New Sermon Series: Vision Begins With God

We are starting a new series of messages with the new year. The series, entitled Vision Begins with God, explores the topic of what the Church’s vision should be based on what God says through His scriptures.

The Gift (Christmas Eve 2011)

For those of you who missed the Christmas Eve Candlelight service, or for those who just wanted to see it again, here is the encore of The Gift.  This video presentation was part of our Candlelight service, and involved many artists, and musicians in telling the story of one boys search for the true meaning of Christmas.  There is also an accompanying book available, which was handed out at the end of the Christmas Eve service.  If you would like one please contact the church office and we’ll set one aside for you.

The Gift from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.

There is also an audio only version as well, which can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.

The Gift (.mp3)

Emmanuel

Post by Lynette Sawatsky:

One of my favourite advent songs is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”   The advent season is a wonderful time to anticipate the birth of our Saviour, whose name “Emmanuel” means “God is with us.”

What an extravagant sacrifice God made in sending His Son into a world that would ignore, mock, and ultimately kill Him.  People today are not so different from those who lived two thousand years ago.    In many ways Jesus continues to be openly ridiculed or rejected or overlooked in favour of an overweight man dressed up in a red suit.  Just open a newspaper or listen to a radio broadcast or eavesdrop on a conversation at the mall.  And yet, even though God knew that Jesus would not be welcomed by the very ones He had created, the Father still sent His Son as a helpless infant, in an effort to draw a lost world to Himself.  What an amazing gift!

God is with us.  For thirty some years as a human being, walking on the face of our planet.  And forever after  through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He is with us.

Sometimes He whispers an idea into our hearts.  Sometimes He brings a person to mind, prompting us to pray.  Sometimes we hear His voice in a song of praise or in a verse of Scripture or in the pastor’s message.

God is with us.  I am not left to handle the details of my life unassisted.  He is not a magical genie who will answer my every request, but He is faithful to walk beside me through each circumstance of my life.

God is with me.  I have felt His presence in a new way this fall and winter as I’ve gone with a team of volunteers to sing with core neighbourhood children who do not have access to any music program.  We meet on Tuesdays at noon with an enthusiastic group of kids, singing silly songs as well as songs with meaningful lyrics, eager to communicate hope and value to children whose lives we would not otherwise be able to touch.  Some of these children struggle with learning issues.  Some of them come to school hungry.  Some of them face daunting challenges in their home environments.  All of them need to be touched by the presence of Christ in their lives.   Tuesday noon hours have become an anticipated highlight of my week as I look forward to singing with these small ones who are precious to me and to God.  Please pray for Jessica (who keeps us organized) and for Darrell and Shaelynne (the most amazing accompanists ever!) and for me as we seek to make Christ visible to the choir children.

A couple of weeks ago, when I brought a small treat for the kids, one of the girls suggested that I should bring a “big treat” to our last practice before Christmas.  I asked her what would be a “big treat” and braced myself for her reply.  Imagine my surprise when she asked for a banana.  I have a hard time imagining a life where a banana could be a big treat, and I am humbled to have the weekly opportunity to touch these kids’ lives in ways that will hopefully communicate love and value and hope for their future.  It feels like too much to hope for, but God is faithful and I am so glad He whispered this idea into my heart.

God is with us.  What more could I ask for?  This week I’m pretty sure I saw His pleasure in the eyes of a child who smiled at me as I handed her a banana.

 

 

Change in Services

Starting January 8, 2012 we will have two services that are slightly different from each other. The 9:30am service will contain less music and more teaching. The 11:00am service will continue on in its current format.

Families will come into the 9:30am service together and the children will be dismissed for their programs during the offering time.

The reason for the change is to advance and enhance our Bible teaching time. Our Advisory Board will review the change after a three month trial period.

