Step 2: Print.

Step 3: Return.

Step 4: Awesomeness, Sept 9-11

If you are interested to going to Haiti in February 2012 please complete an application form and give it to Loretta Penner, Pastor Russ or Brad Banman.  The application forms are at the Mission Bulletin board or you can contact Loretta. We are able to send 10 – 15 people and we would like to confirm the people going by September 2011.

The Time has Come

I am excited.  I am increasingly convinced that God is preparing our church for its next mountain top experience.  This I believe has been confirmed by a convergence of God’s leading and directing among the leadership of the church.  Independent of one another, God has been directing the church leadership in paths that converge with the same message.

God wants Disciples

But what is a disciple?  It starts with a decision to follow.  Sadly, the church as a whole has traditionally been weak at providing the framework for its members to know what is required and how to be successful followers.  Often after the initial decision the followers are left to a wayward journey of “growing in Christ” (as a church we need to be more deliberate / intentional in the making of disciples).   The Western church has been lapse in its responsibility to challenge its followers to greater levels of devotion and commitment.  It is only when we identify the expectations and responsibilities of a disciple and we ourselves choose to take that step of obedience that we can truly see God at work in our lives.

Discipleship is more than Bible Study

If discipleship was just Bible Study then the church would be dead.  Unfortunately, the Western church often succumbs to the cultural value of “ME”.  Consider this picture:

There is a banquet room filled with people.  But this banquet is different.  The food keeps coming, it doesn’t stop.  The people keep eating and eating until they are immobilized due to their consumption.  Even then, more and more food still comes.

Ironically, the purpose of food is to nourish and strengthen our bodies for the tasks that are required of us, not to immobilize us.  Yet, that is exactly what the Western church does when we continue to feed the members yet do not challenge them to greater application.  We are all guilty of it, we are to be a community, a family which iron sharpens iron.  Consider the church of Laodicea (Rev.3:14ff), the lukewarm church.  Is this not an ample description of the Western Church?  A church that is comfortable with itself.  Comfort is dangerous because it means that you are no longer moving forward.  The problem is that not only have you stopped walking forward, but you have stopped walking and are standing on an escalator going the opposite direction!

If the 12 disciples had been satisfied with Bible Study the church would not exist.  We are called to something more!

AN EXCITING FUTURE

The discipleship process is simple: God’s challenge leads to our obedience giving us as followers of Christ  greater devotion and greater passion. As this pattern is followed we have a greater propensity to follow through on the next challenge God presents to us.  When we are obedient to God’s calling, exciting things happen!

I am Excited

I believe that within the context of the vision for our church, God is calling us to be disciple makers.

I believe that He is calling us even more so to be more radically devoted to Him and the work that He would accomplish through us.

I can say with confidence that from the parable of the seeds (Mat 13:1ff) I will not be the one that dies, gets choked or withers because I have drawn a line in the sand and said “I will go!” (Isaiah 6:1ff)

I can say with confidence that from the parable of the talents (Mat25:14ff) I will not be the one that stands before the Lord and says that I have buried my treasure.  No! I will not be satisfied with being comfortable.  As the challenges come I will stand and take hold of them, stepping forth in obedience.

And so I challenge You

Will you stand with me.  Will you take hold of the challenges God brings forth to change your life and grow His Kingdom?

What does this mean?  Simply prioritizing God and what He wants you to be obedient in and accomplish.

We as a church will be issuing a number of challenges in the year ahead.  Join In.

We as a church will be providing the training needed to be obedient to what God has called us to.  Join In.

Yours in Christ,

Clayton Lane

Cornerstone Church Moderator

P.S.  A good place to start is reading the book “Radical. Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream.” Platt, David.

We know many parents and children will be dissapointed in this decision but don’t worry there are some other fabulous church’s in Saskatoon who are hosting VBS this year.

Here are a couple of churches that are putting on VBS this summer so feel free to check them out and get more information.

West Portal Church:

July 5th- July 9th    6:30pm-9:10pm Contact Katrina Funk at 382-1622                 http://westportal.ca/?page_id=13 for more info.

Lawson Heights Pentecostal Assembly:

Aug 17th-20th Contact Shawna Lavender 931-7100

St. Anne’s Parish:

Aug 9th-13th     9a.m-12p.m  Contact parish office at 931-4700

If you have any questions or concerns I would be more than happy to talk with you.

Contact me ( Mandy) at the church office.

-Bobby Brown, “My Perogative”, released 1988

I love road trips.

Hours in the car with friends or family can* be a wonderful thing.  Miles of road (err, kilometres?) can lead to all kinds of wonderful converstation, and insights.  Waaay to many nibs and chips, bladders that are ready to explode hours from the nearest bathroom, uncomfortable sleeping positions, license plate and headlight games, jokes that get funnier and and funnier the longer you’re in the vehicle together, and music.  Lots and lots of tunes…

… unless of course your ipod cable doesn’t work.

