September 16, 2026

The most exciting things in life tend to be the weightiest as well. It is exciting to get married; it is also weighty to consider what the covenant of marriage means. It is exciting to have a child; it is also weighty to realize that this child is literally depending on you for life, training and its future. You get the idea.

This Sunday we are commissioning a group of people from our church to start a new church in northern Macomb County called Greater Glory Church. This is exciting, but it is also weighty. For many church members, you do not feel the full weight of the very existence and future of the church resting on your shoulders. If you are not here, the service will still happen. If you do not serve, someone else will probably will step up. If it is more convenient to head up north for a few weekends, well, whatever.

What if you really understood your part of the church the way God sees it? You know, you are a hand, a foot, an eye or an ear (1 Cor. 12)? What if the very existence of a church in a practical sense depended on whether or not you did your part? That is what these people are basically taking on.

A healthy local church is exhilarating, exhausting and worth it. Jesus is worth a beautiful bride and he is worth being imaged, loved, and followed by every single person. God uses churches to display his glory to the nations and our mission as a church is to reproduce more churches.

This Sunday, we are commissioning a group of people who will participate in the birth of a church. This day has been a long time in coming and we are excited by sobered by the mission. These brothers and sisters need our prayers. They need our faithfulness. The greatest gift we can give them is to be healthy, vibrant and faithful sister congregation.

I am grateful that we are congregation that cares about the glory of Christ, the spread of the gospel to change lives, the sending and supporting of missionaries and the work of planting and revitalizing churches. Cornerstone, you are a blessing to many pastors and churches because so many of you do feel what is right and true. You do realize that glorious weight of faithfulness to Christ and this bears fruit on so many levels.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: John 17