I grew up in the United Methodist Church. For as long as I can remember we got dressed up, went to Sunday school, then to the worship service and after that we went out to lunch. For our family that is what going to church meant. It was a few hours where our lives centered around visiting the big box called church and then getting to go out to eat.

Things have certainly changed for me since those days. I discovered something called “contemporary worship” when I started attending Cornerstone in 2000. It was a little odd at first, no hymnals, no Sunday school and I didn’t have to get dressed up. But the odd experience soon turned in to a deeper relationship with Christ that I had never had before. For me the contemporary style of worship eliminated some of the barriers I had growing up. These barriers kept me in a mode of playing church rather than experiencing Christ.

Now we are talking about a multi-site church strategy here at Cornerstone. For many people, like me, who grew up knowing only one style of worship, multi-site might be a little hard to grasp. It’s not a church plant, it’s not a church split, it is Cornerstone in many locations. The same church, the same leadership, the same beliefs and values and definitely the same mission. And to be honest it’s really not a new strategy, it’s how the New Testament church grew almost 2000 years ago.

Take about two minutes and watch the video above if you haven’t already. It has a simple explanation of what it means to multi-site as a church. Yes, it’s also a promotion for a couple of books. But, those books were part of the process that helped us decide to move forward with the multi-site strategy here at Cornerstone. Oh, and by the way, you can buy them in our bookstore.

Visit the Leadership Blog weekly for more updates on our progress towards our first multi-site location. And if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask the church leadership and staff.

Then in 2005 we saw our second milestone when we opened the doors to our current building. We hired an architect and a contractor to build the building and a capitol campaign specialist to help us fund it. We put together an internal team of lay people to provide direction and oversight to these professionals.

For both of these big milestones, these important changes in the life of Cornerstone, we sought out the insight of others. We found people who God had gifted to be experts in specific areas of knowledge. We engaged them to provide wisdom at just the right times.

Now in 2011 we are embarking on our third important milestone at Cornerstone, a growth strategy called multi-siting. While many churches are using the same strategy of “one church in many locations,” it is still new. Because of this and other factors, the leadership at Cornerstone has made the decision to once again hire wise, Godly people to support us in this important movement.

To help us navigate the multi-site strategy, we have engaged Jim Tomberlin. Jim began his multi-site church journey in the mid-1990s when he was the senior pastor of Woodman Valley Chapel. In 2000 he went on to pioneer the multi-site model at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. Since 2005 he has been consulting and coaching churches in developing and implementing multi-site strategies. Jim is considered by many to be the expert in the area of multi-siting.

We have invited another Jim to help us fund this next milestone. Jim Sheppard is CEO and principal of Generis, a consulting firm committed to accelerating generosity toward God-inspired vision. He is an avid student of generosity and is passionate about spreading it throughout the church. For over 18 years (starting in September 1992), he has devoted his life to the passion of helping church people become more generous.

Both these men will be working with teams of lay and staff leaders to implement the many important stages of our next big milestone. We have spent a lot of time getting to know them personally and researching their experience and backgrounds. We feel good about them.

This is an important step in the life of Cornerstone Church. We know and we are confident, like in the past, it is the right time to seek Godly wisdom in the form of other people.

Scott Fillmer rounds out the staff shuffle that has gone on for the past few weeks. Last week Josh talked about April Olive and her new role as Small Group Coordinator. The week before that I talked about Julia Farrow’s new role as both communication and volunteer coordinator. This week I will be introducing you to Scott.

Scott and his wife Deborah began attending Cornerstone in early 2008 and Scott was hired as a member of the staff soon after. His responsibilities and passion are in the area of information technology. He maintains all the computers, is the architect behind the website and serves as part of the communication team led by Julia. If you are a volunteer on Sunday morning, chances are Scott has checked you in and given you a name-tag.

Scott is picking up some of the tasks April managed in the area of finance and accounting. Scott is not only a wizard with computers but also has a degree in accounting. While his official job description doesn’t include church photographer, he has filled that role as well. Scott’s talent easily makes him one of the best photographers in the Southeast. We are fortunate to have Scott serving on the staff at Cornerstone and I know he will do a great job with his new role.

Just a quick note about Scott… he normally doesn’t wear a suit but chose this picture for the post. I think it’s a pretty good picture, but I’m also glad Cornerstone isn’t the kind of church that requires we wear suits on Sunday.

Actually most of you may already know Julia, she has been on staff at Cornerstone for almost three years. Not only is Julia dedicated to Christ and to her work at Cornerstone, she is also pretty cool. She and her husband Ben are runners, and she just finished the Disney World Half Marathon earlier this month. She is a huge UNC basketball fan and is also a soccer mom.

Julia will be adding some responsibilities to her job that we want you to know about. Currently Julia leads our communication effort and has done a great job with a tough area. She will be adding volunteer coordination to her plate as well. For the past year April Olive has been the face of volunteer leadership on Sunday morning. Julia is taking her place (more on April next week).

