This Week: August 25th thru August 31st

** Upcoming Events:

**Action Steps to Being Community

Step 1: Devote Time To Each Other: Acts 2:42 “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”
 
Step 2: Encourage and Help Each Other: Hebrews 10: 24-25 - “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” Prepare to keep doing this together!
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Step 3: Pray For Each Other: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 - “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” Your prayers go farther than you think, and even more so when we know that we are praying for each other!

** Pastor Mike will be in the office this Tuesday from 10-12. 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,

Packing for weekend backpacks will begin on Tuesday September 2nd at 10:00 am at Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff. If you are available, help is always welcome!

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 September 4th. 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 26th from 6:00 - 8:00. We will go through our book Dialed In by Jim Ramos. As always, we will likely be talking about all sorts of other things too! This is an amazing supportive group if you are able to attend!

** 5th Quarter is back this Friday night!! The team has been hard at work getting ready for this season, which will include more games (not just dodgeball), and even a Gospel message for our kids! The dates coming this season are Aug. 29th, Sept. 12th, Sept. 26th, Oct. 3rd, and Oct. 24th. 9:30 - 11:30!

** 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!

** Advent Devotional - We have been asked to partner with Quincy Methodist on a daily devotional that is filled with stories of Christmas submitted by all of you! If you are willing to provide a little, one page devotional there is a sign up sheet at the church. Would like to have all spots filled by Oct. 15th to allow for time to put it all together!

**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 Mac-n-cheese for the Five Loaves Food Pantry. We need 55 by September 14th. They give out meals and food boxes Wed. September 17th at 4:30 pm. If you would like to help pack and deliver boxes.

This Week at the Church: - August 25th - August 31st

Monday: Church Open 10-12 / Prayer Initiative and Halloween Study at Quincy Methodist Church 7:00 pm

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 / Worship Team Meeting 7:00 at Cornerstone Fellowship of DeGraff

Friday: Church Open 10-12
 
Next Sunday - August 31st - What Disciples Do - Worship - Hebrews 10:19-25 / Psalm 150 - 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.