Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 10, 2023

Dear Cornerstone Family,

The wait is over! Today is the official launch of the fall Sunday School quarter. Please take a look at the map and list below for room locations for children and youth classes. If you need any help finding a room, please don’t hesitate to ask one of our officers or volunteers. They will have a Cornerstone name badge.

You can find your classes in these locations today.

  • Nursery: Third Floor (301)

  • 3 years olds-4th grade: Second Floor (see map)

  • 5th & 6th grades: The Corner House

  • 7th-12th grades: Merridee’s

  • Adults: Chapel & Third Floor (302-303)

    If you plan to attend adult Sunday School, and I hope you do, there are two class offerings this term. Check them out below!

  • Delighting in the Trinity led by Tony Giles, Nathan
    Johnson, and yours truly. Leaning on Michael
    Reeves’ excellent work by the same title, this class is
    designed to introduce to the vital importance of the
    Trinity for understanding the Christian faith and living the Christian life. By taking a deep dive in the nature of the Triune God, we will imminently see how practical and relevant this doctrine is for our everyday lives. Meets on the Third Floor.

  • Resolving Everyday Conflict led by Randy Allen, Will Kesler, and John Millard. From marriage, to parenting, to the workplace, we need help knowing how to make peace in a world rife with conflict. Leaning on the work of Ken Sande, this class will help you develop biblical peacemaking skills in order to address the day-to-day conflicts of ordinary life. Meets in the Chapel.

    With so much going, I want to be sure you don’t miss two other important ministry initiatives happening right now.

    First, Midweek at Cornerstone starts THIS Wednesday, September 13! Please check out the schedule posted around the building or on the church website, and make sure you’re registered for dinner and any children’s activities. During our evening service, I can’t wait to walk with you through a topical series entitled, Define Your Terms: The Vocabulary of Salvation.

    Second, Officer Nominations open today! At Cornerstone, the congregation has the joyous responsibility to nominate qualified men for the office of elder and deacon. Please locate the Officer Nomination Booklets at either entrance to the chapel today for more information. Nominations for office will extend from today through Sunday, September 24. You can turn in your nomination in one of two places on the church premises. There is a Nomination Box on the credenza as you pass up the ramp and through the glass doors on the right of the chapel. At The Corner House, as you pass through the side door on Church St, you will find a Nomination Box in the foyer. If you have any questions, please reach out to the church office.

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 3, 2023

Dear Cornerstone Family,

I asked our dear brother, Rev. Tony Giles, to tell us about an opportunity we have to be trained in sharing the gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ. Please give serious consideration to committing a few evenings this fall to this important study.

“‘Disciples who make disciples.’

That’s a phrase that should sound familiar to you. It lies at the heart of Cornerstone’s vision and purpose statement which you encountered in an Exploring Cornerstone Class on your way to membership.

Making disciples always involves the gospel and requires a growing ability to share that gospel with others. That’s all of us, not merely those with a gift for evangelism. We believe that everyone is called to be a disciple of Christ and make disciples for Christ.

So, how are you doing with that? Hesitant? Fearful? Maybe you are asking...

  • How do I share my faith in a manner that is effective but not offensive?

  • How do I become less scared and more confident to do so?

  • How do I deal with a question I’m not sure how to answer?

    This fall you have an opportunity to grow in your readiness and ability to engage in gospel conversations with friends and family.

    It’s a small group study on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00 p.m., starting September 5 and concluding December 5. It includes eight lessons with assignments on intervening weeks.

    We will be using Gospel 101: Learning, Living and Sharing the Gospel by Jeff Dodge. This is much more than a book to read. It’s both a study and a workbook. You will be equipped to use survey questions with a friend and trained to listen to their answer and to reply with wisdom and clarity.

    Please consider this opportunity to examine the core tenets of the gospel message, entertain the difficult questions inherent in gospel theology and get you started on developing your own ways to share your faith simply and effectively with family and friends.”

    If you have questions, please contact Tony Giles at tony@cstonepres.org. To register, visit the website.

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, August 27, 2023

Dear Cornerstone Family,

I’m preaching today at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL. As some of you will remember, Dr. Harry Reeder, the longtime Senior Minister of Briarwood, died unexpectedly in a car accident earlier this year. It was one of the great privileges of my life to call Dr. Reeder a mentor and dear friend. I am, as always, saddened to not be with you today, but I am grateful for the high honor to serve the Briarwood family in the midst of this difficult season of grief and transition. I cherish your prayers.

In other news, the start of Midweek at Cornerstone is a little over two weeks away! Wednesday, September 13th will be here before you know it! From 5:15-7:00 p.m. each Wednesday this fall, we will enjoy a delicious catered fellowship meal on the Biscuit Love Patio (5:15-6:00) followed by a full slate of children, youth, and adult ministries (6:00-7:00). If that weren’t enough, you can then sing with the Cornerstone choir (7:15-8:30). There really is something for everyone!

While the children are enjoying digging into God’s Word through teaching, crafts, music, and more, and while the youth are being led through a series on God’s design for the church, the adults will be gathering in the chapel for a topical series entitled, “Define Your Terms: The Vocabulary of Salvation.”

Are you often afraid in Bible study or Home Fellowship Group that you will be asked what some very common biblical word means? You are not alone. We use words like regeneration, repentance, and glorification all the time in the church, and we often only have a vague sense of what the terms mean and why they matter. In this ten-week study, we will look at one term each week in the Bible’s vocabulary of salvation. We will tease out the biblical and theological importance of each term, explore how each term relates to the other terms, and identify why each term matters in your daily walk with Christ. We’ll conclude this series on November 15th with a Cornerstone Prayer Meeting, preparing our hearts for Thanksgiving.

