Today's the day!

Venture kicks off tonight with a cookout...please be in prayer especially today for this event and this group...that the Lord will bless it and that the students who have thought about coming WILL come. Oh yeah, and that it doesn't rain! The students should arrive at 6:00 pm for food and cornhole, and then there will be a time of worship music and a lesson in the sanctuary.

If you know someone in college, it's not too late to invite them or see if they're coming...and mention our new website: www.venturecbc.com!

MNF @ PBS

Warning: if you're one of the many people who don't know what MNF stands for and can't figure out why I'm writing about PBS, your favorite television network, you might not enjoy the rest of this post! :)

If you're still with me...

Ron, Betsy, Molly, and I went to Cincinnati on Monday night to see the Bengals' football game. Thus the "Monday Night Football at Paul Brown Stadium" subject line for this blog. Yes, THAT PBS.

The big storyline of the game was Carson Palmer (the Bengals quarterback) and his return from a knee injury in a January playoff game. Without dwelling on the details, this was no normal knee injury: he tore his ACL, MCL, dislocated his kneecap, etc. We, along with 64,000 of our closest friends, were very interested to see how Palmer would look back out on the football field again. He didn't disappoint.

Three touchdown passes later (and still in the first half), the Bengals had jumped out to a 31-0 lead against maybe one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, Brett Favre. The whole atmosphere in the stadium was just exhilarating: sold out, national television, orange and black everywhere, and they (okay, WE) cheered Carson's every move. Screamed when he came out of the tunnel, yelled every time he jogged onto the field, gasped every time he got hit, erupted every time he jumped back up from the turf.

Everyone expected #9 to be a little bit rusty, a little bit jittery, all the things you would assume about a franchise player with a recently rebuilt knee. Instead, Palmer played almost perfectly and singlehandedly turned the minds of Cincinnati fans everywhere from "Will he ever be the same?" to "How can I get ahold of playoff tickets? The most amazing and impressive thing about Carson's stats were comparing them to Brett Favre's, who suffered through a night to forget.

A few other notes of interest from the game: AJ Hawk (formerly of Centerville High and Ohio State)made his professional state-of-Ohio debut and was cheered warmly every time he made a tackle (you might have heard Molly screaming from here if you listened close enough :) She's still trying to get me to go to the Ohio State game this weekend...but that's another story...

Despite the predictions of thunderstorms all night, we only saw a few sprinkles the whole time we were in the stadium. We decided to leave with about 10 minutes left in the game so we could beat some of the traffic home, and made it to our car just as the lightning and thunder started. They actually delayed the game for about 40 minutes because the storm was so bad. We were all thankful we had chosen to exit when we did!

I am still a Buccaneers fan...don't get me wrong...but it will be fun to watch the Bengals play this year!

I'm glad it's football season!

Tim

Lessons from Fatherhood

Something that nobody ever warned me about becoming a father: the projectiles! Whether they be from the backside, the frontside or the topside, it seems that if there is an opening, it can spew ANYTHING!

One funny story (I had no idea this was physically or humanly possible): I was changing a wet diaper (that had I waited long enough would have been a wet AND dirty diaper). However, I was a little premature. So, during changing (and without getting too graphic) the dirty part came out with an unbelievable force. Not only did this get my forearm, but it reached a radius of 3-4 feet across the room. Wall, carpet, recliner, DVD player…basically anything it could have reached, it did.

Unfortunately, it was my reflex of initially trying to avoid the projectiles that caused this additional collateral damage from the spray. Oh well. :)

Outside of the projectiles, we are thankful we have a mild-mannered and relatively easy to manage little one. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us during this transition in our lives.

Sam

Everything you ever wanted to know about VENTURE

There have been many conversations between Dan, Sam, and Tim about what Venture will look like when it starts this fall. Here's a sneak peek for your benefit…Tim's moderating today...let's listen in:

T: Well, guys, we’re obviously excited about the next couple weeks as we kick off our new college group, Venture. Let’s just take a couple minutes and let people eavesdrop on a pastoral brainstorming conversation. Now that we’ve presented all the details to the congregation, I’m sure there’s some questions that pop up. Hopefully we can clear up some of the answers as we look forward to the cookout Thursday night. First of all…why does our church need Venture? Aren’t we getting along just fine?

S: I think if you look at the church as a whole, you’ll see that where the church is now is a result of people that found CBC to be their church home while they were in college. The Justices, Books, Bryants, Messers and Carys all come to mind right away, and the list goes on. 20 years ago, you might not have thought of these people as the “future of Cornerstone”, but the reality is these people who came while they were at Cedarville or another local college have remained, flourished and become key parts of our church. Through Venture, we are trying to do the same thing with the next generation. If God keeps them in the area after college, that’s great. If not, then we’ve at least had a part in helping these students develop their spiritual maturity as they prepare to go forth and minister in other cities, states, or countries.

