City Life, Photos, Serve the City, Service, Video

At Downtown Cornerstone Church we are committed to building a great city, not just a great church. Our desire is to see gospel renewal take place from the avenues to the alleyways. On July 20^th over 100 people from DCC partnered with Dunlap Elementary School in Rainier Valley to help with some much needed maintenance.

Dunlap is located in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country, and over 85% of the students receive free or subsidized lunches. As a church, we believe that we have been infinitely loved and served by God through the person and work of Jesus, so we serve as we’ve been served in Christ.

Thank you to everyone who came out to Serve the City this year! Check out the video and photos  from the event below and be sure to join us next time we gather as a family to serve the city, loving it to life.

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”(Jeremiah 29:7)

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City Life, Service

As a follow up to our Serve the City event on July 20th, we are partnering with Dunlap Elementary School again by hosting a Back to School Drive through September 1st! As a church, we believe that we’ve been infinitely loved and served by God, through the person and work of Jesus. Because of that, we believe the good news of the Gospel is not only shared in word, but demonstrated in deed.

Dunlap Elementary is one of the most culturally diverse and impoverished elementary schools in our region, serving subsidized or free lunches for over 85% of the students. On September 4th, Dunlap Elementary will start a new school year and many students will show up on the first day of class with little or no school supplies.

Who:

Anyone and everyone can provide donations*.

What:

We’re in need of these items this week.

When:

September 1st is the last Sunday to drop off the supplies, but the sooner the better!

Where:

We’ll have designated barrels set up during our church gathering on Sundays.

Why:

Serving is a tangible expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – serving as we’ve been served, in Christ.

*Please do not wrap donations or take them out of their original packaging. We are creating a store of supplies for the teachers, who will then divvy out supplies as needed.

Email  for any additional questions!

We’re excited to see how God will use this for His glory!

Teaching

We recently finished a five month sermon series walking through Paul's first letter to Timothy. Throughout this study we looked at topics from corporate worship, to selection and qualification for church leaders, to how to handle money, and more. We were reminded of the call on our lives to be unambiguously committed to truth and, as a people, tangibly live out it's implications in all areas of life.

First Timothy is a 2,000 year old letter written from the Apostle Paul to Timothy, his trusted friend, apostolic assistant, traveling companion and partner-in-mission. Timothy was in Ephesus (modern day Turkey) attempting to pastor the church(es) there and was facing significant pressure from within, due to false teaching/teachers, and significant pressure from without, due to persecution. In a word, the church was falling apart. So Paul sent this letter to give Timothy direction on how to stabilize the situation and begin to rebuild.

This is no calm, haphazard letter filled with quaint suggestions and simple pastoral counsel. Rather, this letter communicates God's priorities for a healthy local church. Paul is sending Timothy to address these issues and help re-align the church around the truth of the Gospel. All of this makes 1 Timothy incredibly relevant for DCC as a newly-forming church in the heart of the city.

Below is a list of each sermon preached in this series. You can listen to all of them here:

• First Timothy, Truth to Thrive By (an overview of 1 Timothy)
• God our Savior, Hope, Father & Lord (1 Timothy 1:1-2)
• The Gospel of the Glory of the Blessed God (1 Timothy: 1:3-11)
• Jesus Christ Came into the World to Save Sinners (1 Timothy 1:12-17)
• You are not Not Alone in Waging the Good Warfare (1 Timothy 1:18-20)
• One Mediator Between God and Men (1 Timothy 2:1-7)
• Angry Men and Immodest Women Transformed by the Gospel (1 Timothy 2: 8-10)
• Manhood, Womanhood and Ministry (1 Timothy 2:11-15)
• Pastors, Elders and Overseers (1 Timothy 3:1-7)
• Deacons (1 Timothy 3:8-13)
• Pillar and Buttress of the Truth (1 Timothy 3:14-16)
• Some Will Depart From the Faith (1 Timothy 4:1-6)
• A Good Servant of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 4:6-10)
• Save Yourself and Your Hearers (1 Timothy 4:11-15)
• Caring for the Household of God (1 Timothy 5:1-16)
•  Leadership Lessons for the Household of God (1 Timothy 5:17-25)
• God's Glory and Our Work (1 Timothy 6:1-2)
• Sound Words and Unhealthy Cravings (1 Timothy 6:3-5)
• The Great Gain in Godliness with Contentment (1 Timothy 6:6-8)
• Storing up Treasure as a Good Foundation (1 Timothy 6:9-10)
• Fight the Good Fight of the Faith (1 Timothy 6:11-21)

Thankful for the truth of the Gospel.