Spiritual (and Musical) Discipline – Winter 2012 Music Schedule

I think it’s no surprise to anyone at this point that I am a firm believer in practice.  Rehearsal is extremely important and I am of the opinion that there is never enough time for me to sit at an instrument and enjoy the motion and mind space of making music.  The hours can pass quickly as I lose myself playing around with songs, exercises, scales, drills; I really relish every opportunity I get to improve my skills.  Practicing by myself, or practicing with a group, it’s all something I honestly love.

Of course I wasn’t always that way.  I took piano at the insistence of my parents, and as a young boy practicing was not the highest on my list of priorities.  Time used to move painfully slow as I did my best to fill that half hour with productive bits of music.  Often I’d just stare at the clock convinced that it was unmoving.  As I got older things improved, but even then I could procrastinate with the best, and put off important concepts that I really needed to know.

My darkest hour was when I was in Grade 6 Royal Conservatory Piano.  I wasn’t particularly thrilled with scales and so I put off learning my C# minor scale.  Next week always seemed to be the best time to get started learning it.  The problem was that I procrastinated so long that I was a week away from my piano exam and had still not got around to learning it.  So I tried to learn it furiously as the clock started ticking away (Just for future record, you can’t really cram for piano exams.  You either know it or you don’t).  This led me to the next step of rationalization.  They may not ask me to play it.  Of the several scales I’m supposed to learn, they surely wouldn’t ask for that one.

And so at week’s end I am ushered into my exam.  When it came to the technique section of the exam they asked me to play only one scale; one randomly chosen from a list of five or six.  Can you guess which one they asked for?  C# minor.  And yes, it was an atrocious, messy, non-musical assault, on that poor examiners ear.  When the time came, when it really mattered, I wasn’t prepared.

Now of course, this is a partial encouragement to all of us to continue to practice and rehearse, and to do it well.  Music is a daily discipline that needs to be developed carefully through the coordination of our minds with our instruments.  But I also want us to understand that what we do is not just music, its worship leadership.  And that requires another kind of daily discipline.

I’ve been reading a book by Rory Noland entitled Worship on Earth as it is in Heaven and in the second chapter he talks about worship being beyond a Sunday morning experience.  Worship needs to be a daily habit.

We see an amazing example of this in the life of Daniel.  Daniel is an exiled child from Israel who is bold about God when it really matters.  By the providence of God, and strength of character Daniel becomes an important leader in Babylon.  This made a lot of other powerful men jealous and they looked for a way to get rid of him.  So they convinced the King to pass a law against praying to any other man or God other than the king.  Verse 6:10 of the book of Daniel shows us his response:

 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (NIV)

So when it really matters, we find that Daniel is well prepared to face what is coming his way.  He has been already in the daily practice of prayer and worship.  Every day without fail he would get down on his knees.  It wasn’t something he fit in when he could.  He prioritized it three times a day regardless of schedule.  And so when Daniel is arrested and thrown to his death at the mouths of hungry lions, God sustains him, and vindicates him.

Just as much as I want us to have a culture of musical excellence, and a commitment to practice and rehearsal, I hope also we cultivate and grow in our pattern of daily worship.  We can’t neglect worship in our lives all week, and then expect to be relevant in worship on Sunday.  Worship really does matter.  In Daniel’s case it was this witness that led the king to acknowledge Daniel’s God as the one true God.  Out of this came a formal declaration to the world that everyone should honour and reverence God.

Maybe this is why we lack influence in our society.  Cornerstone’s vision is to change our world.  I read from scripture that worship is an important part of this.  However, we need to worship like Daniel.  It has to be a daily pattern of our lives, not just a tacked on religious duty at the end of the week.  Let us follow the model of Daniel, and others like him in scripture.  When we make worship a daily priority, we won’t be caught off guard when it really matters.

Just for the record, I can play C# minor now without a problem, and I practice it regularly.  You can test me sometime if you want.

