Our elements are the things about our community that we've noticed God leading us into over the years. Each one of these elements says something about who we are as a community, what we believe God's doing, and where we're choosing to focus our efforts. This series helps to put these elements into words and renew our vision and direction.

Our new series is diving back into our elements – the building blocks of our community – but as we do that we need to understand a word that isn't often used: covenant. As Brian shares in this message, covenants are committed relationships that involve a journey together full of promises, purpose, struggles, and friendship for those involved. Looking at two key examples of these personal journeys, Brian invites us to connect and identify our own covenant journey of faith.

Last week Brian talked about the Covenant Journey of Faith, but covenant is about a lot more than a personal journey: it involves us in community. Brian addresses this aspect of covenant and the way that covenant draws us into a bigger story. Covenant initiates a voluntary movement towards a common purpose. Though this is done freely, the consequences of stepping into covenant give us important responsibilities towards one another. Ultimately the covenant bound together by covenant becomes much greater than the sum of it's parts.

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.

The Elements series is all about the core aspects of who we are as a community of faith, and Confluence is possibly the most unique element. Confluence literally describes two streams that join to flow together, but we define it for our community as "Connecting the dots between the Old and New Testaments. Integrating the stories and traditions of both Jews and Christians." As Brian shares in the message, Confluence is not only a value for us, but it has dramatically changed the way we look at people, traditions, and the Scripture. It's a beautiful thing!

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."

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.

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 Generosity is incredibly important to us as a covenant community, and one of the reasons for this is that Jesus tied love and generosity together. As Brian lays out in this message, generosity is not only a way to demonstrate love, but it actually reveals where our loves are in conflict as well. Brian also leaves us with practical ways to engage with this element in our lives.

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.

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.

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.