So, what does this mean for you? If you volunteer in any capacity on Sunday morning, but especially the Guest Services teams, Julia is there for you. Julia won’t take the place of your team leader, but she is there to support you and other volunteers as you create a welcoming environment for those who come through our doors.

So if you don’t know Julia, take some time to introduce yourself. It will be time well spent.

Trunk or Treat and the Chili Cook Off is this Sunday afternoon from 4-6pm. It is an event that Cornerstone has held almost every year the church has been in existence. Before our current building was completed we used to just come out to the property, about where the gravel lot is now, and line up the cars to trunk or treat.

My first Trunk or Treat was long before I was hired to serve on staff. My kids were young and excited about the candy and all the different Halloween costumes. It was a great time for us as a family since we were still fairly new to Cornerstone. We got to spend time getting to know our church family and we had a blast.

Fast forward to 2010. Cornerstone now has a building and three services each Sunday morning. We have grown to almost ten times the number of people attending since my first Sunday. These are all good things because as Christians we are called to grow in numbers.

In Luke 9, the Bible tells the story of Jesus sending out the twelve disciples. But immediately following that, in chapter 10, Christ grows the number of disciples to 72. And these 72 had great success… Luke 10:17 The seventy‑two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Our job as Christians is to spread the word of Christ and make disciples. We can’t do this if we aren’t multiplying. Come to Cornerstone this Sunday, join in the fun, get to know some of the people you worship with every Sunday. Celebrate in the growth and community God has brought to Cornerstone.

This Sunday you will see more of these name tags. They belong to key volunteer leaders and staff members who work on Sunday. Why will you see more of these name tags? We have shifted our office hours to include Sunday morning.

Beginning today, October 1, the office at the church will be closed all day every Friday. We used to be open from 8:30am until 12:30pm on Fridays, but we realized our time could be used more effectively on Sunday morning. Here are a few thoughts behind shifting our time to Sunday:

• As a staff, Sunday has always been a work day.
• By moving our Friday office hours to Sunday we can add a few more staff to positively impact our guests on Sunday morning.
• It insures our staff has two days off in a row. Believe me, this is huge.
• Sunday is now our Monday so we start the week off fresh and ready to “rock-n-roll”.
• It gives the staff more routine time with our families.

Have a question, need direction or just want to talk? Look for the white and blue name tags OR anyone with a volunteer lanyard. We are there to help!

Since those days, we have narrowed our focus on Sunday morning and throughout our communication strategy. Our goal is to make what we produce uncluttered, accurate and consistent. These are three qualities that our communication team knows are important to communicate effectively.

• Uncluttered- Every day we are bombarded with hundreds of messages; email, text messages, phone calls, junk in our mailbox, TV commercials… you know what I’m talking about. We don’t need to bombard our church family with more stuff. As a communication team we try to measure how much we say, how we say it and how often it is said in an effort to keep it uncluttered.
• Accurate- Accuracy in communication is about credibility. If the information we provide is not accurate, eventually our audience will lose trust in what we are saying and ignore us. Our goal is to have the basic information available and accurate for each event or program so our audience can easily take a next step to get involved.
• Consistent- We have only a few ways we communicate so people looking for information know where it can be found. Our website is our main focus of communication. To reinforce the information on the website, we have an electronic newsletter, banners in our building, an Information Desk, Cornerstone Community Buzz, Sunday morning bulletin, social networking and the occasional mail piece or bulk email. These are all secondary venues used to recycle and strengthen the information on our website.

Our ultimate message of hope and love in Christ is the most important message ever. It is very important for us to do what we do well. If we overload our audience with stuff, eventually we will be ignored. Doing it well for Cornerstone means effectively keeping it uncluttered, accurate and consistent.

It’s easy, it’s quick and it’s secure.

1. Go to our website www.cornerstonebuzz.org.
2. Click on the “Give” button.
3. Register for an account or login to an already existing account.
4. You will see the screen in the picture below.
5. Fill in the blanks and submit.
6. It’s that easy

Our secure online giving option allows you to give once or set up a recurring transaction. Your tithe can be directed to your regular offering or you can mark it for our building fund for our current building. You can also check your giving history for the year. Right now we accept debit and credit cards but hopefully an eCheck option will be available by the end of the year. We encourage you to use your credit card only if you pay it off every month.

While the process of giving online is quick and easy, the impact is huge. Cornerstone has many active ministries from children to youth to small groups and much more. Our current budget is over one million dollars and we need your financial support to impact our community through these ministries.

As Christians we believe that we are stewards of God’s resources because He is the owner of all that we have. When used faithfully, money is a tool of a generous life helping people grow closer to God and each other.

If you have any questions about our online giving please send me an email.

2 Corinthians 8:2-3 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own.