The Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone University Board of Trustees has been delivered: How will they respond?

Our Letter to the Cornerstone University Board of Trustees: With Signatures has now been sent.  If you wish to see the name of each pastor and stakeholder who chose to attach their name to it, click on the link. 

The letter itself was the result of robust conversations happening among those who care about Cornerstone University and who also share deep concerns about the vision/direction in which President Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño has been leading it, and the unethical ways in which that vision/direction has been implemented.  

[To learn more about the journey to this point read: A Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone University Board of Trustees - Fall 2024, "A singular focus on preparing students for meaningful jobs and careers" would be the death of Christian Higher Education - A response to the essay by Cornerstone University's President Moreno-Riaño on Fox News, and The Cornerstone University I graduated from is no more, my daughter won't be going there.  Or, listen to Pastor Noah's Filipiak's podcast conversation:  Power and Politics at Cornerstone University with Dr. David Turner, and for a wider range of resources on this topic, visit: Voice of CU]

Now we await a response, officially or otherwise, from President Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, other administrators, staff, or students at Cornerstone, and/or the Board whether that be individual board members or a collective statement.  Will there be a response?  We have no way of knowing.  How will those to whom this letter was written respond to it?  The Lord alone knows that answer.  We have filled the role of the Watchmen.  We stood upon the wall and warned that danger is coming, how those to whom that warning was given will respond to it was never in our power.  As Ezekiel learned from the LORD, that power is never in our hands when we try to warn others of the dangers that our wisdom allows us to see, it rests with those who will choose to listen to it or not.  We believe that we have reflected the concerns of God's Word related to how a Christian community should function and the moral standard to which it ought to be held.

Ezekiel 3:16-21  New International Version

16 At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.

20 “Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

The warnings have been given, the seeds have been sown, now the responsibility shifts to those who have the power to make morally upright change at Cornerstone University.  Our role at this point is to pray and hope.  Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will work in hearts and minds, will guide, direct, correct, and empower.

What we can learn from looking at who signed the letter:

Pastors who signed: 55 [CU Alum: 7, GRTS Alum: 40, Both: 6, Neither: 2]

Others who signed: 110 [CU Alum: 52, GRTS Alum: 33, Both: 7, Neither: 18]

Given that I didn't have any way of gauging how many people would see the letter, let alone be willing to sign, I think that 55 pastors (mostly alumni) and 110 other concerned stakeholders (again, mostly alumni) ought to be a significant enough demonstration that not everyone is on board with what has happened at Cornerstone in recent years.  Others share our concern, we are not alone in seeing this danger.

It was an honor to play the small part that I played in this effort, and much appreciation belongs to Pastor Noah, Dr. David, and Voice of CU.

A personal thanks to everyone who signed the letter, thank you for standing with me.

Sermon Video: Intelligible words in the Church - 1 Corinthians 14:13-19

Having established the priority of building up the Church when ranking the desirability of spiritual gifts, the Apostle Paul continues the theme by explaining that even 10,000 words given in a language unknown to the hearer(s) are worth less than 5 intelligible words whose meaning can be grasped.  In stating this, Paul asserts that our minds needs to be engaged in prayer and worship, not just our emotions, and that our end goal, edification, requires understanding (on the part of the recipient) in order to be fruitful.  Illustrations utilized: the Western Church's use of the Latin Mass (a barrier to understanding), the dense verbiage of Martin Buber's I and Thou (verses the accessibility of Max Lucado's Just like Jesus), and the unnecessary barrier of teaching English to non-speakers envisioned by Sam Gipp's KJV Only position.  In the end, it is incumbent upon us that we make a serious effort, in both evangelism and apologetics, to share, explain, and defend God's Word with both intelligibility and clarity.

To watch the video, click on the link below:  As a bonus, the introduction features the story of my preaching in Guatemala in 1997 through an interpreter, as well as my fumbling my way through a lesson in Spanish (not a pretty picture).

A seed planted years ago...

When I was in college I spent some time working with three siblings whose family situation brought them to the attention of the community mental health organization. I was given the chance to work with these kids and try to be a type of big brother for them for about a year. When it was over I lost track of them...just recently I received a letter from the youngest of these three who had experienced an even more difficult childhood after I finished working with them. Long story short, this young many is about two years into a prison term at the prison about six miles from my home. It has been about 13 years since I had heard from any of them, but this young many remembered me and wanted to see if I could help him with the upcoming transition to the life he hopes to lead after his release. I don't think that the work that I did was all that special; I was just trying to be one small influence for good in the lives of these kids who sadly had none. And yet, the Lord planted a seed in this young man's heart. Now an opportunity for the both of us appears. I have the chance to pick up where I left off and once again try to be a good influence in this man's (now, he was a kid before) life. As a pastor I can also get in to visit him as well, something I hope to do soon.
How do we know what the Lord has in store for us? How do we know what will happen to the seeds that we scatter? The answer is that we don't know. The only thing for certain is that if we don't take the chance and sow some seed, nothing will grow. If we do step out of our comfort zone; take some chances, and see what the Lord will do, amazing things can happen. Remember, God wants you to plant some seeds, he's the master farmer, he'll make them grow.