Moving Forward

Greetings Everyone!
We enjoyed another great day of praise and worship here at Cornerstone Church. I hope it was the same for those of you who read this blog but live away from Cornerstone. This past Sunday we learned about the hazards of trying to play God in the lives of others. While it is true that we have a responsibility to be discerning about things that are right and wrong we do not have the responsibility nor the right to be someone elses judge. James 4:12 makes it very clear that there is but one Lawgiver and Judge and He is God not you or I. I think that Paul summed up our role as followers of Christ in this matter when he said in Ephesians 4:15 that we are to speak the truth in love. The problem with judging is that it has that note of finality to it. When I chose to judge someone I am basically writing them off and saying, "There is no hope of change in you." If I believe that then I believe that not even Jesus is able to change that person which I wholeheartedly disagree with. I believe that no one no matter who far gone they may appear to be are beyond the reach of God's amazing grace. I do not want to be in the place of writing off another person's eternity.

This coming Sunday will be a special day at Cornerstone for several reasons. First of all this will be our annual Celebration of Ministry Sunday. This a day each year when we come together to celebrate God's work in our lives as a church over the past year. Our church year officially ended the last day of February but for the past ten years we have used the first Sunday of May to Celebrate those things God did in us and through us during the previous year. I will also be sharing the vision I believe God has given me for the coming 12 months of 2007/2008. We are continuing to strive towards the fulfillment of our vision as a church to become a people who have a "Passion For The Purposes". Our vision as a church is to become passionate about the five purposes for which we believe God has created us. Those purposes are Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism. In this report I also get the privilege of presenting the highest award our church offers, the Pastor Appreciation Award. This award goes to the person who has been the greatest support and encouragement to this church and it's pastor. I look forward to presenting that award again this year.

One of the fun things that will happen in this service is our annual power point presentation of photos from events of the last year. This is always one of the highlights of the day. We will be able to make CD copies of this presentation available to anyone who desires one this year due to new capabilities we have in our computer system.

The other special event of this Sunday will be the Special Announcement I have been talking about for several weeks now. I will be sharing that announcement with the church at the end of my message so I certainly hope that everyone who calls Cornerstone their church home will be sure to be here for that announcement. Please remember that if you ever miss on of our worship services that they are always available on our online sermon player. You can even download a copy to burn on to a CD to take with you while you are on the road.

Well this has been a little longer post than usual so I will go ahead and end it now. Good to share with you again as always and i look forward to sharing with you again.
Pastor Sheldon