Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 31, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

I can’t even begin to adequately express how delighted I am to be with you, the Cornerstone family, this morning. Worshipping with God’s people in Scotland, London, and Birmingham over the last three weeks was rich, meaningful, and renewing. But after being away, I can more clearly see and thus say–– there’s no place like Cornerstone. Truly, this body of believers is special, and I’m honored for my lot to be thrown in with yours. Thank you for letting me be your pastor.

I want to publicly express thanksgiving for the faithful labors of the Cornerstone staff in my absence. Rumor has it that the church ran better without me! This is no surprise at all. Our pastors and staff are so capable, hardworking, and full of Christ-like love. I can’t imagine laboring alongside a sweeter band of servants. What a joy!

Briefly, I want to update you about the ongoing work of the Cornerstone Ministry Expansion Team (CMET). As you’ll recall, this team of elders, deacons, and members has been tasked by the Session to help us address the “good problem” of growth at Cornerstone. The first month of the team’s work was spent rehearsing the vision of Cornerstone, praying together, and organizing into sub-teams. The last month or so has been spent collecting statistics, researching various options, and starting conversations with interested parties.

After worship last Sunday, the CMET met with the Cornerstone staff to gain critical feedback on particular space needs for our various ministry areas. The CMET also walked through a number of potential options for expansion, highlighting likely advantages and disadvantages of each. As expected, the meeting was fruitful. The CMET walked away with valuable input for the continuation of their work.

Next week the elders will get an update and have an opportunity to weigh in on the CMET’s work thus far. Further, two weeks from today, you’ll have a chance to hear from the CMET at our Cornerstone Family Meeting on Sunday, August 14 at 9:45 a.m. in the chapel. In addition to the CMET’s report, you’ll also receive an important update from our Finance Committee on the 2022-2023 Cornerstone budget. Please make plans to join us!

Finally, many of you have been generally praying for the CMET. Thank you! Keep it up! I’d like to ask something more of you today, however. Would you start praying individually for the CMET team members? The members are Mrs. Charlotte Robinson, Mr. Todd Russell, Mrs. Suzann Allen, Mr. Jim Smith, and Mr. Will Kesler (Chairman). These dear saints are laboring hard and feel the weight of this important call. I have every reason to believe God will use your prayers to lighten their burden and extend to them the wisdom, strength, and joy they need as they serve the church.

Your Servant,





 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 24, 2022

Dear Cornerstone Family,

I’m preaching for my friend, Dr. Harry Reeder, at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL, this week, which means I’m without your dear and precious fellowship one more week. I look forward, however, to being back with you next week and bringing our July Psalm series to close. I wanted to share a passage from my journal this week, as I reflected on my time in London, England, and the meaningfulness of all places, great and small, where God is at work. God bless you, my dear friends. I can’t wait to see you!

Samuel Johnson once wrote, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. For there is in London, all that life can afford.” Having spent most of the last week in London, I’d have to concur with the good Doctor. London is in a category all to itself. A place set apart, full of history and legend, intrigue and romance, treasure and tragedy. To know London is to know the story of the world itself.

Lest I give London too much credit, the same could be said for any place that is loved. It is the living in and loving of a place that sets it apart, that fills it with history and legend, intrigue and romance, treasure and tragedy. Surely, I could say all these things about Franklin. I could even make the same claim about my hometown, Laurel.

To be clear, Laurel isn’t on the same scale as London. From one angle, it’s laughable to compare them. But they are the same in this sense: in both places people lived, loved, and discovered what mattered. That is to say, within these particular places, the universals––what mattered––were made known.

This is why, at least in part, anyone who has lived and loved deeply in a place will claim their place is the best. We should never fault them for that, for they are telling the truth of their soul. They are letting you know how full of meaning this place is to them. They are saying, in a way of speaking, they don’t know how to understand, much less tell, the story of their life without this place. Their place means the world to them, for place, as Hazel Motes, says, ‘...is all you got.’

For the Christian, this has special meaning, I think. For we have a theology of place that makes sense of this. We know our home, Eden, has been lost, but our sense of need for home is still very much with us. And so, London and Laurel are to us “signposts” as Walker Percy would say. Signposts that point us beyond our place to THE place where we are truly from, to our primeval home. We mustn’t, however, try to return to our primeval home or hold onto our earthly homes too tightly. We must, instead, keep moving into these places until we come home at last.

Your Servant,





 

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