Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 29, 2017

A few weeks ago we rolled out a new children’s bulletin as a means of assisting our covenant children in the worship of God. It’s been super fun stopping by the pews during pre-service and seeing so many children poised for worship with their new bulletin in hand.

We so appreciate your early enthusiasm and positive feedback about the bulletin! If there are ways you think we can improve it, we’re all ears. Please contact our Children’s Coordinator, Martha Brooks, at elementary@cstonepres.org, if you have thoughts or ideas to share.

As important as weekly worship is to a child’s spiritual growth, it is not enough. A child’s spiritual upbringing requires more than getting kids to church. We must encourage and train our covenant children to walk with the Lord personally on a daily basis.

Toward that end, there are two books on the Book Shelf that are designed to do just that.

·      First, The Biggest Story ABC is beautiful little board book teaches our youngest children the unfolding of the biblical story while utilizing the alphabet. Starting with Adam and finishing with Zion, children are exposed to the sweep of redemptive history in a fun and whimsical way. If you have children or grandchildren who are 1-5 years of age, do not miss this volume! 

·      Second, Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids is designed for children 6-12 years old. Going deeper into the Bible’s story, this volume trains children in how to read the Bible while cultivating the godly habit of daily Bible intake. In an easy to follow and interactive workbook format, children will read small sections from the Bible, memorize a key verse each week, and develop “prayer points” for conversing with God. What I love about this volume is that it lays the necessary foundations for a child to develop a lifetime commitment of reading God’s Word and discovering the beauty of the redemptive story.  

Do yourself a favor and take a moment this morning to check out these titles and the dozens of other great titles at the Book Shelf on the second-floor landing. 

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, October 22nd, 2017

Let it be noted—Colorado is amazing.

For those of you that may have missed last week’s Pastoral Notes, Christy and I took our daughter, Katie, on a twelve-year-old birthday trip to a ranch in Colorado last weekend. We rode horses, fished, and soaked up the mountain vistas complete with the Aspen trees aflame with color. It was truly spectacular.

More than the activities or environs, it was the occasion—a birthday—that made this time so special. The older I get the more I appreciate birthday celebrations, not just mine but others. Writing that just now feels a bit strange, since birthday celebrations are more often associated with the young. I guess what I mean is that the passing of a year means more to me now than it used to, and so marking that time with some sort of celebration carries more significance than it once did.

I’m struck by the fact that when we celebrate a birthday, we’re not honoring an achievement like a graduation. In an occasion like that we’re saying, “Look at what you’ve done! Let’s celebrate!” But when it comes to a birthdays, we’re celebrating the person. We’re saying, “Look at you! Your life matters to us. We’re grateful that you are you.” There’s something really powerful and grace giving about such an experience. 

Birthdays are also a yearly opportunity to reflect on God’s lavish goodness. It’s appropriate on a birthday to look back and recount God’s provisions, preservations, and promotions over the last year. For the one having the birthday, it’s an opportunity to pause and say to God, “I don’t take this life for granted. Thank you for giving me the gift of life.”

When you think of birthdays in this way, it makes sense why Jesus chose to use birth as a metaphor for salvation in John 4. That unless we are “born again” we can’t even see the kingdom of God. And just like in normal birthdays, we’re celebrating the person—the person of Jesus Christ. But unlike our birthdays, we’re also celebrating not just the person—but what he’s done, the salvation he’s won for us. We’re saying, “Look at you! Look at what you’ve done! You are my life and my salvation. I owe it all to you.”

As we gather for worship, we are, in a sense, remembering and rehearsing together the new birth we share in Jesus Christ. We are saying to God, “I don’t take this life for granted. Thank you for giving me the gift of life—the real, true, abundant life that is only found in Jesus Christ.” More than any other birth, the new birth is one worth celebrating. Not just once a year but every day.

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, October 15th, 2017

If all has gone according to plan, I’m tucked away somewhere deep in the Rocky Mountains with my wife, Christy, and my 12-year old daughter, Katie, this morning. As some of you know, sweet Katie turned 12 last week, and when you turn 12 in the Shurden household, you get to do something special—you get to take a trip with Dad and Mom to somewhere in the U.S. for a few days.

Katie loves horses and spending time in nature, and so as we began to talk with her about a trip, she thought a few days on a dude ranch sounded like a great way to ring in #12. So, about six months ago, we booked a long weekend at Lost Valley Ranch in Sedalia, CO. If you’re reading this on Sunday morning, we’re likely a bit sore from the weekend of trail rides and square dances. But more than physical soreness, I trust we’re full of thanksgiving for the time we shared and the memories we made celebrating the life of Katie.

Before I go, I want to give you a quick financial update. Our budget year as a congregation runs from July 1 to June 30. That means we’ve just closed out the first quarter of the 2017-2018 budget year, and we want to keep you up to speed on our fiscal health as a congregation. Below you will find a breakdown of where things stand financially at present. Please take time to review it and feel free to e-mail our Office Administrator, Susan Bumpus, at susan@cstonepres.org, if you have any particular questions.