 Lorn Gieck
Associate Pastor of Music & Arts

click here for the Winter 2012 Music Schedule (.pdf)

 

 

Beth Moore 2012

Dates and places:

 

Cornerstone Church (315 Lenore Dr. Saskatoon)

Fridays beginning January 6;2012, 9:15 AM

 

Lisa Braun’s Home (230 McKay Crt. Warman)

Tuesdays beginning January 3; 2012, 7:00 PM

 

Warman Gospel Church (418 Central St. W. Warman)

Thursdays beginning January 5; 2012, 9:15 AM

Where Does Jesus Fit Into Your Life?

Christmas, it is such a great time of year. It’s a time for celebration. It’s a time for feasting. It’s a time for parties. It’s a time for concerts. It’s a time for family. It’s a time for giving. It’s a time for pageants. It almost seems like it’s a time for everything but …… Jesus. Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas. Seriously how can you not like the idea of giving or getting gifts.

I know for some people it is a painful time of year due to losses of a relational nature. I will not try to solve or even identify with those realities which I by the grace of God have not had to deal with. Depression is another real factor at this time of year. It seems that this season of “Good News of Great Joy” is not experienced right across the board. The calendar turns to December and some people slide into a funk which cannot be cured by mere words or a hug. I honestly feel for these people.

However, for countless others Christmas presents an annual challenge. For Christians it presents the challenge of celebrating the birth of our Saviour without losing our minds. These weeks leading up to Christmas can be among the busiest of the entire year. The shopping and baking and churching (we will just throw in a new verb here) and hosting and traveling and working, well you get the picture. There is a lot of stuff going on. This year it gets even more complicated because Christmas actually arrives on a Sunday. The nerve of Jesus to have His birthday celebration on a Sunday.

As a general rule we, the Christians, carve a few hours (one or two) out of our hectic weekly schedules to worship Jesus on a Sunday. Actually new statistics tell us that even the most regular and committed followers of Jesus have an average attendance rate of 1.8 Sundays per month. In light of that we are carving out of our month a few hours to worship Jesus but I don’t want to get sidetracked with these details. So, Sunday rolls around and we attend the church of our choice a couple of times a month. In other words we fit Jesus in a couple of times a month. Now I can hear some of us saying I don’t have to go to church to serve or worship Jesus. My answer is both yes and no to that statement. If church was the only place I could worship Jesus then that would leave me with a once a week at best opportunity. Obviously I can worship Jesus outside of church. In fact I better be worshipping Jesus when I’m not in church or else something is amiss. However I am clearly called in the scriptures to assemble myself with other believers for the express purpose of worshipping as well as serving God.  So yes I can worship without being in a church but I better be in a church regularly to worship as well.  It is not either/or situation.  It is a both/and situation.

Back to Christmas falling on December 25th.  Is it possible to honestly, strategically, intentionally and passionately worship Jesus on December 25th this year without attending a church service?  The answer is yes.  But what is the problem with bundling up the family and making the trek to church after you open the gifts?  What better day to explain to the children that not only do we say this is the birthday of Jesus but we actually make Him the focus of the day by attending church?  I know you have to get the kids ready and they want to play with their gifts and there are (big) meals to prepare and well the list could go on.  Honestly, what is Christmas about?  Is about the gifts?  Is it about the food?  Is it about your family?  Nothing wrong with any of those things/people but Christmas is about Jesus.

Here is where I think we can see what we do with Jesus throughout much of our year…we fit Him in where we can.  We fit Him in if we have time.  We fit Him in where we think He fits.  In the book of Luke we see Jesus chatting with a few people who wanted to follow Him but they had some questions.  In Luke 9:49ff we read, “He said to another man, ‘Follow me’.  But the man replied, ‘First let me go and bury my father.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’  Still another one said, ‘I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.’  Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

Here is the deal with Jesus, He doesn’t fit into our lives.  Either He is the focus or He is nothing.  Either we serve Him or we don’t.  Either He is the center of our life or He isn’t.  Jesus does not accept second place.  Jesus does not accept a minor role in our lives.  Read the gospels and you find people deciding this was too much.  They walked away.  They decided that they would not follow Him because He was asking too much.  Jesus has not changed.

He doesn’t fit into our lives.  He must be our life…even at Christmas.