Equip Podcast

Mark sits down with Alex Tuckness, Iowa State professor and longtime Cornerstone elder, to talk honestly about church growth. They trace Cornerstone's history, talk about church growth, and unpack why big isn't necessarily bad, but growth isn't always good.

Episode Highlights

00:26 — Introducing Alex Tuckness, Iowa State professor and longtime Cornerstone elder

01:17 — Alex's history at Cornerstone, from Ames Middle School to the South Auditorium

02:07 — Early growth and years of constant building campaigns

04:24 — Remembering the era of five services

05:52 — The last auditorium and becoming a multiplying church

07:19 — Recent growth and reaching the limits of the property

09:47 — A feasibility study for growth

12:45 — Meeting real needs in rural Iowa

13:45 — Why Cornerstone doesn't treat online church as church

14:33 — Local elders and a compassionate approach to multisite

17:07 — Are there bad ways to grow?

20:00 — The danger of pursuing growth for growth's sake

21:08 — There is no perfect church size

22:18 — Spectators and the call to real community

24:31 — Different sizes, one body: gospel churches across Ames

Resources

Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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In the final episode of the Essentials of the Local Church series, Mark and Emily talk about church leadership. Mark explains why Cornerstone is led by a plurality of elders, what the Bible says elders actually do, and how church members can be a blessing to the people who shepherd them.

Episode Highlights

00:26 — Wrapping up the Essentials of the Local Church series

01:09 — Cornerstone's distinctive: elder-led, congregationally approved

02:32 — Other models of church governance: single elder, congregational, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Catholic

06:01 — Why faithfulness to a model matters more than the model itself

06:54 — How elders are chosen at Cornerstone

08:35 — What elders do: model Christlikeness, guard doctrine, shepherd, and lead

11:19 — Biblical qualifications for elders

12:07 — Why a growing church needs a small, consistent elder team

12:44 — Is administrative oversight too "businessy"?

14:19 — How to bring a concern to the elders at a big church

15:58 — View, voice, and vote: the layers of leadership at Cornerstone

18:36 — How the elders protect Mark from trying to be everything for everyone

19:59 — How church members can bless their elders

22:12 — Becoming a "grace detective"

23:50 — Five tensions every church leadership team navigates

25:16 — Why the aim is faithfulness, not growth

31:26 — The biggest takeaway: character over structure

Resources

• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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Mark and Emily continue the Essentials of the Local Church series by digging into communion. They explore why a God who loves remembrance gave his people a repeated meal, what Paul's warnings actually mean, who should take it (including kids), how different traditions understand the bread and the cup, and why Mark wishes Cornerstone could celebrate it every single week.

Episode Highlights

01:01 — Baptism happens once, communion is repeated remembrance

02:11 — Reading 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 and the Passover roots of the Lord's Supper

03:15 — Baptism as initiation, communion as a gospel rehearsal

03:41 — What the early church practiced

06:19 — How often should a church take communion?

07:37 — Who is communion for?

08:52 — Eating and drinking judgment: Paul's warning to believers, not outsiders

10:33 — Should a believer ever abstain from communion?

12:19 — Kids and communion: should they wait until baptism?

16:21 — Mark's communion cup confession from the Cornerstone stage

18:02 — Who should administer communion?

18:46 — Four views of the elements: transubstantiation to mere symbolism

22:16 — Why Mark wishes we took communion weekly

23:03 — Communion outside the local church: small groups, conferences, and weddings

Resources

• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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Mark and Emily continue the Essentials of the Local Church series by digging into baptism: what it is, why the church practices it, and what the Bible actually says about it. Mark walks through the biblical case for baptism by immersion upon a credible profession of faith, unpacks the differences between paedobaptism and credobaptism (including the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed views on infant baptism), and gets practical about who should be baptized, when, and by whom.

Episode Highlights

01:36 — Mark's core phrase: baptism is the New Testament way to say "I believe"

02:43 — What the Greek word baptizo actually means: full immersion

04:12 — Romans 6: the picture of dying and rising with Christ in the water

06:11 — Defining the terms: paedobaptism vs. credobaptism

07:42 — Cornerstone's position: credo baptism upon a credible profession of faith

10:12 — Comparing the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed views of infant baptism

16:30 — Comparing baptism to a wedding: taking it seriously without over-formalizing it

19:56 — The Ethiopian eunuch's story and why context matters for readiness

21:05 — Wisdom around timing: why Cornerstone doesn't rush a 13-year-old to the tank

24:01 — Walking kids through the decision: Mark and Emily's own family experiences

