Meet Our Newest Elder Candidate: Russ Collins

News | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

Downtown Cornerstone,

On Sunday, we presented Russ Collins to the church as an elder candidate.

Therefore, we are taking the next month to give you time to meet with him, ask questions, and/or express any concerns you may have. One of the over-arching qualifications for a pastor is that he must be “above reproach” (1 Tim. 3:1). While we have done our homework, this waiting period is an additional step to ensure all bases are covered and you have an opportunity to speak into the process.

The office of pastor (or elder) was created by God, for the leading, feeding, and protection of his flock, the local church. Therefore, we treat the testing, equipping and installation of such men with great seriousness—and joy!

Russ will not be on DCC’s pastoral staff, but will serve as an elder in a volunteer capacity (i.e. non-staff pastor). Therefore, by necessity, the scope of his pastoral involvement will be limited when compared to a staff pastor. However, his service will be equally significant. As a non-staff pastor, Russ will be involved with preaching, teaching, counseling, officiating weddings and funerals, elder meetings and practical leadership (which currently includes leading a Cornerstone Community).

Our aim is to raise up many non-staff pastors, like Russ, as it helps diversify and strengthen the elder team and, therefore, the church. Russ will be our third non-staff pastor.

Russ is a good man with integrity, love for Jesus, and for Jesus’ church. As elders, we believe he is called, qualified, and ready to be appointed as a pastor. However, we are taking this time in case you know something that we do not.

That said, would you pray for the Collins in this season? Would you also pray for our church? It is a sign of God’s grace to us that we have men, like Russ, being raised-up to lead, feed, and protect Jesus’ flock. Let’s ask Him for more.

Provided nothing arises that would cause us to pause the process, which we don’t foresee, we will install Russ as a pastor on Sunday, October 4th. It will be a great celebration and a joyous moment.

What follows (below) is a short interview with Russ so that you can get to know him a bit better.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you can email me directly at .

Christ is all,
Pastor Adam
On behalf of the elders of DCC

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Q: How did you meet Jesus? How has he changed you?

RC: I grew up in the Bible belt (Waco, TX to be specific), but not in a Christian home.  I walked the aisle of a Southern Baptist church and asked Jesus into my heart as a junior in high school. But I was like the rocky ground and the ground with thorns. I received the word with joy, but it was short-lived. The cares and desires for things of this world choked the word. Despite this, I thought I was still a Christian because I had prayed a prayer and had a salvation date and was told not to doubt my salvation. It wasn’t until I was 33 through a string of providential people, events and reading of God’s word and apologetic books that I realized I was a sinner and that God’s just wrath was upon me. I had not truly trusted in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  One book I was reading went through the “Romans Road” (How To Give Away Your Faith by Paul Little), and I saw more clearly the gospel: how all have sinned and fall short of glory of God and that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. The author basically said that saving faith is a surrender to the lordship of Jesus in all areas. I initially resisted that idea because if I did that, my family, friends, and co-workers would think I was crazy. I was taught that you just have to believe facts about Jesus, but don’t have to surrender to Him. But in time, God in his grace and mercy opened my eyes to my lostness and depravity and the fact I had been deceived by my prior confession. (Paul’s exhortation in 2 Cor. 13:5 to examine yourself to see if truly in the faith had never been taught to me. In short, I failed the test.) I then repented and believed on Jesus Christ alone for salvation and surrendered my life to him. I received his forgiveness & eternal life and Christ’s righteousness was imputed to me. Thank you, Jesus! In short, my eyes were opened, and I knew Jesus and the Bible were all true. By the way, my family, friends, and co-workers did think I was crazy, but I didn’t care because I understood my true lostness and received God’s grace.

Prior to saving faith, I was frankly successful by the world’s measure. I had a wonderful wife (still do), nice home, two kids (now three) and was climbing the corporate ladder. I was consumed with me, my career, and had no desire to read God’s word, pray, repent of sins, or love others sacrificially, and cussed like a sailor. Upon conversion, that all changed. My affections and actions were turned upside down or, rather, right-side up. I now desire and strive to: know, love and follow Jesus and His word, live for God’s glory, love my wife sacrificially, read Christian books to grow in my knowledge, point my kids to Jesus and the gospel, love others (in the church and out), see God as ruler and not me, grow in seeing God’s grace in my life, repent of sin I am aware of, pray, have outreach Bible studies, serve the church, reach the lost locally and afar, etc. Along the journey, there have been many trials and tribulations, but God’s grace continues to prove sufficient.

Q: Tell us a little about your family.

RC: I am blessed with a beautiful (inside & out) wife, Julie, and three wonderful children (Kylie – 26 years old, Grant – 24, and Grace – 20). I met Julie at Baylor University, where we both graduated. This December 9th, Julie and I will be celebrating 31 years of marriage! The Lord graciously saved us both in the fall of 1998, after being married almost nine years. Our worlds were turned around after that as we sought, and still do, to honor Jesus in our lives.

