Small Group

"We talked it over and when we get back home, we are getting involved in a small group at our church."

I had lunch with a snowbird who was doing the last minute pre-flight check before heading north. "Give me a quick SWOT analysis of Cornerstone," I said, as I always try to get a reading from outsiders on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. "Keep up the emphasis on small groups." At first I must admit I had to ask if he saw small groups as a weakness or a strength. In truth I still see it as a weakness because so many are reluctant to get involved in meeting every week to study and apply the Bible to everyday life. But for him, it was a strength, as it is with those ho have committed to join one of our Bible Fellowship tables. I was moved to tears as he told me how our small groups ministered to them during their short time, and how they will join a small group when they get home. I will pound this drum until God takes my drumsticks away, that church is more than just showing up on Sundays. IT is walking together with other believers and Building Life Together!

American Idol

American Idol, is without question the hottest show on TV, they are bullying their way to take up the prime time slot 2 to 3 times a week. My vote, if I took time to call, is for Chris Sligh. He grew up as a missionary kid, maybe in Germany. He then attended the Bob Jones University, a very conservative school in Greenville SC, before starting a Christian band and leading worship at Seacoast church also in Greenville. Chris is just a normal guy, who seems to be having fun on the show. I spent some time doing some research on him, and was impressed to see that he has a deeper side. MSNBC did an article on him here. You can also read from Chris' blog here. But he has taken most of it down, for some reason during Idol. However he has another blog here, which discusses his thoughts on life and God. In his last few entries he struggles with the balance between the conservative upbringing and real life issuse of today. Growing up, my dad went to Seminary at BJ, the chuch I attended in high school was big on BJ, I went to Clearwater aka BJ on the Bay, and my wife's parents members of a BJ style church. That being aside, I know right where Chris is coming from, I know his struggles. For all that, he has come away with his faith intact, and has found a balance between real life and real faith. I hope that he goes far in the competition and that God will enlarge his influence so that God can get all the glory even in this search for an idol. Maybe Chris, will be like Paul on Mars Hill, you have here merely an idol, let me introduce you to Jesus Christ.

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.