Pastoral Notes for Sunday, April 6, 2025

Dear Cornerstone Family, 

I wish I could be in two places at once! Alas, if I must be away from Cornerstone on a Sunday, I am grateful to be gathered with a like-minded sister church in our beloved denomination. I am in the “holy city” of the south, Charleston, SC, preaching at Church Creek Presbyterian Church where my friend, Rev. Nick Batzig, is the minister. Pray I’ll serve these dear saints well. I look forward to being back with you next Sunday, April 13, for Palm Sunday!

Speaking of next Sunday, we will have a Cornerstone Family Meeting during the Sunday School hour to discuss advances in our shepherding ministry and ministry expansion. If you’re a member of Cornerstone, please make plans to join us.

One issue I’ll mention now and discuss a bit more next week is parking. As some of you have read in the Williamson Herald, the city of Franklin is moving forward with plans to rebuild Franklin City Hall across the street from the Chapel. The new 115,000+ square foot City Hall will be multi-story with an underground parking lot and an adjoining one-acre park, which will be directly across from the Chapel. If the finished product turns out anything like the plans, it will be an impressive upgrade to downtown Franklin!  

We’ve met with the city multiple times now to learn as much as we can about how our ministry will be affected during the building phase. Unfortunately, during the demolition and construction phase, which is slated for completion in spring 2027, we will lose the parking lot across the street from the Chapel as well as the parallel parking (roughly 15 spots) on 3rd Ave. between Church St. and Main St.

To help address this challenge, the deacons formed a Parking Team, led by Mr. Matt Michaud, to perform a parking study and investigate options for securing additional parking for Sunday mornings. Through their efforts, we were able to get an accurate accounting of how many parking spots we need on a Sunday morning and assess parking availability between 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. within a block of the Chapel.  

The good news is there’s plenty of parking to meet our parking needs. It will take a minute or two longer to walk to church, but between both parking garages on 2nd Ave. and 4th Ave. and street parking, there are plenty of parking spots for Sunday morning.

For those who are older with mobility issues or moms with young children, we have secured the judges parking lot (17 spots) directly behind the Chapel for Sunday morning. In addition, we are expanding the gravel parking lot (roughly 20 spots) behind The Corner House, which will be complete—Lord willing—before Easter.

The date for the beginning of City Hall’s demolition has moved several times. If there are no more changes, our last Sunday with access to the parking lot across the street and street parking on 3rd Ave. between Church St. and Main St. will be Easter Sunday, April 20. Once the new City Hall is complete, we will have access to the underground parking lot on Sunday mornings.

As we move through this time of transition, the deacons will monitor the need for any additional parking measures including the possibility of designated drop off and/or pick up locations. If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback to offer related to parking, please contact Mr. Matt Michaud at michaudba@gmail.com.

Your servant,

 
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Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 30, 2025

Dear Cornerstone Family, 

Thanks to all of you who attended The Praying Life Seminar last weekend with Rev. Dax Gibson from Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL. It was a wonderfully rich time of instruction and prayer practice based on Paul Miller’s excellent work, A Praying Life. If you missed the seminar, do not despair! There will be several opportunities over the next few months to glean the foundational teachings from the seminar and the book.

On that note, please pop by the Cornerstone Bookshelf in the Fellowship Hall this morning—there are copies of A Praying Life for purchase. In addition, there are quite a few new titles available, including several seasonal offerings like Tim Chester’s Our Radiant Redeemer and Jonathan Gibson’s O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. Don’t leave today without adding to your library!

Speaking of guest speakers, it was a treasure to have my dear friend and one of our supported church planters, Rev. Andy Young, with us this past Wednesday night. In 2018, Rev. Young was called by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales (EPCEW) to begin the work of planting Oxford Presbyterian Church in England. The Lord has slowly but surely—and certainly more significantly over the last three years—grown the work of ministry. Today, Oxford Presbyterian Church has well over a hundred worshippers on any given Sunday, including upwards of 60 university students who meet for their college student fellowship meeting during the week.  

