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."

Easter Offering for San Lorenzo

On February third I got in the back of an Isuzu pickup truck and drove from the Nicaraguan town of Tecolostote to the neighboring town of San Lorenzo.  The Hope Center in Teco was almost done and the next week the surgeons would arrive to perform operations for the people of this rural impoverished town.  The Mayor of San Lorenzo had just donated land on the town square for the construction of a second Hope Center that would bring not only medical, education, and feeding programs, but the good news of salvation through Jesus to this town.  In fact, the entire countryside is covered with small neglected towns in need of the gospel.  Driving through cobble stone narrow streets at speeds a little fast for comfort, dodging animals and oncoming traffic, we finally arrived in San Lorenzo.  The lot was directly across from the local school, and in between the library (which is never open) and the basketball court, a staple of each of these small towns, a courtesy of the communist party.  In reality, it could not be in a better location and as I stood there with pastor Ward and our missionary Paul Heier, I was convinced that we as a church could do something to get this project going.  That day we made the decision to raise $7,000 for the foundation to be built.  Upon returning we immediately announced that we wanted to raise this as an Easter offering.  Over the past few months, the people of Cornerstone gave sacrificially and on Sunday, we reached our goal of $7,000. This coming Sunday Paul will be here at Cornerstone to be presented a check during the Easter Worship Services.  I wanted to tell everyone who had a part in the offering how much I appreciate your giving and I thank God that we are able to do this together.  Keep praying for Paul and the team down in Nicaragua as they begin construction and begin reaching this town for Christ.

Come, Worship with Us!

This week I changed my sermon topic in our Kaleo series to talk about the need for daily worship in our lives.  I feel that the need that we all have is to have daily, meaningful time with God, however, I know that for most Christians, time with God is set aside as 1 hour on Sunday.  Sadly, many Christians will not even worship God in church.  To our church family, I want to beg you to come to worship service tonight or tomorrow.  Without worship, we will be anemic as Christians and ineffective in our calling.

Christmas Weekend... behind the curtain

I just got done looking over the spreadsheet for this weekend's attendance and as you probably know we are totally freaked out about attendance.  The space is so limited that we have asked parents of the kids in the performance to only attend one showing and have set up a separate reception/lounge for them during the other performances.  As of right now the Saturday night services is leading the way with many of our most faithful, giving the prime time slots to our guests.  The funny thing about this and it happened this way 2 years ago is that we were left with a room full of strangers during the late service on Sunday.  Nobody knew anybody, and I left thinking that they must think this is the most unfriendly church ever.  It was like throwing a party and only inviting friends who are not acquainted and then leaving the party yourself.  Ultimately God is in control, and we will trust Him with that...  I am excited to see what God does and I look forward to dress rehearsal tomorrow afternoon and seeing the kids don their new t-shirts.  I wonder if many we realize the number of hours of hard practice that everyone has put into making this event one to remember..... I know God has been keeping track, and as pastor of this church I am grateful to everyone who has been working so hard.  Now, let's enjoy!

Storms and Suffering

One fact of life is that like those in Galveston, we all will experience suffering. Storms are simply a fact of life.  The church in general tends to focus a great deal of attention on the therapy of suffering.  How do we meet the needs of those who are experiencing suffering and need help through troubling times.  Beneath the proper therapy of suffering, must reside a proper theology of suffering.  How should we as believers in a loving and all mighty God respond to suffering in our own lives, and in the lives of those around us.  This Sunday we will again turn to the Apostle Paul and his wonderful letter to the Philippians.  We will see that in the midst of great suffering, Paul was still able to live a life of joy.

  It is not rejoicing that we are suffering, but it is rejoicing that in our suffering that God is doing something great in us, and through us,  that we would know and trust love Jesus more, that other Christians would be compelled to be bold, and non Christians would come to hear the gospel, and that our suffering would not be purposeless but purposeful, that we would not waste our suffering but that we would seize the opportunity for Jesus to be made much of both in me and through me.

Don't Miss Church this Sunday!

I am usually one for hype, but it has been a long time since I have been this excited about starting a new series.  This weekend we kick off a new message series on finding JOY in the middle of our struggles from the life of Paul as he wrote to the Philippians from prison.  As we will see,  Joy cannot be found in culture and religion or anywhere apart from a total surrender to Christ.   

