Event, Teaching | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

Downtown Cornerstone,

By now you’ve heard that we are hosting a livestream event on Sunday, August 16th, Politics in the Life of the Church: A Workshop on Rethinking Faith and Politics, led by Jonathan Leeman, from 1:00-4:00pm. Jonathan is the editorial director for 9Marks (a ministry that serves to equip healthy churches), an elder of his church in D.C. (Cheverly Baptist), an author (How the Nations Rage and others), and a friend.

The idea for this event grew out of our January elder retreat during which we considered how to best shepherd DCC through the upcoming presidential election. Little did we know that 2020 would also include a global pandemic, record-level unemployment, renewed racial tensions, mandated face-masks, a scattering of the church over livestream, and a forced economic recession.

Any one of these issues is enough to create division. But, when taken together, we find ourselves amidst a uniquely contentious cultural moment. So, what does it look like to engage these issues from a biblically Christian perspective? How do we love fellow believers well, even while disagreeing with them? That’s what this event is all about.

The focus of this event is not on particular issues (e.g. race, immigration, policing, abortion, fiscal policy, partisanship, etc). Instead, the focus is on how we engage with these issues, and relate to one another amidst our differences, in a distinctive and compelling Christ-honoring manner. This event is for anyone (members, attenders, pastors or churches) who is interested in thinking about the relationship between faith and politics. We invite you to help us spread the word.

There will be three main sessions:

1. How To Engage With Politics and Government as a Christian
2. How to Love Church Members When We Disagree Politically
3. And an entire session for Q&A

Due to COVID-19, the event will be livestreamed. We understand that, at this point, we are all over-loaded with virtual meetings, livestream, and video. Even more, this is happening on a summer afternoon in Seattle. However, the benefit of livestream is that we can extend the invitation to more people and you can participate while sitting outside with friends (socially distanced, with face masks, of course).

Click here to register.

We hope you‘re able to join us. Let’s pray for fruit!

Christ is all,
Pastor Adam

P.S. Jonathan will be also preaching that Sunday for DCC from Psalm 2 as part of our Walking With God series.

Covid-19 | by Pastor David Parker

Downtown Cornerstone,

As of today, King County is still in Phase Two of reopening, which has allowed churches to begin regathering, with restrictions. While these restrictions can feel burdensome, they are a small sacrifice to ensure the safety of one another and our city.

As Pastor Adam shared a few weeks ago, we first started opening our doors by extending an invite to our members on a three-week rotational basis. Since then, we’ve had extra room and more seats available that we can fill!

Therefore, we want to go ahead and begin opening up these remaining seats to other non-members and guests who may feel comfortable participating with us.

If you are interested in participating with us on a Sunday:

1. First, please read these guidelines to ensure you understand the limitations, risk, and are able to meet the requirements for gathering with us.
2. Please fill out this Request to Join a Sunday Gathering Form (please note that filling out this form does not register you for a Sunday Gathering.)

Once you have submitted a request to participate, someone will reach out to you with availability and next steps for joining us on a Sunday.

During this pandemic, our Sunday Livestream will continue indefinitely for those of you who are uncomfortable gathering, for families with young children, or for those with underlying health issues.

Let’s continue to pray that God would be glorified through this unusual season and that he would give us wisdom each step of the way.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let us know by emailing .

For the King,
Pastor David

Update: You can now pre-register directly for a Sunday Gathering by visiting this page.

Event, Teaching

We are living in an increasingly politically divided age in America. Today, there are deep, partisan differences on most issues that face our society—including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic response and current racial tensions. With the upcoming presidential election, these divisions only seem to be further intensifying.

As Christians, we know that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20; Eph. 2:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). Jesus—through his life, death, and resurrection—has secured our glorification (1 Cor. 12:20; Phil. 3:21). We will enter into his righteous rule and reign, an everlasting kingdom to come (Is. 32:1; Dan. 7:1; Rev. 21:3-5).

While we wait for Jesus’ return, how do we, as Jesus’ people, view and relate to present rulers and authorities that God has placed us under? How do we go about seeking to uphold God’s perfect justice and righteousness in our imperfect and messy political environment? How do we guard against political divisions of the world from causing divisions in the church?

These are important questions for Christ-followers because there is a lot at stake here—including the spread of the gospel.

Jesus said that all people will know that we are his disciples, if we have love for one another (Jn. 13:34-35). In his most difficult hour, he prayed that we will become perfectly one (Jn. 17:23). The early church needed regular exhortation and practical teaching on how to love one another amidst differences—and so do we (1 Cor. 8, 13; Rom. 12, 14; Eph. 4; 1 Jn. 3).

Our main speaker, Jonathan Leeman, is the editorial director for 9Marks and the author of How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age. Watch a short invitational video from Jonathan below.

 
Want to better understand the relationship between faith and politics? Are you desiring to engage politically in ways that reflect our common citizenship in heaven? Are you thinking about how to approach political conversations within the church?

We invite you to join us for an afternoon of careful thought, practical advice, and encouragement as we consider the unchanging political task of Jesus’ church: to become the salt and light he calls us to be, and offer the hope of his kingdom to the nations.

Date: Sunday, August 16th, 1–4 PM PDT
Location: Virtual
Registration: Free

Sessions will cover how to engage with politics and the government, and how to love church members when we disagree politically—followed by Q&A.

REGISTER NOW
Note: Due to Covid-19 gathering restrictions in Washington state, this event will be primarily livestreamed.