29:01 — Why a tank instead of a natural body of water

29:56 — Why there's no such thing as private baptism

31:28 — Who should baptize you, and why it's not always the pastor

34:00 — Mark's take on rebaptism: "you're only baptized once"

39:33 — Stories of transformation from Cornerstone's baptism services

Resources

• Get Baptized at Cornerstone
• Baptism Stories
• Cornerstone's Guidance for Children and Baptism
• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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In this episode of the Essentials of the Local Church series, Mark and Emily get personal about prayer: naming the excuses, fears, and false theology that keep even seasoned believers from a vibrant prayer life. They unpack why prayer flows from who God is rather than how eloquently we speak to him, and Mark closes with news of upcoming nights of prayer and worship at Cornerstone.

Episode Highlights

00:59 — Why prayer is hard even when we know we're supposed to do it

01:17 — Mark: What prayerlessness reveals about the heart

02:00 — Two things prayerlessness exposes: self-sufficiency and a distant view of God

04:01 — A hard confession about the American church's prayerlessness, compared to believers in Africa

05:41 — The theology question underneath it all: do you believe God actually wants to give you what you need?

06:02 — Why the first thing you think of about God shapes your entire prayer life

06:35 — The Lord's Prayer: coming to a Father who is both holy and generous

09:00 — "Start with God": prayer flows from who you're talking to, not how you talk

09:26 — Emily: Losing childlike softness with God as life gets busier and more task-driven

11:53 — Why Jesus ties real prayer to childlike dependence

13:14 — Emily: God doesn't need a "put-together" church, he wants a praying one

13:54 — Romans 8 and the Spirit of adoption crying out "Abba, Father"

16:17 — Why it's worth praying "awkwardly" instead of staying comfortable and silent

18:34 — Announcing upcoming nights of prayer and worship at Cornerstone

Resources

• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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In this episode of the Essentials of the Local Church series, Mark and Emily dig into a question every Christian eventually asks: why do we actually gather on Sundays, and what makes that gathering distinctly biblical rather than just a cultural habit? They unpack the difference between what Scripture commands and what it simply describes, walk through the non-negotiable essentials of a healthy church gathering, and make the case for why showing up in person still matters in a digital, AI-saturated world.

Episode Highlights

00:27 — Continuing the Essentials of the Local Church series: why we gather on Sunday

00:59 — Prescriptive vs. descriptive: not everything the early church did is a command for us

01:40 — The "casting out demons" test for telling command apart from example

03:03 — Reading the whole New Testament together instead of proof-texting single examples

03:32 — Transcultural essentials vs. the culturally shaped ways churches gather

04:21 — Language, buildings, and church merch: culturally fine vs. actually anti-biblical

06:39 — The essentials: the Word, worship, and prayer when the church gathers

08:16 — The ordinances: baptism as initiation, communion as ongoing remembrance

09:09 — Spiritual gifts and the tangible sense that God is present when his people gather

09:54 — Why gathering is vertical before it's horizontal

14:53 — What embodied gathering offers that even the best sermon on YouTube can't

16:40 — Supplement, not substitute: using online church well

19:10 — "Get to church": real compassion for real barriers, no patience for excuses

20:21 — Why the "weaker" parts of the body are indispensable to the gathering

21:44 — Come to give, not just to receive — and watch for the person sitting alone

Resources

• Cornerstone Connection Groups
• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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In this first episode of a new series, Essentials of the Local Church, Mark and Emily introduce the "why" behind the series and dig into the first essential: Gospel Friendship. They explore why church practices can feel strange in a post-Christian culture, unpack some of the New Testament's 50+ "one another" commands, and get practical about how to actually build gospel friendships as a busy adult.

Episode Highlights

01:52 — Why the Christian life was never meant to be a solo sport

02:35 — Why churchy practices like potlucks and baptism can feel strange today

03:22 — An ancient accusation: why outsiders mocked early Christian "love feasts"

04:13 — Defining gospel friendship, and what makes it different from a regular friendship

06:26 — The New Testament's "one another" commands

08:13 — The real barrier to friendship: what we treasure over people

09:02 — How individualistic modern life works against community, from garages to Bowling Alone

11:52 — Two first steps for finding a gospel friend

14:38 — Resetting expectations for what a small group actually feels like

16:47 — Falling in love with the idea of friendship vs. loving the real, flawed person in front of you

19:39 — Three ways to keep pursuing friendship as life gets busier

22:33 — Seeing people as image bearers instead of interruptions

Resources

• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online
• Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
• The Art of One-Anothering: How the Church Loves Like Christ — Desiring God
• Cornerstone Groups

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In part two of this special series, Mark and Emily bring Trevin Wax back for an unscripted Q&A, pulling questions straight from his own writing and years of curiosity built up over their friendship. They talk through the difference between spiritual discipline and self-help optimization, wrestle with pride and holy ambition, and more. Trevin closes things out with his top five most influential books and a candid answer to one final question: is he hopeful or fearful for the future of the church?