We lived in the Dallas area until the consulting company I am with, Protiviti, asked if I would consider transferring to lead our PNW practice. Moving to Seattle and running an office were not on my “To Do” list, but we ultimately concluded this was where the Lord wanted us. We moved here in 2016.

Kylie is an elementary school teacher and taught three years at a public school in the Los Angeles area before moving here this summer to take a job at a private, Christian school. Grant played baseball at a small university in California where he received his undergraduate degree in accounting and finance. In May, he graduated from UW with his Master’s in Accounting. He has spent all summer studying and taking the CPA exam. He will move to Dallas later this month to start his career with Ernst & Young. Grace is a sophomore at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, CA and is studying business. As a family, we enjoy hanging out together, watching movies, going to sporting events and traveling.

Q: What are you most passionate about?

RC: The first things that come to mind are Jesus and the gospel and all that it entails. I never want to get past the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want it to guide my personal life and the lives of my fellow brothers and sisters. I am still amazed to this day that Jesus has saved me, and I now get to know and serve him. Truly, amazing grace.

I am also passionate about reaching lost souls with this gospel, whether with family, neighbors, co-workers, those that come to DCC, and those throughout Seattle, Washington, and the world. I have taught numerous outreach Bible studies over the years. I am also on the board of, and involved with, two international mission agencies: one serves Uganda and the other serves Dubai. Both ministries involve the local church, and both have started a seminary in recent years. Julie and I also give to other missionaries to help, in some way, reach the lost across the globe.

And of course, I am passionate about my family and love them very much.

Q: How did you get involved with DCC?

RC: After moving from Dallas, I looked at various churches in Seattle and the surrounding area. I was looking for a church that preached and lived out the Bible and was gospel centered. And I wanted some passion from the pulpit. To be honest, my search was a little discouraging. I finally looked up suggested churches on the 9Marks website and saw DCC listed. My first visit was on the sanctity of life Sunday and Pastor Adam was bringing it! He was defending biblically and graciously pro-life and boldly proclaiming the gospel. I remember looking around and asking myself, “Am I in downtown Seattle?” Frankly, I was blown away.

I continued to look at other churches as I am one who takes church commitment seriously and wanted to be at the right place for me and my family: one that would continually point me to Jesus, His word, and the gospel. I also wanted a church led by godly elders that would be looking out for my soul. So as part of this process, I sought to get to know the elders. Long story short, we decided to make DCC our home in the fall of 2016 and have never looked back. Once here, we simply asked where the church needed help and served in those areas.

Q: What are your current areas of oversight?

RC: For the past two years, I have been an apprentice in community with Daniel Hallak. He and his family have recently moved, so I will provide oversight now.  In addition, I lead DCC’s financial advisory team. I help teach a class called Exploring Christianity, and Julie and I have also taught/participated in pre-marriage classes. We also have been active in teaching DCC kids for the past several years.

Q: How did you determine you were called to be a pastor?

RC: I have been an elder before, at a much smaller church in Texas, and that was several years ago. In the fall of 2018, Adam invited me to participate in a weekly Elder Development Cohort with some men. That was a very encouraging and growing time. Soon after that class, Adam asked if I would consider going through the elder candidate process, and I said I would think and pray about that. I was and am content to be a faithful member and submit joyfully to our elders (Heb. 13:17). I was also quite busy helping my firm’s local office stabilize and grow our PNW business. I know from experience that being an elder is a demanding role, yet one with great blessing. So, I wanted to take some time to consider.

About a year ago, with encouragement from Pastor Adam and some other men, I started the eldership process to seek the Lord’s will. The process is quite involved and requires a lot of self-examination. There are a lot of questions to answer in writing, around personal, theological, and practical matters. There is a pretty intensive interview process that my wife and I went through. I also got to observe our elders in action during their elder meetings. (Observing those meetings, I saw firsthand the love and care our elders have for the people of DCC.) Throughout this year long process, my heart for the people and purpose of this church grew.

I am not perfect by any means and, like all of us, continue to be sanctified; but I do believe that, by God’s grace, I am biblically qualified. I have a heart to love Jesus’s local flock: to know, feed, protect, and lead. I want to see myself and others grow in our love for Jesus, the gospel, the Bible, his church, one another, and the lost. As I get older, eternity is ever more real to me. I see more and more the brevity of this life and that eternal souls are all around. I continue to be driven by John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life, that I read many years ago where he quoted part of a poem: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past; Only what’s done for Christ will last.” I want to serve wherever Jesus wants me to. Throughout the elder application process, I have been affirmed by others, including our elders and my family. It is my desire to serve the people of DCC in this role (1 Tim. 3:1). If this is ultimately the Lord’s will, I am deeply humbled and grateful to serve in this way.

