Pastor’s Blog I.X

Posting from the incredible country of Haiti this afternoon.  Preached to about 300 Haitians this morning on the hope of the empty cross and empty tomb.  Jesus is alive therefore we have a sure hope.

Where to start?  Poverty exists everywhere you look but so do the natural sinful conditions of immorality and greed.  I had a little girl come and sit beside me this morning.  I had not seen her before the service in any of our previous meetings or walks.  She just showed up beside me and then fell asleep on my shoulder and the good news was that I had not even started preaching yet!  Later I asked about her.

Her mother has multiple children from mutiple men and no man currently living with her.  For those of you attending Cornerstone her mother is the woman at the well in John 4.  She comes to the church every Sunday by herself.  Gets her 8 year old little body…maybe 35 pounds…ready and walks a short distance to church.  She stays around as they always give her lunch on Sunday.  I asked her through a translator if she had eaten today and she just shook her head with the answer of “No.” 

We stayed around and visited for a while before lunch.  She took to Sue, holding her hand, climbing up on her lap just anything for little positive human interaction.  When lunch was served Sue sat beside her and helped her in whatever way she needed.  Later she would head back home to a house where there would be nobody as her mom was sick and no one seeemd to know where she went.

It is possible that tonight an eight year old little girl will tuck herself into bed, without any supper and go to sleep all by herself.  Tomorrow she will get up and go to school again all by herself.  She is one out of how many?  I honestly have no idea but the numbers are staggering.  This country needs our help.

The ministry we are visiting is called Haiti Arise.  Google them and visit their website.  What they are doing has the potential to change this country for the good.  They are educating their people.  They are providing training so they they can have a trade and earn an income.  They are teaching English, sponsoring children to go to good schools and sharing the gospel with as many people as they can.  Check out what else they are doing and dreaming of doing on their website.  God is using this ministry in powerful ways.

They need and want our help.  You can help.  I can help.  Make a commitment to get involved.  Our team is commited to bringing a work team down here in March.  Pray about that.  Ask God if this is a way you could get involved.  The country is in need.  The people are warm and friendly.  Haiti Arise is waiting for more people to catch their vision and assist them in doing what God has placed on their hearts.

It is a privilege to be here.  I have to go as another church service is about to start and I don’t want to miss it!

Operation WalMart

Last Thursday CSM (Cornerstone Student Ministry) high school students teamed up with students from Lakeview Church, Elim Tabernacle, and Corner to launch a full assault on the Stonebridge Wal-Mart and Dollarama.  Over 100 students showed up with cash in hand to partner up in groups in order to build shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  Acting as a jump off point from the Hope Lives series that we’ve been working through, the night provided students with an immediate and tangible way to impact the lives of others, offering hope to those in need.

After cramming into vehicles and driving across town, CSM split up into teams and cruised through the aisles.  It’s alway fun to see the confused looks on the faces of store employees when an army of 16year old walk in and start filling shopping carts (especially when it’s 16 year old boys buying supplies for a 3 year old girl).

Once the shopping was done, students met up with Lakeview and Elim at Lakeview to put boxes together, and then spend some time breaking into groups–2 students from each church–to spend time praying over the boxes, and for the young kids who would be pening them up in the next few months.

One of the great gifts of student ministry is watching students live beyond themselves, and be led by the Holy Spirit in what they do.  The excitement, energy, and joy that explodes out of young adults when they buy in to doing something for others is a contagious reminder that we too should have the same joy of heart when we have opportunity to reach beyond our day to day grind.

At the end of the night, 66 shoeboxes we’re shipped off with love and care, from students who are actively working out what it means to Love God, Love People, and Change the World.

Itinerary for Haiti

Cornerstone Church, Saskatoon Team

November 24^th – Dec 1st, 2009

Tuesday November 24, 2009

Morning           Leave Saskatoon, fly through Florida overnight

Wednesday November 25, 2009

6:55am            Eric’s Flight arrives in Miami

8:00am            Group Meets for prayer time.

9:50 am           Leave Miami, Florida

12:00 pm         Arrive in PAP   American Air Lines Flight# 1291

Afternoon        Lunch, settle in & orientation, tour facility

7:00pm            Dinner

10:00pm          Lights Out

Thursday November 26, 2009

6:00am            Devotions & Prayer  -  Eric Fawcett

7:00am            Breakfast

Morning           Visit town of Grand-Goave, community assessment

12:00pm          Lunch

Afternoon        Visit future building sites, discussion time

5:00pm            Dinner

10:00pm          Lights Out

Friday November 27, 2009

6:00am            Devotions & Prayer  Pastor Russ

7:00am            Breakfast                                           

Morning           Visit town of Grand-Goave, community assessment

12:00pm          Lunch

Afternoon        Visit future building sites, discussion time

5:00 pm           Dinner

10:00pm          Lights Out

Saturday November 28, 2009

6:00am            Devotions & Prayer  -  Loretta Penner

7:00am            Breakfast

Morning           Visit the market

1:00pm            Lunch

Afternoon        Meet with HAM leadership team, Taino Beach/ Rest

5:00pm            Dinner- Villa Taina

10:00pm          Lights Out

Sunday November 29, 2009

7:00am            Breakfast

9:00am            Church (Pastor Russ preach)

