download Summer 2010 newsletter (.pdf)

Our Summer issue of Cornerstone Connected.  Stories from the mission trips to Haiti and Louisiana, news on all the ministries and an update from Darrell and Jessica.  Read and enjoy.

Your Chores or Mine? Discipline….

“I’m amazed how two empty trash cans left by the driveway can transform me from Mother of the Year to a raging inferno in two seconds flat….”

I was curious to read more on discipline because it has been six months since I have entered Children’s Ministry and am evaluating how I have been disciplining the kids that I have been encountering week after week. Know we now all the kids are Angels…not quite…what about those dirty socks and spilled milk?

But in my reading I came across this article and thought I would share it with you. Discipline doesn’t always have to conjure up feelings of anger, disappointment and let down but with a little imagination and creativity, parents can have a sense of humor when it comes to discipline.

This article is from  http://www.focusonthefamily.ca/parenting/discipline/your-chores-or-mine

Your chores or mine?

Written by Heather Trent Beers

I’m amazed how two empty trash cans left by the driveway can transform me from Mother of the Year to a raging inferno in two seconds flat.

One morning, I entered my 15-year-old son’s room. “Jacob,” I said. I waited for eye contact.

“Yes, Mom?” His eyes darted between the screen and my face.

“I’m heading out on an errand. Please bring the trash cans in before I get home in an hour.”

“Uh-huh.”

Now, I’ve learned two things about Jacob. First, I must say his name and make eye contact. Second, I need to make him repeat what I’ve said. Both are helpful in the “But I Didn’t Hear You” battle.

“What will you do?”

“Bring in the trash cans.”

“When?”

“Before you get home.”

“Which will be when?”

“In one hour.”

“Good. See you in an hour.”

I left with a spring in my step. He’s growing into a responsible young man! An hour later when I came home, however, the cans were still at the end of the driveway.

Goodbye, June Cleaver. Hello, Mommy Dearest.

I fumed as I pulled into the garage. “Why do I even bother?” I stomped to the end of the driveway, jerked the cans off the ground and wheeled them to the garage. My blood pressure soared, and my heart thumped wildly.

I knew Jacob needed a consequence for his inaction, but all I could think about were the chores that awaited me, and here I was doing his simple chore on top of it!

Suddenly, I smiled. If I’m doing his chores, he can do mine. The simple brilliance of the plan filled me with hope. I whispered fervently, “God, please let this work!”

Upstairs, I stopped by my son’s room. “Hi, Jacob!” I was pleased with my friendly tone.

“Hi, Mom!” He flashed a quick smile and continued his game.

“You left the trash cans at the curb, so I brought them in.”

“Oh . . . I’m sorry,” he said, grimacing. He looked at me, but his fingers continued tapping.

In the past, I would have made a smart remark like “ ‘Sorry’ doesn’t change things.” This time I said, “That’s all right. You can do one of my chores. The laundry needs folding.”

Jacob froze. He knew he’d been had, and it was fair and square.

While he hung shirts and folded socks, I read a few pages of a novel. I thought about what just happened. Bringing in trash cans: One minute. Folding laundry: Six minutes. Five extra minutes reading with my feet propped up. I could get used to this.

I whispered a prayer of thanks.

Two days later, I asked nine-year-old Rebekah to put her shoes away before lunch. I went through the “Say Her Name and Make Her Repeat My Instructions” deal. She passed with flying colours. Lunch came and went, but the shoes didn’t. So I put them away myself, without saying a word or sighing like a martyr. I was planning my next five-minute escape.
After lunch, I said, “Rebekah, you didn’t put your shoes away, so I did it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mom,” came the usual reply.

“That’s OK. I need to vacuum the den, so you can do that for me.”

Rebekah looked as if I’d slapped her. “That’s not fair!” she wailed, eyes wide with shock.

“Well, it’s certainly not fair for me to do my chores and yours. Since I did yours, you can do one of mine.”

Her face fell. She hates vacuuming, so she didn’t do it with the best attitude. But it was done, and I got my five-minute reading date.

Over the next several days, I assembled my to-do list with glee, calculating how many chapters I might finish if all went well. I asked the kids to help more, and they did with improved attitudes. I started to feel less like the Lone Ranger and more like Mom.

Even my prayers were transformed from “God, help!” to “God, let them forget their chores; I just started a new book!”

Heather Trent Beers lives in Grandview, Missouri.

