Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 17, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

At the beginning of G.K. Chesterton’s biography of William Blake, he says that the start of a man’s life is not his birthday but the words, ‘In the beginning, God...” Chesterton’s point is well taken. The divine things are the permanent things, as T.S. Elliot would say. That the life of men and nations can’t be understood by looking to men and nations but can only be understood––truly understood––with reference to God. God—and his active presence in the world—is the key. It is the most important fact of every person’s life whether we acknowledge it or not.

That last note––whether we acknowledge it or not––has struck a chord with me this week. As you’re probably aware, the spiritual landscape in Scotland and England is very dark. Depending on whose statistics you believe, only 5-6% of the entire population would identify as evangelical Christian. That is a very sad statistic, especially given the spiritual heritage of the Scots and English. It could be argued that no two countries have God used more in the last 500 years for the spread of the gospel, but, sadly, those days are long gone.

In spending time with Dr. Iver Martin, President of Edinburgh Theological Seminary, this week, he remarked that Scotland has become so post-Christian that it’s almost pre-Christian. That is, that the rising generation in Scotland is so thoroughly unaware of Christianity that it can’t be said Christianity is even a reference point culturally. Though it’s hard to speak generally about such things, and these things are very difficult to measure, it has the ring of truth to me. Beautiful churches throughout the cities are more often used for museums or pubs than worship. Just this last year, the Church of Scotland began a mission to cut the number of their churches in half over the next five years. They simply do not have the funds to maintain churches with minuscule numbers.

To be honest, the Church of Scotland closing churches doesn’t, in many cases, affect the gospel witness in Scotland. Sadly, the Church of Scotland on the whole has become so theologically liberal that in most cases the foundational truths of the Scripture have been jettisoned for a progressive faith committed to maintaining the culture’s values.

Thankfully, the only churches growing in Scotland and England are the ones committed to the Bible’s teaching and historic Christianity. It was so encouraging to hear from Derek Lamont, Senior Pastor at St. Columba’s in Edinburgh, about their church planting efforts. They have planted three churches in the last 20 years of ministry and are working toward a fourth congregation. Though the growth is slow, it’s steady and deeply encouraging. People are coming to know the Lord. People are returning to church after decades of estrangement. In the midst of the darkness, the light still shines.

If Chesterton is right, if “In the beginning, God” is the most important reality, then we must be committed to share about our God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world, to those around us. As our own country becomes increasingly secular and antagonistic to the gospel, we must remain lovingly vigilant in loving the eternal souls around us every day by opening up our lips and making much of Jesus Christ.

Your Servant,





 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 10, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

It’s Thursday, July 7, and I’m writing this from JFK airport in New York City. I’m perched near a window overlooking a runway with the always-lovely Christy Shurden at my side. Today is our 21st anniversary! As hard as it is to believe, at almost this exact moment 21 years ago, we were exchanging vows!

A lot has changed in the last 21 years, but two things have remained the same––our love for each other and God’s faithfulness. I can honestly say that my love for Christy grows every year. She’s amazing, y’all. More astonishing, however, is the fact that her love for me endures! More astonishing still is the fact that God’s love and faithfulness to us never wavers. For all this, we rejoice and give God the glory!

As you know from last week’s Pastoral Note, we’re on our way to Edinburgh to meet with several other pastors and their wives. If all has gone according to plan, we spent Friday in Edinburgh on the Royal Mile and touring Holyrood Castle. On Saturday, we were in St. Andrews visiting the Cathedral ruins and retracing the history of the Reformation in Scotland, focusing primarily on the ministries of George Wishart and John Knox. Today, we’re getting ready for a day of ministry at St. Columba’s Church in Edinburgh where my friend, Rev. Dr. Cory Brock, recently joined the pastoral staff. As we come to mind over the next week, whisper a prayer for us.

Before I go, let me revisit an announcement I made to the membership of Cornerstone a couple of weeks ago. If you are a member of Cornerstone, you should have received an email update through our church database about the formation of the Cornerstone Ministry Expansion Team. I noted in that communication that this newly formed team of elders, deacons, and members has been tasked to assist the Session in exploring options and making recommendations for ministry expansion as a church. Mr. Will Kesler, a Ruling Elder at Cornerstone, has graciously agreed to chair this team. The session is thankful for Will’s leadership, and I can testify––he’s already doing a great job at helping the CMET organize effectively for the work.