In 2023, Oxford Pres. Church secured a long-term lease (a very hard thing to do) on the North Gate Hall on St. Michael’s St. right at the center of the city. Originally a Methodist chapel built in 1871, the building was used for nearly 60 years as the Oxford Intercollegiate Christian Union before becoming a community center and later a pub. It’s a beautiful sight to see this lovely old church building restored to its original purpose under the ministry Rev. Young and Oxford Presbyterian Church.

Please pray for Rev. Young and for Oxford Presbyterian and for the UK more generally. The UK is showing signs of spiritual renewal. Having been there three years ago, I can testify firsthand to the growing spiritual hunger in the UK—especially among the younger generation. Oxford Pres. is strategically positioned to make a strong impact for the gospel in a place where the greatest minds from all over the world come to study. Which means that to make an impact for Christ in Oxford is to make an impact for Christ on the world.

As we pray for the gospel to spread in the UK and all over the world, don’t forget to pray for the ministry right here at Cornerstone. Pray even right now for this worship service—that the gospel would go forth with clarity and power. Pray that, by God’s grace, today would be the day of salvation for someone, maybe many, in this room, in overflow, and through the livestream.  

Until Christ becomes the praise of all the earth!

Your servant,

 
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Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 23, 2025

Dear Cornerstone Family, 

Rereading a section of the gospel of Mark this week, I was struck afresh by the power and authority of Jesus Christ. At one point, Mark tells us Jesus is the plunderer of the strong man’s (Satan’s) house, and he is the healer of the high fever of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 3:22-30). These two healings, one spiritual the other physical, one comic the other individual, are together a picture of the good news Jesus came to bring, to usher in the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19).

At the heart of the “good news” is the Kingdom of God. Throughout the gospels, Jesus describes his whole mission in the terms of the Kingdom. His teaching and miracles—especially the cross and resurrection—is the inbreaking of Christ’s Kingdom in the world.

We learn that the kingdom Christ brings is not like any worldly kingdom. For to enter this kingdom, we must repent (Mark 1:15; Matt. 3:2), which is the leading theme during the season of Lent.  

What is repentance? We could answer that question several ways. But at its most basic level, repentance is turning from sin unto God. If you look at the phrase, “turning from sin unto God,” you can see that repentance is essentially a transfer from one power, rule, and authority to another power, rule, and authority. In repentance, you are switching allegiances. Paul put it this way, you are being “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His Beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Said another way, we are no longer citizens of earth. Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). We answer to Jesus Christ alone. 

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is to place yourself under the authority of Jesus Christ in increasing measure, to live according to the pattern and priority of the Kingdom that He is establishing. In the gospels, we are coming face to face with the pattern and priority of Jesus’s ministry, and we are being called, as his disciples, to join him on mission.

He preached the truth, opposed the Evil One, healed sickness, fed the hungry, confronted religiosity, revealed his glory, made disciples, raised the dead, and much more. He did all these things, but he left plenty for us to do. In John 14:12, Jesus says this, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” God has chosen us to be his witnesses and disciples, not to live selfishly but selflessly—to do the good that Jesus did.  

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Bonhoeffer was right of course, but the Christian knows the secret power lying underneath that call to die. The Christian knows that to die the way Christ died is the way of resurrection. To enter the Kingdom of Christ and to live under His rule is to be free enough to die. When you are free enough to die, then you can really live.

As we enter the last half of Lent and hasten toward Holy Week, let this season be one that is marked in the way the whole Christian life should be—by repentance.

Your servant,

 
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Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 16, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

Today in worship we’re looking at 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and the subject of spiritual gifts. As I reflected on how this subject intersects with Cornerstone, my heart swelled with thanksgiving for the literally hundreds of spiritually gifted servants God has given to us who are serving on the front lines of ministry.  

Each week, scores of volunteers are working behind the scenes welcoming visitors, making coffee, loving kids in the nursery, teaching Sunday School, prepping communion, leading musically in worship, visiting shut-ins, taking meals to the sick, discipling youth, praying for those in need, and countless other ways.

As we reported last year, more than 65% of the Cornerstone membership is involved in an identifiable area of service. That’s more than double the average percentage nationwide. For this, we give God all the glory!  

