Give the Light Missions Conference 2016

The theme for our missions conference this year was “Give the Light,”  taken from 2 Corinthians 4:6.  “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  We were blessed to have two wonderful missionary families that have surrendered their lives to serve the Lord.  The Raleigh Hill family is going to bring the Gospel to Argentina, and the Taylor Norris family is going to Mozambique to bring the Gospel there.  Jesus gave the local, New Testament church the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  Every nation needs a gospel witness!  Cornerstone Baptist Church is endeavoring to keep the Lord’s command by doing our best to reach our community, and through our missions giving we are sending missionaries to other countries    on our behalf to tell the good news that Jesus saves!

We had tremendous meetings each night as we sang, worshiped, and heard great preaching from the Word of God.  Saturday, we ran a booth at the Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta in the center of town.  What an opportunity to get out into our community and minister to people. We gave out hundreds of gospel tracts.  We finished the conference on Sunday with great services and our International Banquet featuring food from around the world.  When all was said and done, Cornerstone took on both missionary families for support both financially and prayerfully.  May many souls come to Christ in Argentina and Mozambique!  To God be the glory!

The dude table!

International Banquet.

Taylor and Lorin Norris with their children.

Raleigh and Cassie Hill with their children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Revival Services

We had a great revival services this week!  The Bible says to draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.  That was the goal of this week.  Four days of services with four guest pastors preaching the Word of God.  The really neat thing about having four different preachers is that  the only one who knows what is going to be preached is the Holy Spirit.  As you look back on the messages, you can see what the Spirit was working on in our church.  On Sunday, Pastor Cal Fuller, former pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Londonderry, NH, and now of Winning New England for Eternity,  preached about cutting some things out of our lives that are hindering us from serving the Lord as we should.  On Monday night, Pastor Dave Carlson of Gospel Baptist Church in Manchester, NH, preached on meeting with God and having a strong devotional life in order to nurture revival.  On Tuesday, Pastor Tom Faulk of First Baptist Church of Groton, MA, preached on the fields already white unto harvest, and how the Lord sees people.  He challenged us to see others as Jesus sees them.  Wednesday night was the grand finale, and Pastor Peter Chamberland of Granite State Baptist Church in Concord, NH, preached on desiring the fire.  He preached a great message about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in Daniel Chapter 3.  They were bound as they entered the fire, but were set free by the fire.  God loves us and uses trials to free us from the things that hold us back from revival.

We had spirited congregational singing followed by excellent special music!  Our song leader, Michael Prescott, played the guitar and sang “Jesus Pilots My Ship,” and “I’ve Been To Calvary.”  A trio sang “My Life Is Yours To Control” and Michael sang “The Refiner’s Fire” with Ben Prescott at the piano.  Lastly, the trio sang “Desire the Fire” on Wednesday night.  The music prepared hearts for the great preaching to follow!  We also had refreshments each night with lots of fellowship.  I am grateful for the good attendance in each of the services.  May it be that revival fires were kindled in our hearts, and we go into the summer months on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ, with a desire to serve Him with all of our hearts!

Pastor  Ed Prescott and Pastor Tom Faulk

Pastor Ed Prescott and Pastor Tom Faulk

Missions Conference 2011

Wow!  What a Missions Conference we had this year!  Pastor David Smith is  a dear friend and tremendous man of God.  After pastoring churches in Massachusetts and Arkansas for many years, he has come back to New England with his precious wife Sharon to encourage churches in the areas of soul winning, church planting and missions.  He was our keynote speaker for our conference this year.  Our theme was “Get On Board” with missions!  We had five missionaries come to share with us their burdens for souls:  The Papes to the Dominican Republic, the Staples to Spain, the Princes to Uraguay, the Browns to Montana, and Ron Cole with HELP Ministries.  We had great attendance each night and our church folks were so faithful each night.  The Lord really used this conference to stir our hearts to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Pastor Smith showed us with clarity from the Bible that our church has a responsibility to reach the whole world with the Gospel.  God is all about saving sinners and changing lives, and we need to be about that business by reaching our community, our country, and  the world.  The auditorium and Sunday School rooms were decorated with a train theme for “Get on Board.”  We started each service with the pastor and missionary men dressed up as train conductors, complete with train whistles, marching around the auditorium singing “The Good Old Gospel Train.”  As we marched around, we would call people out of the pews to get on board.  By the time of our last service, everyone in the auditorium was marching around and the pews were empty!  No one thought it was silly, but all got on board!  It was an awesome time and very memorable for everyone!

 

Encouraged by the Brown family

We had the wonderful privilege of having Phillip and Michelle Brown visit our church last night.  They will be planting a new church in Bozeman, Montana.  I love having missionaries and church planters in to try to be an encouragement to them.  Years ago, when my family and I were preparing to start Cornerstone Baptist Church here in Manchester, we spent several months on deputation.  Deputation is a time when missionaries and church planters visit churches of like faith to present their ministries and seek prayer and financial support.  Missionaries to other countries are not allowed to work in those countries so they need to raise enough support from here in the states to be able to take care of their families and do the work of the ministry.  Church planters here in the States should also raise support.  It is very difficult to start a church and work a full time job.  I can attest to how difficult that was!  Deputation can take several years of going from church to church trying to raise that support.  It is exciting, but it can also be very difficult.  You are away from home, often staying in people’s homes or in motels, eating lots of fast food, and living day to day by faith.   Even after only a brief time of deputation, my family and I realized how difficult it was for missionaries.  That has helped us to be more sensitive to their needs as we have them visit.  Our church has a heart for  both home and foreign missions, so we try our best to be an encouragement to these men of God who are willing to go on our behalf and reach others for Christ.

All that being said, I have to say that it was the Browns that ended up doing all the encouraging last night!  They are a fine family and have a tremendous heart for God and others.  We were able to see their video presentation of their burden to reach Bozeman, Montana.  You can view that video on their website, browns2bozeman.com.  Phillip then preached a great message from Romans chapter 10:  “My Heart’s Desire Is For My People”.  The apostle Paul, though he was a missionary to the Gentiles, had a great burden for his own people, the Jews.  They were going about trying to establish their own righteousness.  In other words, they were trying to be good to get to Heaven.  Isn’t that how so many Americans are trying to get there?  Paul’s message is the same as ours today.  No one will ever be good enough to get to Heaven.  Phillip did a great job reminding us of the need to keep our burden fresh for our own people!  We finished up the night by hanging around for a while just gabbing.  I think it was that time that was the most encouraging!

I hope you will take a few minutes and go to their website.  Send them a note and let them know you are praying for them.

A Great Day With Pastor and Mrs. David Smith

We had a great day yesterday in church as Pastor David Smith and his precious wife, Sharon, came to Cornerstone. They were such a blessing. Pastor Smith pastored for 36 years and was able to bring much wisdom to the pulpit! In Sunday School, he taught on prayer, and in particular gave a great illustration on how God resists the proud and how He blesses those who are “poor in spirit.” In the Sunday morning message, he preached on the subject of memorials, using Joshua chapter 4 as his text. He gave us 12 memorials that we should remember in our spiritual lives….great message! In the evening service he preached a great message on faith. My, how each of us need to move from “no faith” and “little faith” to “great faith!” Mrs. Smith was also a great blessing as she ministered to the ladies. She gave countless examples of how she and her husband have seen the Lord work and bless in their lives. We are looking forward to having them with us again in the future!