Define Your Terms: The Vocabulary of Salvation

  • September 13 – Union with Christ

  • September 20 – Effectual Calling

  • September 27 – Regeneration

  • October 4 – Faith & Repentance

  • October 11 – Justification

  • October 18 – Adoption

  • October 25 – Sanctification

  • November 1 – Perseverance

  • November 8 – Glorification

  • November 15 – A Sacrifice of Praise: A Cornerstone Prayer Meeting

    Please, do not miss this important opportunity to gather with the Cornerstone family. Clear your schedule and make plans to join us!

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, August 20, 2023

Dear Cornerstone Family,

Mark your calendar! Beginning Sunday, September 10, we will be back with Sunday School offerings for adults, youth, and children.

Our Children’s Director, Meredith Suits, has been busy preparing new classroom spaces for this fall and reviewing some new curriculum in several of our classes. Parents, here’s a breakdown of what you can expect this fall.

  • Our preschool class will be led by Joe and Joy Marlo and Faith Gulliver. They will be reading Old Testament stories as well as singing songs together and memorizing scripture. Our seasoned preschool leaders have a great weekly routine established for this class, and it’s such a joy to see our littlest kids learning Scripture together.

  • Our 1st and 2nd grade classes, led by Lisa Fiedler, Colleen McGarry, Alli Faulk, and Carl Ware, will be using The Biggest Story curriculum this year. You may have seen copies of The Biggest Story on our Cornerstone bookshelf. I encourage you to check out this children’s Bible for your own family if you haven’t already.

  • Our 3rd and 4th grade class will be led by Matt O’Roark. We will continue with the Show Me Jesus curriculum, which teaches key concepts and stories from both the Old and New Testaments helping students connect all of Scripture to the good news of Jesus.

  • Our 5th and 6th grade class will be led by Mike & Sabrina Brewer and Katie Ewing. It will be a study of the New City Catechism, taking 1-2 weeks to discuss each question and study the Scripture that supports it.

Head to the website or follow the link in the Life at Cornerstone midweek email to register your kids for Sunday School, and be on the lookout for additional information in the next few weeks about new classrooms and new check-in procedures.

Also, our new Youth Director, Drew Abercrombie, has hit the ground running. Youth Sunday School will be meeting at Merridee’s and wading through the life-giving waters of the Gospel of John this fall. His prayer for the youth is that they would “come and see” Jesus as he’s presented in the gospel, believe in Him, and have life in His name.

Finally, two adult classes will be offered this fall.

  • Delighting in the Trinity —Why is God love? Because God is a Trinity. Why can we be saved? Because God is a Trinity. How are we able to live the Christian life? Only through the Trinity. Join Tony Giles, Nathan Johnson, and Nate Shurden for this six-week series as we explore the mystery of the Trinity and how it relates to every aspect of our faith.

  • Resolving Everyday Conflict—Conflict is inevitable. The question is: how will we respond to it? Scripture teaches us how to address conflict in a godly way by understanding conflict’s source, our role in it, and how to make peace. Leaning on Kevin Johnson and Ken Sande’s work, Resolving Everyday Conflict, join Randy Allen, Will Kesler, and John Millard for this important six-week series.

Make plans now to join us for Sunday School this fall as we commit to growing in grace together!

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, August 13, 2023

Dear Cornerstone Family,

In our ongoing series in the book of Ephesians, we considered last week Ephesians 4:1-14. If you were with us, you will remember we examined in some detail the sin of sexual immorality. One of the things we saw last week was that sexual immorality, though a bodily act, never begins with the body. It begins, rather, with the mind dwelling on impurity and with a heart eaten up with covetousness, which is, at its root, idolatry (v.5).

The passage last week was addressing how sexuality can go wrong. It did not, however, specifically address the created good that sexuality is. In a few weeks, we will get the chance to carry this thread further when we explore the Bible’s teaching on gender, marriage, and complementarity when we spend two weeks on Ephesians 5:22-33. Given, however, the significant confusion in our day, I wanted to take a few minutes to briefly outline three (postive) foundational biblical truths regarding human sexuality:

First, God created the sexual differences of man and woman. God created us as sexual beings. Sexuality is part and parcel to what it means to be a human person. One of the many reasons Christians cannot support transgender assumptions and beliefs about the human person is that a Christian believes the physical creation of our bodies is meaningful. We are not, in other words, simply what we think or feel ourselves to be internally. Our identity as human beings is bound up with our bodies. Being created male and female is an essential quality of what it means to be a human person (Genesis 1:26-28).

Second, God created sex as a gift to be used for his glory. Sex is not ultimately about us. It’s about God and His glory. In 1 Cor. 6:12-20, Paul says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality.” Now, what would you expect him to say next? You would expect him to say, “The body is meant for sexual morality.” In other words, you would expect him to advance the biblically defined parameters for sexual intimacy. Interestingly, that’s not what Paul does. Instead, he says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” As we’ll see in our next point, Paul is not speaking against the biblical design for sexuality. He is, rather, identifying the ultimate end of sexuality: God’s glory.

Third, God created sex as an expression of covenant love within the bounds of marriage. In Genesis 2:24 we read, “For this cause a man shall leave his family and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” The language of “hold fast” or “leave and cleave” is the language of covenant. The husband is leaving behind his previous attachments, and he is forming a new covenantal relationship with his wife. The consummation or ratifying of that covenant is the sexual union. In other words, sex completes the covenantal union. The sexual union is the capstone of the marriage relationship. This by definition excludes any notions of premarital sex, adultery, or any other form of sexual behavior outside the confines of the marriage covenant.

Obviously, there are many more important truths regarding sexuality in the Bible to discuss and many more matters related to sexuality in our culture to address. I hope, however, these three truths help lay foundations for a positive vision of sexuality from a Christian perspective.

Your servant,