Over the last year, the Lord has drawn a host of new members into our midst. Some of you quickly found your way into an area of service in the body, but some of you are still looking for a place to serve. If you’re in that latter group, pay close attention to opportunities to serve announced in the Focus on Church Ministry Page in the bulletin. We always have needs!

It could be, however, that you need help in discerning spiritual gifts or would like to learn more about a specific ministry area in the body. If that’s you, let me encourage you to reach out to your shepherding elder and deacon to begin that discussion.

Every member at Cornerstone has a shepherding elder to help meet spiritual needs and a shepherding deacon to help meet physical needs. If you do not remember who your shepherding elder and deacon is in the body, please touch base with our Church Life Coordinator, Dan Fiedler, at dan@cstonepres.org. He would be glad to help you.

Speaking of shepherding, Cornerstone continues pressing forward in our shepherding ministry. Your elders and deacons are reaching out to you on a regular basis just to check up on you, pray for you, and learn how to better serve you. When you hear from your shepherding elder or deacon, please help them serve you by responding to their phone calls, emails, and invitations to meet with you. Your participation in the shepherding ministry of the church helps us grow together into the church the Lord has called us to be!

Finally, please go ahead and mark Sunday, April 13 on your calendar. We will have an important Cornerstone Family Meeting during the Sunday School hour that day. At that meeting, we are excited to share with you advances in our shepherding ministry and the early plans taking shape for ministry expansion. Do not miss this important meeting!

Your servant,

 
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Pastoral Notes for Sunday, March 9, 2025

Dear Cornerstone family, 

If you haven’t yet picked up the Cornerstone devotional, Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, for the Lenten season, do not leave today without a copy. It’s available at both entrances of the Chapel this morning. It’s our gift from us to you!

I want to publicly thank Greg Wilbur and Maxwill Shell for their leadership in pulling the devotional together and for the Cornerstone staff, officers, members, and former interns (now pastors) who wrote devotionals for this publication. It’s a beautiful testimony of the immense gifts the Lord has given to our body both presently and throughout the years. 

Speaking of Lent, if you are unfamiliar with or have negative connotations of the Lenten season, you might find the piece I wrote below for the online ministry “She Reads Truth” a helpful explanation for how we approach this season as a historically Reformed and Presbyterian church.

The grand narrative of God’s Word through history is more than a tall tale. It is a historical record of real events with real people in real places and in real time. Indeed, as Paul makes plain in his letter to the church at Corinth, if Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection did not actually take place in time and space, then all is lost. We of all people are most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:9).

God not only authored the Bible’s true story—He’s the lead actor. Behind the flood, the call of Abraham, the Exodus, the rise of King David, the exile and return of Israel, and every other redemptive act, God is present and the prime mover. On every page of the Bible, God is the hero of the story. As the author and hero of redemption, God calls His people to remember the great things He has done (Deuteronomy 8:1-3). 

One of the means God used to stir the mind and imaginations of His people to remembrance was a calendar. From the Day of Atonement to the weekly Sabbath, to the annual feasts and festivals, God calendared salvation history to help the prone-to-forgetfulness Israelites relive their redemption each year (Leviticus 23).

Rightfully so, the shadow of the Old Testament calendar faded in the bright light of Christ’s fulfillment (Colossians 2:16-17). Although God issued no new calendar requirement for the New Testament church, He gave His people the freedom to order their days while maintaining the commitment to remember the redemption of Jesus Christ (Romans 15:4-9, Galatians 3:1-14, Romans 6:5-11, 2 Peter 1:3-11).

Not as a biblical requirement but as a discipleship tool, the early church began marking the days by the life and ministry of Jesus (Advent to Ascension) and the life and ministry of His church (Pentecost to Ordinary Time). Many Christians throughout the centuries have kept the practice, finding it a helpful means of remembering and connecting to both the life of Christ and the reality of His church, reaching around the world and across generations.

In that spirit, we invite you to join us for the forty days of Lent as we prayerfully prepare for the heartbreaking and heart-mending climax of the Christian year—the crucifixion and resurrection of our Savior.

Your servant,

 
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