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.

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, September 24th, 2017

I wanted to take a few minutes today to update you on a few moves the Leadership made to strengthen our staff and better care for you!

First, we welcomed Miss Anneke Seely to our staff back in August. Anneke is no stranger to many of you. Originally from Wisconsin, Anneke first joined the Cornerstone community in 2015 when she moved to middle Tennessee to study at New College Franklin. Almost as soon as she landed, Anneke began playing viola in worship and teaching children in Sunday School. Anyone who knows Anneke has witnessed her sweet countenance, industrious spirit, and servant’s heart. Anneke was brought on part time to assist Rev. Tony Giles, our Assistant Pastor, and Mr. Greg Wilbur, our Worship Director & Chief Musician in the area of Discipleship. We’re absolutely thrilled to have her on the team!

Second, some of you will remember that our dear sister and long time Nursery Coordinator, Linda VanGorden, moved to Florida in late spring to care for her aging parents. To fill an immediate need, Mrs. Christy Shurden (my wife!) was hired on an interim basis to get us through the summer and consider a more permanent solution. As the summer drew to a close, the Personnel Committee had interest in retaining Christy in the role, and Christy expressed desire in that way as well. To that end, the Personnel Committee recommended Christy to remain in the role of Nursery Coordinator for the foreseeable future. I’m pleased to report that the motion was passed unanimously. 

Finally, let me note that the role of our beloved Assistant Pastor, Tony Giles, has shifted slightly at Cornerstone. As many of you know, Tony is an eager servant of the Lord with a wide range of gifts. Because of that, he is sometimes asked by other churches and organizations to serve as a consultant or coach–especially in the area of leadership development. You’ll remember that during this last year, as a very part time aspect of his role at Cornerstone, we “loaned” Tony to assist Grace Community Church (GCC), a sister PCA church in Asheville, NC. GCC was passing through a difficult season as a congregation, and Tony was able to step in and provide some much-needed staff and leadership support while they searched for a Senior Pastor.

Good news! GCC now has a new Senior Pastor. His name is Patrick Lafferty, and he preached his first sermon there just a handful of Sundays ago. With Patrick coming on as Senior Minister, Tony’s role at GCC came to a close. But, the work at GCC confirmed for Tony a sense of calling to the work of assisting churches as a coach in leadership development. In order to give a small margin of his time to the work of coaching, Tony requested that we reduce his hours from full time to three-quarters time this year. Thankfully, we were able to make a few small adaptations to Tony’s workload in a way that gave him some margin to continue serving other churches as a coach without diminishing his ministry impact at Cornerstone.

Recently, a church in Nashville, Village Chapel, sought out Tony for a little coaching help. Tony will be working with their staff one day a week for the next six months. As a kick off to his ministry, Tony is actually preaching at Village Chapel this morning. Continue to pray for our brother as he faithfully spends himself for the Kingdom!

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, September 17th

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no God.”—Isaiah 45:5             

There was a new psychological study conducted earlier this year that suggested Americans are more stressed, depressed, and anxiety-ridden than they’ve ever been. According to the study, the last 30 years have been tough on Americans as anxiety related disorders have risen by more than 1,200 percent. The study went on to suggest that the fast-paced, high demand culture we live in is the primary cause—while noting that other studies point to increases of technology use coinciding with the weakening of social bonds as other leading factors. There’s certainly much to be said for the cumulative effect of these realities on the health of our psyche.

If I’m honest with myself, I can see how these realities shape my own felt experience of life. When I’m discouraged, I often find it’s because I’ve shredded the normal God-created boundaries for healthy life. I’ve filled my schedule with far more than I can ever do, stretching the margins of my energies and capacities. Day after day, getting up hours before dawn and then not shutting down until hours after dusk. Often as a consequence, I don’t make good food decisions or get enough sleep. I neglect the gym and fail to make time for rest and recreation.       

Now, like most people, I can get away with living this way for a while, and let’s face it—sometimes life requires such sacrifices. Eventually, however, if I keep this up, it begins to catch up with me. The backaches and headaches show up. Lethargy begins to take over. Pervasive feelings of emptiness and numbness present themselves. Spiritually, nagging doubts creep in and intense temptations show up out of nowhere. If I see any mix of these things, I’ve learned (or am learning), it’s time to press pause and perform a self-audit.

A few years ago I went on a Jim Collins reading kick—starting with his mega bestseller, Good To Great, and finishing that run with How the Mighty Fall. One little phrase in that latter book, How the Mighty Fall, really stuck out to me. He said that companies often fail because of, “…the undisciplined pursuit of more.” That word undisciplined caught me. I started to reflect on it. For me, undisciplined looked like saying, “yes” to things that I really ought to say, “no” to.

David Murray in his excellent little book, Reset, cites the minimalist expert Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism where he says, “We need to learn the slow ‘yes’ and the quick ‘no.’” The slow yes is a yes that stops and ponders priorities, purpose, and capacities. The slow yes asks questions like: “Is this within my calling?” “Is this worthwhile?” “Do I have the time, energy, and resource to give this the attention it deserves?” I’m learning how to do this better than I’ve done before, and I can see, and even feel, the difference.

One of my biggest, besetting sin-tendencies is to think I’m God. It’s subconscious, of course, and I’d never say it that way in so many words. But, if you had an inside track on my life, you’d spot me all the time trying to live like I’m infinite, boundary-less, and self-sufficient. What a joke! By God’s grace, I’m continuing to learn (and re-learn) that first, fundamental, and always relevant principle of theology: “There is a God, and I am not him.” And that’s a very good thing.

