A Note From Chris - February 16, 2023

Church! I’m so encouraged, as I hope you are, by the many ways God is moving and blessing our church. We are growing, we are reaching new people, and we are taking next steps toward Jesus each and every day.

In the past two weeks, you came out in INCREDIBLE ways to help fund the Invest Wall to send our kids (and kids who aren’t our kids YET, but we hope to help connect them soon!) to camp this summer. This Sunday, the invest wall wraps up, and we are poised to EXCEED our goal of 200 shares for camp this summer. Do you have a kid, grandkid, neighbor, or friend you should tell about camp? All the camp dates are out for this coming summer. You can find all of the information here.

This Sunday, we start a new series called “Faithful.” In Hebrews 11, the Hebrew writer gave us this incredible list, often called the “Hall of Faith,” of people from Israel’s history who lived a life of faith worthy of modeling. Each of them had their own circumstances and situations, but all of them were faithful to God until the end. We are going to spend 3 weeks looking at three of those stories: Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. As we live out our “Year of Faith” as a church, we will look at what it means to be faithful and consider what steps we need to take in order to grow in faithfulness to God. Please take a moment to read Hebrews 11 as preparation for worship this weekend.

As we are celebrating some great crowds over the past few weekends, we also must remember to be patient with each other. If there is a line in the parking lot or you are redirected to a spot that isn’t your preference, that is an opportunity to choose surrender. If you find a seat more snug than your preference in worship, it is an opportunity to celebrate and be thankful for those around you. If you have to wait in line for your coffee or to check in your kid, that is an opportunity to channel the spiritual discipline of patience. None of those things are ultimately all that challenging, and are signs of life in a growing church. As you leave your house Sunday to come to worship, take a moment and pray for Cornerstone. We want to be a force against darkness in this community and reach people far from God with the gospel. Your presence and your joyful spirit will be a fantastic step in that direction.

Before you arrive for church Sunday, I will be landing in Israel with 34 folks traveling to the Holy Land for 10 days. We will take communion and pray together on Sunday from Caesarea by the Sea, a key city in the NT for the expansion of the gospel to the world. The team has been meeting for a few weeks in preparation for the trip, reading Scripture, and learning about the places where Jesus walked. Please be praying for this trip, that God will move in our hearts and provide safe travel. I’ll share some stories and details with you after we return.

I pray for you every day and truly love you, church! Can’t wait to see how God will continue to grow us and stretch us this year into a new chapter of faith together.

Yours and His,
Chris VandeLinde

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