Anadara

Wow! This past Sunday we were able to have the brand new recording artist Anadara with us for a concert of praise. Her music is deeply spiritual as well as inspiring. She happened to have the same booking agent as Gabe, so he called and told us that she would be in town and was available. I for one am so glad that we were able to have her come, before she goes to the Crystal Cathedral on April 29th. We had her first! I believe that she will blow up on the Christian music scene with her great songwriting, and awesome acoustic sound. Her spirit was equally deep and it came across to our church in a big way. The crowd was lined up to buy her CD after the service, with some even making an ATM run between services! Thanks Anadara and Rocky for your ministry! You can buy her music from iTunes, or by going to her website http://www.anadara.com/ .

BOOMER

Last Sunday night Gabe and I had a chance to go to a new church start in Lakeland called Gravity. The "Vision Pastor" is a young guy named Boomer, and he has a neat thing going in the Black and Brew Coffee Shop. The church is geared to 20 somethings and has the feel of a dorm room Bible Study. Being Spring Break, there was a smaller than usual crowd there, but the discussion on worship was energetic. I kept hearing phrases like "in the daily" and instead of calling it church they refer to it as a "gathering." Their goal is not necessarily to begin a church that will blossom into bricks and mortar, but to be the church where they are, and to develop one another for leadership in the church when they graduate. Great job and keep up the good work Boomer!

Reproducing Churches Network

Reproducing churches is a network of pastors/planters who are highly motivated to see churches started along the I-4 corridor. The premise is that we will work together for prayer, mutual support and encouragement through networking. What is exciting for me is the deep level of commitment to one another as well as some massive goals. It is not about a large denomination planting one or two churches in the state, but each church reproducing itself and birthing a new congregation. For too long we have been waiting for renewal to come to older congregations, it is now time for young churches to begin to reproduce. It is not enough to simply give towards church planting. For most churches it is simply a line item in a massive budget. For those of us at reproducing churches, it is a mandate to go make babies! Churches that is...

From Bogging to Blogging

It is official, after 6 months off it is time to reinvent the blog. Our first attempt at blogging became a bit of more of a bog as the site lacked direction and focus. It is our goal with the new blog to develop several different threads. The first and foremost will be to look around the corners at church to anticipate the future and reflect on the past. The second is to give insight into the inner workings of the church and how we are Building Life Together. Third, we will try to address current events relevant to those of us living here in Four Corners. In the end it is our goal that the blog be a place where you can get a feel for the church, get to know the staff, and understand how we intend to follow God's leading at Cornerstone.

Organizing for Outreach

Last Saturday we had our Leadership Training seminar and it was awesome. Many of our team leaders were there to sharpen their skills and organize their teams for growth. When we began Cornerstone God gave us a burden to reach the entire community with the good news of Jesus Christ and to bring people to a new life in Christ. If we are going to be able to accomplish this goal, we must be organized. Someone asked if we were organizing Cornerstone to become a mega-church (2,000+ in attendance) and I told them that there are 50,000 people in our immediate community with only 10 churches of any kind. If you do the math then we are responsible for 5,000 of them. Do we want to be a mega church? Yes. Because that will mean we have done our part in reaching our community. It is my conviction that every church in our community should become a mega church. Imagine every one of our churches organizing for outreach and doing the work of the ministry so effectively that we win our community for Christ. That is my burden as a pastor, that is my conviction. May God save me and our church from shortsighted and small thinking.

Wednesday Night

Last night we kicked off our new Family Night program at Cornerstone. It was fantastic. People kept coming, and coming. The kidMo team did an excellent job as they taught the kids about God’s Word. I still am trying to figure out all of the motions that go along with Matthew 7:24! I peeked in on the youth for a moment and they had 4 visitors. The youth leaders are really pumped about the new direction. All I know about the adult prayer group is that they had to keep coming back for more seating. They had packed it out. All in all, it was a great night, and if you missed it, then you really missed it.

Proactive Discipline?

Celebration High School has a problem. This year the administration enacted a plan to create a peaceful lunchroom environment by having all the students face one direction during lunch. Apparently last year’s student body was too rowdy during their lunch “break.” So this year instead of dealing with the rowdy kids, they decided to punish the whole school in advance of any rowdy behavior. Our teens that attend Celebration high have not complained to me about this, but when I saw it on the wftv news, I could not let this one go. I am suggesting that they put principal Debra Neil on Administrative leave pending any future misconduct she may or others around her may do. I have been a long opponent of homework, and the removal of recess from the schedule. All kids, not just us hyperactive kids have energy to burn. Science tells us that the average girls will speak 25,000 words every single day. If they are not given time to use them on each other, then we as parents will have to listen to phrases like “Billy thinks he is so cool, but Janet says that he is not cool he just thinks he is cool.” I shudder just thinking about it. I say turn the tables on this proactive discipline and give them the freedom of speech, at least during their “breaks” and on top of that… send them outside for recess. And while we are at it, let them play dodge ball!

