like modern day that we often will admit. Jesus was not inactive, He was working behind the scenes. God is again working "behind the scenes" in most of our lives. Although we usually do not look for it, we know that He is always working in our lives. The work of our salvation is not just one event, but the culmination of a series of events that God is orchestrating to draw us unto Himself.

If you are still debating whether Jesus is the Christ, then know that the events in your life are orchestrated by God to illustrate his love for you and reveal his Son to you. If you have accepted Jesus as the Christ, then you must not allow your lack ability to see God actively working in the lives of those around you to cause you to know that He is working. Today, take time to encourage a friend to come closer to God. Join God in His, behind the scenes, work.

Today we are working behind the scenes at Cornerstone. We are doing the final preparations and rehearsals for our three Easter services. I will try to post some pictures later as a sneak peak behind the scenes.

Another Reason to Drink Coke

From BBC News....

Coke complaint delays Jesus film
An Italian film which features Jesus drinking from a can of Coca-Cola will miss its Easter release date after the drinks giant complained.
Seven Kilometres from Jerusalem tells the story of an advertising executive suffering a mid-life crisis when he meets a man who appears to be Jesus.
In the course of the film, Jesus drinks a can of Coke, and the ad man exclaims: "God, what a great endorsement!"
Coca-Cola said permission to use its trademark had not been granted.
"We don't think it's appropriate to use the subject of this film to create publicity for our brands," it said in a statement.
"We advised the producer of this in writing, and are very disappointed that our request was not respected."
The drinks company asked for the scene to be cut, but the director and producers argued that changing the film would be costly and time consuming.
After a week of legal wrangling, they have now been forced to postpone the Good Friday release date as the film is re-edited.
Producers say it could be up to three weeks before the film hits cinemas.

Easter Excitement

Last night we had an incredible time of praying for our Easter services. This year we will be having three services and two Egg hunts. No doubt that this will be an awesome day full of excitement and opportunities. Bruce broke the day down into 8 separate prayer focuses and we prayed. It is always great to listen to the people pray, but last night revealed the love of our people for guests and people who are coming to Christ. Off in another room Sue had her team laughing and stuffing eggs in preparation for the hunts. I think she has got this thing running like a well oiled machine. They were obviously having too much fun. Down at the end of the hall Gabe and the praise team was working on the music. Let me just tell you that it is going to be awesome. They will be doing a special with the praise team, and then during the offering, Gabe and Amy will be singing "Knees to the Earth" by Pocket full of Rocks. Mark and the crew have big plans for a special set that will blow your mind. That, coupled with the fact that we have handed out 1,000 personal invitations, sets the stage for a great day. Sunday's message will kick off our next series on the 5 love languages, and we have free books for each visiting family. This is going to be an awesome marriage focus during the worship, and for our small groups. All that being said... Do not miss this weekend, do not let anyone you know miss this weekend.

Mass Marketing

This week everyone is being bombarded by churches vying for the Easter crowd to come to their services. We know that Easter is the second most popular day for the non church goer to attend, but what about all the postcards, bandit signs, and newspaper ads. I am not going to come out against such marketing, because I do believe that we should market the church in as many creative and effective ways as possible. However this year, and last, we chose not to do the mailers. Here are some reasons I will throw out for you to consider.

1. Expense - Mailers are expensive and for that reason many churches do not attempt it. Marketing firms will tell you that a prospective consumer needs to see your ad seven times before there is name recognition. It is not enough to send one card; effective strategy requires more of a steady stream of communication. Unfortunately, most churches only do mass marketing one time a year making their return low on the investment. 2. Effectiveness - We have also seen a decrease in the effectiveness of mailers as its "unique" has worn off. In the 80's and 90's almost nobody did mass mailers, now it seems that all churches do them. Unfortunately, they can get lost in the shuffle. 3. Disconnect - It seemed that the people who came as a result of our mailers were disconnected from the church. Yes they attended, but often without really knowing anyone. We do our best to be friendly and to put our guests first. But retention of people who come because a friend invited them is incomparable. 4. Message - (And this is my big one.) Last year we realized that we were not teaching our people to be the church in the community, and invite their friends and neighbors to worship. We, subconsciously, were teaching that outreach was something that was a line item in the Easter budget. We were sending the wrong message to our people as well as our community.

Relationships and personal invitations are the way to go for us. Our people are our best advertisement. As God has worked in their lives, and they are excited about what God is doing, They tell their friends and neighbors and basically anyone who will listen. One of our people told me that she was accused on Monday of "being off preaching again". I love it! Wasn't it Paul who said in 2 Corinthians 3 "You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart."

So we don't spend $3,000-$5,000 on Easter to send out post cards. Some day that may be a good investment for us, but for now, I believe that it is best to consistently give our people personal invitations that they can pass out, not just for Easter and Christmas, but monthly. It sends the right message, it is better for retention, and it frees up much needed resources for other ministries.

Tell me what you think....

Prayerful Preparations for Easter

Tonight we will be having a special time of prayer to prepare our hearts for Easter. In preparation for our prayer meeting we have added the following starter ideas to our prayer list. This is by far not the extent of our prayers, but just breaking the ice.

That we all will be reminded of God’s love expressed in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
That people will come to know Christ as personal Savior.
That people will come back into a daily walk with God.
That we all will be reminded of those who still need to come to the cross.
That we all will invite others to come and worship on Easter.
That people who come, will find Cornerstone to be warm and welcoming.
That people who are invited will come.
That all of our services will be balanced for space.
That our ministries will be adequately staffed.
That our church will be able to continue to minister to families beyond Easter.
That the music and the message will effectively glorify God and encourage others.
That God would bring people back to join a small group Bible Study on the Love Languages.
That the praise and worship time will be engaging and exciting.
That the message will be life changing
For the Praise Team, Pastor Gabe & Pastor Joel as they do three services in a row
For the Easter Egg Hunt to run smoothly and the kids to have fun.

The Five Love Languages

In 8 days it will be Easter Sunday. I am so pumped about what God can do through our church on Easter that I am almost looking past tomorrow. I was up at the wee hours of the morning today studying and working on the lessons for our study of the Five Love Language book and it is going to be awesome. I hope everyone in church will get involved in one of our small groups for this study. Today I was working on the chapter on words of affirmation and it really hit home. Our words are so important; so I wanted to send you a word today that I love you as a church and that I look forward to seeing you at worship every Sunday. Tomorrow will be awesome with our missionary Michael Nelson coming. Do Not Miss! I mean it, you will regret it. Also, be sure to grab a stack of invites for Easter and the Egg hunt and drop them all over town. We want to get the word out so that we can get The Word in the ears of our friends and neighbors! He is risen indeed! Now that's a good word.

Easter Insomnia

I am so excited about what God is doing at Cornerstone that I can hardly sleep. I am not kidding, for the past few weeks I have been up around 4, just planning and working towards our Easter Services. We are anticipating the best Sunday ever in the history of Sundays. Our leaders are working hard on some great music, messages, and Easter egg hunts. You don't want to miss out. For crowd purposes we will be offering three identical services this year. One at 8:15, one at 9:30 and one at 10:45. There will be two Easter egg hunts following both of the later services. Also, we are expecting record attendance and need our regulars to let us know what service they plan on attending and what service they will be available to volunteer. If you're a regular, we will need you to double up so that we can make our guest's first time to be all that it should be.