FaithEngineer

I felt a little like Jacob from the Old Testament (Genesis 32:24-32) this past week. In preparing my message for Sunday, I had to do some wrestling with God. Have you ever argued with God? As a pastor I should know better, but sometimes I don’t like giving up control.

John Waller was in town for a Sunday night concert, so we had him lead worship for our Sunday morning service. I knew we would have a lot of guests and that I wouldn’t have a long time to share, so I wanted to do an “uplifting and encouraging” message. One that  challenged everybody, but nothing too controversial. God had other plans. We are in a series titled “Love Is …” and we have been going through a Biblical definition of unconditional love. We have gone through 1 Corinthians 13 and shared about unselfish living and forgiveness, but there was one message that I knew must be part of the series. God wanted me to share it this weekend. It was a message on purity and intimacy.

So with all our guests, I ended up preaching a message from 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 about sexual purity and how that purity will pave the way to intimacy. It was a little uncomfortable at times, but I know I was obedient. Even if no one comes back next week, I’m fine. I went to sleep happy and relieved. Because my preaching is not to please the people who are in attendance, but to share truth from the Bible and please God. We need to be challenged to confess and repent when sin creeps into the church. I hope next time I will just trust God completely and skip the wrestling part. It’s definitely not a fun process.

I’m excited about John Waller joining us this Sunday at Cornerstone Community Church. If you saw the movie Fireproof or listen to SpiritFM, you have heard John Waller’s music. His song, While I’m Waiting is a powerful song about waiting on God’s timing. He will be joining us and leading worship for our 10am service, and then going over to First Baptist to lead them in worship at their 11am service. At 6pm on Sunday night, we are moving our evening service over to the historic Rex Theater in downtown Galax for a special concert with John.

The great thing about this concert is that it was organized by a young man in our church. Isaac Larrowe has organized and promoted the concert and has raised the funds to allow John to come minister to us. Please help us get the word out about the concert. If you haven’t heard the song, check out the video below or check out John’s website.

Last month at Cornerstone, we shared the touching story of Rogers Kirven and his wife Christy.  Rogers was a former business partner with Sam who now lives in Florida.  Rogers and Christy have five children and have been married for 35 years. Three years ago Christy was diagnosed with three specific types of cancer. In addition to fervent prayer, Rogers has spent a fortune seeking the best treatment available from places like M.D. Anderson Cancer Center out of Houston, TX and Shands, the University of Florida Cancer Hospital. During Christmas, the medical community sent Christy home to die.

Today was the day when the Lord gave her ultimate healing. Christy passed away and I want to ask that you keep Rogers and his family in your prayers. If you missed the church service where we called and interviewed Rogers, then please watch the video below and listen to the audio of the phone call.

It was powerful, it was challenging, and it reminded all of us that love never dies …

Audio of the phone call with Rogers (Click here to play)

I’m getting excited about our trip down to Anderson, South Carolina this week for the Unleash Conference. We’re leaving tomorrow and hopefully heading into some warmer weather. Jennifer and I have been every year and I love the encouragement that we receive from the NewSpring staff. We try to take a different group from Cornerstone each year to expose them to the hospitality and vision of NewSpring. You can’t help but leave “fired up” about what God has called you to do. All the details about the conference can be found on the website, along with a listing of all the breakout session topics.

If you can’t make it to the conference, then you can join in and watch the main sessions online at http://unleash.cc/

Here is just a sample of what you can expect. I look forward to meeting up with some online friends. Leave me a comment or send me a message on twitter if you will be there.

Promo: “Unleash 2010″ from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

A One Day Event focused on the church and it’s potential at NewSpring Church on March 4, 2010. Visit newspring.cc/unleash for more information.

As some of you may know, since the first of this year we have been working with First Baptist Church in Galax.  They are currently in between pastors, so Sam, my co-pastor at Cornerstone has been preaching and serving as their interim pastor. He’s still working for Cornerstone, but he is also helping them through their time of transition. We have stated that we want to be the best church for the community, not just the best church in the community. By being Kingdom minded, we are showing the local community what happens when we cooperate instead of compete. We have been preaching through the same sermon series and working together on the messages each week. At Cornerstone, we have wanted to do a baptism service during the winter months, so Sam came up with the idea of a joint worship service between the two churches.

This Sunday, we are moving our Sunday evening service to First Baptist and joining them for a combined worship service. We are coming together to celebrate. Our worship band will be joining with their choir as they lead the service in worship. They practiced together last night and everything really came together and sounded great. Even though the styles may be a little different between the two churches, we come together with the same purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus Christ. Join us this Sunday evening at 6:30 for a time of celebration through worship and baptism.