 

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, September 10th, 2017

I don’t have to tell you that the American landscape is shifting. This is particularly true when it comes to religion, Christianity especially. More and more these days, North American Christians find themselves on the losing side of public opinion. From issues of human dignity to sexuality to religious liberty, traditional Christian belief and practice is perceived by much of popular culture as out of touch, at best, and dangerous, at worst.

Many debate the reasons for why this shift has happened. Was it the negligence of previous generations? Was it the moral laxity of the church? Was it when prayer was taken out of school? Was it Roe v. Wade? Was it the infiltration of postmodern philosophy in the academy? Was it the growing influence of liberal theology? Was it the encroachment and now ubiquity of technology? The list goes on and on.

Many others debate on what we should do in response to this shift. Over the last several decades, many have tried to stem the tide of secularism and return to some golden age of American Christianity. From church rallies to moral majorities, think tanks to social action groups, the most earnest attempts haven’t gained the kind of traction needed to shift the culture or turn back time.

Maybe you’re one of the millions of Christians wondering, “What do we do now?”

Russell Moore in his book Onward suggests that the increasing marginalization of Christianity in present day America is an opportunity, not an obstacle. We don’t have to clench our fists or wring our hands, for it’s possible that the eroding of American culture is God’s way of “…rescuing American Christianity from itself” (p.7).

God’s mercy to Israel often came in the form of exile. Whether slaves in Egypt, refugees in Babylon or first century Christians in Rome, it has been typical for Christians to live as “strangers and exiles on earth” (Hebrews 11:13). We are citizens of heaven after all (Philippians 3:20), so it shouldn’t be strange that we don’t always feel at home on earth. In fact, if you feel out of place because of your faith in Jesus Christ, that’s quite possibly a good sign. Truth is, we’ve been made for another world, and this otherworldly citizenship is the means through which the disciple-making mission of Jesus is to be carried out in the world (Matthew 28:16-20).

Believing that it’s mission-critical for Christians to be regularly discipled in how to be and make disciples, I started a sermon series in the spring of this year entitled, “Portraits of Discipleship.” In that series, we took a three-week look at the lively discussion between Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4. We worked slowly through the passage, pausing long at key moments in the text in hopes to glean important principles and practices for discipleship.

At the end of those three weeks, I mentioned that I wanted to return to this series off and on over the next several years in order to keep our hearts set toward the priority of discipleship. Starting with Lee Leadbetter’s fine message on Acts 17 last week, we’re reentering that series for a few week, looking at the portrait of discipleship that Paul gives us on Mars Hill in Athens. My hope is that today’s message will make important cultural, spiritual, and communicative observations from Acts 17:16-34 in order that we might gain the necessary wisdom and skill to be faithful disciple-makers in our time.   

Pastoral Notes - Sunday, September 3, 2017

Last week in the Pastoral Notes I mentioned three big repairs/upgrades needed on the church property—a church sprinkler system as required by the Franklin Fire Marshall, a landscape redesign, and the restoration of the stained-glass windows.

As you can tell this morning, the restoration of the stained-glass windows has officially begun! Emmanuel Studios of Nashville removed the windows early last week and then sealed the window openings with plywood and covered it with a full-size color rendering of the windows that you see today. If all goes according to plan, the windows will be restored and reinstalled in roughly three months.  

The other two significant upgrades on the horizon are a church sprinkler system and a landscape redesign. First, the sprinkler system is a safety requirement from the Fire Marshall to protect the safety of persons in case of a fire. The sprinkler system will run throughout the building except for the chapel proper. The reason for not putting a sprinkler system in the chapel is cost and likely source of fire. The most likely place for a fire to begin is in the basement underneath the chapel. Because of that, we’re going to sprinkler the basement instead, which is much cheaper and will preserve the beauty of the chapel itself.

As you’d suspect, this is an expensive project. Some of our initial estimates were over a $100,000 dollars. Based on negotiations with the Fire Marshall and slight adjustments in the initial plans, we’re now estimating the cost of the whole project will be in the $75,000 range. 

It’s possible that number could come down even more. As some of you read in the paper several months back, the owners of the popular restaurant “Biscuit Love” in Nashville recently bought Lillie Bells, the antebellum home to the right of the chapel. We found out that the Fire Marshall is requiring Biscuit Love to put in a sprinkler system, too. We reached out to the owners to find ways we could share costs related to tying into the city water main. If these plans come together and are given final approval by the city, we may be able to save some more money on this project. Please pray to that end!

Finally, we’ve had an active Landscape Team exploring ways we can upgrade the appearance and usability of our landscape. This team has been working with the Franklin Historic Society on landscape designs and materials. I’m pleased to announce that just last week our proposal received final approval from the city of Franklin! There’s still much work to be done to price out the project, but we’re in the clear to begin work on the project as soon as we’re ready. A huge thanks to the Landscape Team for their many hours of work! We couldn’t have made it this far without them.

Like the stained-glass restoration, the upgrade on the landscape is an unbudgeted expense. It will require designated gifts from the congregation to make it happen! In the days to come, we’ll share more with you about this project and how you can contribute. In addition to financial gifts, there will also be ways for us to band together in “sweat equity” in order to beautify the church property, as well as increase outside gathering spaces and fellowship areas. We’ll keep you posted as these matters progress!