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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11
It`s Groundbreaking Day
A few months ago I was sat in my car on Castle Marina bridge, facing the former MFI showroom, waiting for the traffic lights to turn green. A couple of students were walking back from the supermarket, laden with shopping bags. Outside the showroom, they stopped and put the bags down to take a rest. Then one of them glanced up at the property agent's sign on the showroom that reads ‘Purchased for Cornerstone Church'. A look of shock and surprise spread across her face as she mouthed the words ‘a church?!' She couldn't quite believe that a church was going to be built on this site!
Anyone travelling down Castle Boulevard now can't fail to notice that the project has begun on site. Tuesday 8th November 2011 was marked with a ‘Groundbreaking' Ceremony with representatives from the church and the building contractors. Our Senior Pastor spoke powerfully about how, in actual fact, we're not building a church. The church already exists, as the church is the people, and Jesus Christ is the One who is building his church. We're building a church building, a headquarters for our mission and ministries for the generations to come.
One of the things that excites me most about the new building is the growing opportunities we'll have, being in the heart of the student community, to help our students understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in their generation. And we hope to see a growth in our mission to students too. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be great to pray that those two students I saw with their shopping will be amongst the first people to come to faith in Jesus in our new building!
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18
What do we do with Halloween?
Halloween - what a tricky subject! Speaking as a parent who desires to be a Christ-honouring voice to my children - I hate it! I didn't realise quite how difficult Halloween was to navigate as a Christian parent until my children hit the age of being invited to Halloween parties by well meaning non-Christian friends. The first time it happened I made a total hash of my response - managing to confuse my friend and upset my children in equal measure. Hence, on joining the Cornerstone staff team five years ago - with responsibility for the Children's Ministry - my first move was to plan a children's event, in place of Halloween - something that provided Christian parents with a more than acceptable alternative for their children. We offered the ingredients that attract most children to Halloween - fun food, grungy games and outlandish outfits and made the most of the opportunity to celebrate Christ as the light and hope of the world.
But, providing your children with an alternative doesn't negate the need to talk with them about the issue of Halloween. It is indeed a tricky subject - in that even Christians are divided as to whether or not to trivialise it as harmless fun - quite detached from its pagan origins or denounce it as a celebration of evil. And then there are many Christians in the middle who - if you were quizzing them about Halloween - would respond with an awkward vagueness.
The bible makes it clear that, as Christians, we should run a mile from ‘detestable' practices:
"Let no-one be found among you ... who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritualist or who consults the dead."
(Deuteronomy 18:10-11)
But when this description doesn't bear much resemblance to our lovely neighbour inviting our children to eat spider web-splattered fairy cakes and play with green goo we can be easily thrown into confusion. Does this constitute dabbling with the occult?
And then there's that verse in 1 Corinthians:
"I have become all things to all mean so that by all possible means I might save some."
(1 Corinthians 9:22)
So then, is it acceptable, as evangelical Christians, to accept those invitations at Halloween and seize the opportunity to develop new relationships and share our faith?
I was challenged a few years ago when a non-Christian friend of mine shared her hurt over a Christian family over the road shutting their front door firmly against my friend's young children when they were ‘trick or treating' with the words "We're Christians. We don't do Halloween!"
But, in the past, I have in fact, been that clumsy Christian as Halloween took me by surprise yet again and I still hadn't thought through my response. So - to return to my title - as Christians, what should we do with Halloween?
We're not going to find any verses from the Bible that specifically warn us against participating in Halloween-related activities - however there are many verses from Scripture that give us principles that can help us weigh up whether or not a multitude of things are God-honouring or beneficial and if we can help our children to understand such principles we can help them to make healthy and right decisions as they grow older and to know the time and place to go against prevailing culture to make a stand for God.
Unhelpfully, you may think - I am not going to make a pronouncement on how you, as a family, handle Halloween. However, I will end with a few bits of wisdom (learnt the hard way) that may help you to be a positive, Christ honouring voice at this time of year.
•Look into the origins of Halloween so that you can explain to friends and/or your children why, as Christians, you feel uncomfortable about it. (I found the following link helpful): http://www.eauk.org/resources/info/listings/halloween-resources.cfm
•Avoid the temptation to either trivialise the occult or be overly frightened by it. Parents teach your children that the spiritual realm is real, but we need not be afraid because Christ already has the victory. (Colossians 2:15; 1 John 4:4)
•Think about how you could use Halloween as an opportunity to promote the gospel. As well as sweets, might you give away Gospel tracts written for children at your door step? Available from most Christian book shops or on line: www.thegoodbook.co.uk or www.cpo.org.uk
•Be proactive in organising or attending an alternative to Halloween event - whether based at church or with friends in the community and invite non-Christian friends to join in.
•Think ahead and don't be taken by surprise!
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12
New Keswick Live Worship Album
Featuring five songs from Cornerstone!! Once again we had the privilege of serving in the worship team at Week 2 of the Keswick Convention. The weather was glorious and the teaching as excellent as ever. Highlights for me were the Bible Overview from Chris Wright in the mornings as well as evening teaching from Steve Brady, Derek Burnside and Krish Kandiah who are all gifted communicators (well worth downloading any of these talks). It was great catching up with some old friends from Moorlands Bible College who attended the convention as guests.