Let me just start off by saying, it was a great weekend. I wanted to share a quick update about some of the things happening in my world.

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  I love this sign

  Snow, ice, and cold temperatures.  That’s pretty much summarizes the last two months. Although everyone enjoyed the snow at first, it’s starting to wear out it’s welcome.  At least the kids finally were able to play basketball this weekend. The games have been canceled for the last several weeks, so they were glad to get back on the court. We have had snow on the ground here since the week before Christmas, and school was out again today. The sun did make an appearance and the snow is finally starting to melt, but that poses a problem for all the leaks we have in the roof at church.

• We had a great Valentine’s dinner at the church Saturday night. Fun times and great food.  And I can’t forget to mention that the guys won the quiz challenge
• I arrived at church Sunday morning to find my entire office covered in sticky notes.  Several of the youth woke up at 4am on Sunday morning and spent several hours sticking up over 10,000 post it notes. Everything was covered, even the bathroom. It was quite impressive. Now I’m just wondering what to do with all of them.  Check out the pics.
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• Sometimes, my job as a pastor is to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit, and this was one of those weeks. I stayed up late into the night finishing up my message and tweaking it, but ended up not even preaching it. It was a powerful service in many ways. Our Sunday night worship team switched with our Sunday morning team and did an awesome job. And then Sam shared a story about the heartbreak that one of his former business partners is going through. We showed a video of his story, and then using skype, we patched him in live to our service. He shared about his wife dying of cancer, and what true love really is about. We are launching a series called Love Is…, and the story of Rogers and his wife was heart wrenching. The band came back up and did a couple of powerful songs, so by the time I got up to preach, I knew there wasn’t much that needed to be said. I shared 1 Corinthians 13 and challenged everyone to live it out this week and to remember the love that God has shown us. We’ll pick up the series next week as we continue to look at what true love is. The Sunday evening service was just as powerful. It was great having the Sunday morning band experience the evening service and they did an awesome job as always. I shared just a little more, but again, there wasn’t much to add after we watched and heard such a moving example of love.

With all the snow and ice we have gotten over the past few weeks, we were expecting a lower than normal turnout this past Sunday. God had other plans, and we had two great services this past Sunday. We did experiment a little by recording our evening service on video, so I uploaded the sermon so it can be viewed online.  If you did miss church Sunday, then here is your second chance to view the sermon. We wrapped up our series on 20/20 Vision by discussing our response to the Gospel.

As always, we will post the audio of the sermon on the church website and on the iTunes podcast. Let me know what you think. Is this something you would like Cornerstone to do each week?

The Gospel Response from Cornerstone on Vimeo.

Are you living your life in response to the Gospel? As Christians we have strong feelings about the gospel. We might not be able to express fully its meaning, but we understand that it is “the power of God for salvation” and that it changes everything. We will learn that the gospel is not just a message to those outside the faith who need Jesus. It also contains the resources we need to make a difference in the world by being different from the world.

This is the sermon from the evening service on February 7th, 2010

We are in the middle of a harsh winter in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Starting the week before Christmas, we have had snow almost every week. This picture is the road that goes by our house. It has stayed covered with snow and ice for most of the past month. The schools have missed days and weeks at a time, and it doesn’t look any better in the foreseeable future.

We are digging out now from about 9 inches of snow with more sleet and freezing rain to come. While I’m happy that I have a 4-wheel drive F-150 pickup, it has still been tough getting around. But the snow definitely can wreak havoc on schedules and church activities. We have already missed two Sundays due to the snow and this week may not be much better.

So here is my question. What does your church do when it snows? I know some churches are adamant that they will be open no matter what. Some close at even a hint of snow in the forecast, but what should be the deciding factor? Anne Jackson had a great post posing a similar question and it really made me think. For me, it is always a tough decision. I have tried to delegate it to others, but it is usually a collective decision. Our decision is usually based entirely on safety. Even if we tell people to be careful and stay home if the roads aren’t safe in their neighborhood, many still feel obligated to come. Especially those who are serving. We don’t want to put them and their families at risk. I would feel terrible if someone was injured because of a decision we make.

