Second Saturday

Loving God, Loving Our Community.

One of the expressions of loving the community is helping meet the physical needs.  The greatest thing we can give to another is time.  So what if we devoted time (and some muscle) each month to a tangible expression of love?

Someone in our congregation needs help digging some stuff out of a storage shed and taking stuff to the dump.  What if a few of us volunteered to be 'stuff movers' one Saturday?  How hard could this be?   Moving stuff may help us demonstrate the love of Christ to neighbors and friends.  After all, Jesus deals with our stuff all the time.

Maybe someone in our church needs a new floor installed on the back porch so big Dan Brown doesn't fall through next time he walks on it.  Maybe we can become porch builders for a day in hope that someone would see that we care.  Does Jesus care about broken things?  Fixing broken lives seems to be the point of redemption.

Since we are not very good at doing what we ought, maybe we just need to declare that from this day forth, the second Saturday of every month, will be the day we declare ourselves servants of one another, carriers of stuff, fixers of broken porches, lovers of Jesus and our neighbor.

What do you think?

Family Dollar Movie Night

Last time I checked the local movie theater charged $10.00 for a ticket, $3.00 for a soda, $2.50 for raisinets and something close to $20.00 for popcorn.  A family of four needed to take out home equity loan just to see a show.

What if the old days of dollar movies returned?  And what if dollar movie night included the chance to buy pizza and popcorn at reasonable price?  And what if the movies were really cool ones?  And what if Cornerstone Church were the proud sponsors of said family entertainment?  It seems to me like it would be a good opportunity to serve the community and meet some new families along the way.

Tin Can Band Concert Series

OK, here's the idea. We rent a faiclity on a Friday or Saturday night.  We invite 3 local bands to come and play muisc (for free).  We charge at least one can of food for admission per person.  The cans go to the NESAP food pantry.  We sell food and drinks at the concert (to cover expenses). We let people know that Cornerstone Church is the sponsor.

I suppose we could also do the Paper Towel Band Concert Series since NESAP is always in need of household cleaning products, but 'Tin Can Band', sounds kind of cool, doesn't it?

Facility Plan

Last night's facility planning meeting revealed a few things. 1.) Our temporary facility does not need to be the only place we do ministry out of.  We have identified some facilities, not ideal for worship, but ideal for events such as 'family movie nights' or 'tin can band concerts'.  2.) Our community is the Hampstead/Manchester area.  So anyplace along the Rt. 30 corridor between Arcadia and Melrose can serve our Sunday Worship needs.  3.) Rental space that is already partitioned is much better than space we need to spend money on.  Ideal space for a group of 40-70 worshipers is 2500-3000 square feet with 2 restrooms, 2-3 classrooms, a large meeting area, a small entryway, all handicap accessible. 

Before the meeting I was feeling frustrated by the process, but afterward, I was thankful how well the discussion went and encouraged about the possibilities.

Wes is making a phone call today to check on the cost of one particular place.

Now, who will start to work on the 'tin can band concert series'?