Cornerstone Simi Amphitheater

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Found this info. on a blog I read a lot by Ben Arment. He is a church planter near Washington D.C.

I subscribe to Francis Chan’s podcasts from his church, Cornerstone Church, Simi Valley (CA). While Jenny and I were listening the other night to the podcast, Francis mentioned that the elders were kicking around the idea of an amphitheater that their church would meet in that would also double as a community park. He is really conscious about being a good steward of what God has given us.

Watch here to see why Cornerstone Simi decided to build an outdoor amphitheater instead of a building. You will probably need to watch it several times . . . to listen to the words to the song as well as the words on the screen.? He says on his website that they can save MILLIONS of dollars by doing the amphitheater and be able to give to the poor and needy! Their elders decided this last year to give 50% of their budget to ministries OUTSIDE of Cornerstone!! Unheard of!! Pretty cool stuff. I dig this kind of thinking! Read more

Welcome to Passion Week

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Welcome To Passion Week!

We have put together an online devotional to go along with the last week of Jesus Christ’s life. There is also a hard copy that will be given out tomorrow at church for those of us who need paper.

We really wanted people to relive the last chapters of the gospels in the time line that Jesus lived. Each day has Scripture readings that we think, to the best of our knowledge happened on each day. Of course there are scholarly debates of some of the dates, but we are sticking with the accepted dates and events.

I hope you will take advantage of the journey through the Passion week.

Make sure you comment as well!

Monday Morning Reflections

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We really had a good day yesterday.? It was good to get back to preaching after Chris did such a great job last week starting this series off with a great message.? I preached on “The Man.”? Jesus is the most loved and hated man in history.? There are so many differing opinions about Jesus from believer and non-believer alike.? I felt like that we need to take an in depth look at this man Jesus.? We are continuing some of the Scriptures that we didn’t get to on the devotional blog.? You will want to check them out.? Read more

Monday Morning Reflections

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Had a great Sunday service yesterday as we started our new series. Chris Jones did a great job batting lead off talking about all of the changes in emotions and attitudes during the week of the Passion. You will want to check out the devos that go along with the messages. After our longer than expected hiatus from the world wide web, we are going to have the daily devotionals going again. There will be Scripture references as the least on the site, so feel free to read along in preparation for Sunday and COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT.

I think one of the things that Chris said that is still sticking with me was the DISGUSTING illustration he used to talk about how we need to have a PERSONAL faith. Read more

Exciting Sunday Coming Tomorrow!

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EPIC: Snapshots of the Savior You will not want to miss out on church tomorrow!! It is going to be a lot of fun as we get together to start a brand new series on the Passion week, Christ’s last week on the Earth. Our new series is called “EPIC: Snapshots of the Savior.”

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Are you a “Star?”

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Our Children’s Ministry is having “Star Search” tomorrow after the service. It takes a whole bunch of “stars” to make that ministry happen each week and we are always looking for people to volunteer to be a “star” in a child’s life. There will be food, it will be fast (only one hour), and it’s free!

Many people ask me why we don’t do a big week of ministry like Vacation Bible School or something like VBS. I like to say that we do a VBS quality “program” every week our children are here at CFC. So actually, they get more than a week’s worth of quality, awesome programming; they get around year’s worth of Sundays full of fun at church! I have been editing a video for them to use tomorrow and it is AWESOME to see all of the great stuff going on “back there” while we are out in the adult service. They can’t do it alone and who knows, maybe you are missing out on the blessing of helping a child come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way.

I know that some of my favorite people in life are my Sunday School teachers and Youth Ministry leaders who took time out of their extremely busy lives to share Christ with a goofy little brown haired boy. I am grateful to them for taking that time to study the “flannel graph” lesson and teach us. Times have changed . . . flannel graph (although extremely cool, still) is not used very much anymore. . . but the message of Jesus Christ changing a young (and old) heart hasn’t changed a bit.

Come tomorrow and check out what is going on in our Children’s Ministry.? You might even find that you fit perfectly to make a huge impact on a child’s life.

Back in Business

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After a long 9 day absence due to a situation with our hosting company (long, ugly story), we are back online with Stone’s Throw, Regeneration Devotional, and Finley Crossings.? Look for posts soon.

Regeneration Devotional Continues

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Just a note to let you know we are continuing the Regeneration Devotional. Here is the info.:

Back by popular demand (see comment #1), our daily (for the most part) devotional will be continuing on this Blog. We will be studying the Scriptures from the Sunday messages in depth. There will be some discussion questions as well as opportunity for you all to comment. So make sure you take advantage of this and comment early and often.

I (David) am also starting a journey through the Bible in a year. I found the “Book-at-a-Time” reading plan by Discipleship Journal to use as my guide. I like the fact that there are some days for “reflection.” That is code word in my world for “catch up.” It says so right on the plan! This particular plan reads from two different places each day–an Old Testament book or a New Testament Book and a passage from an Old Testament Wisdom book (ex. Psalm, Proverbs, etc.). There are also two other options (the plain “Bible Reading Plan” and the “5x5x5 Reading Plan”) on their website. I will hopefully put some of my insights on my blog as we go along.

Westside Family Church in Lenexa, KS has some good information and links on their site to some other good reading plans, like the Back to the Bible Plans. I have also used the 5 Lane Reading Plan before and found it really great as well.

I look forward to reading all of the comments as we explore the sermon topics and Scriptures together.

Monday Evening Reflections

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What a great Sunday! Our attendance was down quite a bit, but I think we had a really good service! Our worship band sounds better each week! Not that it was really bad before! That’s like saying, “boy, have you lost weight? You sure look great!” Makes you wonder if you really looked HORRIBLE before! Ha! It was “Stars Sunday,” so our elementary age kids were out of the service for the whole time, which made the sanctuary seem that much more empty.

God seems to be moving among our people.
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Overcoming Adversity Illustrated

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This past Sunday’s sermon was on “overcoming adversity.” There is no better illustration than the the Nixa Lady Eagles basketball team this season. nixasectionalcelebrate.jpgThere was a really great article in the News-Leader on Tuesday that says it all. The varsity girls started the season with 6 fewer girls than planned, so the “youngsters” had to step up and play on the varsity! And stepped up they have done! They beat my alma mater Kickapoo in Nixa on Friday night to win the District Championship. . . something they were not “supposed” to do!
We took a family road trip to see them play last night in Bolivar and all I can say is “unbelievable!” They have really defied a TON of odds and overcome a TON oflukodrive.jpg adversity to be one step away from going to Columbia to take part in a Final Four! Congratulations to coach Randy Towe and the Nixa Lady Eagles. Good luck on Saturday!