Pastoral Notes for Sunday, November 3, 2024

Dear Cornerstone family, 

At the 2024 General Assembly in Richmond, VA, I was elected to serve on the Permanent Committee of Mission to North America, which is the Presbyterian Church in America’s agency entrusted to support and oversee church planting and vitality across North America. The fall meeting of the MNA Permanent Committee was this week in Atlanta, GA.  

One particular ministry under the umbrella of MNA is Mission to State. Mission to State aims to provide spiritual guidance, support, and encouragement to those serving in government. As a service to churches in the PCA, Mission to State published a prayer guide for churches leading up to this week’s national election. I am republishing the prayer guide below in hopes that you will use it this week as you lift up prayers for our nation.  

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” —Ephesians 1:18-21  

How To Pray

  • Pray for “the eyes of your heart” to be enlightened to the reality of the immeasurable greatness of Jesus’s power.

  • Pray for a greater trust in God’s sovereignty over this election season.

  • Pray for the church as a whole to place greater trust in the rule and reign of Jesus.

  • Pray for Christ to intercede for the needs of your community.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” — 1 Timothy 2:14

How To Pray

  • Pray for all who work in government (i.e. a high position) and for those about to be elected.

  • Pray for people you know personally who work in government (consider reaching out and asking how you can pray for them specifically).

  • Pray for “a peaceful and quiet life” that is “godly and dignified in every way.”

  • Pray for those who have not come to the knowledge of the truth.

  • Pray for Christ to intercede for our elected officials and our government workers.

  • Give thanks for the good work that is being done through our government.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” ––Romans 13:1 

How To Pray

  • Pray for a peaceful election, and that all Christians would be subject to the governing authorities.

  • Pray for God to be merciful and gracious to our country.

Your servant,

 


Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 27, 2024

Dear Cornerstone family, 

On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull of which Martin Luther was the subject. The Pope cited Luther with 41 instances of doctrinal deviation from the Roman Catholic Church.  Luther had sixty days to recant or further action would be taken. 

Luther wasted no time in publishing his answer. With some pomp and publicity, Luther lit a match and burned the papal bull publicly. Luther’s in-your-face rejection of the papal bull was not received kindly by the Pope. In response, in January 1521, Luther received an edict of excommunication from the Pope. Just like that—he was no longer a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

It’s hard for modern Christians to appreciate the gravity of this action. The Roman Catholic Church was the church in Western Europe at the time. You couldn’t go down the street to the Baptist or Episcopal church because there were no Baptist or Episcopal churches. Indeed, other than the Eastern Orthodox Church, which was thousands of miles away, there was no other branch of the church to which one could affiliate. To be cut off from the Roman Catholic Church was to be completely cut off from the church. Period. End of story. Or was it?  

Luther responded to his excommunication with an excommunication of a more significant kind. The theological errors of Rome were obscuring the gospel to such a degree that Luther claimed Rome could no longer be considered a true church. Indeed, Rome’s rejection of justification by faith alone––“the article by which the church stands or falls”––was proof enough in Luther’s mind that Rome could no longer be regarded as a true church.   

To support this claim, Luther returned to the Bible’s doctrine of the church. Luther argued that the true church does not consist in its history or in its institutional structures. Rather, the true church is found wherever the true gospel is preached. “The sure mark by which the Christian congregation can be recognized is that the pure gospel is preached there. For just as the banner of an army is the sure sign by which one can know what kind of lord and army has taken the field, so too the gospel is the sure sign by which one knows where Christ and his army are encamped” (Luther’s Works, 41:231-232).

Including Luther but speaking more broadly of the Magisterial Reformers, Michael Reeves and Tim Chester said this, “It was not the Reformers who had departed from the true church. It was Rome that had departed from the true gospel…the church is the universal body of people on earth and in heaven who have been formed by the gospel. You are not saved by being a part of the church. You are a part of the church by being saved” (Why the Reformation Still Matters, p. 164-165).

In worship today, we join with thousands of churches across the world remembering and giving thanks for the truth of the gospel recovered during the Protestant Reformation. At the same time, we recognize the work of reformation is not done. Even the purest churches today are “subject to mixture and error” (WCF 25.5). And so we labor in hope, asking the Lord to continue reforming the church until a yet more glorious day dawns—the perfection of Christ’s church (Philippians 1:6).

Your servant,

 


Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 20, 2024

Dear Cornerstone family, 

On Wednesday evenings this fall, we are slowly making our way through the Lord’s Prayer. This last week we came to the series midway point to the petition, “Give us our daily bread.”

Introducing the petition, I told a story about my grandfather on my father’s side. He was not a follower of Christ, and one of the reasons why was this petition. What do I mean? To pray, “Give us our daily bread,” felt like a lie to him. “God does not give us bread,” he’d say, “Every piece of bread I’ve ever eaten I had to earn. I spent my hard-earned money for bread, eggs, milk, a house, cars, and everything else.”

Now, in a sense, my grandfather was right. He did “earn” all those things. However, in the ultimate sense, he couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Christian theology distinguishes between primary and secondary causes. To illustrate the difference, let’s consider the breakfast you ate this morning. I’m going to assume your breakfast did not fall from heaven like manna. You very likely purchased the food at the store. Then, you scrambled the eggs and made toast or poured the cereal and milk into a bowl. In other words, God used secondary causes—namely, your efforts—to provide breakfast.