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Pastoral Notes - Sunday, October 8th, 2017

Martha Brooks, Children’s Ministry Coordinator, gave an encouraging children’s ministry update last week in worship. In her update, she announced the creation of a new ministry resource for parents and children—a weekly Children’s Worship Bulletin. Her content was so good that I asked Martha to write the Pastoral Notes this week, so that those who missed her report could catch the vision for this new ministry tool.

It was such a delight to get to share a little with you about our new Children’s Worship Bulletin in service last Sunday. While I can talk to children all day long, speaking to adults is a different matter! Thank you for your grace as I attempted to outline our hopes for this new tool.

I want to reiterate how much we welcome children, with all the noise and chatter and life they bring to worship. We are not choosing to include them in corporate worship, the central act of our covenant community, for what they can get out of it. Nobody’s three year old is taking sermon notes and neither are most twelve year olds. Even as adults, worship is never about what we can get out of it. It is about the worship we offer to our Lord. Choosing to include children in the service makes a powerful statement to them about that 90 minute segment of our week: it is important, it is formative, it is necessary. We want to set high expectations that children can participate, they can offer worship to Jesus Christ, and that what they offer is necessary to the life of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church. It says to them,  “You are not only welcome, you are needed!” which Jesus himself said in Matthew 19:14.

Preston and I well remember the days of our girls lolling about the pews, crawling underneath to retrieve dropped cheerios, kicking the pew of the older couple in front of us, and the humiliation of walking out with a screaming child. #thestruggleisreal for those of you in the throes of parenting small children. It is the desire of the children’s ministry to help you make the transition, to work with you, to offer you tools and time, and to walk alongside you as you teach your kids about worship. The Children’s Worship Bulletin is a first step, designed to draw the children into the worship service, not distract them from it. Please pray for us as a Children’s Ministry team and for your pastors as we are looking toward and planning for more ways to help teach our covenant children to worship.    

If you aren’t a parent of preschool or school-aged children but have stuck with me to the end, let me encourage you to give a smile to a struggling mom and dad. Get to know the children in the pew sitting next to you: ask them their age, their school, their favorite thing that happened this week. Throw a bag of crayons in your purse or pocket to pull out and offer. Interest from an adult who isn’t their parent makes children feel so important. And when you feel distracted by the children around you, PRAY. Pray for the child who keeps bumping you or is tussling with his brother or the parent doing the walk of shame with the toddler throwing a tantrum. Children require patience, and prayer is the greatest tool we have.

Please contact me anytime to discuss this or any matter further. I am very excited about what the Lord is doing at Cornerstone and thrilled I get to be a part of it. I covet your prayers as I continue seeking the Lord for clear direction and leading in the Children’s Ministry.           

Grace,

Martha

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, October 1st, 2017

There’s something special about October.

The county fair arrived in my small Mississippi town every October. I’d circle the dates on the refrigerator calendar and mark with stars “arm band nights” where for one low price I could ride all night long. Needless to say, it was a boy’s dream. After spinning, racing, twisting, and falling through the air on the rides, I’d park myself under a tent floored with sawdust and wash down all that excitement with a sausage dog and a coke. After that, I’d waste my last $5 on a bag of homemade taffy before calling it a night.

I started falling in love with Christy in October 1998. The first time we ever held hands was on the Ferris wheel at that same county fair. I knew right then that there was something special about that girl. At 19, I thought it was her beautiful blue eyes. It was, of course. But I’ve learned over the years that it was a lot more than her eyes.

There really is something special about October.

It’s no surprise to me that one of the greatest renewal movements of church history happened in October. On All Hallows Eve 1517, an Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther changed the course of history with a hammer, a nail, and 95 Theses. Well, that may be overstating things a bit. It didn’t happen quite that fast, nor did Luther set out to change the course of history. His aspirations were far more humble. He simply wanted to see the church return to the Scripture as the ultimate authority for faith and practice, and in so doing, be restored to a right (biblical) understanding of the gospel.

This October is even more special than most. For this October, we celebrate the five-hundred year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. For the five Sundays of October, we’re going back to the foundations of the Reformation’s teaching to study what is commonly referred to as “The Five Solas of the Reformation”

·      Oct. 1 – “Scripture Alone” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

·      Oct. 8 – “Faith Alone” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

·      Oct. 15 – “Grace Alone” (Romans 3:21-23)

·      Oct. 22 – “Christ Alone” (Acts 4:11-12 & 1 Timothy 2:5)

·      Oct. 29 – “The Glory of God Alone” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Take time to prepare your heart each week by reading and meditating on the Scripture passages above. Further, commit to pray for this series with boldness and expectation. By God’s grace, let’s pray that October 2017 will share, in some very real sense, the gospel power of October 1517.