Scripture | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

In my personal and pastoral experience, there is no better way to keep the gospel central, clear and uncluttered than memorizing particular passages of scripture that deal explicitly with the gospel. The act of memorization forces you to define the gospel biblically. The result of memorization is that the gospel is now within you, ready to be recalled anytime you need some gospel encouragement or have an opportunity to share. Below are ten verses on the gospel to consider memorizing. You don’t have to memorize them all. Start with your three favorite verses and go from there.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” – John 3:16-17

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”  – Rom 3:23-25

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Rom 5:8

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” – Rom 10:9-10

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. ” – 1Cor 15:3-4

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2Cor 5:21

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” – 1Tim 1:15

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” – 1Tim 2:5-6

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” – 1Peter 2:24-25

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” – 1Peter 3:18

Try not to view the practice of memorization as merely a task to be completed but, rather, just another way of bringing the good news of the gospel home to your heart. Take your time. Enjoy the good news. Consider the implications it should have in your life. Share with others what you learn along the way.

Trusting and treasuring Jesus with you,

Pastor Adam

City Life, Event, Serve the City, Teaching | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

This Saturday we are holding our second annual Serve the City project, in partnership with the Seattle School District, at Dunlap Elementary School in Rainier Valley. You can get all of the details here. Please arrive by 9:30am and go directly to the registration tent where you will be assigned to a work team. There will be various work projects suitable to a wide range of skill sets. Families are encouraged to participate. We are expecting to be done by 2:00pm. Snacks and water will be provided, but you will want to pack a lunch. Please RSVP so we have accurate numbers for supplies. Also, if you’d like to help as a team captain you can indicate that when you register.

So, all that said, why serve the city? Let’s look at four reasons:

First, we love this city, warts and all. Seattle is our home. This is where we live, work, play and raise our families. As a church, we are not here to look down on the city (in condemnation), or cower under the city (in fear), or mirror the city (in surrender) but to love and challenge the city with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fundamentally, we serve because we want to love this city as we’ve been loved by Jesus.

Second, there are great needs in our city. Like any city, Seattle is filled with significant needs to be met and this just one of them. Dunlap Elementary is one of the most culturally diverse and impoverished elementary schools in our region, serving subsidized or free lunches to over 85% of the students. Additionally, the Seattle School District lacks sufficient staff to keep up the grounds. Dunlap is just one of many schools without adequate funding that rely, almost exclusively, on community volunteer efforts. Therefore, we want to meet the needs of this city because when we were at our neediest Jesus came to meet our greatest needs.

Third, we have been served. If you follow Jesus, you have been radically served by God. Jesus lived the perfect life we should all live, but can’t. Then, he bore the just wrath of God that we deserve on the cross, in our place, and three days later rose to new life. In so doing, he conquered Satan, sin, death and evil on our behalf.  In so doing, he reconciles us to God, forgives our sin, adopts us into His family, seals us with the Spirit, gives us a new identity and promises us a new future. In other words, we serve because we have been radically served by God, in Christ. (cf Phil 2:4-11)

Fourth, we believe good news and should, therefore, be good news. Good news changes how we live. How much more should the good news of the gospel? We aim to be a declaring and demonstrating community. As you know, we take the declaration of the gospel very seriously as Jesus’ people. But, at the same time, we take the demonstration of its implications just as seriously. All talk, with no walk, leaves people skeptical. All walk, with no talk, leaves people confused. Therefore, we attempt to declare and demonstrate the good news of the gospel, without which no one will see the Lord. (cf Heb 12:14)

I’m looking forward to our time together this Saturday and hope you can make it out. Be sure to invite friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. There is plenty of work to done and conversations to be had. I’m asking Jesus to use this opportunity to give us favor with the city, open up additional avenues of influence, and lead some to saving faith. I encourage you to the same. See you there!

Because we have been served,

Pastor Adam

Teaching

No matter what you believe, if you’re thoughtful and honest, you will face some measure of doubt. Is what I believe true? Can we know what is true? Do I believe what I do because it is true or for other reasons (personal experiences, moral preferences, particular environment, etc)? Have I reasonably considered the other options?

I was recently asked by a friend, who is in the thick of considering the claims of Jesus Christ, “How do followers of Jesus manage doubt? How do you not let doubt swallow you up completely?” Those are good questions, no matter what you believe.

In this post, I’d like to specifically deal with doubt within the context of Christianity. Following Jesus is not an isolated hobby for personal enrichment nor for those merely looking to have their spiritual needs met. Rather, Christianity claims to be the truth of the universe and, if true – and I believe it is – that changes everything. As CS Lewis once said:

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Here are six suggestions on how to navigate doubt as you follow Jesus.

#1 Ask the Spirit for clarity and conviction.

