Serving as We’ve Been Served

Community, Discipleship, Service | by Pastor David Parker

Downtown Cornerstone,

This past Sunday we took some time to unpack the current state and health of our church in regards to finances and serving. I wanted to briefly follow-up on the serving front so you can prayerfully consider how you can respond.

WHY WE SERVE

The mission of Downtown Cornerstone is to build a great city through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for the glory of God. One of the ways we get to build a great city is by serving others as we’ve been served in Christ. If you are a follower of Christ, part of our ongoing discipleship is a life of service to God and others. Dallas Willard wrote these helpful words, “A disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to follow through on their decision to follow Christ.”

The only place we’re going to get the motivation and drive to follow Christ’s example in serving others, is when we understand and know how much God has served us through the person and work of Christ. Romans 5 tells us, that even while were enemies of God, He infinitely served us and loved us by dying for us. He gave His Son, so that we would be rescued from ourselves — and living for ourselves — and brought back into relationship with our Creator! I don’t know about you, but nothing motivates me more, and reminds me of why I serve, than looking to Jesus and being reminded of how much He served me.

THE NEEDS

Currently we have just over 100 volunteers that are in a regular rotation of serving, but in order to breed health among our ministries, and see more people come to know and love Jesus, we need over 175 volunteers!

You might ask, how could we need over 75 more volunteers, everything seems to be going fine on Sundays? The reality is a few fold, 1) We have many folks that are carrying a lot of weight, and “doubling down” in many areas or serving almost every week. This isn’t sustainable, nor healthy. 2) While Sunday is when the majority of our volunteer needs come to light, we also largely run on volunteer efforts throughout the week (e.g. community leads, website, communications, design, etc.). 3) Lastly, there’s more ways that we want to love and serve the city that God has placed us in, and see more people come to know, love and treasure Him. As we look to the fall, our prayer is not only that we’d have healthy teams, but that we’d be able to launch new ministries so that many more people would get to experience all that God is for us in Jesus Christ.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

For those of you who are faithfully and regularly serving, thank you! For those of you who maybe are brand new, we’re glad you’re here. Take your time, ask your questions, get connected. But for those of you who call Downtown Cornerstone home, consider how you can live out of your identity as a servant of Jesus Christ inside of our body.

Below is a basic list of serving opportunities and current volunteer needs for many of our teams. Most ministries have an every other week rotation of serving, except for Cornerstone Kids, which is roughly once a month. If you would like to learn more about a particular ministry, check out our serve page, and email  to ask any questions or to get connected to a serve team.

SUNDAY OPERATIONS

• Facilities: 5 volunteers
• Connect: 2 volunteers for email followup*
• Beverage: 2 volunteers
• Greeting: 4 volunteers

PRODUCTIONS

• Band: 2 vocalists, 1 drummer, 1 bass player, 1 pianist, 2 guitarists, 2 band leads*
• Audio/Slides/Lighting: 3 set-up techs, 2 sound engineers, 1 monitor engineer, 1 recording engineer*, 1 service lead*

CORNERSTONE KIDS

• Nursery: 5 volunteers, 1 service lead*
• Cornerstone Kids: 10 volunteers, 3 teachers*

MEDIA/DESIGN

• Graphic Design: 4 designers
• Video: 5 videographers
• Photography: 6 photographers

COMMUNICATIONS

• Web Development: 1 webmaster*, 2 developers
• Social Media: 3 editors/contributors

SPECIAL EVENTS

• Planning: 3 volunteers
• Event Set-up/Tear Down: 8 volunteers
• Decorations/Food: 4 volunteers

* Position requires church membership

Because He infinitely served us,
Pastor David