Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 16, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

Today in worship we’re looking at 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and the subject of spiritual gifts. As I reflected on how this subject intersects with Cornerstone, my heart swelled with thanksgiving for the literally hundreds of spiritually gifted servants God has given to us who are serving on the front lines of ministry.  

Each week, scores of volunteers are working behind the scenes welcoming visitors, making coffee, loving kids in the nursery, teaching Sunday School, prepping communion, leading musically in worship, visiting shut-ins, taking meals to the sick, discipling youth, praying for those in need, and countless other ways.

As we reported last year, more than 65% of the Cornerstone membership is involved in an identifiable area of service. That’s more than double the average percentage nationwide. For this, we give God all the glory!  

Over the last year, the Lord has drawn a host of new members into our midst. Some of you quickly found your way into an area of service in the body, but some of you are still looking for a place to serve. If you’re in that latter group, pay close attention to opportunities to serve announced in the Focus on Church Ministry Page in the bulletin. We always have needs!

It could be, however, that you need help in discerning spiritual gifts or would like to learn more about a specific ministry area in the body. If that’s you, let me encourage you to reach out to your shepherding elder and deacon to begin that discussion.

Every member at Cornerstone has a shepherding elder to help meet spiritual needs and a shepherding deacon to help meet physical needs. If you do not remember who your shepherding elder and deacon is in the body, please touch base with our Church Life Coordinator, Dan Fiedler, at dan@cstonepres.org. He would be glad to help you.

Speaking of shepherding, Cornerstone continues pressing forward in our shepherding ministry. Your elders and deacons are reaching out to you on a regular basis just to check up on you, pray for you, and learn how to better serve you. When you hear from your shepherding elder or deacon, please help them serve you by responding to their phone calls, emails, and invitations to meet with you. Your participation in the shepherding ministry of the church helps us grow together into the church the Lord has called us to be!

Finally, please go ahead and mark Sunday, April 13 on your calendar. We will have an important Cornerstone Family Meeting during the Sunday School hour that day. At that meeting, we are excited to share with you advances in our shepherding ministry and the early plans taking shape for ministry expansion. Do not miss this important meeting!

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 9, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

If you haven’t yet picked up the Cornerstone devotional, Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, for the Lenten season, do not leave today without a copy. It’s available at both entrances of the Chapel this morning. It’s our gift from us to you!

I want to publicly thank Greg Wilbur and Maxwill Shell for their leadership in pulling the devotional together and for the Cornerstone staff, officers, members, and former interns (now pastors) who wrote devotionals for this publication. It’s a beautiful testimony of the immense gifts the Lord has given to our body both presently and throughout the years. 

Speaking of Lent, if you are unfamiliar with or have negative connotations of the Lenten season, you might find the piece I wrote below for the online ministry “She Reads Truth” a helpful explanation for how we approach this season as a historically Reformed and Presbyterian church.

The grand narrative of God’s Word through history is more than a tall tale. It is a historical record of real events with real people in real places and in real time. Indeed, as Paul makes plain in his letter to the church at Corinth, if Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection did not actually take place in time and space, then all is lost. We of all people are most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:9).

God not only authored the Bible’s true story—He’s the lead actor. Behind the flood, the call of Abraham, the Exodus, the rise of King David, the exile and return of Israel, and every other redemptive act, God is present and the prime mover. On every page of the Bible, God is the hero of the story. As the author and hero of redemption, God calls His people to remember the great things He has done (Deuteronomy 8:1-3). 

One of the means God used to stir the mind and imaginations of His people to remembrance was a calendar. From the Day of Atonement to the weekly Sabbath, to the annual feasts and festivals, God calendared salvation history to help the prone-to-forgetfulness Israelites relive their redemption each year (Leviticus 23).

Rightfully so, the shadow of the Old Testament calendar faded in the bright light of Christ’s fulfillment (Colossians 2:16-17). Although God issued no new calendar requirement for the New Testament church, He gave His people the freedom to order their days while maintaining the commitment to remember the redemption of Jesus Christ (Romans 15:4-9, Galatians 3:1-14, Romans 6:5-11, 2 Peter 1:3-11).

Not as a biblical requirement but as a discipleship tool, the early church began marking the days by the life and ministry of Jesus (Advent to Ascension) and the life and ministry of His church (Pentecost to Ordinary Time). Many Christians throughout the centuries have kept the practice, finding it a helpful means of remembering and connecting to both the life of Christ and the reality of His church, reaching around the world and across generations.

In that spirit, we invite you to join us for the forty days of Lent as we prayerfully prepare for the heartbreaking and heart-mending climax of the Christian year—the crucifixion and resurrection of our Savior.

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 2, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

I’m preaching at the Missions Conference at Christ Church (PCA) in Katy, TX, this weekend where my dear friend, Rev. Fred Greco, is the pastor. I cherish your prayers for the ministry of the Word as I preach morning and evening services. I will be lifting you, the Cornerstone family, up as we worship today—especially Pastor Abercrombie as he delivers the Word from a beautifully challenging text of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 11.

I’m sad to miss the opportunity to meet prospective students and families this morning from our closest partnered ministry, New College Franklin. In 2009, New College Franklin welcomed their inaugural class of twelve students. From those humble beginnings, New College Franklin has grown steadily, attracting students from coast to coast in the United States as well as Canada.

As a classical Christian college committed to the seven liberal arts, NCF is devoted to the study of truth, beauty, and goodness wherever it is found, and to submit every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).   

