Dear Cornerstone Family,
I want to take a moment today to relay some encouraging news on the officer nomination process that we began at the beginning of 2020. As you’ll likely recall, we opened up a nomination season for elder and deacon on Sunday, January 19th and closed nominations on Sunday, February 2nd. During that two-week nomination season, we received more nominations for office than we’ve ever received before! Fifteen different men received nominations; many men receiving 3, 4, or even 5 nominations.
As encouraging as it was to see a strong number of nominations, what was more encouraging was to see the quality of character of the men nominated. In reading through your nomination forms, it was clear that you carefully considered the qualifications for officership from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 as you submitted your nominations. Thank you for taking the Scripture’s teaching on officership seriously and for setting forward qualified men for the office of elder and deacon!
After nominations closed, contacts with all the men were made, and, after a brief season of prayerful evaluation, ten men accepted the nomination and agreed to enter officer training. Those ten men are Matt Faulk, Dan Fiedler, Will Kesler, John Millard, Ron Moffat, Wes Pittman, Brent Roberts, Matt Suits, Casey Taggart, and Carl Ware. Please pray for these men as they enter officer training and for the Lord to confirm His direction—one way or another—as they pursue His face for wisdom and direction.
Finally, it was a heartbreaking week in middle Tennessee. Early Tuesday morning an E-3 tornado and E-4 tornado left a path of destruction 50 miles long extending from the Germantown neighborhood in northwest Nashville to Cookeville, TN. We’ve all seen the pictures of the destruction and prayed for the families of the 25 people (so far) confirmed dead.
In addition to prayers, a team of folks from Cornerstone have been working with the PCA Mission to North America (MNA) Disaster Relief Ministry and other local PCA churches to find the best ways to serve the victims and assist with the clean-up effort. Cornerstone has set up a designated fund for Tornado Disaster Relief. All designated funds given to Cornerstone will go directly to the MNA Disaster Relief Fund, which will go to meet immediate needs of members, friends, and neighbors of sister PCA churches affected by the storm.
If you would like to personally volunteer to serve with the clean-up effort, we recommend you visit Hands On Nashville at www.hon.org. Hands On Nashville works closely with the City of Nashville and the Office of Emergency Management to ensure that volunteers and resources are channeled to the people and places in most need.
More opportunities will be available in the days to come for us to partner with other local PCA churches and ministries for short term relief teams. Please pay close attention to our midweek e-mail and other special communications from Cornerstone as together we pray for and serve our beloved city.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Nate