And you’re literally in the middle of nowhere.

Over the school winter break Melissa and I took a bunch of students to Invermere, BC to go snowboarding at Panorama Mountain (eat your heart out, Table.)  And it was just after rosetown that our radio signal faded away, and my vehicle was stuck with nothing.  Just the dial numbers screaming by as the seek button did absolutely nothing.  Of course, no one carries CDs anymore.  I offered to sing, but that didn’t get much response, so we chatted as we meandered our way through the fog towards Calgary.

By the time we we’re rolling in to Kindersly, the discussion of whether to just bite the bullet and pay gas station prices for a CD no one would agree on had started.  And was then forgotten after we left Tim Horton’s.  Shoot.

By Hanna we we’re desperate. WE. NEED. MUSIC.  After much discussion, and a thorough mathmatical evaluation of CD length we settled on two choices: Classic Rock GOLD dual album, and to their eternal credit as wise, musically savvy adolescents, Classic 80′s HITS GOLD.

Axel F may never be this popular again.

ahhh... the 80s.

A few hours of (finally!) tunes later, we came across the Bobby Brown song, My Perogative.  First came the shock that it wasn’t an original Britney Spears song.  Then came the discussion around the lyrics.

We’ve been talking and teaching on relationships, sex, temptation, and a biblical understanding of purity, and holiness at SNR HI for the last month and the song captured the polarity of the hearts attitudes we can have.  Who makes the calls?  Can we really do whatever we want? Should we have the right to do whatever we want, regardless of what other people think?

And then came the really tough questions… I wonder if too often, we take the Bobby Brown approach

to our relationship with Christ?  Jesus, I want to follow you, but I also want to keep living my life the way I want, and I want control of who makes the decisions, and I have veto power.  Jesus, I want you to lead, but not if I don’t like the direction you’re leading.  Jesus I want to follow, but not if it’s going to cost something I want to hang on to.  Living a personal theology of “My Perogative” goes far beyond just choices of sex and dating.  Do we try and regulate God that way?

I once read that we tend to live as though we are giving God control of our own little kingdoms, but that there are still our kingdoms, whereas God’s desire is that we give up our little independent states and join him as a servants in HIS Kingdom.  He’s not interested in a shared power partnership.  He call us to give him complete control.

1 Cor 6 flies in the face of Bobby’s classic tune:

“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. … You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. (v.2, 19b and 20).

And so, with Bobby Brown turned down so we could talk, in the middle of the badlands of Alberta, high on licorice and energy drinks, a bunch of high school students wrestled honestly with the authority of God in their lives.  How a submission to THE King flies counter-intuitive to our cultures self-sufficient, independent mentality.

I love road trips.

________________________

* I say “can” because I am fully aware that too many hours in the vehicle with a brother or little sister who is annoying you is excruciating, and behind forced to walk a kilometre down the highway with the family vehicle trailing behind with the flashers on like some bizzare

Terry Fox run is not super fun, and neither is having to do laps around the gas station because I won’t stop pestering my brothers.  So road trips weren’t always fun.  But hey, they are what you make of them!

The following is an update from Darrell Damron, Haiti ARISE Ministries, USA, Vice-President:

Marc and the teams & staff of Haiti ARISE are safe, praise God!

As the 7.0 earthquake struck just 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince at about 5pm today (2pm Washington time), Pastor Marc Honorat, Founder and Director of Haiti ARISE Ministries, called and said, “We’re having an earthquake; pray for us!” Then all communications went down.

All afternoon we prayed and waited to hear from someone on the ground in Haiti to tell us everyone at Haiti ARISE Ministries was ok — at about 7:30pm this evening (Washington time) , I received a call from staff at Haiti ARISE Canada (James Roberts) who said that they had just received an email indicating that Marc and the teams and staff in Haiti are safe.  The email was sent from another mission facility that is walking distance from our Haiti ARISE facilities in Grand Goave. Marc and the te am are staying at this mission overnight, sleeping in a school bus since the facility is full of their own mission team and people seeking shelter. But they are all safe!

About 4 hours before the quake hit, a team of 24 volunteers from Nelson, British Columbia, including 17 teenage kids, arrived in Haiti to begin their Haiti ARISE mission trip – little did they know what an opportunity to serve was in store for them!

Haiti ARISE will be providing relief to people in Haiti in the aftermath of this disaster; no doubt our Haiti ARISE team is probably already helping those nearest to them right now.  When the sun rises tomorrow, the extent of the damage will be visible, and people in need will turn to Haiti ARISE for help because we’ve been there in the past for them.
Haiti ARISE will be providing food, water, shelter, and care to many in the coming days, weeks, and months.
You can be a part of the relief effort by donating funds to the Haiti ARISE Ministries “Disaster Relief Fund.” Please keep praying for Haiti!

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.

Cornerstone Connected, Fall 2009 Issue