1:00pm            Lunch

Afternoon        Tapion Children’s Church

5:00pm            Dinner

10:00pm          Lights Out

Monday November 30th, 2009

6:00am            Devotions & Prayer  -  Mrs, Wilson

7:00am            Breakfast                                           

Morning           Possible Evangelism Door – Door

12:00pm          Lunch

Afternoon        Trip Assessment & Discussion on Future Partnership

5:00 pm           Dinner

10:00pm          Lights Out

Tuesday December 1st, 2009

6:00am            Devotions & Prayer  -  Brad Banman

9:00am            Breakfast & Leave for PAP

1:10pm            Flight leaves PAP for Miami  American Airlines Flight # 866

3:35pm            Flight Arrives in Miami

Wednesday December 2nd, 2009

3:35pm            Flight Leaves Miami

6:08pm            Flight Arrives in Minneapolis

9:30pm            Flight Leaves Minneapolis

11:59pm          Flight Arrives in Saskatoon

Cornerstone Connected – Fall Issue Available Now

Cornerstone’s magazine’s latest issue has just hit the stands!  Get a copy in the church lobby, or download a copy below.

Cornerstone Connected, Fall 2009 Issue

Persecution Awareness Month

In November we’ve been highlighting the persecuted church around the world, and there are some real ways to get informed and actively involved through the internet.  Here are a few links to get you started:

www.PrisonerAlert.com Users can impact the world for the cost of postage and printing a letter off their printer.  Features (usually) one new prisoner a month.   There are over 100,000 people world-wide, who have signed up to receive regular monthly updates from this site, and who have agreed to pray for and write to the people whose profiles we present.   Letters are composed in the language of the recipient, right on the site.   We were told never to expect the release of a prisoner through our efforts.   However, after running this site for about five years, and featuring roughly 60 prisoners, 18 of them have been released, and most of the rest report better treatment at the hands of their captors.   This is a ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs  — US.

www.BiblesUnbound.com An opportunity to participate in shipping of New Testaments into restricted nations.   For users outside of the US, participation is by means of the “virtual operation” option only.   In the US, families, youth groups and others count it a great privilege to pack these Bibles, preparing them for shipment into the restricted country, where they are then dropped into the local mail system, so that they arrive at their final destination with a local postmark.    There’s a video on the site, that explains the process.   This is another VOM-US ministry.

If this leads you to get involved, we’d love to hear from you.  Just post a comment on this post and let people know about your experience.

To see the world be changed

I have been very challenged by Russ’s sermon series these past number of weeks, Hope Lives.  I have been challenged to be aware each moment of the day to see the needs that surround me.   Knowing that God wants to use me through each day, not just ’some day’.

We have been going through this series in our kids programming as well.  Focusing on caring for and loving others.  This is a difficult concept for kids.  Kids are generally very me-focused, especially in today’s society.  They can easily tell you how they were not helped, but have a hard time understanding how they can help others.  We have challenged them in that thinking because they can grasp this concept.  We as adults need to be challenged and so do children, only they tend to me more receptive to it then we are.  They don’t say, “I’ll think about”, they do.  They don’t often contemplate too much.  If they believe it is good, they act.

At Tidal Wave this week we did a night focusing on missions and packed Samaritans Purse shoeboxes.  We provided stations that the kids went to, where they learned about poverty, then did an activity that applied in a small way.  They had a great time, and we planted seeds.  My prayer is not that kids will change their me-focused ways today, but that we plant seeds to last a lifetime. That they will begin to change the world in small ways.

How are you planting seeds in kids’ lives and your own children’s lives?