D: College age is a pivotal time in someone’s life. It’s part of the reason we named the group Venture. Huge decisions present themselves: career decisions, mate decisions, all kinds of decisions; it’s imperative that we as a church come alongside and help these students during this huge time in their life.

T: So is Venture just for Cedarville kids? Just for college students?

D: For anyone who thirsts.

T: I definitely think it’s designed for college students, but we don’t have an age limit. If you’ve been graduated for a couple years (like me) and get excited about being involved in a group like this, we’d love to have you too!

S: We’re looking at not just college students…but this next generation. Whether they’re already graduated and in the workforce, that doesn’t really matter. We want to help bridge the gap between teenager and young adult. Venture should provide a way for these young adults to make connections and develop relationships with people in their age group.

T: Why are the service times changing?

D: Facility and space issues, mostly. We obviously didn’t want to radically change the time, but we did want to allow for the transition between small groups, youth group, triple-C and the Venture ministry that would meet later.

T: This way our chaos will at least be slightly organized, and our schedule will help the evening make more sense to everyone. We don’t want to have kids playing games, adults talking about their Bible study, and the Venture band playing all at the same time; that wouldn’t be good for anyone’s sanity! Now here's an important question that we've talked about a lot: how can the congregation get involved?

D: Pray first of all. That’s most important. Second, we’re really looking for people to bring snacks and drinks so the students can fellowship after Venture. Maybe you could stay through Venture – sit around afterwards and talk! Get to know these students and get involved in their lives.

S: Another thing to consider: there are families in the church that on their own already will have students over for lunch after church, intentionally get to know these students, etc. If we could have more families doing that same thing and catching that vision, we can be a huge encouragement to the college students. Not a PROGRAM of the church, ("time to feed the college kids"!) but individuals and families showing LOVE creatively and randomly on their own.

T: First Corinthians 13 in action.

D: I think this is an important issue. Venture is designed not to be a segregated ministry of the church, but an integrated ministry. Yes, we want to be investing in college students, but it works both ways: we want college students plugged into the church as well. These students should find CBC to be a loving home.

T: What are specific things the congregation can pray for?

S: Contacts would be one…that we would be able to connect with students that are needing a church home and are interested in finding a place to get plugged in. Wisdom and guidance for the overall leadership is crucial also.

D: Unity for everyone as we plan this new ministry.

S: Spiritual growth for the students. So often we focus on numerical growth.

T: What will Venture look like in a year, five years, or ten years?

D: Again, it will be an integrated part of the church; college students as a vital component of Cornerstone. Not just fellowshipping with each other and reaching out to each other, but getting involved in the lives of the entire body. Venture will also be focused on reaching secular campuses, participating in service projects, etc.

S: Long-term, I would love to see this grow into utilizing a full-time college pastor that is focused on this age group and helping them become devoted disciples of Christ.

T: It’s important not to judge the success or failure of this group by numbers. It’s human tendency to measure everything we do by how big, how much, how many…as long as we are taking the students we have and the students we can reach and helping THEM grow, Venture can be a success for God. One more question: what will a normal Venture look like on Sunday night? Personally, I’m hoping there is no “normal!” I love variety! What do you think?

S: Upbeat, vibrant musical worship will certainly be a big part of it. Creative and relevant teaching is key. I just envision Venture being an exciting place to hang out, have a good time, be challenged, connect with and learn from others…I can’t wait to see how God uses Venture to help college students grow in their relationships with Him.

Thanks guys...don’t forget, our new fall schedule starts on Sunday, September 10th!

5:45 – 6:45 pm Small groups
Triple-C
Youth group
6:45 – 7:00 pm Music time
7:00 – 7:15 pm Adults fellowship
Triple-C game time
7:30 – 8:30 pm VENTURE

Tim's light-hearted answers to MPRPGFNSIWC

For those of you that didn't figure out the acrostic yet... and I don't know why you wouldn't...it's so obvious! :)

MPRPGFNSIWC: *Most popular reasons people give for not singing in worship choir*

Reason #1: I’m not a good singer.

Answer: Being a good singer isn’t one of the requirements! Worship choir is all about praising God musically to the best of your ability, fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ, and having fun too! Hopefully you’ll learn more about singing (and worshipping) through the experience!

Reason #2: The director scares me.

Answer: Understandable, but not a valid excuse! :) Choir rehearsals are set up to be non-threatening to non-musicians; some rehearsals succeed in this area more than others, but I hope if you’ve considered joining choir, you’ll give it a try before deciding the director is too scary to sing for!

