http://notesfromthevicarage.com/2019/08/07/walking-between/
Tag Archives: ministry
Some Thoughts On the Prophetic Pt. 3
God is currently putting His finger on a prophetic thread in our church. By that I don;t mean there are a bunch of people seeing into the future. A prophetic work of God in a church is a work in which God begins to give a community a Divine direction and those same people begin to obey and carry out the plans of God for their community. That is what is happening at Cornerstone right now, a prophetic move. there is a price to pay for this wonderful adventure we are on and we as a church community are currently in the process of considering if the call is worth answering. My answer is “Yes”! Others though are on the fence.
Here are some things I gleaned from our lead pastor’s sermon this last Sunday.
Accuracy in the prophetic requires a purification of the secret life. It requires a strengthening of integrity.
Accuracy in the prophetic requires a love for the Word of God, the Bible.
Accuracy in the prophetic requires a non-judgmental spirit.
To here the full service from which these thoughts were extrapolated you can jump over to NOTES FROM THE VICARAGE HERE.
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Some thoughts On the Prophetic Part 2
Here are some more thoughts I extrapolated through meditation from Sunday morning’s sermon at Cornerstone Church in Winchendon MA. To see the whole service you can click HERE TO GO TO OUR NEW FAMILY BLOG.
Accuracy in the prophetic requires us to love like Jesus loved.
Accuracy in the prophetic requires that we not be ashamed of our faith.
Accuracy in the prophetic requires that we stop insisting on comfort. We have to give up our carnal ways and pleasures. We have to be willing to be inconvenienced.
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A New Season Begins
Many of you know that our church, Cornerstone Church in Winchendon MA, has been looking for a new lead pastor since the end of May. In the interim we have been served by our Interim Pastor, Tim Moen.
During this time the staff here at Cornerstone has kept things running smoothly.
I am so excited to announce that last Sunday evening Cornerstone elected its next lead pastor, Dan Lewiston
A new season begins! May God’s plans and purposes be accomplished!
Thank you pulpit committee of Cornerstone! Thank you Pastor Bob (District Pastor for Southern New England)! And thank you fellow staff members!
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C.cada and the May Baskets
A May basket table.
Every month our church’s artist ministry, C.cada, gets together to do its personal and group art work. The morning is given to personal work and the afternoon is given to a group project. April was the month we set aside to make May Baskets as an outreach to our shut-in and elderly congregants.
Artist Lynn Roux
Artist Ken Knowlton
The camaraderie at the tables was great.
But the most fun was handing them out. We collaborated with the Children’s ministry at our church and on April 30th we took a few hours to hand out 32 May baskets in our community.
Bigger news still a Dayhab we work with in music ministry has asked us to come in and help make 57 more baskets for their Individuals on May 12th!
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Share Your World April 24, 2017
I have been a regular contributor to SHARE YOUR WORLD for several years now. It is a great weekly challenge to build community and to get the brain juices flowing for creative writing.
You can see how the world has shared itself in five questions by clicking the underlined link above. The five weekly questions posed by our hostess, Cee, and my answers are below
Wanting something to quench your thirst, what would you drink?
My go to drink during the day is coffee. But that is more of an energy boost admittedly and not a thirst quencher. When I am really thirsty lately I have been drinking cold cold cold water.
Complete this sentence: Never In My Life Have I….
There are so many nevers….I have never jumped out of an airplane. I have never bungi jumped. I have never ridden a donkey into the Grand Canyon. I have never been to Portland Oregon. See lots of nevers. Most of those are probably really unimportant if I never do them my life will probably go on without to much regret.
I bet though that Cee is not after all the little nevers. What are the big nevers? I guess my biggest never is that I have never doubted there was a God. Even when I didn’t know who he really was…even when I thought He was someone else (and yes I did worship other gods before I became a Christian), I never doubted that He was.
photo: kevin carden, Creative Commons
If you could be given any gift what would it be?
The gift of greater knowledge of God.
What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, or get up and try to do something productive?
I actually make up stories. One of my favorite is that I am laying on my bed and it is suddenly in the middle of space. I am a watcher looking in on another world and all its goings on. Weird huh?
photo by Andrew Caldwell
Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am grateful that God has given me an answer as to whether I am to pursue the lead pastorate at Cornerstone Church now that our current lead, Pastor Risto, has answered a call back in his native Canada. I am grateful that I was able to share that answer with the congregation at Cornerstone on Sunday morning. I am not to pursue that position in case you were wondering.
I am looking forward to the search which is about to take place for our new lead pastor. I am looking forward to meeting our new interim pastor.
I feel a little like Galadriel having defeated her inner battle to take the One Ring Of Power.