Reflect on the words of the Lincoln Brewster song “Power in your Name”:

Surely children weren’t made for the streets
And fathers were not made to leave
Surely this isn’t how it should be
Let Your Kingdom come

Surely nations were not made for war
Or the broken meant to be ignored
Surely this just can’t be what You saw
Let Your Kingdom come
Here in my heart

I will live
To carry Your compassion
To love a world that’s broken
To be Your hands and feet
I will give
With the life that I’ve been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your name

Surely life wasn’t made to regret
And the lost were not made to forget
Surely faith without action is dead
Let Your Kingdom come
Lord break this heart

Your name
Is a shelter for the hurting
Jesus Your name
Is a refuge for the weak
Only Your name
Can redeem the undeserving
Jesus Your name
Holds everything I need
Jessica

Lead Pastor Blog I.IX

When was the last time you knew you had been prompted by the Holy Spirit? I asked our congregation that question at the end of our second service on Sunday November 8th. I am sure there were people sitting there who could have shared both positive and negative aspects to being prompted. Many of us have experienced those times when we knew it was God speaking to us and we ignored that still small voice within us. That is what I mean by a negative experience.However, I have had a number of people share with me great stories about situations where they had no master plan but God worked in special ways and at the end of the day they knew God had ochestrated their experiences. Those are the positive experiences.

Sadly there is another category. In this category sit a great number of church attenders who would admit that they cannot remember experiencing either one of the previous experiences I shared. In other words they have not had a positive or negative experience but rather no experience.  I feel a great sadness for those brothers and sisters. When Jesus talked to the woman at the well in John 4 he offered her something that we have available to us today. He offered her the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Think about that for a moment. God indwells us as His children.  The ongoing daily presence of God in our lives.  Not just in the lives of super spiritual people or pastors or church leaders but God in the life of each and every one of His followers.  The eternal, all powerful and all loving God (along with a host of other character traits that we will get into starting in January) with us in a the most personal of ways all day long. Does this truth not challenge us to new heights of joy as well as new depths of understanding?
I long to be more sensitive/aware of God’s leading in my day to day life. I long to have my spiritual ears more attuned to the sound of God’s still smal voice whispering “Here is want I want you to do. Here is where I want you to go. Here is what I want you to say. Here is the person I want you to interact with.” The possibilities are only limited by my own insensitivity to God’s indwelling presence. I believe this has the potential to literally change our churches as well as change our lives. As we go about our own daily routines in life but growing more aware that the Spirit of God is in the business of leading us to accomplish that which is eternal and spiritual. How incredible is that?
You can sign up for this life today. Submit your heart/life to the control of God’s Holy Spirit. Ask Him to use you in your daily activities to accomplish His eternal purposes. Look out…we are a church that is going to change the world by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Music & Arts Links

Here are some of the online resources that I go to.  If you are interested in what’s going on in the world of worship, music, art and arts technology, then check some of these out.  If you have some great places to visit, I’d love to see you post some in your comments. We’ll continue to add things as they come to mind. Pastor Lorn

Worship leadership & Administration
This is the online software we use to assist with the administration of the worship team here at Cornerstone church. http://www.planningcenteronline.com/

Canadian Centre for Worship Studies – lots of academic papers regarding worship theology, history, technology, and arts. http://www.ccws.ca/

Resources for modern worship, with online store. http://worshiptogether.com/

Sheet music resource, with musical examples, and arrangements for choir and orchestra. http://www.praisecharts.com/

This is the group that make sure the artists receive credit for writing the songs we sing in our churches.  Also has the largest database of worship songs out there.  We get a lot of our print music from their song select service. http://www.ccli.com/

Equipment
My favorite periodical, with lots of artist interviews, and gear reviews. http://www.keyboardmag.com/

Another magazine, also a helpful place for gear reiviews. http://emusician.com/

This site has a large database of user reviews for all kinds of gear.  If you want to see what everyone is saying about an item you’ll find it here. http://harmony-central.com/

I’ve always had great results from Roland keyboards.  Last year I bought a Fantom G6, and still afraid of how much power it has. http://www.rolandus.com/

If you make music on a computer, this is a great place to find quality computer audio interfaces, and studio monitors.  I have a pair of the IE30 in ear monitors; they changed my life. http://www.m-audio.com/

This is my studio recording software, with lots of great synth plug-ins, 64 bit windows support.  Its amazing what you can record with this package. http://cakewalk.com/

Clayton Unruh is on of our gifted sound techs, and just so happens to have a  studio located just outside of Osler.  Our worship team is working on a project there as we speak.  If you need to record your band this would be a great place to be. http://www.mothershipstudios.ca/Home.html

PWAP (Potluck With A Purpose) Blessings

I am blessed that God chose me!

I am blessed to have have health in my family.

I am thankful for the faith of children, the healing of God and for food!

I am thankful for the opportunity to go to L.A. to work in the inner city.

Dear Lord, thank you for generous blessings, your forgiveness, love car, family, friends, and church.

I’m thank for the creativity of a God who creates us with such unique passions, enjoyments, and pleasures, that we can have relationships, joy and laughter with many.

Thanks God for my sister, have a new baby boy, family came to Canada, safe and healthy (refugee family).