Sunday Wrap-Up

It’s been a while since I’ve shared on a Sunday night.  I’m usually wiped out from preaching and teaching most of the day.  But I’m so excited about what God is doing at Cornerstone that I have to share it!

  • I am married to the most incredible woman in the world.  Seriously, Jenni is awesome.  We had a great date night Friday night and she does great on the weekends with the kids when I am at the church.   I am blessed to have a supportive wife who is crazy in love with me.
  • After shaving this week, I think it may be time to grow back the gotee. I have had about 50 people tell me I look like I’m 25.  At my age, I don’t think that is a compliment anymore.  See here for a pic.
  • Preaching the same message on Saturday nights has really improved my message on Sunday morning.  When I preach I typically have more notes and illustrations than I will use, so it helps me to focus in on what I need to share.  It also gives me more rest and I can wake up ready to go on Sunday mornings.  But we are also at the point where we need to add a 2nd Sunday morning service.   Preaching three times should be interesting.  I wonder if the 3rd will be easier, or if I will be wiped out.  I guess will be finding out soon.  Which brings me to …
  • Church leaders typically say you need to add a service when you’re at 80% capacity.  When you have more people than that, it feels overcrowded and people have trouble finding seats.   Currently we have a small intimate worship setting.  We have about 165 chairs around the stage and then a few more tables and chairs over in the cafe area where you can still see and hear the message.  For the last month we have averaged around 160 adults in the Sunday morning service.   So instead of 80%, we’re more like 100%.    We have some people sitting in the floor and some hanging out in the cafe, but it is packed.  It brings excitement to see that many people there, but it does feel crowded.   Our biggest challenge in adding a second service is finding the right teachers to partner with us for our Cornerstone kids.   We have a ton of kids for a church our size and it takes a number of committed volunteers to make everything happen.  Continue to pray that we will have additional volunteers catch the vision for what God is doing at Cornerstone!
  • I’ve been searching for a good curriculum to use from time to time for our youth ministry.  I still teach our youth on Sunday nights and it helps to have something to start from.   Most of the ones I have found are either 1) very long 2) very cheesy, 3) very shallow, or 4) very expensive.  I tried one tonight that overcame all 4 problems.   It was a youth video from Lifechurch.tv.  They provide their youth teaching videos for free.  Tonight we used a video about being a fully devoted follower of Christ.  It was about 15 minutes long and it was excellent.  They also provided some discussion questions. This really fits well with my teaching style.  The videos were well done, and they served as a great springboard for discussion.  I plan on using them more in the future.
  • I love teenagers!  I spent time today counseling a couple of guys who are facing some rough decisions.   And then one of the youth sprayed me tonight with some nasty cologne.  I guess you take the good (counseling) with the bad (cologne)  🙂
  • And finally, I am loving the new blog using wordpress.  I wish I would have made the switch much sooner.  I’ve got a few more things I want to unveil here on the site in the future.

Mike

I am a former design engineer who now pastors Cornerstone Community Church in Galax, Virginia. I'm passionate about following Jesus and I love technology. I've been married to Jennifer for 28 years, and we have three adult children.

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4 Responses

  1. Joseph Sangl says:

    Love seeing what God is up to in Galax!!! Can't wait to hear about the move to three services!

  2. a friend says:

    any chance ya'll can do some witnessing/hanging out next door at the skate park?
    maybe invite the kids in on a friday or sunday night?

    thx!

  3. Mike says:

    That's definitely in our plans. I wish we had some teens that hang out there, but currently we don't. I think the best way to reach out to the group is from within. Let me know if you know any Christian teens that would be up for the challenge.

    But we still want to do some cool stuff. We have talked about bringing in a professional skateboarder and also doing free pizza from time to time. It will take some time for us to earn their trust. Our Saturday night service would be a great fit for them and so would our youth meetings on Sunday night. As it warms it, we'll even try to meet some outside.

    I would love for someone to step up and head up an outreach to the park. The opportunities excite me!

  4. a friend says:

    I know some of the boys go up to Cliffview sometimes b/c they can skate there.
    I think you can get a few in with a personal invite. I think they just need to feel welcome and not out of place.
    I agree the possibilities are very exciting.! 🙂

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