God has been doing some amazing things at Cornerstone and we just stand in awe of how the church has grown in the last year.  To put things in perspective on the second to last Sunday of August 2007 we had 99 in attendance, last weekend we had 182!  To God be the glory!  We are gearing up for continuing this growth into the fall and internally have set a goal to get over 200 on Labor Day Weekend. (I guess it is external now)    So here is what we need you to do.  1. Don't miss for any reason,  The emergency room will make you wait anyway, so go after church!  2. Get everybody here, no runny nose excuses will be accepted. 3. Kidnapping is permitted.  Drag your neighbors and coworkers to church offer them candy, tell them we are giving away a big screen TV, (not really)  or offer to take them to lunch, but get them there!

Doubters Welcome

I am currently reading a book for a course in theology in which the author seems to have written in fear that technology will somehow replace God in society.  His basic premis is that the further science progresses, the farther we drift from God.  This is a fear shared by many in Christianity that somehow, the more people rely on the knowledge of man, the less they will stand in awe of God.  I would submit to you that God is not intimidated by science, in fact, I believe he welcomes it.  Now more than ever man is pushing the limits of time and space and God continues to be there.  In a total turn around, I believe that the progress of science in our world will act as a smelting pot that will separate all the false religions and cults that are based on anything short of absolute truth.  God has always welcomed doubters.  God created us curious.  Science is in all actuality the study of God's omnipotence.  The only ones who should fear the truth are those who have something to hide.  This Sunday, we welcome all doubters to church.  Our study through John will bring us to Thomas' encounter with Christ and we will see how Jesus responds to those in doubt.  Make plans to come, and invite a doubter to come explore.

3H

No, I am not talking about some knock off farming club for kids, or the pro wrestler HHH, or the gas guzzling SUV. The three H's refer to how I approach my preaching. Around 3 this morning as I stared into the darkness I thought it might be something to share on the blog. Though it is a bit formulaic, I think it would help you to know how sermons germinate.

#1 - Heart
Preparation - I ask God to break my heart over a reality that shouldn't be. I may also ask him to fill my heart with a dream that should be. In this way, I am asking God to grip me with a message that must be preached.
Delivery - The first step in a good message (IMHO) is that it touches the heart. I truly believe that the emotions are the gateway to real change and though they can often be manipulated, that is no excuse for abandoning them.
Example - This week my world has been rocked by several deaths. One of members had his son die of an aneurysm, I wept. A classmate from college died unexpectedly of a sinus infection of all things leaving a wife and toddler, another person told me Wednesday night that her ex-husband and his entire family were killed in a car accident, and then news broke yesterday of Steve Curtis Chapman losing his daughter Maria. This has caused a great deal of emotion to well up inside of me. As anyone would, I have been wondering what God's greater purpose might be.
This emotion has opened the door for me to move to the second H.

#2 - Head
Preparation - As I prepare this second part of my message, I am asking God for His Word on my reality. We cannot stay in emotion, we must move to the intellect. I want God to show me what that simple truth is, so that I may understand and know Him more. The only reliable source of God's truth is His Word. That is why all of our preaching must be from the Bible.
Delivery - It is my goal to have the entire sermon summarized in one simple phrase. If someone asks what was church about. I want them to be able to quote it. Getting God's truth into people's heads is my life ambition.
Example - I spoke to a group of students this week and afterward a girl came up to me and said "Eight times" I asked her what she meant and she told me that I had said "choose today who you will serve" 8 times. Now my goal was not for her to count, but for her to get it. I think she did.


#3 - Hand
Preparation - Practicality is the difference between preaching and teaching. Too many churches gather every week to listen to teachers. don't get me wrong, teaching has its place in church, but bang for buck preaching is where it is at.
Delivery - The climax of every sermon for me is the point when we turn the corner and begin to see what we must now do with the emotional energy and intellectual truth from God's Word. We want a message that we can take home and use.
Example - Growing up in church world we had "quiz teams" churches used to compete their kids against each other and took pride in how much details their kids knew of the Bible. I remember studying things about the Bible that were far from practical and again (in my humble opinion) would fall into the endless genealogy category. I am all for Bible study, but let's study something we can use.

