As I think through the past ten years, there are a few church services that really stand out in my mind. One was a youth service on April 1st of 2001. My wife and I were serving at a country church as part time youth leaders. We had just got back from taking over 50 teenagers to a Student Conference, and we turned over part of the morning worship service to our teens so they could share about what they learned. What happened next was a youth revival. Student after student stood before the church and shared what God was doing in their life. Instead of a few minutes, they took the entire service and more. And it was on that morning when I shared that God was leading me into ministry. I didn’t know what it would look like, and I didn’t know where I would end up, but I knew things were about to change. That morning sparked a journey that led students to enroll in seminary and even serve as missionaries and it has led me to become a pastor. I still have the VHS tape of that service, and it is one that I will never forget.

This past week at Cornerstone was another one of those services. Our mission team shared about their recent trip to Nicaragua. It seemed like everything was stacked against them sharing. We had to cancel the service the week before when they were supposed to share because of snow.  And we didn’t make a decision about this week’s service until early Sunday morning. We had to cancel our early service because of ice and cold, but we decided to have our 11am service. Everyone was glad we did. It was a powerful service where we heard not about what they did, but about what God did in their hearts. I am so proud of our team members for being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I just stayed out of the way and let God move. It’s awesome when that happens.

I think it’s important for us to look back to the Spiritual markers in our life. The moments and events that formed us and shaped us. The experiences that caused us to change our direction and focus on following Christ completely. The Israelites built alters to remember those events, and we should not forget the power that comes from realizing that our God has been faithful.

Here is the video from Sunday.

Mission Team Update from Cornerstone on Vimeo.

I’ve shared before about how much I like YouVersion. It’s a Bible application that you can access for free from your mobile device or the web. They have a number of great Bible Reading Plans that help you get into a habit of reading God’s Word. Reading Scripture is an important discipline of the Christian life. It connects us to the very voice of God, and that’s why I urge everyone to read their Bible on a daily basis.

The team at YouVersion has released a great Christmas reading plan. They have included reflection questions and action steps that you can take each day. This is a great way to share the Christmas story with your family. In today’s society, it is hard to keep our focus on Christ during this crazy time of year. Taking time each day to think about the true meaning of Christmas is so important for us as believers. This plan is 25 days long, so if you start now it will take you through Christmas day. Click below to find out more.

What are some of the ways that your family keeps the focus on Christ during Christmas? Leave me a comment below with your ideas.

This week our church has a mission team in Nicaragua.  We have partnered with Because We Care Ministries to do numerous trips to Nicaragua in the past.  Each time the teams come back with incredible stories of God at work. We are able to do construction and radio ministry in the mornings, and then in the afternoon the team will distribute food and medical supplies to remote villages.  Yesterday during our early 9:15 church service, we were able to video chat with the team over Skype. It is absolutely amazing how technology can help you connect and communicate across the world.

This year, we also have another way to hear and see updates from the team. Each night at 8pm Eastern Time, you can watch a live NicaNews video webcast from Because We Care Ministires on UStream. I have also embedded the channel below so you can watch right here on the website.

During the message this past week at Cornerstone, we were able to take questions from the congregation via text messaging. We ended up with more questions than we had time to answer during the service, so I wanted to share my answers here on the blog.  I also asked for Jennifer’s input on these. I love having interaction during our worship services. Hopefully we will be able to do more things like this in the future.

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