Cornerstone Church Money
The ‘Money’ intro from our ‘Sex, Money, Power’ series on idolatry.
Covers all categories.
Cornerstone Church Power
The ‘Power’ intro from our ‘Sex, Money, Power’ series on idolatry.
Hark! in the Park 2012 – 2 December
It’s that time of year again. Time to start winding down, to reflect on the year that’s gone by and to spend more time with the friends and family we love. Bring your family, a picnic blanket and your singing voices to the park at Cornerstone Church in Morninghill on Malan Ave and join us in celebrating Christmas together.
There will be plenty to do for the whole family from jumping castles, a farm yard with pony rides and games for the kids to a craft market and food on sale for everyone. This event supports the Ukwakha Isizwe Foundation initiatives like the hArt Day Centre for homeless youth and Russell House Baby Sanctuary for abandoned babies. Come along with your families and support these worthy causes.
Christmas Carols
Where: Cornerstone Park on Malan Ave at Cornerstone Church Bedfordview
When: Sunday 2 December
Time: 4:00pm. Carols start at 7:00pm
For the whole family
Life Groups: Living in the Kingdom from House to House
What does the Bible say about Life Groups – small groups of believers gathering regularly at homes?
Our Bible Study on Life Groups is now also available for download as two manuals in PDF form – one manual for leaders and one for the Priesthood. These you can read on your iPad / Kindle / PC / smartphone or any device that supports PDF (most devices).
Click here to download Life Groups: For Leaders
Click here to download Life Groups: For the Priesthood
You can download all the audio files and read all the transcripts online, as well as download each transcript individually, at this link.
Mike Hanchett and All Sites Celebration – Practicing the Prophetic
by Ryan Strydom
Mike Hanchett, who is known for his prophetic gifting in the NCMI team, was with us this weekend at Bedfordview and the way in which he imparted his gifting to us was really fantastic. Basically, Mike taught on developing a prophetic culture in our church in the morning and then delved into the ‘language of God’ in the evening during our All Sites Celebration time.
You can download both these messages and his notes at these links:
Download “Developing and Becoming a Prophetic Culture” here.
Download The Language of God here.
Perhaps the two key things that stood out for me were:
(1) That the prophetic is not just verbal but also includes action.
Mike backed this up with key scriptures around Jesus’ ministry. While Mike didn’t quite say it, as an artist I believe that the prophetic also includes art, which is for a whole other post. What I enjoyed was that Mike began to open up the possibility of the prophetic being more than just what we’re used to. Most notably was how the prophetic can be used in evangelism, even evangelism in our church meetings.
(2) The diverse ways that God speaks.
Mike believes that God is always speaking to us, but we’ve got to listen. I really liked this. He went on to list 22 ways in which he has found God speaks (from experience and scripture) and he admits that this list is something of a work-in-progress.
Here’s his list, which I’ve gleaned from his notes which you can download at this site (link above).
1. Audible Voice – Father to Jesus Lk. 3:21-23, Saul Acts 9:3
2. God’s still small voice – 1 Kings 19:11-13
3. Eye – God will guide us with His eye. Ps.32:8
4. Angels – Philip Acts 8:26, Peter Acts 12:6,7, Balaam Num. 22:32
5. Trances – Acts 10:9-11
6. Vision – Peter Acts 12:9
7. Dreams – Abimelech Gen. 20:1-7,
8. Creation – Rom. 1:20
9. Scripture – 2 Tim. 3:16-17
10. Tongues & Interpretation – 1 Cor. 12:8-10
11. Prophecy – 1 Cor. 12:8-10
12. Impressions – sense of evil
13. Prophetic Acts – Acts 21:11
14. Signs and Wonders – Judges 6:17-21, 7:9-15
15. Mind Reading – Lk. 11:17 Jesus displayed this quality
16. Circumstances – Rev. 3:8
17. Dance – Jer. 31:13
18. Prophetic Songs – Col. 3:16
19. Prophetic Pain – feel the pain of others
20. Spiritual Happenings – Ex.7:8-13 Aaron’s Rod
21. People – 1 Sam.3:16-17
22. Animals – Balaam’s Donkey Num. 22:21-31
Some people might be looking at ‘trances’ or ‘mind reading’ with a raised eyebrow. But there it is, in Scripture. Mike spoke about how there is always the counterfeit but there is also the “genuine” or “legit” and we shouldn’t throw out the “genuine” just because there are counterfeits. We should just seek to do these sorts of things in God’s way.
It was great having Mike at our All Sites Celebration which was, as usual, quite fun. I had the privilege of joining the choir that night with a lot of the Uptown guys and it was great!
Sign up for next year’s Finance Course
Finances can be a tricky thing to handle for many of us. Our Finance Course has become very popular and those who have gone on it have often re-iterated just how helpful and fruitful it’s been for their lives.