Ok maybe it is not quite that grand or scary but…
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Share Your World Week #34 2016
Well I am back and doing back to back Share Your world blogs because I am that far behind the curve.
Week 33 was so much fun I decided to do week 34 right away.
Here are Cee’s questions for this week and my answers:
What is your favorite comfort snack food?
I love macaroni & Cheese…no pizza…no Hostess Suzie Q’s…no Apple Fritters…no grilled cheese sandwiches…no COFFEE!!! Yes COFFEE!
Until then I imagine I will treat myself daily to my favorite treat of all…good coffee.
Coffee in Delft
Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it’s hard to go back to sleep. Fran Drescher
Is the paper money in your possession right now organized sequentially according to denomination and with the bills right side up and facing the same way?
Absolutely not! That would be a miscarriage of wallet justice. The bills I have left over from lunch yesterday are stuffed hodge-podge in with all the receipts from last week. That way when I drive and sit on my wallet my leg can fall to sleep properly.
If you were a mouse in your house in the evening, what would you see your family doing?
Reading. Watching TV and forgetting to put the butter away so that I could leave my little mouse teeth tracks in it at midnight (We have lost more sticks of butter this way).
Would you rather not be able to read or not be able to speak?
Speaking is overrated (said the preacher). I want to be able to retain my ability to read.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to lead worship at Special Touch REACH New England’s chapter meeting this weekend and also to lead worship at Cornerstone Church.
This week our church begins its fall growth groups. I am excited to see this discipleship season begin.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SHARE YOUR WORLD
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The Quiet Life Of A Country Pastor Pt. 10
It has been weeks since I have had an opportunity to write about my “quiet life”.
I have had so many wonderful opportunities to share faith with people these last weeks it has just eaten up my time.
I have run staff meetings and taken phone calls. I have attended prayer meetings and shared biblical principles for living with troubled souls. I have preached and I have led worship. I have attended planning sessions for future ministry and future town projects. In all of it I have seen the hand of God moving mightily.
I was honored to perform a wedding for a young couple I once had in youth group.
I was equally honored to lay to rest and offer words of comfort at the graveside of one of God’s saints.
I attended a baptism.
Then i traveled to the Berkshires to do lead worship at a camp for the disabled and to care for one of the guests who needed some one to one care.
I was privileged to be the pastor appointed to pray for the cities of the North at the Worcester County Prayer day this last Saturday.
Then yesterday after Sunday services I attended a thank you luncheon for our worship and arts teams of the church.
My life my not be externally quiet but the blessing of it leads to a deep inner calm that restores the soul. As the writer to the Hebrews says, “There remains a Sabbath rest for God’s people”. It may not come in the way we think but the rest God gives is the best there is.
How do you find rest for your soul?
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Day 1 Super Week
It is day 1 of what I am calling super week. The car is loaded and I am starting out on the drive to Special Touch NE Getaway in the Berkshires.
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The Quiet Life Of A Country Pastor Pt. 10
I began this series to portray what life is like for a country pastor. So many people think that pastors only work one day a week or on the other end of the spectrum that we are on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Neither of those things is true (however much certain people would like them to be). Church work is work like any other job. There are days I think I work too much, but who doesn’t feel that way.
I get time off. I get vacation. I also work over time. I think the biggest difference between pastors and say accountants is that pastoring is not my job. It is my calling. I work at a church… but I am a pastor. Even if I worked at McDonalds I would be a pastor because that is what God called me to be. My job doesn’t define me. My calling does.
Anyway I am fortunate to be a pastor who (currently at least) works one job and that is at a church.
I think the last time I posted about my “quiet country life”, I was just finishing up worship rehearsal with our second worship team. That was Saturday morning. The ride has been wild and wonderful since then.
Saturday evening I was back at the church to meet with another prayer team to prepare for Sunday morning service. Some people think that prayer is just an endless repetition of requests. But prayer is so much more; It is a divine encounter with the living God. It is a vital soul filling and soul wearying thing. Prayer is work and it is perhaps the greatest work pastors can do!
After prayer I was home and off to bed for service Sunday morning.
I was back in church by 7:15 A.M. for sound check with team one and from there I was in service (we have two on Sunday mornings until 12).
After service I met with the leaders of our worship ministry to go over budgets and schedules for the next quarter.
After that I went home and slept and slept and slept. Monday is my Sabbath!
Today (Tuesday) I was in at 7 to get ready for a wonderful day of meetings.
We met for team prayer at 9 and then staff meeting at 10:15.
Tonight I am meeting with our fall Bible study teachers for training.
I love this life!
Lillie-Put 