Speaking of organizing effectively for the work, the team has deliberately spent time rehearsing the vision and mission of Cornerstone, believing that any and all ministry expansion ideas should be rooted in the commitments of the church. On the practical side, the team has been gathering information and data about the membership and growth patterns and, in general ways, is beginning to explore a range of ministry expansion options. The conversations on the team have been very encouraging thus far, and I look forward to seeing how the Lord continues to lead us in the days ahead.

On Sunday, August 14, we will have a Cornerstone Family Meeting during the Sunday School hour. At that meeting, there will be a 2022-2023 budget presentation and an update from the CMET. Please mark your calendars and make plans to attend this important meeting.

Your Servant





 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 3, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

Late last year, Christy and I were invited to join five PCA pastors and their wives for a mission/vision trip to the homeland of Presbyterianism––Scotland. At the turn of the year, we accepted the invitation, and on Thursday, July 7 (our 21stanniversary!), the adventure begins. We will spend five days in Edinburgh, a day (or two) in St. Andrews, and three days in Inverness. Along the way, we will see and serve a variety of church planters and missionaries. We’ll also get the privilege of worshipping in the historic St. Columba church in Edinburgh where my friend, Dr. Cory Brock, recently joined the pastoral team.

After our time in Scotland, Christy will return to the states while I make my way to London. I’m looking forward to seeing the sites and (finally!) visiting Westminster Abbey. I’m especially eager to be with Rev. Andy Young, the pastor of Oxford Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Oxford, England. He is one of Cornerstone’s supported church planters in the UK.

Needless to say, we need your prayers. Pray that our time away would be refreshing. Pray that the ministry support and encouragement we give would be effective. Pray that our time with the team of pastors and wives would be relationally rich and life giving. Pray that we would be able to be fully present and not worry about the children and all the ways we’re falling behind on everything back home. Your intercessions are a treasure to us. Thank you in advance for remembering us before the Lord.

Since I’m going to be away most of July (and, oh, how I’ll miss you!), we are going to leave the people of Israel by the Red Sea and enter a one-month sermon series entitled, “God for the World: God’s Heart in the Psalms for Our Neighbors and Nations.” I asked Rev. Ben Griffith to take the lead on designing this short series and to help introduce it. Here’s what he wrote:

Starting today, we’ll consider five Psalms together (and it was hard to narrow it down to just five!). We’re going to see that one of the main themes of the Bible is a main theme in the Psalms as well: God is on mission pursuing our neighbors and nations with his redeeming love, and he calls us out into this mission when he calls us to himself. From the early pages of Genesis to the last pages of Revelation, we see that God is at work reconciling all kinds of people to himself through the Gospel so that Heaven will ring with the voices of those “from every tribe, language, people, and nation” (Rev. 7:9).

As we see God’s heart for the nations and for our neighbors in the Psalms, we’re reminded that when Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission to “go therefore into all the world and make disciples,” (Matthew 28:19) he wasn’t calling them into something new. Rather, he was calling them into something he had been up to all along. We hope this short series will not only inflame our affections for the God who is sovereign over the nations and who has pursued and rescued us, who dwell “at the ends of the earth,” but we also pray our hearts would become more like his as we follow his call to pursue others with the Gospel—whether they are on the other side of the world or the other side of the street.

Your Servant





 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, June 26, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

It was a bustling week of business and fellowship at the 2022 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America in Birmingham, AL. To help distill the many items of business from this week, I’ll be pulling together a brief summary of key actions from this year’s GA. In the meantime, I want to thank you for remembering us in your prayers. I must have heard from a dozen or more of you, expressing the fact that you were lifting up the commissioners from our church and the General Assembly as a whole. You have no idea what a comfort it was to know we were being remembered by you in prayer. Thank you!

I want you to be encouraged. God is at work in our denomination. There are many, many encouraging signs of spiritual fruit happening throughout the PCA, and it’s a joy to partner with like-minded pastors, elders, and churches from across our denomination. At the same time, there are a variety of disagreements and differences across the denomination that continue to cause varying degrees of tension and struggle—which is to say, there is room for improvement and reformation. This should come as no surprise! In fact, our Presbyterian forefathers often said, ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda––a phrase meaning, “The church reformed and always reforming.” In other words, until the return of Jesus Christ, the work of the church’s reformation and growth will never be done. Let us keep this in mind as together we labor for Christ’s glory in the church in our generation (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Now, I want to hand the pen to our recently minted Hospitality Coordinator, Mr. Dan Fiedler. Dan has been hard at work on renewing and reorganizing Cornerstone’s hospitality ministry so that we can better be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to one another and our community. Please listen closely to Dan’s testimony and take to heart his message and invitation to you.