Why do we feel pressure to have church every week? I enjoy meeting together and I truly miss having church services, but for many churches, the answer is simply money. If your church is operating week-to-week on a budget, then missing a week can really affect paying the bills. Luckily, Cornerstone has built up a reserve for times like these so we can continue on without ministry being affected. We trust and pray that God’s people will give generously when they get back to church. Here are a few other things to consider:

• If you have services, then you are responsible to clear walkways, sidewalks, steps, and the parking lot to ensure the safety of those who come. I talked to a pastor this week who had someone fall and break their hip due to ice in the parking lot. The first question the insurance company asked was if they had someone professionally clear the parking lot and sidewalks.
• If the local police have asked people to not travel due to bad road conditions, then please honor their request
• If you do have services, why not simplify and meet with children and adults all together. Combine services and don’t try to do everything like it’s always been done.
• Why not utilize technology and share a video message or audio message with your church online
• Why not provide resources or encourage people to have church in their homes or communities. Share resources or ideas for children to study as well.

This past week, we tried something a little different. Here is the email we sent out. We pointed people to other churches who had online experiences, and we encouraged them to worship as families. At our house, I got out my guitar and we had church together as a family, and it was an awesome time. What other ideas do you have for when services are cancelled? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Dear Church Family

1. If you have missed any of the past weeks from our current teaching series, we would like to encourage you to go back and listen to them online here.

2. Take the time to have a family worship service at home. Involve the entire family with singing and devotions and a time of Bible study.

3. Tune in to one of the many online church services from around the country. Some of the ones that we recommend are Lifechurch.tv (9:30 and 11am), Seacoast Church (9:30 and 11:15am), Newspring Church (11:15am and 6pm), and Northpoint Online (6pm). Lifechurch also has an excellent children’s website for activities and lessons to do at home.

4. If you are a regular giver at Cornerstone, we ask that you continue to worship by giving your normal tithes and offerings online. This may be a good week to check out the online giving options at our Cornerstone website. Our expenses don’t go away on snow days. If you are not comfortable with online giving, of course you are welcome to simply catch up next weekend. Our weekly operations budget has been down over the last month or so with the weather, the holidays, and possibly extra giving to AEP . We appreciate your generosity in advance as we continue to combine our resources in order to pursue the vision God has given us for reaching the twin counties.

We hope and pray that you and your family stay warm over the next few days and stay safe if you absolutely must head-out. We can’t wait to see you next Sunday!

Enjoy your time in the snow!!

My heart is breaking as I look at the pictures of devastation from the earthquake in Haiti. I have had several people ask how they can help. The quickest way to help is by sending money. They will also need food, water, and supplies as the relief effort continues. We are working at Cornerstone to see how we can help. For now, here are some ways you can contribute.

• We have several connections to Harvest International based in Ocala, Florida. They are a missions group based out of Florida with missionaries already in Haiti.  Todd Shaw from Cornerstone has been on two mission trips with them to Haiti.  You can go to their webpage to donate and contribute directly to their missionaries who are there now.
• Locally God’s Pit Crew is gathering water and supplies to transport to Haiti. You can find out more at their website and at SpiritFM.
• Samaritan’s Purse is also gathering supplies and donations to help. Find out more at their website.
• Water Missions International is working on providing clean water. Find out more at their website.

There are many organzations and churches providing relief, but don’t let that lull you into not doing anything. Let me ask you this question that I shared last Sunday.  Do the things that break God’s heart break your heart? Let’s show the love of Christ by loving and serving as Jesus demonstrated for us.  Here are some pictures from the Red Cross. Watch them and pray for the people of Haiti.

Just wanted to share some random thoughts tonight.

• I enjoyed spending the day with my family in Christiansburg and Blacksburg today. Emma was able to go with us since school was canceled due to a power outage.  It’s always great going to Hokie country, and I’m slowly getting my kids used to the campus. It’s such a great town.
• I unplugged completely from church activities today. I need to do that more often since our weekends are so crazy. Honoring the Sabbath is not a suggestion, but a command, and I need at least one day a week where I can rest and enjoy my time with God and family.
• Speaking of a crazy weekend, Cornerstone was awesome this week. We had a great leadership retreat on Friday and Saturday, planning and dreaming with our elder team and administrative team. I’m excited about the direction we are going and the unity we are building in our group. God is blessing us with talented and gifted people who are in love with Jesus. I’ll be sharing more about some of the exciting new things that are in store for this year.
• Sunday was incredible as well. We had the highest weekend attendance ever this week and I saw many new faces in both of our services. You don’t hear me talk about numbers very often, but I want to share with our Cornerstone family that we had 330 people in attendance this week. For a small church in a small town, that is exciting! And I think we’re just seeing the start of what could be. I have heard so many people talking in the community about how God is moving and working at Cornerstone. Keep investing and inviting.
• I’m really enjoying our series on 20/20 vision. This past week we talked about discovering and following your Holy Discontent.  For those of you wanting to find out more about what that could mean for your life, check out the book Holy Discontent: Fueling the Fire That Ignites Personal Vision by Bill Hybels. It goes into far more depth about some of the things we talked about this weekend.
• And finally, I’ve been spending a little time on facebook recently.  Why can’t young people spell? I’m not sure what the root of the problem is. I don’t think it’s texting, because most of the misspelled words are longer than the correct spelling. You can’t blame it on public schools either, because I see the same thing in many of the homeschoolers.  I’m thinking we are seeing the results of a generation raised on Hooked on Phonics and spell check. Just sound it out and it’s close enough. Are there any teachers out there who know why there is such a decline in basic spelling skills?

