Author Archives: Brent Kellogg

About Brent Kellogg

Sr. Pastor, Cornerstone Church

How does it feel?

The thought hit me the – I have never been to a funeral of someone I loved dearly who I knew went to hell.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to a lot of funerals.  I have even preached a lot of funerals. I’ve done funerals for people I loved dearly – but it was more of a celebration because I knew they went straight to the arms of Jesus and are now in heaven.

But I have never lost a family member, a friend, a person I had a close relationship and knew they went to hell…

So I wonder how that feels.  Would that change my perspective on how I share the gospel? 

We should live like eternity is on the LINE for someone… Everyday!


Business Cards

I’m convinced God uses our KIDS to speak to us.   On Wednesday evenings I get to take the kids home after church activities.  We always have to go through my office, just to make sure it is locked up.

It’s a treat for the kids. (I still haven’t figured out why)  This past week, Kalei grabbed on of my business cards out of the holder that sits on top of my desk – and handed it to me and said, “Does this change lives for God?”

I didn’t understand what she said at first… and I don’t know if she knew what she said… but she said it again.

“Does this change lives for God?”

My simple response was, “I sure hope so baby!”  

That is what our business cards should represent – a life and a church that changes lives for God.   Who knows, I might even put that on my next business card!

Cornerstone Church… “Changes lives for God!”

 - Go make a difference for Christ today!


DNA Podcast

I’m kind of excited about something new we are doing here at Cornerstone.  We have began a series of podcast to help unpack the DNA of who Cornerstone Church really is.  

You can listen on our website at www.cornerstone-ss.com  or this link will go directly to the podcast page.

Each session is a thirty minute behind the scenes conversation, where we talk about some of the core values and things that make us who we are at Cornerstone. 

The first podcast deals with the topic of “Different is Good.”  In a very church city, we try to be different than other churches.  In this podcast we talk about what exactly is different and so much more.  I hope you enjoy!


Sometimes I Forget

I love doing what I do.  Being a pastor is an amazing job.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day of what we do at Cornerstone, I loose sight of the big picture.   The church is not, one more sermon series, not one more worship service… It is the Bride of Christ a living body that is designed to help others.

This morning, we added a new school district to our Back Pack Program.  I went along to help make the first drop off just to meet people I had been e-mailing back and forth with for weeks!

It was amazing! We unloaded sacks to help 25 students.  It was a gentle reminder of what we do on a DAILY basis.  Sometimes I get so busy I forget we are daily impacting lives.  Maybe not in our building, maybe not on our property, but we have an AMAZING Family of people @ Cornerstone Church every day praying for loved ones, encouraging co-workers who are going through tough times and loving the way Christ asked us to love!

Sometimes I forget all that goes on!


I Ran

So I’m tired of being out of shape.  I know… that comes as a surprise to many of you. You look at me and assume I’m in great shape!! (NOT)

So I started jogging.  Two days ago, it was great.  It was pain-free! It was like I was jogging on the clouds! I got home, told Jeri, “Man that was easy!”

Yesterday was a whole different story.  My legs were stiff.  I had to stop a couple of times because I just ran out of gas.  It was not a good day of running!

Here is the principal I learned from my jogging adventures.  Yesterday wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t fast. It was powerful. It wasn’t even what I expected it to be… but I ran!

The same is true in our spiritual life.  So many people sit down to read the bible and it may be an intimate time with God that is faith building and inspiring.  The next day, may simply be just reading the bible… but at least you read.

I believe God celebrates the simple disciplines in our lives.  It’s not always about how you feel or what you get out of it, but the fact that you did it!!!


Life is like Solitaire!

How many times did you win?

Not every game can be won!

What was your highest score? (Are we so focused on the win you miss the score?)

Just because you can play a card doesn’t mean it will help you.

You can play 1 card or 3 card.

          The easier way does not guarantee a win.

          The easier way – does not mean it’s the better way.

It is easy to miss a detail that can cost you a win!

Attack the Piles!  The Big Piles are some times hard to play, but attack the “hard stuff” in life.  Don’t run from it.

One card can make a difference! It can unlock the whole game for you!

Sometimes you have to make a tough choice. (do I pull from the stack or do I pull from the deck!)

There is no KEY or secret formula to a win!

I’d love to hear your lessons!


