Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 11, 2020
I asked Martha Brooks, one of the leaders of the Women’s Ministry, to give an update and a preview into this upcoming season of women’s events.
Dear Cornerstone Family,
I’ve joked in the past about me always being up front, making the announcement, drumming up “business,” but in reality, the Women’s Ministry has an incredible team of women working behind the scenes—praying, planning, teaching—doing All The Things to push the women of Cornerstone towards Jesus. Two fairly new additions to the team are Rebecca Griffith and Rachel Taggart, who just happen to know each other from their “past” lives. They were an obvious choice to plug into Women’s Ministry somewhere, and Women’s Events fit the bill! In the church where they previously worshiped, they had an evening where they heard from other women within the body who could speak to a time when their life had a specific focus – a season, if you will.
It feels like our lives are a continuous changing of the seasons. We just get used to the way things are, and then suddenly everything is different again. When a change comes, our natural instinct is to go looking for someone who has been there and done that. Someone who can tell us the top ten tips and best books to read. Since the early 2000s, there has been a plethora of ways to get this information. We can just type “potty training” or “moving to Seattle” or “wrestling a python” into the google box, and literally millions of results pop up in seconds. Strangers who have been there, and done that, and are anxious to share their wisdom with the world via blog, Instagram, podcast, YouTube, and on and on.
Is this bad? Not really. Ten years ago, I needed all the best tips for potty training. Once I may/may not have asked the internet “What to do when your husband’s fantasy football league is making you crazy.” Recently my searches have been along the lines of “when is it wise for my teen to open a snapbook/facegram/tiktok/whatever account?” Sometimes I find exactly what I need, so, yay, Internet! But.
If you had asked my Grandmas for tips, they would have had a wealth of information to share, no google required. They worked at office jobs and reared families of five, had husbands who travelled, figured out how to make the ends meet, moved towns and started over. They both buried children, and one became a widow while she still had young kids. They could have written some blog posts sure to go viral with their titles: “How to have Five Children in Six Years and Remember All their Names” or “Disciplining Your Strong-Willed Son When He Abandons His Sister in a Rowboat in the Middle of the Bayou.” They had been there. They did that.
As I look around our church body, I see so many unique women in different stages of life, of multiple generations, doing life in all different ways. But one thing that I know is true about all these women: there are stories behind those faces. Every woman here has been there and done that for a particular season: had a marriage in crisis, cared for an elderly parent, been a full time CEO, been a full-time CEO of laundry, been sick, had a newborn, wished they had a newborn, known real fear, borne deep grief, grappled with disappointment. I want to hear from and be discipled by these women—the women in the Cornerstone church family.
Actually, that’s the way God designed it. We are each different parts of the same family, and we are each necessary (1 Corinthians 12). We are to teach the others in our midst who are coming along the path we’ve already travelled (Titus 2). And we are not to neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). Facebook can be great, but let’s look into each other’s faces.
Join the Women’s Ministry as we embark on a season – a season where we share these “Seasons of Life.” Our first installment will be on the patio at Biscuit Love, October 22, at 6:30 p.m. We will enjoy sweet fellowship, drink coffee and eat desserts, and learn from women in our community who have been there and done that. We want to use these seasons for the glory of God—to use what God carried us through to encourage others in what they are walking through as we collectively strain forward to what lies ahead: the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Grace,
Martha Brooks
Pastoral Notes for Sunday, October 4, 2020
Dear Cornerstone Family,
Last week in Sunday School, we considered how holding together the key biblical-theological categories of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration establishes proper expectations for and wise Christian engagement with culture.
We said, in short, because of the original goodness of creation, it’s right for us to have a deep love for, care of, and engagement with creation and culture, eagerly embracing all that accords with biblical Christianity. But because the fall is a pervasive reality, infiltrating every aspect of creation and culture, we must, at the same time, be wise, cautious, and even suspicious at times in our engagement with creation and culture, ready to reject all that is out of step with biblical Christianity.
Further, because the reality of redemption is afoot, we have confidence to labor for truth, beauty, and goodness (righteousness) in the world with the expectation that God will advance His kingdom and use our endeavors as He pleases. But because the final restoration/consummation is still in the future, we work with humility and hope knowing that Christ will return and make everything right, but we won’t see the complete removal of sin and its effects until that happens.