Q: How can we be praying for you and your family in this season?

RC: We are going through transition: our oldest daughter has moved to Seattle; our son is about to move to Dallas to start his career, and our youngest daughter is away at college amidst all that is going on in the world. And if the Lord wills, I will take on this role of elder at DCC. We would welcome prayer that we would keep our eyes on Jesus and seek His glory and His will, as well as walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.

I would also welcome prayer for the upcoming Exploring Christianity class and a weekly Bible study that my wife and I started a few weeks ago with my parents, my brother and sister and their respective partners in Texas (using Zoom). Please pray that the Lord would work mightily through these studies and that I would rightly and graciously handle the word of truth.

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Let’s be praying for the Collins and our church during this time!

What are your Expectations of Jesus’ Local Church?

The Nature of the Local Church | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

Note: This post is the first in a series (2, 3) on the nature of the local church. The intent of this series is loving clarity, amidst cultural confusion. I write with gospel-forged hope, deep love for our church, co-mingled with genuine pastoral concern. This series is intended to give us a healthy set of shared understandings about the nature of the local church by which we carry out the many important conversations of this tumultuous season. We’re in this together.
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Downtown Cornerstone,

One thing this season has made clear is that there are widespread misunderstandings about what Jesus’ local church is meant to be and do—even among followers of Jesus.

Over the last six months the elders of DCC have received numerous questions, recommendations, and criticisms in relation to what we should be doing as a church in regards to: our pandemic response, the relationship between church and state, timing and content of communication, growing unemployment, the homelessness crisis, political partisanship, systemic injustice, police brutality, social protests, and more.

We welcome questions, suggestions, and critique. My intent here is not to silence nor chastise. Rather, my purpose is to make an observation. I have noticed that under many of these inquiries are vastly different expectations of what Jesus’ local church is.

What are your expectations of Jesus’ church? Where do they come from? That’s what this post is about.

Expectations are powerful, but often hidden

Expectations are everything in relationships, whether with people or organizations. Expectations are powerful beliefs about what should happen, or what we expect, within a particular relationship. These beliefs often lurk behind the scenes based on our understanding of what that relationship does and does not entail. Since they are largely assumed, we typically don’t question them and we can forget how much shaping influence they have in our relationships.

We understand this innately. We expect hospitals to care for the sick. We expect universities to educate. We expect governments to govern. We expect libraries to lend books. We expect museums to showcase historical artifacts. We expect Seattle to vote Democratic. Why? That is what those groups do.

However, we don’t expect our doctor to deliver our dinner. We don’t expect our local elementary school to respond to a 911 call. We don’t expect libraries to rotate our tires. We don’t expect our Uber drive to raise our kids. Why not? That is not what those groups do. If we have those expectations, we will find ourselves disappointed, at best, or disillusioned, at worst.

In other words, when our expectations are not met, some degree of conflict is inevitable. But, that conflict can have one of two sources. It may be due to one party not living up to the shared expectations of their relationship, such as a cheating spouse. Or, one party may have wrong expectations of a relationship. If you go to Trader Joe’s to renew your license tabs you will be forever disappointed and disgruntled, though it is no fault of Trader Joe’s.

Both result in conflict, but the source of the conflict is different; the former is rooted in shared expectations and the latter in wrong ones. All of this has bearing on our current cultural moment.

What are your expectations of Jesus’ local church?

What do you expect Jesus’ local church to be and do? Have you thought about that? Our expectations are often formed through a mixture of biblical understanding, personal preference, past experience, varying emotions, influential teachers, and life circumstances.

So, what should we expect from the local church? Here are some things that may come to mind:

teach the Bible, spread the gospel, defend the faith, evangelize, make disciples, baptize, celebrate the Lord’s supper, teach classes and catechize, perform weddings and funerals, practice church discipline, counsel the hurting, run after the wandering, visit the sick, help the widow, cast vision and create strategic plans, missionally innovate, plant churches, send missionaries, create programs (kids, youth, college, singles, empty nesters), lead mission trips, entertain, manage (finances, property and staff), develop a social media presence, and address social issues (homelessness, addiction, immigration, human trafficking, politics, foster care, racism, abortion, youth incarceration, food security, water access, etc).

That’s quite a list. Must a healthy, Jesus-loving local church do all these?

The chasm between “could” and “must”

There is a huge chasm between “could” and “must”; between “can” and “ought.” One is an option, while the other is a divine mandate. We should be careful of placing “oughts” where a particular issue is a “can.” Such as, you ought to do something about homelessness. You ought to say something about a particular news event. You ought to do something about police brutality. The word ought implies a church is disobedient if it doesn’t. But, is it?