Showing God's Love

On Monday Gabe and I had the opportunity to attend a networking meeting with a hundred church leaders here in the state of Florida in order to receive some instruction and encouragement and to discuss how we can more effectively launch new churches within the state. The quote that stood out to me was by Tom Messer of Trinity Baptist in Jacksonville. Here is the quote: “The difference between today’s church and the first century church is that today we are trying to show the world how much we love God and the first century church was trying to show God’s love to the world.” Far too often we fail to realize that Jesus said that when you “Do it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.” It is our goal as a church to always be focused on sharing the love of God with those in our community who do not go to church. In fact we love nonreligious people, and not so that we can give them our. We know that relationship trumps religion and that if we get you to act like a child of God without really becoming a child of God then we have failed as a church.

Letter from Lebanon

Do you ever wonder what makes a pastor cry tears of joy? A few weeks ago Israel invaded Lebanon and we were reminded of a Lebanese family that was part of our church in the very beginning. Fadi Korban had been brought to FL to work for Disney. His ability with detailed wood work is beyond compare. After some time however, he had to return to his home country. With the conflict in Lebanon we recently added him to our prayer list. Today, after three years I received this email.

Hi
Dear Joel and the church staf, it has been almost three years since last time i have been with you at the church, but through all these days at least one of you guys at the church every day been with my thought and memory. i miss you a lot and my kids too ( Rayan and Riwa Korban) we lost contact .... i,m sorry but in lebanon never comes easy. today i.m in my friends house he got internet connection so I said I want try to contact you and here I'm sending you this email with my hope that receive it with my wish that everyone of you be in a good condition.
hope talk to you later

please send my regards to all the church staf or who remember us

sincerely: Fadi Korban

Did you read the part where he said he prays for at least one of us and for the church every day? Did you read the part where he hopes that we are in good condition? Read it again.
That is the stuff that makes a pastor cry. As I replied to his letter, I was reminded of Paul and the emotional letters he wrote to church members along his missionary journey. The bond of Christian love is unlike anything this world has to offer. Sometimes people ask Why God is blessing Cornerstone so much. What is the secret to the rapid growth and the wonderful spirit of the church. The answer: there was this guy who still prays for us every day. In a country where bombs are still falling, there is a man and his kids who are praying for our good condition. Oh to God that we would all embrace the power found in the prayer of a believer. That we would pray for our brother Fadi, and the other Lebanese Christians who are caught in a battle between the Muslims and Jews. That we would continue to pray that the influence of Cornerstone would wrap around the world and have a lasting affect on all that would pass our way.

Back to School

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Those little people who have been causing so much trouble over the past two months are getting ready to be put back in their place. School has a special place in the hearts of those of us at Cornerstone. We have the privilege of meeting at the Four Corners Elementary School and basing much of our community outreach through those hallowed halls. In fact this past Tuesday a group of us met to move text book after textbook from classroom to classroom. Simple, but simply a way of meeting a very real need for the teachers and administration of "our" school.
For most people, the memory of school carries with it enough emotional backpacks, to fill a hundred lockers. Yet in spite of the teachers, we learned many of life's most important lessons at school. Don't hit, share, do your home work... And so on.
One of my favorite things about school is graduation. In K-4 the parents and their video camera's block your shot of Jr. Receiving his verdict...um, I mean diploma from the teacher. Sixth grade, a little more important as the kids punish the parents and grandparents with endless barrage of musical numbers and cute costumes. High school... One word... Rebellion. "I am 18 and I have learned it all, now stop telling me what to do." In college it was a bit of gratitude and relief mixed with the ignorance of how hard it will be to land a job, and that student loans come due in two weeks. The amazing thing is that even though we graduate from one to the next that there is always more to learn and that there are always those that think that they have finished learning.
Over the next few weeks at Cornerstone we will look back at School and how important it is for us to continue learning even after we graduate. Unfortunately, many Christians fail to grasp the all important concept of continuing education. We will look at the grade levels in the Christian life and the graduated learning we all must do.