A Note From Chris - June 9, 2022

Church,

As summer is truly upon us now, I am able to reflect a bit on a great first ½ of the year at Cornerstone, and a really great spring. When people ask me how things are going at church, these days I typically say, “Really good!” We have room to improve and grow of course, but the spring has been full of new growth, meaningful ministry, baptisms (30+ since Easter), and great weekends worshiping together.

We are growing. We are reaching new people. We are seeing our Ones come to Christ. We are impacting our community and our world with the gospel together. I am so thankful for the part you play in God’s kingdom and that we get to do it together. I’m looking forward to a fruitful and fun summer!

Please be praying for our summer camps! Our student ministry and children’s ministry will be heading off to various camps before we know it. Camp is always such a powerful and great way for our kids to take next steps in faith and grow in their relationship with Jesus. Please be praying for our kids, and if you haven’t yet registered your kids for their appropriate camp, jump on that asap! You won’t want them to miss being a part of their church and growing in faith with their friends and leaders.

As we see folks starting to head in different directions for travel this summer, I want to give you a great resource to take with you. We are launching a Bible Reading Plan through the gospels this summer as a church. As we will spend some time later this month in the gospels, we want to be reading and thinking about Jesus’ words and ministry to overlay our upcoming series, "After Amen." So…take a moment and either download YouVersion, or if you have it, simply use this link to join our church and our upcoming plan, which begins this coming Sunday. It’s 1 chapter per day, so a pretty light pace, which seems to be appropriate for the craziness of summer.

Last weekend, we launched a series called, “My Piece of the Pie.” It’s not about food, actually. It’s about money. And truth be told, I’d much rather talk to you each week about apple pie or baseball or something other than generosity. And yet, money holds such a significant place in our lives and Jesus gave so many warnings and instructions about it, a loving reminder is in order. One of my hopes for this series is for those of us who have been mostly not living intentionally with our finances and especially our giving, will really prayerfully consider and make some changes. God is honored when we put everything under His care, especially the resources He has so richly provided for us.

Don’t skip because I gave you a heads up! Instead, come join me in worship, and lets together humbly ask God what He wants us to see differently or change in our approach to this very important topic. This money talk is even “Ones friendly,” so you can invite that friend you’ve been thinking about asking to join you for worship. Sure do love you all, and can’t wait to worship with you Sunday!

Yours & His,
Chris VandeLinde