We’re starting a new series at Cornerstone this week on Vision. We all need fresh revelation from God. Vision gives us focus, endurance, and peace. Proverbs 29:18 NIV reminds us that “where there is no revelation, we cast off restraint….” In other words, we end up imitating culture rather than influencing it (read 1 Samuel 8 as an example of what happens when we seek imitation over revelation).

Our minds alone can’t even conceive what God has prepared for us. The Spirit, however, searches all things, even the deep things of God, and reveals them (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). This is a great way to start the new year, so invite your friends. My prayer is that we will develop our spiritual vision to clearly see God’s plan for our lives. Here is the video intro for the series.

20/20 Vision: Video Intro for Sermon Series from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

Using Keynote to Create Videos

If you’re interested on how I created the video, I’ll let you in on a secret. I didn’t use any high powered software to create it. I didn’t have much time to spend on this project so I cheated on this one. I did a little work in Photoshop Elements to create the logo, and then I used Apple’s Keynote to create a slideshow for the movie. I used the built-in transitions and effects to handle all the text and images. I setup timings and delays and then set each slide to automatically advance so that it was one continuos slideshow with no clicking. Since most video editing software is pretty tough to use, I have a feeling that more people know how to use presentation software.

Keynote gives you the ability to export a slideshow as a quicktime movie, so I used that to create a high res version. The quicktime file is not a true movie, but it is a slideshow playable on both macs and windows. I loaded it up in Quicktime Player 7 on the mac and exported it as a quicktime movie.  I then loaded the movie into Garageband and added the audio. All together, it took just a couple of hours start to finish. If you are dealing with mostly text, then Keynote may be a better option than a full-blown video editing package.

One of the most used apps on my iPod is the YouVersion Bible app by Lifechurch.tv. I have blogged about YouVersion numerous times in the past (see the posts here), and I am excited about the continual updates that the digerati team at Lifechurch keep pushing out. Last week they announced a new milestone. YouVersion users have spent one billion minutes reading the Bible on mobile devices! But they didn’t stop long to celebrate and now they have added the ability to track a personalized Bible reading plan on your mobile device. The feature came out today for the Blackberry application and is coming out soon on the iPod/iPhone. It is also available on their website.

I have kept a little printout in my Bible for a long time that I use to track my reading progress. It works great until you lose the sheet, which I have done several times in the past year.  I’m planning on switching over and using this to track and guide my reading starting January 1st. There are multiple reading plans to choose from, so what’s holding you back? Will you join me in reading through your Bible in the upcoming year?

If you want to find out more about how this works, check out the video below.

ChurchCrunch had the news about this yesterday.  If you want to utilize technology for ministry, then definitely check this website out. It is a great blog with an active forum of church tech users. Definitely one of my favorite ministry websites. Check it out at www.churchcrunch.com.

I am asking all of my blog readers to please pray for Matt Chandler and his family.  I first saw Matt Chandler preach live at the Catalyst Conference last year.  He is an incredible pastor from Texas that I greatly admire and respect.  Since that time, I have listened to Matt’s sermons almost every week. I have been encouraged and strengthened by the truth that he boldly preaches.  Matt is about the same age as me and he has three children, so I feel a certain connection to him, both theologically and as a pastor.

Right before Thanksgiving, Matt suffered a seizure and was taken to the hospital where a brain tumor was found.  He has undergone surgery and the church released the pathology results today.  The results were the words no one wants to hear.  It was a malignant tumor and the doctors were unable to remove all of it during surgery.  I ask that you read through the entire report from his church and then take the time to pray for Matt and his family and his church.  James 5:16 says that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”  Let’s join together for our brother in Christ. Here is more information from The Village Church’s website.

