Your house is on fire... NOT!

Not much time for blogging today, but thought you might enjoy this video of the police kicking in the door on the wrong house. LINK

Too Late for Gardening

I told my kids that we would have to wait until after camp and vacation to plant a garden. They have been wanting to do something for years and now I will do my fatherly duties of destroying perfectly good lawn and replace it with dying plants. We went yesterday to Lowes who wisely had discontinued selling any garden variety vegetables. So off to Wal-Mart, where pickins were slim but stocked. We chose three fledgling tomato plants an egg plant ( I said pickins were slim) and a bell pepper. The great thing about the experience was Jimmy. Jimmy works in the garden section and he LOVES plants. I was so excited to go to a place where the guy was not "working," he was enjoying telling people about plants. I truly wish that everyone loved their job as much as Jimmy. I identified with Jimmy, I love Cornerstone and the fact that I am actually paid full time for doing ministry. Today I will preach an funeral and have a deacons meeting. Believe it or not, these are two things I love to do. I know it is weird, but that is what it is like when God has called you to a ministry. Things that other people hate to do, you love doing. Today let me challenge you to find something you love to do, and leverage it for the Kingdom of God. That, my friend is ministry. And then go through the Cagan's Wal-Mart garden department and thank Jimmy for loving his job!

Dealing with Departures

Today I will be preaching to a group of preachers. It is a bit intimidating for a young pastor to address such a audience, but God's Word will do all the teaching, all I have to do is expose it. As I prayed about what these men need to hear and God laid a burden on my heart about people leaving the churches they pastor. It is an all too common occurrence and painful for anyone trying to build a ministry. After reading scripture on the matter here is what I learned.

1. Many disciples left Jesus - Jn 6

- If many left Christ many will leave you. And when that happens it is natural to withdraw and question even your most loyal followers, but ministry marches on and some faithful will stay true to the vision and some devils will stick around too. Many quit Christ, many will quit you.

2. Godly ministers disagree - Acts 13 & 15

- John Mark wimps out on Paul's first missionary journey and it drives Paul and Barnabas to separate. In the end, ministry goes on and is actually multiplied. When this happens we must guard ourselves from bitterness, and you never know when that John Mark might come in handy. 2 Tim. 4.

3. Fellow laborers will fall - 2 Tim. 4

I think every pastor can identify with Paul when he said "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me" Ministry can be lonely at times, but we still have His promise to never leave us or forsake us. When Demas fell back into the world's grip Paul had to continue on. The plain truth is that others in ministry will fall away. Their failure cannot determine our faithfulness.

So, what do we do about it?

1. Refuse to fall in love with another man's bride.

- In truth the church is not ours. She belongs to Christ. Too many of us as pastors fall in love with the ministry to the point that we develop an unhealthy relationship.

2. Refuse to be more concerned with who you are losing than who you are winning.

- The temptation of most churches is to chase down absentees and runaways at the expense of those who have never been. Unfortunately when this happens we are usually wasting out time on people who have already decided that our church is not the church for them. We must let them go and take the gospel to the undecided.

3. Refuse to judge the success of ministry based on the number of people in the pew or pennies in the plate.

- When we look at these gauges as soon as the service is over, we are keeping score in the wrong game. A worship service is about worship of God, not worship of numbers. Number are important but they are not primary, and probably not even secondary.

4. Refuse to believe you have the ability to build it or break it.

- Pastor, you did not build the church. Jesus said He did. And if the gates of hell cannot destroy it then neither can you. Stop taking credit for everything both positive and negative.

5. Refuse to change your mission based on who gets on or off the bus.

-Pastoring a church is like driving a bus. Bus drivers do not base their driving on keeping people on the bus. They just drive their route. Along the way people will get on and people will get off, but we must keep driving because that is what we are commissioned to do.

I know that many of those who read the blog are from Cornerstone, and hopefully this will be helpful for you to know. To you church planters and pastors hang in there, and stay focused on your mission!

Pray for Pastor Bruce

We got a call this morning that Bruce Wanless, our pastor to senior adults broke his leg on a Harley. He had surgery this morning and he is recovering well. Be sure to lift him up in prayer and if you would like to send note you can send it tomailto:rv5wheel@aol.com

Watermelooza Etc.

Here are some things we are working on for the rest of the summer
1. Conversations - Our new interactive message series where you the listener get to choose the topic. We will have cards on Sunday for you to suggest topics.
2. Watermelooza - Every month we look for a way to give back to the community and this month we will be giving away cold refreshing watermelons.
3. Super Sunday - One combined "Super" followed by dinner on the grounds.
4. Guest speaker Dr. Al Janney - August 5th, he is an icon, and my hero.
5. Backpacks - we want to give a bunch of backpacks full of school supplies to kids at Four Corners.

Before tractors were born

My great-grandmother Nellie Burr died yesterday at the age of 102. For someone who has spent the last 8 years in a nursing home, Independence Day was an appropriate time to be freed from this earthly body and reunited with her Savior and loved ones. Many of them had been waiting a long time for her. A lot has happened in her lifetime and my dad interviewed her on video not long ago about her life. I wish today that I could sit down and watch that video.

These are some of the things that she predated by being born in 1905.