Since Cornerstone’s founding in 2011, we’ve had the privilege of hosting NCF in our building. Moreover, our own Chief Musician, Mr. Greg Wilbur, is the Founder of NCF and the current Interim President, Mr. Andy Patton, is a member of Cornerstone. We also have the privilege of having many NCF professors as members of Cornerstone including Dr. Carolyn Weber, Mr. Nathan Johnson, and Mr. Brandon Spun.

I hope the prospective students and families visiting us this morning are warmly welcomed by the Cornerstone family and spiritually edified by this morning’s worship service. If you’re a prospective student or a parent of a prospective student, please know we’re delighted you’re exploring NCF. Please do not hesitate to reach out to the church office if we can help answer any questions about Cornerstone or serve you in any capacity.

Finally, tomorrow is the end of early bird pricing for A Praying Life Seminar on March 21-22! If you haven’t yet signed up, what are you waiting for? Please, please do not let this remarkable opportunity slip by you. The content you will receive in this seminar is some of the best training in prayer you’ll find anywhere. Don’t wait! Sign up today through the Cornerstone website.

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, February 23, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

One of the many joys of being a minister at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church is having the chance to work with young men and women who have interest in pursuing ministry vocationally. Though everyone’s call to ministry is different, it’s often true that interest in vocational ministry grows over time as one begins to exercise spiritual gifts and serves in the church.

To help assess a call to and aptitude for ministry, Cornerstone developed an internship program that is designed as a training ground for the work of ministry. Internship training includes but is not limited to theological, ecclesiological, and practical on-the-job ministry training. The intern will read, write, discuss, and be involved in practical ministry in order to test their head (intellectual), heart (spiritual), and hands (practical) in the work of ministry.

Over the 13 years of Cornerstone’s existence, the Lord has blessed Cornerstone with eleven interns. Currently, we have former interns serving as either pastors, counselors, or lay church workers in Oregon, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

We’ve recently added a new intern to our staff who is no stranger to Cornerstone. Mr. James Goddard joined the Cornerstone staff as a Pastoral Counseling Intern in January. James is a long-time member at Cornerstone and is actively involved in young adults and men’s ministry.

James holds a Master of Arts and Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s degree from New College Franklin in the Liberal Arts. James is a therapist who has interest in working in the context of a church. For the next year, he is spending ten hours a week on staff to explore his sense of call and gain valuable experience in working for a church. We are looking forward to seeing how James grows this year and to benefit from his training and gifts in Christian counseling.

Before I conclude, I want to remind you that last year the Finance Committee established The Seminary Student Support Fund to help provide additional support to former interns of Cornerstone who have answered the call of vocational ministry and enrolled in seminary education. As a church, we partner financially with interns pursuing vocational ministry for a portion of the costs associated with seminary education. Over the years, we’ve noticed interns often hit difficult patches financially (a medical procedure, vehicle repair, etc.) incurring significant costs beyond what they or we can provide.

To help meet this need, The Seminary Student Support Fund was created. It’s a way for you, the congregation, to give in a designated way to meet these additional needs of students. The application process, approval, and disbursements from The Seminary Student Support Fund is overseen by the Missions Committee. Only students who were interns of Cornerstone and are pursuing vocational ministry are eligible to receive help from The Seminary Student Support Fund.

In addition to your regular giving to Cornerstone, please consider a gift to this fund. When you give, designate your gift for The Seminary Student Support Fund. If you have any questions about the fund, contact our Mission’s Committee chairman, Mr. John Millard, at johnfrancmillard@gmail.com.

Your servant,

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, February 16, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

On March the 5th (Ash Wednesday), Midweek at Cornerstone kicks off. Like in the past, we’ll gather on Wednesday evenings for food, fellowship, worship, study, and choir. There will be opportunities for discipleship from the youngest to the oldest. Please go ahead now and mark your calendar.

For our evening service during Midweek, we will be in a series entitled Confronting the Sins We Tolerate. As much as we hate to admit it, there are certain sins in our lives we’ve ceased fighting. Sins with which we’ve brokered an uneasy truce. Sins that have moved into our lives and made themselves at home.

Which sins is it for you? Is it gossip? What about worry? Could it be anger, or maybe discontent? These sins are easy to pass off as no big deal, which is exactly what the Evil One wants you to do. You aren’t committing the “big sins” like murder or adultery. Compared with other people, you’re not all that bad, are you?

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, “For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. 5:11-12). In other words, sin is sin no matter if it’s big or small. Every sin is significant because it’s an affront to a holy God and is deserving of God’s wrath and punishment.

This is why James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it,” and why Paul says in Galatians 3:10, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.”  

Thankfully, we have a Savior greater than our sin, who, as the hymn writer put it, “nailed [our sin] to the cross, and we bear it no more.” Hallelujah! But just because we’ve been saved from sin doesn’t mean sin isn’t an issue anymore. Every day each of us deal with the reality of remaining sin. The penalty of sin is paid. The power of sin is broken. And yet, the presence of sin remains. Therefore, each day until we die or until Jesus returns, we must be putting sin to death and living unto the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

In the six weeks leading up to Easter, we will consider what Jerry Bridges once called “Respectable Sins”––sins we don’t think are all that sinful. The sins we let slide. In this series, we will define each sin, consider the root of each sin, and explore strategies for putting them to death. If you’re serious about “laying aside…the sins which cling so closely” (Hebrews 12:1), don’t miss this important study.

Confronting the Sins We Tolerate 

·      3/5 – Pride and Selfishness 

·      3/12 – Discontent and Restlessness

·      3/19 – Anger and Frustration

·      3/26 – Anxiety and Worry 

·      4/2 – Envy and Jealousy 

·      4/9 – Gossip and Slander 

Your servant,