Matt, who is being released from the hospital today, is meeting with a neuro-oncologist this week to outline the next steps of the recovery process. There is a range of treatment possibilities but the exact course of action has not yet been determined. He will continue outpatient rehab.

The Lord is calling Matt and Lauren and The Village Church body to endure this trial. It will be a challenging road for Matt, his family and our church body. The gospel is our hope and the Lord is our strength. Matt and Lauren continue to find solace and hope in Christ. They weep facing this trial, but not as those without hope and perspective. The gospel clarifies their suffering and promises more of Christ through it all.

The best way to serve the family is to continue to be faithful in prayer. Specifically, pray for the following:

• Wisdom for all the coming decisions
• Strength and peace to endure
• The kids’ (Audrey, Reid and Norah) hearts; pray the Lord is merciful as they process and that their little hearts do not grow embittered
• The Chandlers and The Village would suffer well because of the gospel and for the sake of Christ’s name

As you hurt and weep for the family, do not do it alone. Gather with your home group and with other believers in homes and pray together. This is a time to walk together with others and to endure this trial in community. If you wish, send cards and letters to Matt and Lauren at 2101 Justin Road, Flower Mound, TX 75028.

I had an incredible experience over during the past week in Nicaragua. I’ve spent this morning unwinding, unpacking, and getting caught up on email. We had quite the adventure getting home because of delays at our connecting airport in Houston, but we finally made it home around 2am Sunday morning. Yesterday the entire team shared about the trip during church.  It is so hard to condense the experience and describe it during church.  The sights, sounds, and smells really are beyond words.  I knew a little about what to expect from looking at the pictures and videos from previous Cornerstone trips, but I feel like I now understand the culture.  The poverty that we saw was heart breaking, but yet the people were gracious and joyful and truly thankful for us to be there.

Each day we started out by sharing testimonies on the radio followed by my short message.  It’s tough getting the hang of preaching with a translator, but after preaching at church on Sunday and then each day on the radio, I really sensed God speaking through me.   The team followed that by doing some construction work in the morning and then traveling out to a remote village each afternoon.  We played with the children while the nurse distributed medication, and then we played some more.  We gave out coloring sheets and crayons, we painted fingernails, and we even had a watermelon eating contest in each village.  Each team member shared testimonies in the villages, and I again shared a short gospel message.  We saw many saved during the week and we made sure the village pastors were there to follow up.  We also distributed rice and beans in each village.  The hunger there is real, and we saw the effects of malnutrition and disease in many of the villages.  We also left toys, clothing, and shoes in each of the villages.

The work that Because We Care is doing in Nicaragua is amazing.  Don and Pam Gillette have a passion for ministering to the people there.  I appreciate their leadership and I appreciate them giving us the opportunity to minister with them.  Every team member left Nicaragua as a changed person. After seeing the small huts that people live in and seeing the poverty there, you start to look at your possessions in a different light. I would encourage every Christian to become involved with missions, both at home and internationally, just to get a true picture of this world we live in.  The Great Commission is not a suggestion, but a command, and I urge you to get serious about sharing the love of Christ to this lost and hurting world.  Here is the video that we shared in church yesterday.

Many of you received the email updates from church or from Because We Care, but I wanted to post them here on the blog as well. Continue reading after the break to see the updates from each day.

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Thought I would drop by the blog and give an update from Nicaragua. This will be short since I’m typing it on my iPod. It has been a great trip so far. We’ve been to the rim of an active volcano, ridden a boat on Lake Nicaragua, visited a street festival in Grenada, and soaked in the local culture. Today we rode a school bus from Managua north through Leon and Chinandega to the city of Somotillo.

We went to a great little Nicaraguan church tonight and I was able to preach with the help of our translator. What an experience! We sang and worshipped as one church, not divided by the color of our skin or the language we speak. I shared a message from John 17 about the prayer of Jesus that we would be united so people can see Christ through us.

Tomorrow we will be speaking on the radio, doing some construction work, and traveling to one of the local villages with a doctor. Pray that the people of Nicaragua will be able to see the love of Christ in us as we hand out food, clothing, and medical supplies. Of course we will be sharing Christ everywhere as we go.

I was able to talk with the family using skype tonight. So great to hear the voices from home. I’ll share more as the week continues. God is good!!