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In two days, we will open the doors at Willowville Elementary and gather as Cornerstone Church for the first time. For more than a year, I have been working toward September 13th. We've had meetings, planning, fundraising, equipment to sort, trailers to load, volunteers to organize, sermons to write, signs to put up, kids' spaces to prepare, and more decisions than I can remember.

But now that we are here, those details are not what I am thinking about. I keep thinking about what comes after launch. If God allows Cornerstone to remain for 10, 20, or even 50 years, what do I pray will still be true about us?

May We Never Outgrow God's Word

I pray we never think we need something better than what God has already given us. Trends and methods will change. The world around us will change. But God's Word never changes. My hope is that Cornerstone will always be a church that opens the Bible, preaches Christ, and trusts the Holy Spirit to work through His Word.

We cannot save anyone. We cannot bring a dead heart to life or manufacture genuine faith. Our responsibility is to faithfully proclaim Christ, make disciples, and trust God to give the growth.

May We Never Become Impressed With Ourselves

God has provided for Cornerstone in ways I never could have planned. He has brought families together, provided what we need, surrounded us with churches and pastors who care for us, and even opened Willowville Elementary, the school I attended as a kid, as our meeting place. Again and again, we have watched God do what we could not do ourselves.

If God grows Cornerstone beyond what we can imagine, I pray we never believe it was because of us. If one day hundreds gather where there were once only a few, may we remember the days when we were just a handful of people around a table praying and trusting God. Whatever happens here is by His grace and for His glory.

May We Never Confuse a Crowd With Discipleship

I want people to come this Sunday. I hope every seat is filled, and I pray we need more space one day. But filling a room was never the mission Jesus gave His church.

I pray Cornerstone is known for people who really follow Jesus. People who know His Word, love His church, fight sin, serve their families, share the gospel, make disciples, and help others do the same. We don't just want people to come in; we want to equip them to go back out.

May We Never Forget There Is Still Room

Last Sunday, I preached from Luke 14 and the Parable of the Great Banquet. One phrase has stuck with me all week: “There is still room.” Neighbors still need Christ, families still need the gospel, prodigals still need to come home, and people all around us still need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

I pray we never become so comfortable inside the church that we forget the people outside of it. No matter how many people God brings to Cornerstone, the mission still sends us out. We gather to worship, sit under the Word, and be equipped, and then we go into the highways and hedges, compelling people with the good news that there is still room.

May Christ Always Be Our Cornerstone

I don't know what Sunday will look like. I don't know how many people will come, what stories God will write, or what Cornerstone will look like years from now. Two days before launch, I am finding peace in not knowing.

Jesus never asked me to build His church. He said, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). Our calling is much simpler: be faithful.

So before the first official sermon is preached and before the first guest walks through the doors, this is my prayer: May we never become too big for the Bible, too polished for prayer, too busy for discipleship, too comfortable for mission, or too proud to remember who is building this church.

Christ is our Cornerstone. May He build His church on the Eastside, save sinners, make disciples, and send us out with the gospel. And may God alone receive every ounce of the glory.