I wanted to take a few minutes today to update you on a few moves the Leadership made to strengthen our staff and better care for you!
First, we welcomed Miss Anneke Seely to our staff back in August. Anneke is no stranger to many of you. Originally from Wisconsin, Anneke first joined the Cornerstone community in 2015 when she moved to middle Tennessee to study at New College Franklin. Almost as soon as she landed, Anneke began playing viola in worship and teaching children in Sunday School. Anyone who knows Anneke has witnessed her sweet countenance, industrious spirit, and servant’s heart. Anneke was brought on part time to assist Rev. Tony Giles, our Assistant Pastor, and Mr. Greg Wilbur, our Worship Director & Chief Musician in the area of Discipleship. We’re absolutely thrilled to have her on the team!
Second, some of you will remember that our dear sister and long time Nursery Coordinator, Linda VanGorden, moved to Florida in late spring to care for her aging parents. To fill an immediate need, Mrs. Christy Shurden (my wife!) was hired on an interim basis to get us through the summer and consider a more permanent solution. As the summer drew to a close, the Personnel Committee had interest in retaining Christy in the role, and Christy expressed desire in that way as well. To that end, the Personnel Committee recommended Christy to remain in the role of Nursery Coordinator for the foreseeable future. I’m pleased to report that the motion was passed unanimously.
Finally, let me note that the role of our beloved Assistant Pastor, Tony Giles, has shifted slightly at Cornerstone. As many of you know, Tony is an eager servant of the Lord with a wide range of gifts. Because of that, he is sometimes asked by other churches and organizations to serve as a consultant or coach–especially in the area of leadership development. You’ll remember that during this last year, as a very part time aspect of his role at Cornerstone, we “loaned” Tony to assist Grace Community Church (GCC), a sister PCA church in Asheville, NC. GCC was passing through a difficult season as a congregation, and Tony was able to step in and provide some much-needed staff and leadership support while they searched for a Senior Pastor.
Good news! GCC now has a new Senior Pastor. His name is Patrick Lafferty, and he preached his first sermon there just a handful of Sundays ago. With Patrick coming on as Senior Minister, Tony’s role at GCC came to a close. But, the work at GCC confirmed for Tony a sense of calling to the work of assisting churches as a coach in leadership development. In order to give a small margin of his time to the work of coaching, Tony requested that we reduce his hours from full time to three-quarters time this year. Thankfully, we were able to make a few small adaptations to Tony’s workload in a way that gave him some margin to continue serving other churches as a coach without diminishing his ministry impact at Cornerstone.
Recently, a church in Nashville, Village Chapel, sought out Tony for a little coaching help. Tony will be working with their staff one day a week for the next six months. As a kick off to his ministry, Tony is actually preaching at Village Chapel this morning. Continue to pray for our brother as he faithfully spends himself for the Kingdom!