Now, I didn’t say this last week, but it needs to be said. If we hold these four biblical-theological truths and allow them to increasingly control our thinking and engagement, we are increasingly kept from the polls of naïve triumphalism and faithless cynicism. Let me unpack that.
Naïve triumphalism thinks, “If all Christians pull together and use their collective energies to make a difference for Christ in the world, we will win the culture.” Notice, this thought pattern is confident, knowing the power of the gospel and assurance of the coming (future) restoration, but it underestimates the reality of the fall and the power of sin in the world.
Faithless cynicism thinks, “Sin and corruption are such powerful forces in the world that no matter what we do things are never really going to change.” This thought pattern is humble, keenly aware of the reality of the fall, but it’s missing the power of the gospel to bring about the change God promises.
Both positions above fail to hold all four realities together. But if we hold the four realities together, we’re steadied with wisdom and equipped with love for engaging with the world. On the one hand, we’re humble, because we know we can’t make change happen or bring in the kingdom in our own strength, but on the other hand, we’re hopeful because we know God is redeeming the world and will one day bring everything to rights. Further, we have courage to act because we know God promises to use His people’s efforts to bring about change, but we’re simultaneously submissive and patient looking to God to work in his way and time to bring about the change He’s promised.
Today in Sunday School we’ll go a bit further discussing convictional kindness. In the next few weeks, we’ll explore the practice of speaking the truth in love, making a case for Christian civility. Come and join us as we learn how to bear witness for the gospel in a world at odds.
Your servant,
Bulletin for Sunday, October 4, 2020
Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 27, 2020
Dear Cornerstone Family,
“People don't talk much about the Spanish Influenza, but that was a terrible thing... It was like a war. It really was. One funeral after another, right here in Iowa. We lost so many of the young people. And we got off pretty lightly.
People came to church wearing masks, if they came at all. They’d sit as far from each other as they could. There was talk that the Germans had caused it with some sort of secret weapon, and I think people wanted to believe that, because it saved them from reflecting on what other meaning it might have.” (p. 41)
The lines above are from Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Gilead. Written in 2004, Robinson could not have known that in 2020 we would be facing a pandemic complete with mask wearing and international drama regarding who’s to blame. But as the ole saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
History is a great teacher. By knowing history and the nature of things, Robinson wrote a piece of historical fiction that mirrored the future, which reminds us that our time is not nearly as unique as we think it is.
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”—Ecclesiastes 1:9
What struck me most about Robinson’s lines this time (I’ve read the book three times) was how we search for explanations and people to blame when tragedy happens. It’s only natural. When a crime is committed, family members want to find out who did it and why. They want a face, name, and explanation. They want to know who is at fault. They want them to pay. To have these things will bring about some peace they suppose.
We’re no different when big tragedies strike. Just watch the news: “COVID-19 is an attack by China! Dr. Fauci and the CDC have made things worse! Trump mishandled the virus. He is to blame!”
Robinson suggests a better way. Instead of grasping for human explanations and pinning blame, let’s consider “what other meaning it might have.” For it might be that COVID-19 is the instrument of Someone who is mightily at work in a mysterious way (Isaiah 55:8-9), who is ordering all of human existence according to His good and sovereign will (Ephesians 1:11) for the good of His people (Romans 8:28) and the glory of His name (Romans 11:36).
In the final analysis, COVID-19 is God’s virus, and He will do with it exactly what He determines to do with it. Thankfully, He’s clear in the Scripture on exactly the kind of things He’s determined to do—we’re not left in the dark during tragedy. So, let’s move from finger pointing to raised palms and begin tracing this tragedy to the purposes of God revealed in Scripture. For the sooner we do, the sooner our minds and hearts have the chance to see “what other meaning” is afoot.
Your servant,
Bulletin for Sunday, September 27, 2020
Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 20, 2020
Dear Cornerstone Family,
Coming out of last week’s sermon, I had a number of folks ask me about strategies for getting away with God for an extended period of time. Sometime in the next few weeks, I plan to take time to write about the historic Christian practice of retreat and discuss a few commitments I’ve made over the years for extended communion with God that have made a big difference. If that interests you, and I hope it does, watch this space!
