Impacting the Community

This past Sunday at Cornerstone, I shared a message about impacting and engaging our community.  It is so easy for churches to talk about what they should do, pray about what they should do, send money to those who are doing it, and then feel great about what happened.   But I believe God calls us to do much more.   Cornerstone has been very involved in foreign missions and we have even sent four teams to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.  We have also done a few things here locally, but I believe we could do much more.   So I issued a challenge to our church to pray and seek God and seek ways we could make a difference here in our community.  Our community needs hope, it needs love, and it needs to hear the saving message of Jesus Christ.  How can it happen?

• It can happen when we discover our personal passion and calling from God – God calls us as individuals to serve others.  When we discover our gifts, talents, and abilities, and then find ways to use them in demonstrating love to our community, countless lives will be changed.   Every service opportunity does not have to be officially sanctioned and sponsored by the church.  We challenged everyone to find ways to serve in their everyday life.
• It can happen when we see where God is moving and join Him – There are many other churches and ministries making an impact.  It’s about building the Kingdom, so Cornerstone doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel.  We challenged our church to seek ways that God is moving and join in and serve alongside other believers.
• It can happen when God reveals needs that only we can fill as a church – I believe that we can accomplish far more together than alone.  When God reveals needs to us that are not being met, then we as a church have a responsibility to share the love of Christ in tangible ways.  Ministries start when passionate people hear from God and then do something about it!

Because of the challenge, we had a meeting last night to talk about the needs in our community.  We prayed, we laughed, and we cried as we heard what God has laid on everyone’s heart.  I am excited to see what will come out of this.  We are following the example of the disciples that met in the upper room in Acts 1 to pray, and then left the room to impact their world and turn it upside down.   We believe that God can use ordinary average people, to accomplish incredible things for His Kingdom.  Just look at Acts 4:13

You can find the message from Sunday on itunes, or download it here from our sermon website.