We’ll be having another finance course running in the new year and due to the course’s popularity and the fact that space is limited, those interested in attending need to sign up. The course will come at a cost which provides several resources to attendees. The cost is still to be advised but if this sounds like something you would like to attend, then do the following:
1. Download the application form (76KB PDF)
2. Hand in your completed application form to the info desk at Bedfordview or to an elder at any of the other sites
3. Or email your completed form to info@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za
New Series: Sex Money Power – 28 Oct – 11 Nov
Sex is easier than love.
It’s used as a currency to get us what we want. It’s a whole industry.
What is life about?
Getting stuff. Having power. Being the top dog, the king of the castle, the one who gets what they want.
Really?
When God created the earth and the heavens, is that what he intended? That life would be nothing but a constant struggle for power, for stuff? When he created men and women did he intend for sex to really be an industry? To be a tool for manipulation? Did he really mean that we use each other? That human beings are nothing but tools for pleasure?
We’re launching a new series called ‘Sex Money Power’ starting Sunday morning, 28 October. The series will run every Sunday morning until 11 November.
God’s view on love and sex and money and power is completely different to what we’re told everyday about these things on TV, on billboards, in magazines, on the Internet, and in our culture. This series will begin to uncover the freedom God is ready to give us, if we want it.
The American rock band Switchfoot have written a song along similar lines to this series. Here is the song for your listening pleasure. Think about the words – they say a great deal about us as a society and some of God’s views on sex, money and power.
Here are the details:
Sex Money Power
Dates: Sunday mornings 28 October – 11 November
Time: 9:00am
Where: Cornerstone Church Bedfordview, Benard Road East, Bedfordview, Johannesburg
Info: email info@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za, see www.www.cornerstonechurch.co.za or call 011-616-4073
Cornerstone Church Equip SA 2012 Highlights
Check out a bit of what went down at Equip South Africa 2012.
EQUIP SA 2012: Why I Loved it
by Ryan Strydom
As someone who has been going to EQUIP in the last few years and the Bloem LTT conferences before that, I have to say that this EQUIP time (last week) was the best I’ve ever had. Here are a few things that really stood out for me:
1. A focus on Jesus
While last year’s EQUIP also had a focus on Jesus, it’s great that this continued and remains to be a central focus for us. This is what the opening night was all about and I couldn’t imagine a better way of starting our EQUIP time.
2. An inheritance together
Tyrone’s talk on Friday morning called “Partnering for Purpose” was particularly good for me as he focused on doing this thing – the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus – together as partners. While friendship is great, when we move from friendship into partnership we start really seeing the Kingdom advance.
Recently I’ve started realising that God does not just have a call and inheritance for me as an individual, but my inheritance is intrinsically tied up to the inheritance God has for His Church. And it’s intrinsically tied to the inheritance God has for my local church (Cornerstone) and our trans-local partnerships (NCMI). Tyrone’s talk hit home as I realised we have lots to do together and that actually doing things for the Jesus and the Gospel – going into regions, ministering to our city and region – rather than just talking about it is paramount. There’s a lot of theory going around, but God is a God that ‘does stuff’, he doesn’t just talk about it! And he does it together.
3. Signs and Wonders are like Preaching
Mike Hanchett’s talk on the Thursday night called “What is Your Expectation?” was great in that it struck home in my thinking about miracles. Here’s how: in general, I’ve always felt that miracles and signs and wonders are something God should do without our help. This is true but at the same time not entirely true. Just as much as God doesn’t audibly speak to all to tell them the Gospel but commissions me to go to the nations and my city and my friends and my family to tell them the Gospel, so he doesn’t heal people (in general) without some kind of partnering from me.
I don’t mean that he NEVER heals people without us being involved, but in general His commissioning is that we would bring the miracles and healings and signs and wonders to the world, just like His commissioning is that we would be the ones to preach to others. Preaching and healing are effectively the same thing in a sense; one is about talking, the other about showing, but in both God wants to partner with us that we would bring His goodness to others. We do play a paramount part and it’s in a way lazy for us to expect God to bring healing without us stepping out and taking risks.
That doesn’t mean we do the healing. This is God’s Gospel – it’s just that it’s us that bring this Gospel into the nations, with God’s empowering and God’s word. Still, it’s us that must go, with God going before us and with us.
4. Humility
In line with the above, my (often) reluctancy to pray for peoples healing and so forth is often an issue of both lazyness and pride. Bruce Benge’s talk on humility in session 3 (Thursday morning) was particulary good for me in this respect.
All in all, the worship times were great and all the talks and interviews were brilliant. They all helped to sow seed into my life that’s been paramount in lifting my faith and placing my eyes on Jesus. Download the talks here.