I think by now, most of us are familiar with our namesake verse from Ephesians 2:20-22. “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
When we prayerfully chose this new name, not without some hesitancy, we thought this was a good name for our not-so-new new church. We thought it reflected a joining of two bodies of Christ, with Christ as the founding cornerstone that the not-so-new new body would be built on. That was certainly true, and remains to be true, now 4 years later.
However, as I was in prayerful retreat a few weeks ago with other ordained ministers on our district, praying over the future ministry of two more women that are hoping to receive their ordination, God gave me a different understanding of our name, Cornerstone Church, an even more beautiful and honest understanding.
Since these verses use the metaphor and language of a house to explain a truth about the church and the Christian life, I’m going to continue to use that metaphor to explain the vision God gave me, which both honors where we have been, but also looks to the future of where He is leading us now.
Would you imagine with me in your mind, two brick houses built right next to each other. They have to be brick for the metaphor to be as powerful as it was when the Lord gave me this understanding. Everyone got their two brick houses, built right next to each other? Okay. Now, imagine you want to combine those two houses. Can you just add more bricks to join them? No.
What must be done to properly join two brick houses is to tear down what once existed. Yeah. That hurts, doesn’t it? But, in order for new bricks to be placed, for the houses to be fully joined and to become one, some of the existing bricks will need to be removed. They’re not bad bricks. They’re good bricks, loved bricks, bricks that held the houses together for a long time, but a new house, with a new Cornerstone, will need to remove some of its existing bricks.
You get the metaphor, don’t you? That’s exactly what God has done here. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to us, after all, that’s what we’ve been praying for for over 3 years, isn’t it? Have we not been praying that God will build us up into a spiritual house for Him? Can I just say, that though it didn’t look like what we might have wanted or expected, that God has been faithful through these last 4 years, and has answered our prayers!
You know what that means? You know what that tells me? It tells me that we are exactly right where He wants us, and that is the best place to be. What it means is that He has used our willingness to be broken in order to create something new. So look around you. Each person that you see here, and those that you know would love to be here, is a brick in the new foundation of this spiritual house that God is building. Each of us, each brick, is built on the Cornerstone of Christ. And guess what? There’s a lot of room for more bricks!
But more bricks weren’t the point, and aren’t the point. The prayers we’ve made for 3 years has been that He would build us into a spiritual house. He has done that in abundance this year. I’ve seen our board members be willing and humble enough to go through a period of coaching, in which we faced hard truths and displayed a commitment to do whatever it took to be built into a spiritual house. We renewed our mission, vision, and plan as a church, to be making disciples of Christ by growing up in our love for God, by going deeper in our love for each other, and by going out to share the love of Christ in the community. We want to do this through prayer, worship, discipleship, and outreach.
We’ve pressed into prayer this year, continuing in our devoted prayer time every Sunday at 8:30 am, and creating a space for intentional and focused prayer on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month at 6:30 pm. And of course, in true Nazarene fashion, we have used this as an opportunity to also eat food and to just love one another.
We continue in throne-ward worship, with the focus being not perfect sounding, but on having hearts that are humble before Him, desiring to seek and love Him, and desperately wanting to hear from Him and sense His presence.
Our discipleship has changed this year, too. We’ve started new studies in existing study groups, one with a new teacher. A much needed men’s group was started with the hope that it will encourage the men in our church to continue in unity and to sharpen one another in love. Some of you took the challenge to learn to tune our ear to the Spirit in a very real and tangible way through Discipled by Jesus. And we just recently finished a run through the first round of learning about how we can better show the character of Christ in ourselves in every day life.
But classes and groups aren’t all that discipleship is. Discipleship is conversations about really hard things: deaths, grief, disappointment, failure, depression, family hardships, illnesses, you name it, we’ve had it! And in those conversations I have seen God move. I have seen Him change our perspectives to be more loving, more gentle, more understanding, more true and genuine Christians.
I have seen His body show up this year, time after time, to build one another up in love. I have seen Him give us insight into new ways that we can minister to the things that He’s already put right in front of us as ministry opportunities.
This includes our daycare ministry, which God has put under the direction of a woman who dearly loves Jesus and is standing firm on the desire she has to honor Him. God has used many of you to minister to our daycare families and show them our good will and love so that we can begin to build new relationships with them. I believe that our commitment to honoring God in that ministry above all else is being rewarded and we are seeing fruit. Our daycare was voted best in Valencia County, and I firmly believe that is a direct result of our commitment to honor Him, even in the midst of set-backs and difficult choices.
This also includes the scout troop 360 chartered with us. We have begun to develop relationships with them, and minister to them through just the simple act of giving our support! We have a good rapport with their leaders, and a unique opportunity to step out of our comfort zones and reach the lives of young people for Christ. And while our Parking Lot Ministry Halloween Carnival had to be cancelled because of my hospitalization, can I just tell you that they were so willing and excited to help with that event that they even offered to put it all together so I didn’t have to do anything! We have a really unique opportunity there! And because He is leading us to seize every opportunity already in front of us, He is asking me to step out in faith and begin to build a youth group through those scouts that come on Thursday nights.
This is discipleship. Taking every moment that we have, in this building, but also out of this building, to teach people to love Christ and follow Him more closely. And I know, from conversations that I’ve had with every one of you, that this is happening, not just here, but in your homes, your jobs, your every day life. This is what I see God doing. And it’s so, so good.
You know, I don’t think that there are many churches that can say that they have engagement and close involvement with every single person in their church. Look around you. There may not be many bricks in this new foundation built on the Cornerstone of Christ, but these are strong bricks. And strong bricks make good houses.
You’re going to hear reports from other people in the church about what God has done this last year, and what they look forward to seeing Him do in the future. As we hear from them, I want you to be in silent prayer about one thing: a name. You should have all gotten this little piece of paper which has the picture of a brick on it. Before our celebration is over this morning, I want you to write the name of one person on this brick. Here’s the only condition I have. It has to be the name of someone who is not a believer whom you have contact with on a regular basis. When you have that name, prompted by the Holy Spirit speaking to you, write it on the brick, and the small section of the paper that is shaded gray. Rip the name off the shaded part along the dotted line. That part is for you, to remind you to pray for that person that you believe the Spirit wants to be a brick in this spiritual house; to remind you to pray for them, to invite them to service or a study group, to intentionally disciple them every time you have the opportunity. Then, the brick part that also has their name on it, you’re going to glue to this poster board, and it will stay here in a visible place for you to see every time you gather with your spiritual house. We’ve got a strong foundation. It’s time to rebuild.