Paul said in Romans 12:8 if we have the gift of leadership then we should use it and take the responsibility seriously!

“…if it is leadership, let him govern diligently” (NIV)

“If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.” (NLT)

I am constantly aware of this verse as I, along with our staff and Executive Team, provide leadership for Cornerstone. Leading other people is serious business. It is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. Really, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, leading other people is a high calling.

Jack Fisher our Administrator sent out this article from Forbes.com entitled “Rising above your job description. I liked this author’s take on leadership,

“The first step toward real leadership is understanding that it isn’t about title or hierarchy. It’s about attitude, specifically having an attitude that puts people above all infrastructure and process, considering them the center of all activities, not part of the periphery. To a real leader, people are not the means but the end. Under that leader they do their jobs not because they should or must but because they want to and are passionate about it.”

While that’s true in the corporate world, in the church it holds special significance because we are leading people, in the eternal sense, to know and serve Jesus. So, God needs people in these important roles who have died to power, worldly significance, prestige, self-glory and “serve me” mentality. He is looking for true servants who have clothed themselves in humility and love, who can point the way toward the redemption that God offers through Christ. Before leaders in the church ask others to bow the knee to Christ, they need to have performed that act themselves. Our outward attitudes should convey clearly our inward convictions.

Please pray for our Executive Team! They have committed themselves to passionately advancing our mission under the guidance of God’s spirit. They will need the support of the whole body as they lead us into the future.

See you under the ball!

Rusty

Our tenth anniversary celebration this past Sunday was amazing! It was so good to take a minute as a church and just appreciate what God has done in the life of Cornerstone. I still connect with that passage from 1 Peter 2:4-6 as much today as I did ten years ago…

“As you come to him, the living Stone–rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him–5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

When you do church in a skate center, this verse is very important! It is a reminder that church is not about a building, it’s about people. The building is just a tool for evangelism. In light of this I remain forever grateful to every person who along the way has been a “living stone” placed here by God to do His work. It has been a crazy, exciting, scary, incredible, exhausting, unbelievable journey!

I am equally excited about what’s in store for us in the years ahead. Like the prophet proclaimed in Isaiah 42:9,

“See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”

New things are on the way for Cornerstone. I am praying for us as a church and asking God to do greater things. I hope you will pray this with me!

Well, that’s it. See you under the ball!