Reason #3: I’ll go financially bankrupt because I’m late for everything.

Answer: While it’s true that choir members owe 25 cents to the giant crayon if they miss the start of rehearsal at 7:07, we’ve received thousands of testimonials (okay, maybe two) about how this memory device has helped improve punctuality in all areas of life. Besides, the money goes to buy donuts for workdays when we build the Christmas sets…and family discounts ARE available. :)

Reason #4: I don’t have time.

Answer: Although this is one of the more valid excuses people offer, the time commitment really isn’t overwhelming. Wednesday night rehearsals from 7:07 – 8:30 pm, Sunday morning warm-up at 9 am before Sunday School, and a few extra rehearsals sprinkled in during the last month before the Christmas musical. I understand that some people have commitments on Wednesday and it's just not possible…the rest of you, what are you waiting for? :)

Reason #5: I’m just going to worship from the pews. After all, if everyone is in the choir loft on Sunday morning, there won’t be anyone left out here…and the choir loft isn’t big enough!

Answer: What a delightful problem to have! We’ll just turn the pulpit around…put the non-choir members in the choir loft and the 200-member choir in the pews. Problem solved! Now you can sing in choir with a clear conscience! :)

Reason #6: I’m just not sure it’s for me.

Answer: Try it and find out! I’d much rather have someone sing for the first three weeks and decide choir’s not for them then make a blanket decision without even giving it a try!

Reason #7: I don’t like being up in front of people. I like to hide in the back.

Answer: This is why every choir loft ever invented (including ours) has a back row! You can be up in front of people and still hide in the back! :)

Reason #8: I don’t want to audition…that would scare me to death!

Answer: You don’t have to audition to join choir. The only reason someone might audition is if you don’t know what voice part you have (high ladies voices: soprano, low ladies voices: alto, high men’s voices: tenor, low men’s voices: bass). And remember, the director’s not scary! Otherwise, you can just show up on September 13th and jump right in!


SOOO…if one of those reasons was your excuse for not singing in choir, you're now out of luck...make plans to join us on September 13th! :) If you had a different (and in your mind, better) reason, please e-mail me and let me know…I will come up with an equally creative and/or silly rebuttal, post it to the blog, and we’ll see you on September 13th. If you’re not sure, but think you might be interested, talk to me and let me know! You can try it for a while and see what it’s all about. Hopefully you will become a better musician, but more importantly, a better worshipper through the process!

Goofy questions and answers aside, I do understand choir isn't right for everyone...but there are some of you who have toyed with the idea, even talked about it...and just haven't made that final step. We'd really love to have you! Think about it.

SINGcerely yours,
Pastor Tim

The Frailness of Our Lives

Once again I was reminded of the frailness of our lives upon this earth. Over the past couple of weeks, I have spent time with several different people in three different hospitals who were suffering from various different illnesses. I also officiated over one memorial service. On Thursday, I received news that my sister in California collapsed and suffered a seizure. She was diagnosed with viral meningitis. She should make a full recovery. Psalm 103:15 says, "As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer."

Well, if that was the whole story we could not help but to despair of life itself. But praise be to God, that is not the whole story! Verse 17 goes on to say, "But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them." The eternal mercy of God breathes life and hope into our decaying situations. We have the hope of His life-imparting righteousness that we receive as a gift through faith because of God's mercy. That is the gospel. It is found in Jesus Christ. So, no matter how withered your flower may be, hope in God! Hope in Christ! He will revive you!

Dan

Whirlwind Week

Well, it's Monday, which means I somehow survived the last week :) Let's recap a few highlights:

On Thursday, as I'm sure you have heard by now, my first nephew, James Matthew Bryant was born. Molly was at the hospital by 5 am...I waited until the much more godly hour of 8 am, and since James didn't arrive until after 11, I was very happy with my decision to grab those three extra hours of sleep! :) James is a beautiful baby boy and I'm looking forward to spoiling him like a good uncle should!

Saturday night was the much-anticipated trip to Crew Stadium for the worship choir. We had 25 singers perform the national anthem before the soccer game between Columbus and the New York Red Bulls. Everything went very well, and I got quite a few compliments on how great the choir sounded...congratulations to them! Overall, it was just a fun night of fellowship with over 50 friends from CBC...and the Crew actually won for the first time in fourteen games. We decided they're going to want us to come sing at EVERY game!

Sunday was a great time of worshipping together as well as getting to hear from Todd Entner last night. What a godly attitude and testimony of perserverance through suffering! "His strength is perfect when our strength is gone..."