What ought Jesus’ local church do? What is the church? Why does it exist? You can see why this is important. If we’re not clear on what the church is and why it exists, we may end up expecting things of the church that God does not—and, as a result, find ourselves disappointed and disgruntled because of those errant expectations, though it is no fault of the church.

So, it is helpful to ask ourselves, “Do my expectations for Jesus’ church align with Jesus’ expectations of it?”

What is God’s purpose for Jesus’ local church?

So, what is God’s purpose for the local church? Well, think about it this way. We can only understand the church’s purpose in light of God’s ultimate purpose. What is that? God’s ultimate purpose is to have his unsearchable riches seen (Mt. 28:18-20; Eph. 3:8-9; Rom. 11:33), savored (1 Pet. 2:3; Ps. 34:8), and shown (1 Cor. 10:31; Eph. 2:10; Jn. 13:35) in the whole-hearted worship of his people from every nation, tribe, people, and language (Rev. 7:9). This is God’s great purpose in the universe.

Ok, so how does God plan to accomplish this purpose? God primarily plans to accomplish this purpose through his local church. Go slow here. We will never fully grasp the significance of Jesus’ local church if we don’t see its connection to God’s purposes in the universe. They are inseparably connected.

Consider what the church is. The church is not your typical non-profit or voluntary association. Jesus’ local church is a radically diverse supernatural creation of God, secured by the Son of God, empowered by the Spirit of God, led by the Word of God, to accomplish the mission of God, for the glory of God and the everlasting joy of the people of God (Jn. 15:11; 16:24; 1 Jn. 1:4). In a word, the local church is a miracle.

The mission of Jesus’ local church—the reason his church exists—is to go into the world, in the power of the Spirit, to make disciples of Jesus through evangelism (corporate and personal proclamation of the gospel) and discipleship (worship-filled, joy-fueled obedience), while seeking to plant healthy churches that do the same everywhere for the glory of God (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Col 1:28).

This is our unique and central task—faith-filled proclamation and worship-full disciple-making, together. This work of the church is how God is fulfilling his purposes in the universe to this day. Think about that.

There is nothing else like Jesus’ church

In other words, the purpose of Jesus’ local church is utterly unique. No one else on the planet can do this work. No other organization on the planet can do this work. God has given this unique purpose to his local church. If the local church doesn’t do it, no one else will because no one else can.

Only Jesus’ local church has God’s inerrant inspired Word through which we learn the truth of reality, the truth of who God is, and the truth of what it means to be human.

Only Jesus’ local church has the incomparable gospel, by which we learn how to be reconciled, forgiven, adopted and counted righteous by God, in Christ.

Only Jesus’ local church is considered by God to be the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16), family of God (Eph. 2:19), body of Christ (Rom. 12:5), embassy of the Kingdom (Phil. 3:20), and the pillar of truth (1 Tim. 3:15).

Only Jesus’ local church has the ordinances of baptism and Lord’s Supper by which his people are identified and set apart as those who belong to him.

Only Jesus’ local church has the responsibility of making and maturing disciples of all nations and spurring one another on as the Day draws near (Heb. 10:25).

Only Jesus’ local church is the salt and light of God, a people of convictional kindness who cultivate a faithful presence in their communities, in Jesus’ name, from the avenues to the alley ways.

Only Jesus’ church has pastors who shepherd, deacons who serve, and members who love another as fellow citizens of the kingdom to come.

In other words, there is nothing like Jesus’ local church. It is utterly unique.

So, while there are many things the church could do, what it must do is faithfully proclaim the gospel and cultivate worship-full disciples as God’s new humanity in Jesus. While the church cares deeply about politics, it is not a partisan organization. While the church cares deeply about justice, it is not a social justice organization. While the church cares deeply about current events, it is not a news organization which offers ongoing cultural commentary. While the church cares deeply about virtue, it is not responsible to signal its virtue to merely appease the culture.

The church is a local expression of God’s new, diverse, redeemed people with a specific purpose: to faithfully proclaim the gospel and cultivate worship-full disciples for God’s glory. While there are many things we could do, this is what we must do. This is the heart beat of every faith-filled, bible-saturated, Spirit-dependent, God-centered, Christ-satisfied local church. This is where our primary energies should be directed. This is what we should expect from a healthy local church, whether gathered or scattered.

Anything else is peripheral to these primary purposes. That is not to say other issues are unimportant. They are often very important. But it is to say they lie outside the primary purpose of Jesus’ local church. Jesus alone is the center and circumference of reality. When we get his purposes for his local church right, it then goes on to shape and inform everything else.

Do your expectations for Jesus’ church align with Jesus’ expectations of it?

In an upcoming post, we will continue to consider what Jesus’ local church is meant to be and do by looking at the differences between the role of the church, as a whole, and the individual Christian.

With you, and for you, in Christ,
Pastor Adam

To read the next post in this series, click here.