Now, why am I showing you my play book? Because we are on the same team. As we gather for worship this weekend, I want you to know that God has burdened me with a message that you need to hear. He has given me an insight into why bad things happen to good people from John 9, and I want so much for you to get this truth into your head. Because I know that armed with this simple story of the man born blind, and the reason for it, that you will be better equipped to deal with your own tragedies and to bring glory to God in the midst of your pain.

I know it is Memorial Day weekend, but you have got to come to church! I have something that I need to tell you. Something that will change the way you deal with tragedies.

Fusion

This weekend we are launching stage two in our Elevate Campaign. Fusion will be a four week series on building intentional relationships. We will begin this Sunday as we examine the nuclear reaction that took place when God infused the church with the apostle Paul. We will look at some key elements of who we are as a church and look ahead as we recognize that God is in the process of infusing our church with many new people. It will take some big changes at our smallest levels but in the end we believe that God is transforming us from a church of addition to a church that fully realizes his power of multiplication. Here is a graph of the first 5 years of our church attendance. It is obvious that we have some lessons to learn from our last encounter with breaking 150 back in 2006, and that God is already taking us to places that we have never been before.

Sunday Surprise

Wow, it has been a crazy couple of weeks as we prepare for taking commitments this Sunday. We will be having our missionary to Sweden Todd Witte, who will share a bit of what God has done through our church in Sweden. We will be celebrating the victories of the past few months and looking forward to seeing what God will do through our church in the near future. One thing is amazing to me and that is that we go into this Easter Season with a great amount of momentum and the growth that we are experiencing can really help us to elevate the effectiveness in our community. We will also have a surprise for you when you come. Please take some time to pray about what part god would have you to take in this great adventure.

Elevating

I have received so much feed back from our church concerning our new elevate campaign. Phone calls, emails and greeting cards. I am just waiting for the singing telegram. It is exciting for me as a leader to know that we are all of the same spirit in the desire to see God do more through our church in the next year. Tonight we will begin our new message series on giving. I will do my best to unapologetically teach the direction of our giving. Churches tend to struggle to find balance in the area of teaching principles of giving. Either they harp on it or they avoid it to a fault. According to some of our leadership, I was avoiding it too much. So beginning this weekend we will take it to the next level. I still fear that we will have that one guy show up and go away convinced that all churches talk about is giving. But I guess that is a risk that we will take, and God will have to help him understand. By the way, I have entitled the message "Give Up!" Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Saturday Night Trip to the ATM

Tonight we are having a special "preview" of our upcoming Saturday night Current Worship Service. I am not sure what to expect other than the unexpected. The festivities begin at 6:30 and I have been working hard to keep myself busy since 3 p.m. I have heard from many of our people that are excited about the new service and are looking forward to being able to attend worship again. It is amazing how many people in our area have to work Sundays and we are excited to be able to offer a new service. Someone likened it to doing church on banker's hours in an ATM culture. So if you are not doing anything tonight, come make a deposit or withdrawal depending on your personal need.