On top of everything else that's going on, my parents were in town for a little bit to move Tiffany and Tom back to Cedarville, so we got to see them for dinner last night...Ron and Betsy came to dinner too, and I'm so thankful for the way our families get along and enjoy spending time together. Molly and I are truly blessed.

On a much less serious note, I'm eagerly looking forward to football season. For those of you that don't know and still might want to convert me, I'm a HUGE Purdue football fan and also enjoy following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Thankfully for our family dynamics, Purdue doesn't have to play Ohio State until next year, so tensions in the Cary household can remain low as the Buckeyes chase their national title hopes and the Boilermakers try to not lose six games in row like they did last year. Anyway, fall has definitely become my favorite season with all the football games that are on TV; if you ever want to come watch one with me, just let me know!

Back to the more serious stuff: it seems like there's always so much going on in life, doesn't it? Molly is starting her new job as a 7th grade science teacher at Northwestern Middle School...lots of adjustments there. We might be moving out of our apartment in the next couple weeks...big adjustment there. Choir and everything else at church kicks back into high gear in September...lots of time invested there. I always want to have everything prepared and under control; sometimes I just have to remember that God's strength is perfect even when I'm overwhelmed with the busyness of life. I really like the words of this little chorus we opened yesterday's service with, and I hope they ring true in your life this week:

"He is able, more than able
to accomplish what concerns me today.
He is able, more than able
to handle anything that comes my way.
He is able, more than able
to do much more than I could ever dream.
He is able, more than able
to make me what He wants me to be."

Trust Him with everything!
Tim

James is here!

Sam and Megan's baby boy, James Matthew Bryant, was born today, August 17, at 11:10 am. He weighs 7 pounds and 5 ounces and is 21 inches long. Congratulations to the Bryant family!

Another interesting blog

Several of you have asked about updates on Jeff and Tiffany Nelson, our missionaries to Brazil. They actually have their own blog, and you can find the link here.

Lyrics rolling around in my head...

I love the song, "Shout to the North", that we sang on Sunday morning. It says more than just "tell everyone about Jesus!" No, this song deals with volume. "SHOUT!" North, south, east, west...everyone and everywhere...how many times have I had the opportunity to start a conversation about Jesus, and I'm too shy/afraid/busy to even talk about Him...when I should be shouting from the mountaintops! "Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of heaven and earth!" That's the good news...and it's our job to share it.

Another song I really appreciated from this week's service was the special music Mike Harris shared with us. "Somebody's praying...I can feel it..somebody's praying for me." It seems like our church has been inundated with serious prayer requests recently; I won't list them all because I know I would miss some, but his song just especially challenged me. May we be faithful to pray WITHOUT CEASING for our friends and family.

Molly and I had a good weekend that included dinner with her parents on Friday night, a wedding on Saturday night, and of course, a great day at church on Sunday. I was really pleased with how the choir sounded during their rehearsal for the national anthem, and am looking forward to how our church and choir can be a testimony for the Lord this weekend in Columbus. I still have a ticket or two if you're one of those procrastinating types and want to join us at the game...just give the church office a call!

This Sunday you'll get to hear all about Venture, our new college ministry. A lot of time and effort has gone into how we can better reach college students and get them plugged in to Cornerstone, and we will unveil that on Sunday morning. I told Molly this week that my whole job description lately seems to be Choir, College, Christmas; Christmas, College, Choir. If it doesn't start with a C, I don't work on it :)

I am always looking for ideas for any of these things, by the way. If you have a song you'd like to hear the choir sing sometime, let me know! If you know where I can find Norman Rockwell prints for the Christmas musical, let me know! If you have an idea on how to help EVERY person in Springfield find out about our church and the Christmas musical, let me know. North, south, east, west...

Have a great week!
Tim


SHOUT TO THE NORTH
by Martin Smith, CCLI 184080

Men of faith, rise up and sing
Of the great and glorious King
You are strong when you feel weak,
In your brokenness, complete.

Rise up, women of the truth,
Stand and sing to broken hearts,
Who can know the healing power
of our awesome King of love?

We’ve been through fire,
we’ve been through rain,
We’ve been refined by the power of His name,
We’ve fallen deeper in love with You:
You’ve burned the truth on our lips!

Rise up, church, with broken wings,
Fill this place with songs again,
Of our God who reigns on high,
by His grace again we’ll fly.

Shout to the north and the south,
Sing to the east and the west,
Jesus is Savior to all,
Lord of heaven and earth!

