Episode Details

Cornerstone is a church “ON MISSION”

• We don’t exist to exist; we exist to accomplish something

 

Cornerstone’s Mission: We exist…

To Help DISCONNECTED People to Find, Follow, and Be Like Jesus

• The word DISCONNECTED is key…

As students of our culture, we must understand what is currently going on in our culture

 

One of the most significant issues facing Americans is:

LONELINESS

Facts on Loneliness:

• According to a study by Cigna, nearly half of all Americans report feeling lonely sometimes or always.
• The same study found that Generation Z (ages 18-22) is the loneliest generation, with 79% reporting feelings of loneliness.
• Social isolation is as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
• Loneliness can increase the risk of premature death by up to 50%.

 

All indications point to the fact that our culture is:

• More DISCONNECTED than ever

Why?

The reasons behind this epidemic include the prevalence of smaller and further-flung families, the decline in traditional social institutions such as faith organizations, an increasingly individualistic culture, technology, and social media. ~ Reporter Dan Minchin

 

Our culture has torn down many of the social institutions and habits that once formed a more healthy relational society

• No more front porches
• No more family reunions
• Social media is actually less social
• Church attendance decline

 

Many experts are now arguing that it is actually the HABIT OF CHURCH that lies at the center of this crisis…
From an article titled: CAN RELIGION MAKE YOU HAPPY?

“People who do have a strong sense of religious practice in their life—they just tend to be happier,” he says.” They tend to be happier people. They have a greater sense of organization in their life. They have a better sense of community. They have an underlying physics to their life, and they’re not trying to figure things out in the same way. And life is complicated. There are things that are going to pull you in every direction all the time. And it’s nice to have something that you can actually count on, whether you agree with every single part of it or not.” ~ Arthur Brooks: Professor at the Harvard Business School

 

This shouldn’t surprise us

Genesis 2:18

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.”
So again, our MISSION is to…

HELP DISCONNECTED PEOPLE FIND, FOLLOW, AND BE LIKE JESUS

• Not just get them into the community… but point them to Jesus
• But community is a KEY part

 

The question then is: HOW

How do we go about and make this MISSION a reality?

CARE – CONNECT – CULTIVATE 

We want to be a church that…

• Connects all we can.
• Cares for all we’re sent.
• Cultivates all we have.

1: Connecting all we can

Walking into a room of strangers

• Seeing someone you know

If loneliness and isolation is a big problem

• Connection is the answer

Connecting takes intentionality

• doesn’t happen by accident

 

To be a connecting church, it will take…

A Missionary Mindset

• To reach our culture, we must think more like missionaries

Romans 10:14-15

14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

 

As a church, we are called to help the DISCONNECTED in our towns CONNECT