But notice how I said that—God used secondary causes. Underneath all your effort, there is a primary cause: God. Because he gave you the ability, energy, know-how, and health to work, which led to getting a job, which led to getting a paycheck, which led to purchasing food, which led to you this morning preparing and enjoying a delicious breakfast. In the ultimate sense, it’s all a gift from God.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us our daily bread,” he simultaneously deconstructs the earning paradigm we operate in 90% of the time. He’s stripping away our worldly assumptions about earning and owning. It’s God saying to us, “Look at your clothes. Look at your food. Look at your home. It’s all a gift from me.”

When we really believe everything is a gift from God, our grip on money and worldly possessions loosens, and we become generous people. We start to give in the way God has given to us.

With that in mind, I want to thank you, on the behalf of the Cornerstone Leadership, for giving so faithfully to the work of ministry. Our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, which means we just closed the book on the first quarter. We finished the first quarter pretty close to on target. God is providing for Cornerstone through you!

Please take a few minutes to review the numbers below. As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to Whitney Ruff in the church office at admin@cstonepres.org.

 
 

Your servant,

 


Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 13, 2024

Dear Cornerstone family, 

October, November, and December mark out a special season in the church calendar, including many opportunities to worship together. I want to give you a heads up on these opportunities, so you can mark your calendars and fully participate in this season.

First, at the end of this month on Sunday, October 27, we will take time to remember and celebrate the Protestant Reformation. On Sunday morning at Cornerstone, we will take a break from our series in 1 Corinthians to focus on a gospel-themed text and rehearse the precious truths recovered during the Protestant Reformation. Then, we’ll regather on Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville for a special, presbytery-wide Reformation Day Service. Area pastors will lead the service and area choirs—including the Cornerstone choir—will help lead the service. This will be a special opportunity to express our solidarity with our sister churches in the Nashville Presbytery.  

Second, as many of you know, Mr. Drew Abercrombie and Mr. Sebastian Bjernegard have been working toward ordination in the Presbyterian Church in America. Both men have completed their written exams and await their oral exams with the Leadership Development Committee this week and the Presbytery in early November. Pending final approval by the Nashville Presbytery, we will gather at the chapel on Sunday evening, November 17, at 6:00 p.m. for the joint ordination service of Mr. Drew Abercrombie and Mr. Sebastian Bjernegard. We will have guests from the Nashville Presbytery as well as pastors and elders who have been instrumental to the ministerial development of Drew and Sebastian. We’ll even have cake! Immediately following the service, we will have a reception in the Fellowship Hall honoring Sebastian and Drew. Needless to say, you do not want to miss this special time.  

Third, on Sunday morning, November 24, we will have our annual Thanksgiving and Anniversary service. In God’s kind providence, the anniversary of Cornerstone and Thanksgiving coincide each year. Like we’ve done in past years, we’re carving out time on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to remember God’s faithfulness to our congregation and hear personal testimonies from Cornerstone members. It’s one of my favorite services, and I know you’ll want to be there, too.  

Finally, and hot off the press, on Sunday, December 15, Cornerstone will get the opportunity to worship together in ONE SERVICE. That’s right—for one Sunday only, we will not meet at the downtown chapel. Instead, we will gather for a special Advent service on Sunday, December 15, at 9:00 a.m. at the Fine Arts Auditorium at Battle Ground Academy. Then, we’ll come back to BGA evening at 5:00 p.m. for a special Christmas Concert with both the Cornerstone and New College Franklin choirs. More than 80 choir members will help ring in the season with Christmas classics!

I can hardly wait to see all the Lord has in store for us during this season.

Your servant,

 


Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 6, 2024

Dear Cornerstone family, 

I’m sitting at table 14 at Chick-fil-A on Hwy 96. This corner booth is serving the dual purpose of lunch spot and makeshift office. My grand plan is to get a little study done in between bites.

What are we eating today, you ask? A spicy chicken sandwich, a kale crunch salad, and a Sunjoy. Just enough flavor to please my taste buds and just enough good-for-you to please my conscience. Lord, bless Chick-fil-A.  

Well, look-a-there! It’s my old friend, Joey Smith. Great to get an update on his life, family, and work. Glad I could steal a little advice from him about the current housing market and learn he’s benefitting from the Life at the Corner podcast. Grateful. Lord, bless Joey.

You know what—this kale crunch salad is much better than you’d expect.

Bill from New Jersey just stopped by my table. He saw my Bible and journal open and surmised I was a pastor. Is it really that obvious? He and his wife, Carol, flew down for the Dove Awards. They’ve decided to extend their trip for a few days and volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse for the relief efforts in east TN and west NC. The Lord has his people everywhere. Lord, bless Bill and Carol.  

Man, a strawberry milkshake would hit the spot…better stick with the kale crunch.  

A grandmother, Michelle, sits down cattycorner to me with her 10-month-old grandson, Cane. Cute kid. She’s “daycare” for him while his mom is at work. Michelle’s husband died nearly two years ago. She misses him. It saddens her to think that Cane will never know his grandfather. “He’s going to need a father figure in his life,” speaking of Cane. Indeed, he is. Everyone is bearing a burden. Lord, bless Michelle and Cane. 

“Sir, do you need a refill?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Sunjoy—half unsweet tea, half diet lemonade, please. 

Checked my phone. Good grief, where has the time gone? I close my Bible and journal. I pack up my things and toss my trash. I walk out expressing my appreciation to the friendly staff, “My pleasure!”

As I make my way to the car, I recall a line from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together where he says something like, “We must hold our plans loosely and be ready to be interrupted by God.” That’s a good word. The unplanned interruptions of life, especially the ones that include interactions with people, aren’t obstacles to ministry but divine opportunities for ministry.

Table 14 at Chick-fil-A on Hwy 96 proved to be more than a lunch shot and makeshift office. It’s a place where God interrupted me with ministry. And I couldn’t be more thankful.

Your servant,