“I spent a year in Japan as a missionary teaching English and building relationships with adult students as a way to share the gospel. The students invited me, a stranger and foreigner, into their homes for meals and were extremely hospitable, though they weren’t Christians. This caused a crisis of faith in my 21-year-old world. I thought being a Christian was being a “good” person. I viewed a missionary’s job as saving the “bad” people and making them “good.” I am grateful to have gone through this experience and to learn in a deeper way of the gospel, and the truth of 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” In other words, we are to serve others because we humbly realize that we have been served first.

In the power of the gospel, Cornerstone strives to be a hospitable congregation. We aim to fulfill Paul’s words in Romans 15:7, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” As the Hospitality Coordinator, I am charged to help lay foundations for and inculcate a spirit of hospitality at Cornerstone. Toward that end, I’d like to ask you to spend some time recalling the ways that Christ has welcomed you by his grace. Then consider how the welcome of the gospel has been expressed in your life in demonstrable ways. It might be through something as ordinary as a shared meal or an invitation into someone’s home. As we respond to His welcome, we want to make room in our hearts, homes, schedules and budgets for others.

If you are interested in learning more about or potentially partnering with the Hospitality Ministry of Cornerstone, please come share a potluck with other members that are interested in discussing and sharing how God has welcomed us, and how we, as Cornerstone, can welcome others through the Hospitality Ministry for the glory of God. You can sign up for the potluck HERE. I hope to see you there.”

Your Servant





 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, June 19, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

In Presbyterian government, there are historically three ruling bodies, or courts. First, there is the Session which is the name given for the ruling body of a local church (e.g. the eldership of Cornerstone Pres). Second, there is the presbytery, which is the name given for the ruling body of a particular region. The presbytery is made up of all the teaching elders (pastors) and commissioned ruling elders from each member church in that region (e.g. Nashville Presbytery) Lastly, there is the General Assembly. This is the name given for the ruling body of the entire denomination. It’s made up of all commissioned teaching elders and the prescribed number of ruling elders from every church in the denomination.

Once a year the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) meets together. Pastors, ruling elders, delegates from fraternal denominations, and guests from around the globe will gather to worship, fellowship, and conduct the business of the church. This year’s annual meeting is next week, June 20-24 in Birmingham, AL. Rev. Tony Giles, Rev. Ben Griffith, and yours truly, along with two of our ruling elders, Mr. Randy Allen and Mr. Jim Payne, will be attending as commissioners this year.

Before I attended my first General Assembly (GA) in 2005 as a seminary student, I wondered, “What happens at GA?” For simplicity’s sake, let me identify four main purposes of the GA.

First, GA is where our denominational organizations and agencies such as Mission to the World, Mission to North America, Covenant College, Covenant Theological Seminary, Reformed University Fellowship, etc. meet yearly with pastor and elder representatives to submit budgets, make personnel changes, give reports on ministry health, and address other pertinent matters of business relating to their organization or agency.

Second, GA is a time for pastors and elders to receive ongoing education and training for the work of ministry. Every year there are dozens of seminars led by ministers, counselors, and scholars on a vast array of theological, historical, and practical subjects.

Third, GA is also a time for the whole denomination to come together for worship and fellowship. Each day’s session of GA is closed with a worship service, and the breakfast, lunch, and dinner slots are reserved for organized and casual opportunities for pastors and elders to spend time together in fellowship.

Fourth, the leading purpose of the GA is to address mission critical denominational matters of business. This includes, but is not limited to, matters of theological, cultural, ecclesiastical, and administrative importance to the denomination and its churches. As always, there are a number of significant matters of business facing the GA this year.

I will pull together a summary of highpoints and key actions within a week or two of GA. In the meantime, if you have interest in learning more about the business of GA, please visit pcaga.org and click through the GA Overtures links.

We cherish your prayers. Please take time to lift up the commissioners of GA and the PCA specifically this week. May all that is done bring glory to God (Heb. 10:22; 1 Cor. 10:31)!

Your Servant