That said, the problem we often face is not so much carving out the time to be alone with God but staying present and attentive to God when you’re alone with Him. To be honest, I find this to be the bigger challenge!
Along this line, I ran across the phrase “cultivated inattention” this week in an article Jordan Peters wrote in Local Culture. It’s a phrase the late Christopher Lasch coined to describe technology’s formative impact on human psyche. Lasch argued that the more exposure to technological mediums, especially the sensory stimulating encounters of video games, movies, etc. the more our minds are bent toward escaping from rather than engaging with reality.
Neil Gabler calls this phenomenon being “sensationalized.” According to Gabler, we are “sensationalized” when our attention can be held in almost trance-like devotion during some technological encounter, but we’re unable to sit still on the porch and listen to the rain fall for ten minutes or read a book for a half hour without checking our phone. It’s not just that we lose interest in reality, though that is true, too. It’s that our minds are increasingly unable to maintain the attention needed to engage with the real world in a sustained and meaningful way.
As a culture, we are like Cypher in the 1999 hit move The Matrix. He knows he’s inside a simulated reality that has no meaning in itself, but he has no desire to get out of it because the simulated reality gives him the escape his mind wants—escape from the troubles and challenges of the real world.
It is true; we must escape. As we saw last week, Jesus escaped from the crowd in Mark 1:35. He didn’t, however, escape into a simulated, artificial world. Rather, he escaped into ultimate reality. That is, he ran toward the thing most real and true—namely, His Father. This is the kind escape we need. When was the last time you escaped with God?
As you ponder that question, remember this: your attention is a valuable gift. You only have so much of it to give, and the world is jockeying for it in a thousand different ways. Take inventory of the things that are getting your attention. Then consider what are the things that are really worth your attention? Finally, what would it take for you to be more attentive to the things that deserve your attention? Don’t answer quickly. Sit with these questions for a while. Better yet, escape to ultimate reality by sitting with God and praying through these matters. Who knows? You might find time with God was the answer all along.
Your servant,
Bulletin for Sunday, September 20, 2020
Pastoral Notes for Sunday, September 13, 2020
Dear Cornerstone family,
Today is an important day in the life of our congregation! At the conclusion of each worship service this morning, we will immediately enter into a congregational meeting for the election of new officers. If you are a communing member of Cornerstone, we urge you to participate in today’s officer election. Through your vote, we believe God is confirming the call of new shepherd leaders at Cornerstone.
Because we’re meeting for election three different times, we will not be able to announce the outcome of the election this morning. After the final election and votes are tabulated, the election results will be emailed out to the membership of Cornerstone later today.
In other news, I’d like to publicly thank our staff for the hard work they’ve put into drafting additional COVID-19 guidelines as we expand in-person ministries. If you’ve not yet reviewed our expanded in-person ministry guidelines, please do so before the start of Sunday School next Sunday, September 20. It’s especially important that families with children who plan to participate in Sunday School read the guidelines before you attend next week. You can find a link to the guidelines on the front page of our church website and app.
Also, please note that next Sunday is the beginning of our new Sunday morning schedule. We will worship at 8 a.m. (50% capacity), 10:45 a.m. (75% capacity), and 12:30 p.m. (50 % capacity and mask required) with Sunday School at 9:45 a.m. We are maintaining our current worship guidelines and capacities through September 20. We will continue to evaluate things from week to week and make changes as wisdom and expediency dictates. Please stay tuned into the latest information from Cornerstone!
Finally, will you pray for the church? Even now, would you pause and pray?
Pray God would broaden the reach our ministry (Matt. 28:29-20)
Pray God would strengthen our faith and commitment (Heb. 11:6)
Pray God would give us joy and perseverance during trials (James 1:12)
Pray we would submit to God in all things and resist the devil (James 4:7)
Pray we would devote ourselves to reading the Scriptures and to prayer (Acts 2:42)
Pray we would live lives of loving sacrifice for one another (1 John 3:16-28)
Pray we would grow daily in astonishment of God’s love for us (Psalm 103:11-12)
Pray that we would pray in faith knowing that God hears and answers (1 John 5:13-15)
Your servant,