Soul Winning

· I grew up in a tradition of soul winners. We would go soul winning every Thursday night and Saturday. Sometimes we would go and stand in front of the movie theater and pass out pamphlets, or at the entrance to the mall. We had training on all the proper techniques and proven formulas for converting everyone from atheists to Catholics to faith in Christ alone.
· Some would come back with stories of doors slammed in our faces, or tracts crumpled and tossed at our feet. We were taught that some would reject God’s plan of salvation and they rejected Christ after all.
· Some were really good at it. Once, I was with a preacher who had a couple praying to receive Christ before I knew what was going on.
· I was never too good at it, Oh, I had a few, but in reality I have always been ashamed at my win/loss percentage. Maybe by sheer determination, I could make some converts, but I have never felt comfortable with the idea of selling Jesus like a door to door vacuum salesman. You come in throw some dirt around, show how their vacuum does not fully cleanse, but how ours can make you whiter than snow.
· I never liked the debate either. As if I could by my power of persuasion convince people to accept Christ. I wish there was a better way. One where I did not feel pressured to “win” people to Christ, one where I did not feel like I had to pressure people into making a spiritual decision, and hoping that they stick with it.
· I believe that the frustration of the church today is that we are adopting the world’s system of conversion. We are trying to spread the good news by army and argument. We teach our kids to sing “I’m in the Lord’s Army” and send out the troops to make disciples. And they come back wounded from the fight, discouraged from the failures of making people become disciples of Christ.
· I wonder if somewhere in this process of sharing our faith that we have taken the good news of Salvation through faith in Christ and are using the world’s system for conversion to spread it. Like broadcasting TV signals from a Radio tower, our message is not getting across because the methods we choose are the system of the world.
· Man’s system is to convert by conquering, whether it be the ancient Babylonians or the modern Islamist, the sword is awfully effective in getting people to adopt religious systems.
· Christianity is better than that you say. Yes there were the crusades, but we are more civilized than that now. We convert through superior argument. We go out to win them over by pointing out the shortcomings of their faith and leading them to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
· When did we adopt this mindset that we are to be soul winners? That it is our Great Commission to make disciples by conquest and convincing. Is it not the Holy Spirit of god that does the winning? Is it really our place to make converts? When did we begin to equate witnessing with winning? Are we commanded to argue people to Christ or tell what great things God has done for us?
· These are the questions that we will wrestle with this coming weekend.
· Don’t forget, we will be having three services this weekend.
o Saturday 6:30 p.m. – Current Style Worship Service
o Sunday 8:15 a.m. – Classic Style Worship Service
o Sunday 10:45 a.m. – Contemporary Style Worship Service

This Sunday's Intro Video

Postcards

Well, our post office is amazingly efficient and managed to deliver our postcards in just 1 day. unfortunately it has led to several questions. Yes, we are going to be on our new schedule for September 2, but the actual "Open House" will be on September 9th. We apologize for the miscommunication and hope that everyone will feel welcome on both days. We are very excited to add this new classic service and I know our teams have been working hard to make tomorrow a success.

Finding Jesus

I was watching Miami Ink over the weekend as a woman got a tattoo. The artist posed a all intriguing question that we must consider. "Why do people wait until they *!@#% up their lives before the find Jesus?" Good question considering Jesus was never lost. In part, I somewhat believe Michael Vick and Paris Hilton and all the others who turn to Christ during crisis. There is something about being caught in sin, and helpless that causes one to turn to Christ. But are they really finding Christ as a disciple, or are they using him as a P.R. crutch? The answer was probably best given by Larry King, (not a follower of Jesus yet) He said "if Vick found Jesus, then it will be obvious in the weeks and months ahead as his behavior becomes more like that of Jesus." It has also been noted by several that Vick used the phrase "redeem myself" which does not indicate surrender, but self effort. Only time will tell, but Michael you are on the right track, it is my prayer that you will continue to walk that path. That like Pete Maravich and Dion Sanders, God will use you as a shining example of His amazing grace. This weekend at Cornerstone, we will begin a series of messages dealing with the marks of a disciple. First up, a changed life.

This Sunday

I am excited to be back in the saddle this Sunday at Cornerstone. While we were gone I missed a Wednesday Prayer and Bible Study and all of Sunday Morning. We will begin a new message series this week called "Kidz Rule" and my kids are doing a great job of convincing me that I have no right to speak on this subject. (Thank God it is not me and the Bible that we are looking to for wisdom) We have been planning for this series since April and want to look at the Biblical structure for the home. In order to get things back in line many families will need to do a hostile takeover and kick the kids out of the corner office. Be sure to be there this week and if possible, bring some neighbors with you. Tell them we are planning a coup!

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!

Please forget about the church service; really!

Here is an interesting quote from C.S. Lewis.

Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament or repent or supplicate or adore. And it enables us to do these things best - if you like, it 'works' best - when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of, our attention would have been on God.

Maybe in our attempt to have interesting worship services, we run the risk of drawing attention away from God and onto the service itself. This is something I pray that we never do at Cornerstone. Although I do not believe that our services should be boring, they should never become a show. They should never be so grand or foul that they divide our attention from the true Object of our worship.