A Multi-Colored Family

Last Tuesday my family and I went to watch the Reds play the Dodgers. Of course, coming from California, we are Dodger blue through and through...well, almost all of us. A division has occurred in our family. My youngest son Jonathan is now a devoted Reds fan. Even though the Reds ended up losing (or to put it another way, the Dodgers ended up winning; it's all a matter of perspective), he faithfully held up his Reds foam finger, diligently chanting "Let's go Reds, let's go!" So we are a multi-colored family.

It reminds me that my children are unique. God created them with their own unique personalities, likes, dislikes, passions, and yes, favorite baseball teams. My prayer is that God would use their uniqueness in a unique way for His unique glory.

Dan

"I want to have my cake and eat it too."

You know, something that doesn’t make much sense to me: As I get older, it’s hard to keep the pounds off, and yet, every year when I celebrate my birthday, there’s one day completely dedicated to eating fatty foods (cake, ice cream, etc.) like that would actually help the situation. Why would we have a tradition of eating birthday cake that puts us farther “in the hole” then we were before? I wonder…

Something else I’ve been wondering lately: can a blind man be an eyewitness to a crime? I wonder…

(Perhaps Mike Justice could “open my eyes” with the answer to this perplexing question.)

Anyway…since the last time I posted here, we have left for and returned from our annual missions trip. If you’d like to learn more about our trip to camp in Virginia, there will be a fun and informative video (full of youth antics, of course) this Sunday night after our small groups meet. This will also give you a chance to hear about the trip from the teens’ point of view. From my point of view:

It was nice to see our teen girls step up and lead on this trip. Since we were working at a girls’ camp, our young ladies had the opportunity to be counselors and definitely rose to the challenge.

The most laughs of the week came as we watched Adam and Peter ride a tandem bike, scream like little girls, and ambush innocent campers with water balloons.

It was great to see the guys be willing to work hard in the kitchen, clean the bathroom, and take care of all their responsibilities without complaining.

The non-spiritual highlight of the week came our last night there, when the guys terrorized the teen girls in their cabin. We started throwing rocks through the woods near their cabin, making an extremely creepy sound, and then three of us surrounded the front of the cabin (each of us holding a box of water balloons). Once the guys started banging on the floors and walls, the girls willingly fell into our trap and walked out the front door to see what was going on. They were quickly shelled by a barrage of water balloons. This is the pinnacle of youth ministry – a well executed prank!

Please continue to pray for Megan, as the due date for baby James (August 20) is quickly approaching. We appreciate it!

Sam

We're back!

Sorry for the extremely long time without a new post…I was on vacation all last week with my family in Michigan, so the blog had a little bit of down time…but we’re back up and running now!

I had a good week with Molly, my mom, dad, and grandma. We camped Monday through Friday in Mackinaw City, right on Lake Huron, so there was a great view of the Mackinac Bridge…

Pause here for random meaningless trivia. Did you know that Mackinaw City (the top city in the Lower Peninsula) is spelled ending with a W, while Mackinac Bridge (that connects Mackinaw City to the Upper Peninsula) is spelled with a C, and Mackinac Island is also? And they’re all pronounced exactly the same…weird… We now return you to our not-quite-as-meaningless rest of the post.

We spent a lot of time just hanging out at Mom and Dad’s new trailer and playing games together…we also got to see Tiffany and Tom (my two younger siblings) on Monday night…they’ve been working at Camp Barakel all summer. I’m looking forward to them coming back to Ohio in a couple weeks for college. Tiffany will be a senior at Cedarville and Tom will be a sophomore.

We did take one day to go to Mackinac Island and see the sights. Let me list some of the good ones and some of the bad ones for you.

Good sights on Mackinac Island: the Grand Hotel (complete with the “world’s largest front porch”…we didn’t see all that much of it, since it costs TWELVE DOLLARS to walk in front of the hotel, let alone on the porch. That’s one way to make money. They had people stationed at both ends: “Sir, are you a guest here? Then I’m sorry, you need to stay behind that sign.”

Other good sights: the summer/vacation home of the Governor of Michigan, Arch Rock (though I’m not sure it’s worth the 200+ steps to climb to get there), and of course, a fudge shop on every corner!

Bad sights: horses and what horses do. I’ll just leave it at that. Riding bikes around the island can be an obstacle course, to say the least…

Anyway, now I’m back in Ohio and excitedly planning for the fall and Christmas. Lots going on! Oh yeah, I’m looking for new choir members too…are you one of them? Choir isn’t an exclusive club for great singers; it’s a time of fellowship for people who want to become better worshippers…and then hopefully better musicians in the process! We have a lot of fun, and I’m excited about this upcoming year…if you’ve ever thought about singing with us, this is the time…come out and give it a try! We’ll start in mid-September.

Have a great week serving your Savior!

Tim