Dear Ministry Partners and Friends:

Rain poured down from a dark gray sky the morning of Sunday, June 12, as a stream of people poured into the Old Wilson Schoolhouse Community Center…and kept pouring in. The 120 chairs that Cornerstone rents every week were easily filled before the service even started. Our crew of servants went back to the storage room for stacks of extra chairs, but those quickly filled, and it was standing room only. The humid and slightly stagnant scent of soggy jackets wafted over the rows of people. But no one cared. After all, John MacArthur would be preaching in a few minutes.

That Sunday was a symbolic milestone in the life of Jesus’ little church here at the foot of the Tetons. What a joy it was to have the pastor of our mother church join us in worshiping our faithful God together in our humble rented schoolhouse nearly three years after eleven rough-around-the-edges church-plant team members from southern California started the sapling Cornerstone here in our corner of the wild West.

With some recent history in mind, the fact that Dr. MacArthur preached to us that morning was a feat in itself. The previous Sunday evening in California, he had completed preaching every verse, verse by verse, in the New Testament at Grace Community Church. As far as anyone knows, a thorough exposition on that level had not been accomplished in at least 100 years. Along with the rest of the board of directors for Stewardship Services Foundation, he and his wife headed to Jackson Hole, perhaps, for a little “victory lap.” After all, 42 years of wrestling with every verse in the New Testament would merit a little vacation. Yet despite the expository milestone, the very next Sunday, he was doing what he always faithfully did, preaching God’s word, except this time in the Cornerstone Church pulpit. As our oversized congregation listened that morning, he had the energy and zeal of a young seminary graduate, yet the masterful preaching skill of, well, John MacArthur.

On Sunday afternoon as he was humbling some of us locals in a round of golf, I asked the obvious question: “So, John, what are you going to preach next?” He replied graciously, “Well, I was really young when I preached through the Gospel of John. So I’ll do that again.” Some bloggers have been jokingly suggesting he would start in the Old Testament, a feat that, at the rate that he preached the New Testament, would take 135 years. He continued, “And I’m going to go through the Old Testament, probably starting at Genesis 12 since I already preached chapters 1 through 11.”

For the next three days, the Cornerstone leadership tagged along with him and his wife, asking a slew of ministry questions and gleaning as much wisdom as possible.

But it would be wrong if I failed to spotlight the crew of Christ’s servants who, for example, began set-up that Sunday morning at 6:15 a.m., who every Sunday carry several car loads of audio equipment to an empty schoolhouse, who set up gear and tables and food and a hundred chairs and serve God’s people in so many ways, and then break it all down again, leaving the place spotless. This happens every week, and though it is far from glamor of a California mega-church, it is a stage on which God shows his glory in some very humble ways as he grows his people.

Here are a couple of the latest humble and humbling happenings in our local body:

• We recently concluded the first year of our Cornerstone Nouthetic Institute, an 8-month-long biblical counseling training program.
• Our gospel community group ministry proves to be used of God for shepherding and outreach on the more intimate level outside the Sunday gathering. Currently, we have five gospel communities, each with ten to twenty people. As the need for discipleship and one-anothering on an intimate level increases, we hope and pray that God raises up more leaders to multiply these groups.

As usual, and fitting for the Lord’s great work, these accomplishments are his and his alone, and we find ourselves humorously inadequate for the ministry privileges that He has put before us. So please join us in accessing his resources through prayer:

1. Thank God for the many ways in which he is transforming his people into a more accurate image of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:7, 2 Corinthians 3:18). By his grace, supernatural growth continues in this church.
2. Pray for continued growth in the leadership. Plead with God that our shepherding would flow out of an ever-growing love for Jesus. Pray that we would be humble examples to the flock in all things, with an increasing and genuine love for the flock (1 Peter 5:3).
3. Ask God to grow the leadership in the skill of meeting people where they are spiritually, while skillfully and lovingly bringing them along in spiritual growth (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
4. Plead with God that we would be faithful disciple-making disciples, diligently laboring in love and with the word to present every soul complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28-29).
5. Ask God to move us all, especially the leadership, to lives of increasing, humble, dependent prayer; to pray for ourselves, the flock, and the lost; and to be prayer warriors (Ephesians 6:18-20).
6. Pray that all of the flock, especially the leadership would minister like Paul ministered to the Thessalonians: with the tender care of a nursing mother combined with the instruction and exhortation of a father to his children (1 Thessalonians 2).
7. Pray that there would be an unusual and genuine spirit of encouragement of and joy in God’s work toward one-another (Philippians 1:3-5) and that we would be eager to gather together to humbly, joyfully, and genuinely worship the Lord together (Hebrews 10:24-25).
8. Beg God that he would grow us out of and not let us dwell in any spiritual plateau, that we would keep fighting sin, and that his Spirit would give us greater zeal for his word and for living it out (Romans 12:11).
9. Ask God for growth and protection for the marriages and for greater humility and skill in conflict resolution among couples (Philippians 2:3-4). Pray for the salvation of the unsaved children among us and for wisdom for the parents in raising their kids.
10. Pray for God to continue to provide financially for all of us in these times (Philippians 4:19). Thank him for sustaining us in these times as well.

Thank you all so, so much for your ongoing, sacrificial offerings for God’s work here! Though we are growing, our financial needs persist. We are about $1000 past budget each month right now. As we address these needs within the flock, we also pass that on to you as a matter of prayer. If you would like to team up with us financially, please make checks out to Cornerstone Church. All of your offerings are tax-deductible and may be mailed to: Cornerstone Church, P.O. Box 980, Wilson, Wyoming, 83014.

For the displaying of Christ to all,
Eric, on behalf of Cornerstone Church plant: Leslie, Matt, Sera, Bryan, Ashley, Chris, Rebecca, Melissa, Neill, and Natalie