Cornerstone Boulder Weekly Podcast

Rabbi Gene dives into a topic many people have heard about before: patience. Yet, as Gene takes a deep dive into the scriptures and shares about the science of patience, he reveals a side of patience we don't often see. Patience, in the end, is an attitude we can take towards the world around us that changes everything about how we experience God, ourselves, and the world around us.

Dialogue in many places has given over to yelling matches, but we can make the choice to rise above the fray and engage with one another in healthy ways. It will take a choice to live and engage with one another based on Biblical principles and to let go of our tendency to fight for the chance to engage one another and to lift one another up.

The Elements series ends in a powerful way with a look at the life of our covenant community: the honoring of Generations. As Brian shares in this message, honor characterizes healthy relationships between the generations as we look to appreciate and value one another for our unique perspectives and contributions to one another. It's only when we do this that we truly behave like a covenant community and leave a legacy worth keeping.

Sean continues our elements series with a look at the element of Encounter which forms the bond at the core of our relationship with God. Rather than thinking about this as a series of events, however, we choose to look at encounter as a lifestyle where we make space to experience and respond to the power, truth, love and mystery of God.

As our Pastor of Connections and Community here at Cornerstone, Meggan has a huge passion to see people get connected, and as she shares in this message, it's a part of God's heart too. As Meggan looks at the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well, she points out how Jesus gives us an example of inviting others into community and how we can start with the people next to us.

Jesus made several profound statements about the connection between love and generosity. This is why generosity is one of our elements here at Cornerstone and why Brian took the time this Sunday to dive deeper into the topic and illustrate ways that we can live generously as a covenant community.

Transformation is an important element of our community here at Cornerstone. Whatever we might have been through and wherever we find ourselves now, transformation is the only way to grow, to heal, and to thrive. As Gene shares in this message, the process of becoming whole, healthy people often becomes more difficult before it becomes easier, but leads to the health and wholeness we all so desperately need.

The Element of Culture here at Cornerstone is a recognition that we live in environments that are shaped by the collective values and decision-making of those around us. Whether as large as a country or as small as our intimate circles of family and friends, we have a responsibility as followers of Jesus to engage the cultures we find ourselves in. As much as we might want to isolate, we are called instead to engage and to do so in a specific way. As Brian shares, this way involves a deliberate choosing of perspective, presence, power, and place.

Gene dives into the Element of Creativity this week, and it was awesome. Tying Creativity together with the Vocation message from two weeks ago, Gene asks a simple question: what are you dreaming about? As he lays out in the message, everyone has an imagination, but what kind of a world do we imagine? What kind of a story do we want to tell? Creativity describes the way in which we answer these questions: "Expressing innovation, risk, and beauty in the way we live our lives and engage our communities."

We spend our lives in various manors of labor, but vocation is about more than that. Vocation is about answering a call to be a part of something much bigger than our own survival and comfort. Our work, in light of this, shifts from being work done "under the sun" to work that speaks of a kingdom "over the sun" that we are initiating.