Episode Highlights

00:27 — Welcoming Trevin back for a rapid-fire "Ask Trevin Anything" episode

01:39 — Spiritual disciplines vs. self-help: what's the real difference?

05:19 — Behind Trevin's new daily prayer project, "The Lord Is My Light"

09:36 — The sin we've stopped taking seriously: pride

09:55 — Balancing holy ambition with the pull toward selfish ambition

13:38 — "Worship yourself and you'll become less than yourself"

15:43 — What is the Lausanne Movement, and why does it matter?

17:42 — What the American church needs to learn from the global church

20:08 — Rapid fire: Trevin's top five most influential books

24:58 — Is Trevin hopeful or fearful for the future of the church?

Resources

• The Gospel Way Catechism by Trevin Wax and Thomas Wax
• The Gospel Way Catechism for Kids by Trevin Wax and Thomas Wax
• Confessions by Augustine
• Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright
• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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In part one of a special two-part series, Mark and Emily sit down with author and pastor Trevin Wax to introduce The Gospel Way Catechism, a new 50-question resource he co-wrote with Thomas Wax to root Christians in truth amid cultural chaos. Trevin unpacks what a catechism actually is, why this centuries-old discipleship tool is making a comeback, and takes listeners behind the scenes of writing the book in C.S. Lewis's own study. Along the way, they dig deep into one question in particular, "What is freedom?", and why getting the answer wrong is quietly shaping a generation.

Episode Highlights

00:27 — Introducing guest Trevin Wax and The Gospel Way Catechism

01:33 — What exactly is a catechism, and why the word intimidates people

01:58 — A brief history of catechisms, from the early church to the Reformation

04:01 — Why catechism matters for growing Christians today, not just kids

05:34 — What makes The Gospel Way different from classics like Westminster

06:23 — Tim Keller's call for a renewal of "counter catechesis"

08:41 — Behind the scenes: writing the catechism at C.S. Lewis's home, the Kilns

12:37 — Naming the cultural narratives Christians are swimming in today

14:14 — A closer look at one question: "What is freedom?"

15:44 — Applying the freedom question to college freshmen headed to Iowa State

18:08 — Trevin's hope and prayer for how the catechism will be used

20:44 — What's ahead: Part 2 with Trevin, and the fall sermon series at Cornerstone

Resources

• The Gospel Way Catechism by Trevin Wax and Thomas Wax
• The Gospel Way Catechism for Kids by Trevin Wax and Thomas Wax
• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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Mark sits down with Chelle Lambert and Hannah Beth Gilbert, two Salt Company staff members who've actually lived with the Spiritual Workout Plan, not just recommended it. They get honest about what's worked, what's been hard, and how the plan flexes across different seasons of life, whether you're a college student or a "30-something rando floating in the abyss of adulthood." If you've started a dozen Bible reading plans and never finished one, this conversation is the reset you need before the new Fall plan launches.

Episode Highlights

00:38 — Meet the guests: Chelle Lambert and Hannah Beth Gilbert

01:56 — Not just for college students: who the plan is really for

02:12 — Where the Spiritual Workout Plan came from and the problem it was built to solve

04:14 — The unexpected benefit: camaraderie in reading the same thing together

06:24 — Bible memorization and building a culture around it

10:01 — Getting practical: how to handle a high-volume reading plan without drowning

12:32 — "You haven't read the whole Bible": Mark's loving, firm challenge to skip the excuses

15:01 — Steady over spectacular: resetting expectations for what walking with God looks like

16:12 — Different seasons need different rhythms, even for the leaders running the plan

17:56 — Progress, not perfection: remembering the plan is a tool, not the goal itself

20:44 — Do the scripture memory wristbands actually help?

22:03 — What's new in the Fall plan: minor prophets and flexible reading tracks

22:45 — Encouragement for anyone who's tried and quit before

25:45 — Building real relational health into your group, not just surface-level check-ins

28:01 — Where to get the plan and a final challenge to get started

Resources

• Fall Spiritual Workout Plan
  • Full Plan
  • Daily Readings
  • Get Text Updates
• Cornerstone Sermons: Listen Online

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