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Mike Hanchett and All Sites Celebration – Practicing the Prophetic

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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

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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

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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

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Check out a bit of what went down at Equip South Africa 2012.

EQUIP SA 2012: Why I Loved it

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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.

Life Groups kick off again in Term 4 – 9 & 11 October

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Life Groups at Bedfordview are kicking off again on the 9th / 11th of October – next week!

We’ll be doing Life Groups orientation this Sunday (7 October) and next Sunday (14 October) in the Side Hall at Bedfordview. This is to help people meet the leaders and make decisions as to where they would like to visit or join.

Meeting together in each other’s homes is a value that we at Cornerstone hold highly. Our recent Life Groups course goes through all of our reasons why, highlighting the theology behind Life Groups as well as the practical implications.

You can download all the talks on the Life Groups course here in either mp3 format or as PDF transcripts.

50 Shades… The Story So Far

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Uptown have been hosting 50 Shades…, a series that has to do with God’s design for sex. It’s been a fantastic series thus far with plenty of insight offered from Mark Gungor’s Singles and Stinking Thinking DVD series. This has facilitated some brilliant discussion around the topics of sex, dating, singleness and relationships in general.

As a culture we suffer under a lot of over-romanticised ideals where we tend to think in terms of “The One” and a “soul-mate”. This series has gotten to the heart of this thinking, showing how we need to make good decisions in our lives and need to stop being victims of idealistic thinking around romance and sex. God gives us freedom to make decisions and we need to make sure that we take responsibility for our decisions and make better ones going forward.

The 50 Shades… series is named after the top-selling novels 50 Shades of Gray – a typical example of bad thinking, over-romanticised ideas and our culture’s harmful understandings around sex. While marketing may say otherwise, what this book series presents leads to despair and a good deal of confusion. God has something better for us.

50 Shades… will be continuing at Uptown this Sunday, 30 September. This will be the end of the series. Details below.

50 Shades…
Sundays 9 – 30 September
9:00am
Cornerstone Church Uptown
Cnr De Beer & Smit St, Braamfontein

Why Lead Worship? – Part 4 – God is Serious About Shepherding

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Written by Jonno Warmington

I argued in my previous post that the particular trait David exhibited which was ‘after’ God’s own heart was that he was first and foremost a shepherd. He was commended because he dealt well with God’s most loved possession – His people.

If His people are God’s prized possession then the shepherding and leading of His people is naturally an important thing to God. This is why He places such an emphasis on the care with which the role must be handled. In fact, scripture says that those who would lead His people will be held to account for those they lead (Heb 13:17, Ex 34:10). It is also why scripture doesn’t pull any punches in its harsh treatment of false shepherds. Ezekiel 34 gives us a good picture of a God who sets Himself against false shepherds who would use the flock to their own benefit, requiring a reckoning for their abuse. It also shows us how He will rescue His sheep from these false shepherds. A shepherding role is not something to be taken lightly but when we are motivated by love in obedience to God we are taking on His own heart! We love what He loves.

I believe that this is an important part of what made David a worshipper that pleased God. He loved God and proved it by how he loved and led God’s people.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
– 1 John 4:20-21 ESV

So what does all this have to do with “leading worship”? Well, quite frankly, I believe it points to the role that must be adopted by anyone who would step up to lead a gathering of the local church in any of the things that we gather to do – including worshipping God in song. We must first take on the role of a shepherd.

Developing Your Child’s Sporting Ability – 3 November

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 Developing Your Child’s Sporting Ability with Top Sports and Conditioning Specialists

Cornerstone Church is hosting a workshop on how parents can develop their child’s athletic ability. The event features international, top sports and conditioning specialists with a focus on children ages 3 to 13.

Cornerstone Church Bedfordview is hosting “Developing Your Child’s Sporting Ability” on Saturday 3 November, a workshop providing practical advice to parents with children ages 3 to 13. The event includes international, top sports and conditioning specialists on how parents can develop their child’s athletic ability.

The event is a free community initiative organised by Samantha Quinn, a physiotherapist who specialises in golf and other sports injuries.

“The age group of 3 to 13 years is a delicate but vital stage in child development and it can often be overlooked. Each of the speakers are passionate professionals in their fields and the point of the workshop is to encourage parents, provide valuable tools and insights, help parents with the challenges of developing their children mentally and physically in sport, and dispel myths surrounding development and supplements that parents must contend with,” she says.

Those scheduled to speak are:

Dave Benstead-Smith – “Physical literacy”

Benstead-Smith is an internationally respected biokineticist. He will be talking on developing a child’s “physical literacy”, covering topics such as the importance of functional movements, when to specialise in one sport and how to recognise athletic gifting in a child.

Theo Bezuidenhout – “How to encourage your child to play sport and perform well (while not driving them crazy)”

Bezuidenhout is a very respected professional sports psychologist. He works with many professional golfers, heads up the World of Golf and works at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria. He will be speaking on how to encourage children to play sport without becoming overbearing, which tends to drive children away from sport rather than encourage them.

Dr Peter Baxter – “Should I be giving my child sports enhancing products?”

Baxter is a sports doctor and will be talking about the use of sports enhancing supplements (like creatine) all the way through to the use of banned substances like steroids.

Developing Your Child’s Sporting Ability will be happening at 9am to 12pm on Saturday, 3 November at Cornerstone Church Bedfordview, Benard Road East, Morninghill. For more information contact 011-616-4073 or email info@cornerstonechurch.co.za.

Excellent child-care will be made available for parents at the event.

Developing Your Child’s Sporting Ability
Saturday, 3 November
9:00am – 12:00pm
Free
Hosted at Cornerstone Church Bedfordview

For more information email info@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za or call 011 616 4073

Tanzania EQUIP (Sep 2012) Report-Back

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A team from Cornerstone recently spent nine days ministering in Tanzania for the Tanzanian EQUIP time. The team also met up with Keir Taylor to encourage and minister to our friends in this part of the world. Being an EQUIP, there was also a lot of training, especially some training with the church in Makumi.

Check out some of the photos above. There are a lot more at the Facebook page.