Life is like Solitaire

OK – here is your assignment, open up the game of solitaire and play a few games!  I actually did this with our staff this past week and challenged them to look for life strategies in the game of solitaire.

Our goal in life is to win… the goal of solitaire is to win! I’d love to see your comments on the things you discovered of how life is like Solitaire or the lessons you learned playing solitaire.  Just FYI – you will probably have to play at least 5 games to get the significance.

Tomorrow I will post my list of how life is like the game of Solitaire!


I have a New Life – Pt. 3

Coming back from a great spiritual experience, like a retreat or a mission trip, we all hope to hang on to the zeal and excitement that is birthed in our lives.  I hope sharing some of the stories from our trip to Nicaragua has passed along some of the passion we experienced while we where there.

At our church, we constantly pray, God raise up people of influence and help us to reach people of influence in our community.   While we were in Puerto Viejo, one afternoon I was looking for the missionary who was working with us in the field.

One of the team members found him, in a little class room in a pretty intense meeting with the administrator of the school facilities we were using.  They were in there for a long, long time.  I was getting worried.  Is he upset that the North Americans are trashing out the place?  Have we done something to offend him?

When I saw Roberto (the missionary) come out, I went to him and asked, “Is everything ok? Do I need to do something?”  He just smiled at me and with the excited move of his fist, simply said… “New birth brother! New birth!”

I was ecstatic!  That was awesome! Talk about reaching a person of influence.  We had reached one of the most influential people in the village, the school administrator.  The man who molds and shapes the minds of the young people!  

That evening in the tent service, he and his wife came and stood in front of the whole community declaring his profession of Christ in his life!  That is worth the whole trip! And that is why we go!


I Have a New Life – Pt. 2

Last week, we spent 5 days in the mud of the Third World Country of Nicaragua in Central America.  Behind Haiti, Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Two of those 5 days – we actually spent on a bus.  It took 11 hours to get to the village of Puerto Viejo and 11 hours home. It was on the bus ride back, Susan Cox, a first time team member, made this statement, “I have a new life.”

When you go see how folks live around the world, it makes you darn grateful for what God has blessed us with here in North America and it gives you a new perspective on life!

I’m reading a great book by Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision, The Whole in our Gospel.  In his book he points out that every day 26,500 children die due to preventable causes such as starvation, curable diseases and poverty.

Things we can not imagine in North America and have easy access to curing.

While in Puerto Viejo, we kept a two month old baby from being a statistic.  A mother had walked 2 hours via trail.  There were no roads to her village.  When she got to us, her baby was non-responsive.  We took her straight to one of our doctors.  Our medical team determined the baby was very dehydrated and immediately went to work.

The doctor later told me if we had not seen that baby there is a good chance within 48 hours she would have been dead!

One of the things I constantly remind myself on these trips…  If this was my child, I would want someone to come!

If you would like to contribute towards the work in Nicaragua, simply click here.  

On the right side of the page, simply select “other” and type Nicaragua in the line below. Every dollar given will go to save lives like that of this two month old baby and help make a difference to those in need.

Thank you for helping us to Advance the Kingdom!


I Have a New Life – Pt 1

School is back in full swing. The temperature is below 100 degrees, finally!  And the climax of what we spend about 10 months working on took place in a small village in Nicaragua last week.

I was a part of an amazing team of 46 North Americans who went on an 11 hour bus ride to a small village in North Central Nicaragua called Puerto Viejo, in the Waslala Region of Nicaragua! (You can find it on Google map.)

We set a few personal team records this past week – which was a great feeling of Advancing the Kingdom!  This was my 5th trip to Nicaragua, and our 4th team to lead from Cornerstone.

We saw 3114 (plus) patients.  It was our first time to ever see over 3,000.

We vaccinated over 1,000 animals.

We extracted close to 400 teeth.

We gave away 886 pairs of glasses/sun glasses.

We saw 763 people pray to receive Christ with 39 rededications.

We gave away 1.9 tons of beans and 2 tons of rice.

We gave away over $30,000 in benevolence items, such as new shoes, flip flops, clothes, baby blankets, ball caps and toys!!!

Thank you to an Amazing Church who helped impact a small village in Nicaragua!

If you’d like to see the video click HERE!

We have some great stories to tell, about people of influenced being saved and saving the life of a baby! I’ll share those with you later this week!

Blessed beyond imagination!


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.