Pastor's Corner - Protecting Our Children

Dear Friends,One of the most important items that took place at this year's General Assembly of the PCA was to unanimously and publicly adopt Overture 6 which is a very robust statement on child protection in our denomination. You can read all about this overture by visiting: http://goo.gl/cwFfRo.With this stand that our denomination has taken to protect our children, the Session and Diaconate of Cornerstone has unanimously adopted an extensive child protection policy and background screening and training process for all volunteers working with children and youth in our church. To ensure a high level of integrity and godliness, your officers have begun the process and have submitted themselves to the background screening and child protection training procedures.This is a very important step for our church as we seek to be a community of believers devoted to the principles laid out in Acts 2:42. This effort is all the more important as just this week we have been compiling class rolls for the new school year and have discovered that the Lord has blessed Cornerstone with nearly 90 children under the age of 18... and more are on the way!Please be in prayer for our children and those who lead them. In the coming months, we will be implementing the screening and training process to ensure the protection of our children and the integrity of our ministry. Please be on the look out for more information.With that said, I am very excited about our children and youth ministries program and the direction that they are headed. August 10th will be promotion Sunday at Cornerstone. On promotion Sunday, we kick off a new school year and all our children and youth will enter their new Sunday School class that day. The new children and youth classes will be: 3s & 4s; K-1st; 2nd-4th; 5th; 6th-8th; and 9th-12th.Additionally, we are implementing a new Sunday School curriculum for our children and youth ministries. This new curriculum is published by One Story Ministries - a ministry of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS. The One Story Children Sunday School curriculum will guide our children (K-6th) through the entire Bible over a seven year period. Additionally, our youth will use the curriculum to guide them through the following areas: Biblical Worldview, Biblical Relationships, Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, Apologetics, and Biblical Counseling. I'm very excited about this new curriculum and the depth of discipleship that it will bring to our children and youth.Because of our growing children and youth ministries, and the desire for them to grow deeper in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we have several areas in which we need volunteers:Nursery: New families are visiting every week and 4 new babies will be born into the Cornerstone family this year. Please contact Janice Martin (jcmartin10@comcast.net or 256-479-6278) to sign up to serve in the nursery with some of the cutest kids in Christendom.Children: Due to the large number of younger children, we are starting off with a 3s and 4s preschool class but we may need to divide that quickly. Additionally, we are dividing up some of the upper grades. Please contact Kyle Mosier (256-658-1050 or kyle.mosier@wyle.com) if you can teach or assist in our children's Sunday School program.Youth: We are anticipating 45+ youth involved in our youth ministry this fall. Therefore the Junior High (6th-8th) and Senior High (9th-12th) will meet separately for Sunday School. Consequently, we need two additional adults to assist Chris Joiner in the Junior High ministry. Please contact Kyle Mosier (256-658-1050 or kyle.mosier@wyle.com) if the Lord may be leading you to love on these students.I know this is a lot of information, but this is great news for our whole church family. Please be in prayer for these ministries and opportunities. Please also be in prayer for our children...that they may grow deeper in their knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ.Your friend,Wilson"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward." (Psalm 127:3 ESV)