Sunday, February 24, 2008

Today was a good day for us in worship. Attendance was great! We had about 10 visitors, including some children. Attendance will get much better as the year goes on--but I am appreciative unto the Lord and thankful for whom He sent our way today. Today I shared from Mark 14:3-9 continuing our series on Stewardship with the message titled, 'If It's Not Broke...Break It'. God did smile upon the message, for which I am humbly thankful. I have been praying all week long that God would move upon some heart to come forward and make a decision today--but there were no public decisions made today. Nevertheless, I do believe that the message was in fact effectual, the Holy Spirit conveyed God's truth from the Word--and the ultimately people are grasping the concept of stewardship. Giving always seems to be lower when I teach and preach on stewardship; and when attendance is good. I will use the month of March as a time to gauge how well the truth has been conveyed and recieved. Nevertheless, God has proven Himself to be faithful and we have exceeded our budget for this month. Yes--God is faithful...

New Territory

This year has already proven to be a great year for Cornerstone. We have had unbelievable progress in more ways than one; though we have also had major dissapointments and obstacles--one of which has been the issue of sickness with some of our members. I am excited because God appears to be showing us His hand in moving us toward our own place and I am very excited about this. There are 3 properties one of my men and I are praying about--and also looking into how we can build in a way that is feasible and affordable. We can not start with building the sanctuary that is displayed on our website; but it is so important that we understand that you can change the approach without changing the goal. The goal is for us to have one of the greatest conference center in the city of Houston and Pearland (The Dream Center) that will house auditoriums, arenas, and sports facilities. Other goals include what is shown on our website and also a business center for businesses along with our own daycare facility. However, our goal is to establish ourselves in our target community (of which we are presently outside of) and it is wise to explore the options God has placed before us considering where we are presenstly leasing--they are aggresively seeking to sale their land and facility. I praise God for where He is leading us. I seek the prayers of all the saints.

Pastor & Spouse Conference

It has been a LONG week! However-it has been a blessed and uplifting week! Our congregation knows that I am a protege of Dr. I.V. Hilliard, here in Houston. This man has been a blessing to my life in a personal way. This past week D'Ani and I had the opportunity to attend the Pastor and Spouse Conference (Wednesday thru Friday) with an emphasis on the first family. I was blessed tremendously. We weren't able to make it last year due to Kaden's birth. There are several things that this conference has done for me--it has solidified my desire to see my sons (and children) play an active part within the ministry. One of the things we very seldom emphasize is that the Promised Land was always intended to be a family affair. D'Ani and I are intent upon seeing our children fulfilled within the ministry in which we serve as Pastor and Wife. This conference has also solidified two ministries that I believe are integral to the growth of our congregation: Assimilation (particularly through a strong correspondence ministry) and through the ministry of helps. I have also been helped to understand the importance of setting very clear goals, planning, and charting consistent progress. This has already been started at our church--but we have far to go.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Yesterday (Sunday) was an exciting day for us! We started out with worship, praise, and (most importantly) the WORD. One of our associate ministers, Rev. Isaac A. Mahoney, delivered the morning message from John chapter 14 with his message entitled, 'The Main Purpose of Prayer'. Mahoney is an awesome preacher; and our entire CHURCH knows it! Mahoney is the kind of minister who is able to speak and preach the word in such a way that all people can understand and comprehend the Word being explained. Additionally--5 people came forward during the invitation, 4 of which came to join our church!!! To God be the glory! Needless to say--GOD is doing some awesome things in our church beyond human explanation. Clear defining our church as a Word-Based, Christ-Centered, Prayer-Focused, Missionaly-Minded, Kingdom church has really assisted us in praying specifically to God regarding the harvest and also those who visit can see our mission and vision for spiritual excellence and growth. AND...we are continuing to PREACH the WORD WITHOUT COMPROMISE!

After service, we journeyed to be with my eldest brother, Pastor Kevin L. Pullam, in Corpus Christi as his congregation, Friendship Baptist Church, celebrated its 59th church anniversary. I was a little nervous this being our first out-of-town outing as a church. I am pleased that we had 27 people who journeyed with us, including both children and adults. I was so very proud of Cornerstone!!! I was also excited that 6 or 7 of our men journeyed with us. What can I say? God is so good.

We have so far to God with God's guidance and strength; but I would be foolish if I didn't acknowledge that God has brought us from so far. We journeyed to bless Friendship; however, their spirit, worship, etc. blessed and encouraged us! It's amazing how God works.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

This is truly the day that the LORD has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it! Today has been a wonderful day. We are now in Stewardship Month at Cornerstone. We are off to a pleasant start!Of course, giving is usually low when I am teaching and preaching on stewardship. However, it is a little better than usual and I praise God for that. Today, I preached from Matthew 25:14-30 with the message entitled 'I Can't Afford to Hold It'. I can honestly say that it was the most difficult passage of scripture I have ever dealt with expositionally in my over 14 years of preaching ministry. Personally, parables (though they are a joy to read) are so difficult for me; and it is so difficult to find good study material on parables. I have many books on the parables, including Spurgeon, J. Dwight Pentecost, Weirsbe, and others--but it is just something that challenges me.

However, through much prayer and studying until 4 in the morning, the Lord smiled upon the message! Incidentally, 2 people came forward--one for baptism and the other by Christian experience, along with her little girl. Thank God for 3 new people!!!

It is both astonishing and humbling to see God move in HIS own time and way. I have had my share of frustration in pastoral ministry; however, God is blessing little by little and teaching this 29 year old young man along the way-some very valuable and priceless lessons I won't have to learn for the first time 5 years from now. Better now than later. It is so amazing to see how God --through allowing me to let some things and people go and focus upon the power of prayer and a life of total stewardship and surrender--He is teaching the people we have how to rely upon Him to expand HIS own kingdom. I am a living witness that God is doing it again (GIDIA!)

There is a VERY long road ahead. I hope and pray that these blogs do not exude any inkling of an idea that I feel that we have ARRIVED. No. Attendance still bothers me, commitment is still NOT what it should be, everything including the giving-I would love to be better. And--I would love for us to have our own facility where we can be free to do more ministry to the masses. I am praying for all of this and will continue to do so. Until then--I will try my best to chart the progress we have made. Last year, we had about 5 people who came forward for the ENTIRE year; this year thus far we had about 10 in January, and about 4 have already come in February. Most importantly--they are sticking through our follow-up and they are already getting involved in serving and stewardship. I'd be a fool not to see this as not only a milestone, but purely as God's own doing partnered with our commitment and faith. I am trusting God to do just what He said!!!