• Tractors



• Tea Bags



• Electric Vacuum Cleaners



• Washing Machines



• Air Conditioner



• Self starting Automobile



• Crossword Puzzles



• Radio Receivers

Also in 1905...

• Theodore Roosevelt was president, so she has seen 17 US Presidents.



• Albert Einstein published his paper on photoelectric light opening the door to quantum mechanics. Not to mention his work on the theory of relativity in April 1905



• Las Vegas Nevada was founded when 110 acres were auctioned off



• Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly known as the Duma



• Wilbur and Orville get the Wright Flyer III to stay airborne for 39 minutes, the longest flight to date and the first over 30 minutes.



• Novocaine was introduced by Albert Einhorn and aren't we all thankful for that.

I could go on but I think most would agree that she lived during some of the most exciting times in all of history and now she is living eternally ever after!

"I was having dinner with Karen in Moscow last night..."

So I wake up this morning with an email from Greg Nelson. He and his wife are on the vacation of their life time and while sitting in Moscow he is thinking about his ministry at Cornerstone. I don't know whether to scold him or praise him. He refuses to let a unfinished detail slip by. This is just one example of the dedication of those who serve at Cornerstone. I am always amazed by the level of commitment and the quality of ministry expressed by our people! Thanks Greg and thanks everyone who works so hard to serve our community every week!

Somebody's shooting!

Last evening the kids came running into the house yelling that someone was shooting. This led to a conversation about our freedom and fireworks. Abby (9) mentioned that she did not want to marry a soldier because she would always fear for his safety. In talking we discussed the sacrifice of our soldier families for our freedom. Without their willingness to serve we all would live in fear. Later I overheard her trying to talk Andrew into a career in acrobatics or business. She told him that if he became a business man he could be the boss. In the end Andrew (6) decided that he would most likely become a fireman, an army man, a police officer, or a pet shop owner. Whatever our profession we can rest assured that God holds our lives in His hand. Today, as we enjoy the fake fireworks may we all remember that there are those who are sacrificing for our freedom under real fireworks. Watch this video of our heroes in action. Yesterday, some Apache pilots rescued some downed pilots and got them out of harms way by strapping them to the outside. Link Here

No Staff Meeting Today!

Tuesdays are our usual day for staff meeting and I canceled it for today. We meet religiously, well as religiously as a bunch of Baptists can, every Tuesday. In staff meeting we will walk through the ministry blueprint and go from room to room checking on things, planning events and dreaming. After everyone arrives at either my house or Gabe's house (Gabe has better food) we open with prayer. The first room we look into is our Foyer. The Foyer is the place where people enter the house and for us it is our Sunday worship services. We will begin by noting guests and absentees. A determination will be made on who and how we will follow up with each. As a church we value people and they are our first priority. After people we will look at positives. Last week we began by asking the question "what happened Sunday that made you feel successful in ministry?" (Got that one from Andy Stanley) Then we look at problems, what did not work, here we will dissect every element of the service and evaluate its effectiveness so that we can either improve it or kill it. The second room we enter is the Living Room, that is the place where people get to know one another, for us it is our Bible Fellowship Activities. We know that by having activities, our small groups will help people integrate into the group for a deeper experience down the road. These activities serve as the stepping stone into our Bible Fellowship Tables. We will both review recent events as well as plan upcoming events. The next room we talk about is our Dining Room, for us the Dining room is the Small Group Bible Fellowship Tables. This is where our people come together as family and are fed spiritually. Everything we have done to this point is to direct people into a small group where they will be loved and cared for. We will look at what we can do to move certain people into small groups, evaluate upcoming lesson series, and work on leadership development. The next room we talk about is the Kitchen, this for us is ministry. Wednesday nights is focused on the kitchen and we spend a lot of time training people in ministry and hopefully giving them the tools to serve. We will talk about upcoming outreach events and how we can improve our standard of service. We will wrap things up by talking about the Office, (No, not that one) and taking care of any inner office things such as finances, purchase orders, and other internal stuff. So there you have it. A typical staff meeting here at Cornerstone. I will say that we have a great team of leaders and I look forward to meeting with them each week. They are the workhorses. Sue, have a great day; Gabe, enjoy your parents; Chuck, drive safe; Seth, congratualtions; and Bruce, come back soon we miss you!

Sunday Spectators

Sunday was a great day at church with tons of vacationers. It is always neat to do church on the border of Disney and reality where the world comes to play. Yesterday two of the families came to visit were friends of mine that I served with at another church. The cool thing is that they both "dropped"in and the first person they saw was each other. It was kind of "twilight zoney" but it gave me a great opportunity to get some outsider's feedback on how things went. First, Dave King's small group Bible Study hit it out of the park for Mike and Jackie. They felt very much at home, and loved Dave's teaching. Great job Dave, and all of our Bible Fellowship Table Leaders. Second, Daniel and Laura have spent the last 4 years traveling from church to church as they raise support to be church planters in Peru. There are weeks that they are in 3 & 4 different churches, so they have literally seen it all. I say that to preface what they told me in that Cornerstone is only the second church they have visited that does secure check in for the kids. And that for a church plant with portable facilities blew their minds. Chuck, be proud of the job that your team did, not only were they friendly and welcoming, they were taking care of that family's most valued possession their kids. I am so proud of our church. God has truly blessed us with a great group of servants who make it their priority to be a blessing to others.