All of this is fine. BUT, let’s not get to distracted. Let’s not lose sight of the main thing. Proverbs says

many are the plans in a man’s heart but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails

The government will never provide ultimately what people need. It will never give people ultimate hope or a life beyond this earth. The government is supposed to be a servant of the people, but it can never teach us or lead us to truly serve another person. I believe in government, because people must be governed. But it’s only because of the Fall and sin that it has to be this way. In a perfect world God is our national leader and we follow Him and honor Him with our service, money and loyalty. More time, energy and passion given to loving and serving Him will bring true change.

Just what I think.

Luke 20:21-25:

They questioned him:

Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

He saw through their duplicity and said to them

“Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

As I’ve been reading through this book called Missional Renaissance so much has been stirring on my heart about us, the church, and our love, attitude and actions towards the world. It has encouraged me to reshape my time and energies more everyday so that I am making connections with people that I have not connected with before and who need that connection with the One who can make an eternal impact on their life.

The author writes in one place, “The role of the church is simply this: to bless the world. In doing this, the people of God reveal God’s heart for the world.”

He goes on to explain that we get this mandate from the life of Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12. Crazy to think that the blessings and promises that God bestowed upon Abraham are still pressing us today, but they are. You see God told Abraham that He was going to bless Abraham. But God did not make this about Abraham solely. God said that He would bless Abraham so that in turn, Abraham could bless the world.

We, as the church, are called to this outward action of blessing as well. God is blessing us with abundant life as we press closer in to Him and His will for our lives, but not so that we can be selfish with this blessing. He is blessing us with abundant life so that we can lead the world into an understanding of what it means to be connected relationally to the King of loved us and gave Himself up for us. Even as I write those words, a joy comes over me in thinking of the selfless nature of Jesus’ actions in becoming the ultimate sacrifice. And, His plan to bring that news to the world is through His followers, you an me.

We are blessed in order to be a blessing. A promise that was made thousands of years ago to a nation that was being birthed through Abraham, but which is still ringing over the church today.

Cornerstone Church follows the Purpose Driven Church model from Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church. Warren’s book was written in 1995 and details the model he uses at Saddleback Church to grow from one family in 1980 to thousands of attendees on multiple campuses today.

One component of the model in his book is Fellowship. Warren says “We don’t grow in isolation from others; we develop in the context of fellowship.” He supports this with scripture; Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we can spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”

Fellowship happens to also be one of Cornerstone’s core values. We believe Fellowship is the process of people making a connection with other people. It is important that the church provide a way for people to build relationships and friendships. Therefore, we are committed to creating environments that help people build these important relationships. – Acts 2:46-47

⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

In the past Cornerstone has organized multiple events designed to encourage fellowship, everything from a Valentine’s prom to miniature golf in the parking lot. This year we are planning four fellowship events starting with our Wild Game Dinner (see Join Us for Our First 2009 Fellowship Event) this Saturday.

We encourage you to gather your family, your friends or come by yourself and join us for a great time of fellowship. Bring your favorite recipe and share it with your church family. There will be plenty of food, conversation and good times. I’ll see you there.

Jack

Welcome to the Cornerstone leadership blog! This is a place for you to hear some of the insights, ideas, thoughts and ramblings of your church leadership. We will try to provide you information about what’s going on in the church, the “why’s” behind some of the things that are happening, personal stories of life change, ways that our church is making a difference and a whole lot more.

Let me start this off with an encounter I had at Tenda Chick restaurant 2 Sundays ago. While trying to figure out which sauce to put on my chicken strips a guy leans over toward me from his seat and jokingly says “is that what preachers do after church on Sundays?” I was like, “yep, it’s all about chicken!” He was with his wife and children. He introduced himself and his family and shared how they had been visiting our church for several months.

I felt bad because they had been visiting for a while and I didn’t recognize them (getting harder to know everyone as we grow – just part of it). After sharing that with him he said, “there’s no way you can know everyone. The church is growing so much!” He then went on to talk about how much they enjoyed the church and everything about it. He said, “just keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working!”

It’s interesting, these encounters are happening more and more. You know, when something good is happening in your life you want to share it. At times I think as a church we are moving too fast or changing too much. I wonder if we are still connecting with people. Then I have one of these random encounters with folks who are coming to our church and I am reminded that as long as we are fixed on God and His mission for us, we moving at the right pace and in the right direction.

What we do may not make everybody happy, but we are in the business of making God happy by being laser focused on His desire and purpose for the church. We are reaching a young, tech savvy generation that is more and more choosing not go to church. We are also reaching people who are searching for God and need a church that will help them find Him. So, with each encounter I am more convinced of and passionate about our mission of Leading People to Know and Serve Jesus.