Pastor’s Blog II.V

On Sunday April 25th Cornerstone Church was issued a Bible Content Quiz put together by The Canadian Bible Society here in Saskatoon. I handed them out as part of my morning messsage and walked the people through the 35 questions. Immediately afterward we collected the quizzes and our staff have been compiling the results. I will share with you the initial results in this posting but there will be more results coming as we analyze the data.
We asked two questions at the end of the quiz just to help us with the information we knew we would receive. The first question had to do with their Bible reading habits. We gave them four different categories to select from. The categories were 1. Daily Bible Reader, 2. Weekly Bible Reader, 3. Monthly Bible Reader or 4. Seldom/never Bible Reader. We had just over 300 people participate in the quiz. Of those participants 113 said they were daily Bible readers which is great news. We have one third in this survey reading each and every day. During our series on the character traits of God I have said over and over again that we won’t trust someone we don’t know. In order to know God I need to get into His Word.
On the other end of the spectrum we had 89 who said they read the Bible either seldom or never. When we add those to the ones who said they read monthly (which our staff felt fit into the seldom category) we found another third of our respondents. Roughly one third of our people are seldom or never reading the Bible.
So, we have one third reading daily and one third seldom or never reading their Bibles. For me, as a shepherd, this is not very encouraging news. I want God’s people to be regularly ingesting truth from God’s Word into their hearts and minds.
Perhaps you are wondering about our overall knowledge score on the test. We have those initial results as well. Our overall church score on the test once we had compiled the results from all age brackets was 54%.

The average scores for the different age brackets is as follows. Remember the total number of questions was 35. The over 65 averaged 22. The 45-65 averaged 20. The 20-44 averaged 19 and the under 20 averaged 16. I said to the staff, “our job is not done.” I am open to your comments and/or interpretations.

Summer 2010 Music Schedule

If you’ve read Russ’s recent blog posting you’ll hear him begin to ask questions about the emphasis we place on Sunday morning.  So much of our time and energy goes into making the Sunday worship experience a well polished, smoothly run production.  We often judge our experience and connection with a church based on what happens Sunday morning.  For us as musicians that’s even more so because we spend a lot of time preparing, rehearsing and practicing for Sunday morning.

Reading Tim Milner’s book again I’m reminded of how God is not seeking our worship.  What God wants is relationship.   Worship is only an expression of our relationship with God.  So the question is: what quality of relationship do we have if it is based only on one hour on Sunday.  We stand up for all kinds of things in Jesus’ name; we occupy ourselves so busily with “the Lord’s work”.

Psalm 46 has this amazing imagery of God putting an end to all the dizzying activity of the nations of the work.  He shouts out “STOP!”  The passage is actually “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).  But it’s not the peaceful comforting tone we tend to read into it.  It’s a command to put down our efforts, and take time to just be still before God.  This shouldn’t just be one Sunday morning hour.  This shouldn’t be a weekly religious routine.  Being in relationship with God, worshipping is an amazing blessing we have; to be with our Holy, awesome, creator.

Spend some time this summer being still in the presence of God.  Out of that, Sunday mornings become another opportunity to do what we’ve been caught up in doing all week.  Worship.

Pastor Lorn

Pastor’s Blog II.IV

I’ve been thinking about the church. Actually I’ve been thinking about the church a lot lately. True, it is my job to do this but I see it both from a professional (my job) standpoint as well as a personal (devotional) standpoint. Allow me to wander as I share what I have been thinking in regards to the church.

How much of what the church is about is to be done or accomplished on Sunday morning? We put a lot time, energy and resources into what we refer to as our Sunday morning worship service. From a staff standpoint we invest huge resources into those few hours on Sunday. From a volunteer standpoint we access huge numbers of volunteer hours to accomplish what we accomplish each Sunday morning. Is it worth it? Are we being biblical when we invest that much effort into a few hours of the week? Is it the best use of our resources? Are we fooling ourselves? What exactly are we accomplishing on Sunday morning?

We average around 400 people each Sunday at Cornerstone. If we say that we have them for about 2-3 hours and multiply that by 400 that is 800-1200 hours of time each Sunday. Are we getting a good bang for our buck?  I am completely committed to providing clear opportunities for us to worship on Sunday mornings. I am convinced of the need to clearly communicate God’s Word each Sunday morning. I am thankful for the facility we have for Sunday mornings. I believe many people have the opportunity to exercise their gifts on Sunday morning. But what about Monday through Saturday?

What is the direct connection of Sunday to the rest of the week? Is there a connection? Or is Sunday just that nice little break from all the rest of the stuff in our lives? I cringed even as I typed that question.  If we say that Sunday is important…why is it important? What does the Bible say about us meeting together once a week? Is Sunday more important than every other day of the week?

Maybe it is time to totally re-think what we do on Sunday morning. Maybe it is time to scrap the whole thing and start with a blank sheet of paper. If we had never had any exposure to a church service but wanted to begin a gathering for God’s people or those seeking God what would that group experience look like?  Please understand that I believe God loves the church. Many years ago I fell in love with the church and that has not changed. The church is an incredible place. I just feel like God is poking me saying, “ think about it. Think about what you are doing. Think about what the scriptures say. Think about it.”

I want to expand our thinking about the church. I want our vision of the church to be both clear and biblical. I want us to embrace the disturbance of the Holy Spirit. I want us to connect the dots of how the church plays itself out from Monday through Saturday. I want us to grasp this idea that God is with us each day all through the day. I want us to understand that our spiritual walk with God is never divorced from any other area of our life. I want us to stop compartmentalizing. We may be involved in secular culture all week long but spiritually God has plans for us during our interaction with that secular culture.

Church is so much more than Sunday morning. What do you think?