Start in prayer. Ask the Spirit to illuminate your thinking, bring clarity and convict of any sin that may underlie your doubts. Habitual sin and/or unconfessed sin harden our souls and decrease our spiritual capacity to see rightly. In prayer, simply ask, “Holy Spirit, please convict me of any sin that may be clouding my thinking and preventing me from seeing you rightly.” Then, stop and be attentive to what comes to mind. Is there unconfessed sin in your life? Do certain relationships need to be reconciled? Are you holding on to something that He is asking you to let go of? Do you really want to deal with your doubt or are you intentionally holding on to it? Are your doubts genuine or is it that you don’t want to believe? Respond in prayerful, faith-filled, trust and obedience. You may find that your real issue isn’t doubt after all.

#2  Identify your specific questions.

Following prayer, it is crucial to identify the specific questions that are the source of your doubt(s). Doubt feels like a fog bank rolling in and we all know that it is easy to get lost, turned around and disoriented in the fog. One of the ways to combat this is to identify your specific questions/issues and not allow your doubt to remain ambiguous and nebulous. To address your doubt, you need to isolate the source of the doubt. Take some time to sit down and write out your top three questions. You may find that what felt like a fog bank was merely an isolated rain shower.

#3 Assume we are what the Bible says we are.

As you walk this out, assume for a moment that we are what the Bible says we are – broken, fallen human beings that prefer the absence of God to his presence, living life on our own terms rather than on his terms. Here’s the question: How would broken fallen human beings experience being encountered with the reality of God? Think about that for a minute. Would it not be with doubt, questioning, and suspicion? I think so. So, on the one hand, our doubts could be pointing us to the fact there is not a God (which is how we often interpret them). Or, on the other hand, they may actually be highlighting the reality of God and our brokenness (which, I believe to be the case).

#4 No one lives their lives based on absolute certainty.

Faith is not a belief in the absence of evidence. Faith is a trust which rests on sufficient evidence that is more plausible than the alternative. In other words, you don’t need 100% certainty to believe something, it just needs to be more true than false. For example, can you be sure that Antartica exists though you’ve never been there? Can you be sure that George Washington was a president of the United States? Is Seattle going to have a professional basketball team some day? I can answer “Yes” to all of these. Why? It’s plausible. Every day, whenever we’re faced with a decision, we always (though typically unconsciously) go with the side that we believe to be the more plausible of the two – even if we’re not 100% sure.

Years ago, a New York Times reporter interviewed atheist Richard Dawkins and recorded the following interaction:

“On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is certitude that God exists and 7 is certitude that God does not exist, Dawkins rates himself a 6: ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.”

The point is that everyone lives their lives based on probabilities, not just Christians.  We rarely know anything with absolute certainty in life. So, when it comes to faith in Christ, it is helpful to ask yourself where you land on the spectrum of probability. What is the probability there is a God, we are broken and in need of a savior, Jesus died for our sin and rose from the grave to bring us home to Him?

Since this is something we’re banking our life on – in this and the next – it is worth accepting even if you’d say you’re not 100% sure. For example, if I had $1million to bet, it would only be wise and prudent to place it on the team that was 60% sure to win, right? For sure that 40% doubt is loud and concerning but it is still only 40%. If you’re not familiar with it, you should look up “Pascal’s wager” on this point.  Personally, my experience is that gap of doubt closes the longer you walk with Jesus as you see the truth of it all unfold in real time.

#5 Consider your alternative options.

What are your other options? In other words, if you choose to reject Christ for something else, what would that be and why would that be better and more probable? So, here’s what a conversation with my doubt might look like, “Ok ‘doubt’ you’re loud and a bit troubling but what are the other options? What else explains the brokenness within me, in my relationships and in the world? What explains Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ongoing impact around the globe? What explains the fact that nothing in this world can satisfy the desires of my soul? What alternative is there that more adequately explains all these things?”

Many other worldviews, philosophies and religions are able to explain aspects of why we and the world are the way we are, but none of them explain it all as extensively as Christianity. The point here is that if we choose to turn from Christ we are not turning to a neutral position. No, in fact, we are turning to another position that we are saying is more probable than the alternatives.

#6 Work out your doubt in community.

When we’re stuck in doubt, it can be easy to isolate or merely surround ourselves with other who are also stuck in doubt. In this case, we only reinforce our doubt and do not position ourselves well to sincerely work through what we believe. To navigate your doubt it is important to surround yourself with others who love you and are willing to listen, encourage, exhort, pray and answer questions. It may not be obvious to you why you are stuck, but it may be obvious to those around you. Intentionally invite others in.

Fighting the good fight of faith with you,

Pastor Adam