We gelled so well as a band this year and the whole experience was far less pressurised as a result. The congregation too responded so well to the songs and we had particularly encouraging comments on some of the new and revived hymns which Phil and I have been working on in order to tie into the convention theme of mission.
It was thrilling to see that five of the songs which we have written and revived appear on this years live worship album. The songs sound fantastic and especially on We Have Heard A Joyful Sound (He saves) the full force of 3,500 strong congregation can be heard singing with great enthusiasm the anthemic chorus. My personal favourite is Phil's beautiful new tune to the old hymn Be Merciful. The words could not have been better for the convention theme and I hope this little known hymn might have a new lease of life as a result.
You can purchase the CD from Essential Christian (why not leave a comment)
Or download it from Itunes here
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
Ebay with a Mission
Fantastic news! Now you can make a donation to Cornerstone of between 10%-100% of any money you raise from the sale of an Ebay item, and we can even get the TAX back added too!!!
All you need to do is to click on this link http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayforcharity/sell.html and you can read all about how you can sell on behalf of Cornerstone Church.
Click to browse Ebays charities, type in Cornerstone Church and you can view our charity page which has our Ebay mission purpose as well as a direct link to the Cornerstone website.
Please also remember that even if you sell privately on Ebay, they now give you the option to donate a percentage of your money raised to a charity. This is a great way to give to Cornerstone and our building project. Please pass this information on to any of your Christian friends and relatives throughout the country as this is a quick and easy way for them to be involved in helping us build for the future.
Happy Selling!
Colin
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
A great summer!!
The Summer season is a great time for many of our young people to go on Christian holidays and missions. It is such an encouragement to hear stories of how God has worked in significant ways through these events, here is just one of those stories that we hope will be a blessing to you all.
Hello my name is Sam Gosrani, a 15 year old from Cornerstone. A year back I attended a Scripture Union holiday called ‘Ultimate Challenge' which was a true, life-changing, experience for me. I gained many friendships there and also decided to dedicate my life to Jesus out of my own will. A now, lifelong friend, Elias Rugen, shared his testimony on the camp and made me want to give everything to God. This was an extremely inspirational moment for me.
This past year I have really felt the Holy Spirit within me. Helping me in difficult situations and guiding me down the right path.
This summer finally came and it was time to decide the next Scripture Union camp to go on. Discussing with Elias, we came to conclusion with a camp called ‘Llan M' based in Llan Moddoch, Wales. I feel we both went with expectations that it wouldn't live up to ‘Ultimate Challenge'...but we were both very wrong! This was the perfect camp for both of us to continue to grow in our faith and really show other peers what Jesus has done in our lives. This was a much smaller camp however there was much more opportunity to discuss faith with leaders which was great. I was given the opportunity to share my belief in Christ though what I love, music. A couple of friends and I got the opportunity to lead lots of the worship throughout the week and also shared each other's testimonies to the whole camp. It was really encouraging also, to see other friends of similar age develop and mature in their faith.
Becoming a Christian for me was totally out of my own will. I wanted to give myself to Jesus because of the things he had done for me, however I had not seen any miraculous activities before my eyes. Going on a camp with a close friend Harry and also meeting someone on the camp who is now very close to me was great, however neither were Christians. I felt this was a great opportunity for them to learn about God through ways in which youth connect. Being told your best friends are praying for you, and being given music which relates to how you are feeling is an incredible way to connect with the Lord and I felt this was the time to do so for these amazing people. I had never witnessed any answered prayers that had stood out to me before, however being told near to the end of the week, by the person themselves that they want to befriend Jesus and become a Christian was a moment I will cherish for the rest of my life! The night I was told, was the night I broke down in tears and witnessed a real answer to prayer. This was most certainly one of the most incredible things I had ever come across.
I really recommend Scripture Union camps and they are an amazing way of being pushed out of your comfort zone and worshiping the Lord in different ways, as well as having the time of your life! Making new, lifelong friends - Participating in a huge variety of different activities, but most of all, having the most incredible time with ‘The Big G'!
Sam Gosrani
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9
Encouragement
It is always encouraging when we receive cards in the office to thank us, as a Church family, for being supportive. We can't publish every single one of these, however, after speaking to Katie, we wanted to share the following to encourage us all that our prayers and support really do make a difference!
"This is a note of thanks as I come to the end of my time as a UCCF Staff Worker for all your support over the past three years. Thank you for your generous financial support. This has been a real encouragement and has really made it possible for me to serve in this way over the past years. Thank you so much for your generosity in giving and also releasing me to serve on campus. I appreciate so much your love and kindness.
Thank you too for your prayers. It has meant a lot being included in the Home Mission Briefing every month and it has allowed others to pray regularly.
Finally, thank you so much for being such a supportive church family. This has been really refreshing and energising and your faithfulness, especially over the past years, has been amazing. It is a real privilege to be part of Cornerstone and serve alongside you all"
Katie Norouzi
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