This Week: August 18th thru August 24th

** Upcoming Events:

**Action Steps to A Vibrant Prayer Life

Step 1: Be Persistent in Prayer: Ephesians 6:18 “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” Consistency and discipline is key.
 
Step 2: Become Grateful: Philippians 4:6 - “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Anxiety and gratitude cannot exist at the same time. There is always something to be grateful for.
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Step 3: Pray For Others: James 5:16 - “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Praying for each other is powerful!

** Pastor Mike will be in the office this Tuesday from 10-1. I will have more time as the school year moves in, but evenings will be challenging with Grady playing both football and soccer at the varsity level. I also may be asking to reschedule some meetings if in fact they conflict with events as we have a senior in his final year of things to see and attend.

** Last Sunday Worship Night is coming up in a few weeks. Our next Sunday night worship will be on August 31st at 6:00, at Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff. Vatroslav Zupancic, our mission partner in Croatia, is coming to Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff. He is the only GMC pastor in all of Croatia! He is excited to worship with us and share the Gospel of Jesus with us!

**Grief Share Group - Our grief group is currently on hiatus. If you would like to be a part of a grief sharing group, please let Pastor Mike know and we can get it back!

** How to find all things Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff. https://www.cornerstonedegraff.org/ is online but still a work in progress. You are hopefully using the new [email protected] for the church email.

The active Facebook page is found at: https://www.facebook.com/CornerstoneDeGraff
The active YouTube channel is found at: https://youtube.com/@CornerstoneFellowshipDeGraff

** Did you know that God has blessed you with a special set of skills and gifts? He has also called you to be involved and belong to this body of believers. Be prayerful over the possibilities that God is desiring to use you. 

- We are looking for a Lay Leader for the church! - Reach out to me if you are interested in what that means and if you want to think about how God might think you fit.

There are many more ways in which you can get involved. Reach out to Pastor Mike with the ways in which God is calling you to be active!

** Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff is a Global Methodist Church, and we are in the Allegheny West Conference and you can visit their site at https://alleghenywestgmc.org/ if you are wanting more information!  All of the annual conference videos can be found by following this link: https://alleghenywestgmc.org/startplanting/

** G.R.A.C.E. notes for this week.

G.R.A.C.E. volunteers,

Our Wednesday Free Lunch in the Park was yet again an incredible success with meeting people and eating with them! 
We have already started stocking the shelves in the room at Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff, where we pack bags usually on Tuesday, with help from the RTC Possibilities group.
Would you like a "Food Item Wish List" for items we use every week?  Please reply to Darlene Roll ([email protected]).

Unless Riverside School tells me we have more than 120 students to start the year, I believe our first week of packing is ready.

We hope to offer Mondays in October "Soup & Sandwich Drive-Thru" evenings again. There are 4 Mondays in October this year.  Churches usually take turns

** Light Hours is a small group for our college age, young adults and would like a Bible study for your age group, let me know. We can get something started that fits your schedules! Let us know how we can meet your needs!

** Our Cornerstone Women's group is planning to meet on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month. The next meeting will take place on August 21st. They will be meeting at the church at 6:00 pm. This group has become a little less Bible study and a little more fellowship and care, with some fun of course! Feel free to stop in and check it out!

** Our Cornerstone Men's group IS BACK!!! Tuesday Nights starting this week August 19th from 6:00 - 8:00. We will go through our book Dialed In by Jim Ramos. We will also be unboxing all of our archery equipment as we prepare for Cornerstone Archery this fall!

** 5th Quarter might look a little different this year. If you are interested in helping through the season get in touch with Don Klingler on how you can get plugged in to helping our students!

** Looking for people to join a new small group. Let me know what your availability is and we can find a way to start something new, or get you plugged into something that will fit your schedule!

**Missions Moment - FREE SALE was once again a success. We had over 168 people come through the door and we still have items left over that will be donated at a later date. Thank you to everyone who works so hard all week and weekend to make this a success. 

** If you would like to purchase a Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff shirt you can follow this link and purchase your Cornerstone Fellowship swag! -  https://exodus-shirt-company.myshopify.com/collections/cornerstone-fellowship-of-degraff

** We are now collecting jello (boxes and cups) for the Five Loaves Food Pantry. We need 55 by August 17th. They give out meals and food boxes Wed. August 20th at 4:30 pm. If you would like to help pack and deliver boxes.

This Week at the Church: - August 18th - August 24th

Monday: Church Open 10-12 

Tuesday: Church Open 10-12 / Cornerstone Men 6:00 - 8:00 

Wednesday: Bible Study - (taking a break till September) / 11:30-1:00 Final Lunch In The Park / Pastor Mike’s Quick Shots 8:00 pm on Facebook or Youtube.

Thursday: Church Open 10-12 / Senior Lunch 11:00 / Cornerstone Women 6:00

Friday: Church Open 10-12
 
Next Sunday - August 24th - What Disciples Do - Join - Acts 11:19-26 / Psalm 46: 1-5 - Sunday School 9:30 / Worship 10:45

Two years ago we were On Mission! Worship - Reflect - Pray - Study - Serve - you can still use these methods! In 2023 we used the 5-S Method of Being The Church - Surrender - Surrounded - Spirit-Led - Self-Fed - Sent - All of these things are timeless and will always be helpful for us to measure whether or not we are "being" the "church".

Please pray this week for those who are sick and need healing, and those who you can share the love of Christ with! Do not forget to pray for your church, your community, and your pastor.