Getting Ready For Easter

There are also opportunities to come and participate.

Easter Choir:  Performing at the Easter Service.  Practice begins this   Wednesday at 7pm  in the Mayfair room.
Rehearsals:  March 10, 17, 24, 31.

Orchestra Rehearsals: March 14, 21, 28, 31

For more information call 931-4949
or email us at cornerstone@sasktel.net

My Perogative?

Everybody’s talking all this stuff about me //
Now now why don’t they just let me live //
Oh oh oh i don’t need permission  //
Make my own decisions oh //
That’s my prerogative

-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.

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!

CD Review – Steven Curtis Chapman, Beauty Will Rise

CD Review
Steven Curtis Chapman, Beauty Will Rise

Out of personal tragedy comes this very remarkable release from veteran artist Steven Curtis Chapman.  Its been a long time since an album has affected me quite like this one has.  In terms of production it has a very intimate and raw feel.  They seem to have left some of polish off of this one, and yet we are rewarded as listeners with a warmth and honesty that comes through in every note.  Musically it is also excellent.  The songs are also really well written, and very creative.  It isn’t a standard rock band style of album, instead taking a more minimalistic approach to instrumentation and arrangement.  Somehow they seem to do more with less.  Lyrically, it has some very dark moments, and there is a tremendous honesty in grappling with both personal pain, and the problems of pain and suffering in the world.  In the face of such big questions Steven continuously goes back to God.  The personal tragedy is somehow enlarged to look theologically at the whole world through the eyes of God.  What’s amazing in this album is that we don’t get answers, instead we receive glimpses, glimpses of the glory of God and His work and His plan.  It’s really remarkable and precious to be able to listen to art like this and have your picture of God enlarged, and be instilled with a greater sense of His glory.  This is a great dose of hope.  I don’t know how he could even sing and play this, yet he does it with such integrity and artistic excellence.  Take time to really stop and listen to this album.

Reviewed by Lorn Gieck

Get Ready For Easter!

Get Ready For Easter is a five week curriculum series that will teach children about the events leading up to Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. Children will hear about Christ’s Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, Jesus’ trial, his Crucifixion and finally Jesus’ resurrection. Children will learn though an interactive video, memory verses, small groups and crafts. Series begin February 21, 2010.

True U

Does God Exist? Begining Sunday Feb 21 at 6:30pm in the Mayfair room.  10 Week DVD series from Focus on Family & the Truth Project.  Sign up on the information desk or call Roger & Lisa Braun at 955-7199.  www.trueu.org

Ladies Bible Study

Tim Milner Concert

Cornerstone Church, and Free 100.3, are excited to be bringing in Canadian worship artist Tim Milner for an evening of worship on Sunday February 28th at 6:30pm.  Tim Milner is a Covenant nominated worship leader with many years of worship leading and teaching experience.  Posters are coming to you in the mail and we would appreciate it if you could put them up in your church. Tickets cost $15 and are available at Scott’s Parable and the Cornerstone Church Office.  For more information you can contact Cornerstone Church at 931-4949 or email cornerstone@sasktel.net . You can also find more information about Tim Milner at www.timmilner.com or www.myspace.com/timmilnerband.

Plan to Protect

Thank you so much to those volunteers that have made Plan to Protect a priority this year!

It is important for the church body to understand that this is a legal document, passed by church leadership to be implemented to ALL volunteers working with Youth and Children.  The process and the documents accumulated for each volunteer are for the safety of the children, as well as protecting the volunteers.

If you still have not completed your application package please take the few moments needed to fill out the forms and make this a priority.

We understand that if you have been volunteering at Cornerstone for years it seems strange and frustrating to have to fill out these forms.  Asking you to fill out these forms does NOT mean we don’t trust you as a volunteer.  It is simply the reality of our world today, the reality of running a public facility with children & youth and we are legally responsible for the children placed in our care.

This process does not need to be difficult if we all work together to complete the necessary paperwork!

Thanks again to the majority of our volunteers who have made this a priority!

Web Links for families

Splink is a SIMPLE way to LINK your family together spiritually.It’s a FREE weekly email packed with ideas to help connect your family. Splinks are creative ways of interacting with your children with family devotional starters and ideas for family time. Splinks can also help you use teachable moments to pass along spiritual truths and life lessons while making memories or just having fun together. No matter where you are, it can always be time for a Splink!

Family Times helps parents transfer a spiritual legacy to their children. Family Times is designed to help equip parents with easy to use tools to make the most of everyday moments together. This tool is based on the biblical model that teaches that the home should be the primary place where a child learns about God.
Seeds Family Worship – Worship & Togetherness through music! Planting the seeds of God’s word in the hearts of families.

Quest for Compassion is designed to educate your children about global poverty and help them develop a heart for the poor around the world. When children understand poverty, they grow into compassionate adults.  This is a great interactive online game for kids.

Quality

In the past month or so the Music & Arts department has been talking about the issue of quality.  And by quality, we were talking about it  with respect to attaining a certain degree of  high standards; an approaching of excellence in our trade as musicians.   It all started at a Music & Arts Committee Meeting where we had a chance to reflect a little on how valuable we perceived quality to be.  In that discussion we found that as Arts leadership in Cornerstone, we feel very strongly that quality is important.  We talked about how it demonstrates our investment and commitment to what we do.  It shows that we have a certain healthy amount of satisfaction in what we’re doing.  Often as musicians if we don’t do our best we’re faced with a certain amount of anxiety.  We don’t feel right about giving a substandard effort.  Being fully prepared is a freeing thing.  Our quality standards also reflect on our motivation on service: If God is who we are serving, and God is Holy and magnificent, we should bring to him our very best.

As I though about this more I was reading in Leviticus at the time, and Chapter 22.17-31 gives the Lord’s instructions as to what kind of offerings the Lord finds acceptable.  It lists the kinds of animals and all the possible imperfections that cannot and should not be brought before the Lord.  In verse 31 the importance of quality it is linked to the Holiness of God, and we are to be faithful in bringing our best sacrifices to him.  In verse 32 it says, “Do not treat my holy name as common and ordinary.  I must be treated as holy by the people of Israel.  It is I, the Lord, who makes you holy.”  And so we bring the best to our Lord.

There is an amazing miracle in this.  We cannot attain perfection, and perfectionism can be a trap for artists.  It is up to God to accomplish the work of cleansing us, to make us a suitable offering.  He makes us Holy.  The work of Christ makes us holy,  makes our offerings pleasing to God.  So if we start with a heart offered to Jesus, motivated to serve him, then God will find pleasure in our service of Him and His kingdom.

Its been great to see the worship teams embrace this as we’ve been talking about it.  One of the questions that came out of the discussions was why are we talking about this now?  Is there a problem of quality?  I’m happy to say no, not at all.  I think our musicians are really good, and we’re blessed with a lot of talented people.  But that doesn’t mean we stop pursuing, or stop  challenging ourselves in our pursuit of following God where he calls us.

Lorn
Associate Pastor of Music & Arts

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