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In late February, we were in Macon, visiting Kate’s dad and grandmother. Macon is like other cities of its age and size: there is an old, grand, historical downtown caught perpetually between neglect and revitalization, then sprawling miles of cement and asphalt filled with Dollar Generals, gas stations, and metal-roofed Pentecostal churches. The house we stay in when we visit is in a neighborhood between these extremes: neither grand nor poor. 

In one way, though, it is historical, because at the bottom of the hill, about a hundred yards from the Ocmulgee River, there is a small park with a…

Yesterday (Saturday, January 14, 2023) I participated in the MLK Unity March in downtown Apex. It began at the historic Apex First Baptist Church on Salem St. and then proceeded through the downtown to the Apex Town Hall. This is the third year of the event, and in each of the celebrations I have offered one of the prayers. It has been a great representation of the city's government (Mayor Jacques Gilbert, Police Chief Jason Armstrong), local pastors, and Christians from various churches. I continue to be encouraged by the direction of the event. 

This is the prayer I spoke: 

It's hard not to slow down to look at car wrecks. Even though you know it's wrong and you feel guilty for doing it, it's hard not to. Reading 1 Corinthians is a bit like looking at a wreck—except in this case, you're supposed to look! This Sunday, that's what we're going to do, slow down and begin our look at this glorious letter of Paul's to a church he loved.

The Corinthian church is famous for its dysfunction—relationally (they struggle with unity, so much it even affected their celebration of the Lord's Supper), sexually (they have all kinds of bad…

One of the members of Cornerstone, Forrest DeVita, has done a good bit of work thinking through various arguments for (and against) the existence of God. This is a personal study of his and also connected to his evangelistic work at NCSU with Ratio Christi. We invited him to share on one particular argument for God's existence. Enjoy! 

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How can you demonstrate to others that God exists? Enter the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

The Psalmist writes:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and…

This Sunday for Advent we’ll listen as John Donne’s “Annunciation” is read. As with all (good) poetry, the lines and phrases have a depth hard to take in at the speed of a reading. And when the poetry is exploring the Incarnation itself, this means the depth is unfathomable. For that reason we wanted to give you a chance to look at the poem before it’s read.

To give you just a little background, John Donne (1572–1631) was an Englishman who grew up in a Catholic family in a day when the Protestant Queen Elizabeth reigned in England.[1]…

Advent is a paradoxical season: a season of waiting and anticipation in which the waiting itself is strangely rich and fulfilling, a season that looks back at the people who waited in darkness for the coming light of Christ and yet forward to a fuller light still to come and illuminate our darkness.
Malcomb Guite

So begins Guite in the introduction of his Waiting on the Word, a compilation of poems about Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. This year for the four Advent Sundays, we’ll take one of the poems in his collection and incorporate it into our…

Tomorrow (Oct 2, 2022) we begin our series in Ezra-Nehemiah, so let’s get oriented to these great OT books. (We’ll pretend for a minute that we all have power and the church building will have power, and these remnants of Hurrican Ian are behind us).

Leslie Allen opens his Ezra commentary by writing,

Ezra-Nehemiah is the OT equivalent of the Acts of the Apostles—it is a book of new beginnings. Acts opens with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised to God in Joel 2 (Acts 1:4–5; 2:16–21, 33). The fulfillment of ‘the word of the LORD spoken by…

A report by Emily Baker about her time in India this summer: 

I wanted to share with you about my experience in Indore, India this summer. During my time studying at UNC Chapel Hill I have gotten involved with Summit College, the college ministry of the Summit Church. This summer I participated in Summit College’s eight-week discipleship training project, which involved local, national, and international service as well as training from pastors, church planters, and missionaries.