Common Saint

It was a great weekend, even though I think I preached one of the worst sermon's, in terms of delivery, of my entire tenure as a minister. It is great to know that His word never returns void and that He can even use my blunders. We had the opportunity to hang out with several good friends over the two days and that was cool. I am thankful that the Lord has allowed us to form friendships with so many diverse folks. We get into some interesting conversations as a result. Tonight the conversation turned to the topic of the church and its effectivness in engaging the culture, which was interesting. That conversation though got me to thinking about something else. The church is composed of people who are by definition suppose to be "Christ-like". In a pragmatic sense, I am aware that if Christ were here walking amoung us physically in the 21st century, that would look verfy different in terms of details than what we read and know from scripture. However, what if Christ were b...

"Sometimes the whole world is applauding you and God is saying, 'that's not what I called you to do'. At other times it seems everything is against you and God says, 'you are right where I want you to be because you don't know the things I am doing that you can't see.'". This was what a friend told me was the lesson that God taught her in a big way after learning that her new album has been nominated for a Dove award as "best album of the year by a new artist.". She told me that just prior to receiving the news of the nomination she was battling feeling down and like things were just not moving. I understood what Annie was saying and I know a lot of you reading this do too. Her desire is for God to use her, not to receive awards, or gain men's applause, etc. Yet, sometimes you can work very hard and very long at what God has called you to do without any sign of affirmation and that gets tough. The clouds of doubt roll in and y...

One of the hardest things about leaving our old church was leaving the worship team and have to start all over. Playing and singing are such a big part of my expression to God that it was tough. Only my musician friends really understand truly what that means and how big of a deal it really is. However, God used our moving on to mobilize others into that ministry. A chance that they would not have had otherwise. But I am so excited because He has been so awesome to assemble a new worship team at Cornerstone. It is really starting to come together and it has been so exciting. The past two weekends have just been great! We could use a keyboard player and another male vocalist, but I am not pushing things. I'm just so happy with the people He has allowed to come together. There are a lot of things that are falling into place and I am so excited to be here at this place at this time. Our little congregation is really starting to take on its identity also which is very exciting. I could...