1st Worship Service: Easter at Cornerstone Marshalltown
Easter is all about celebrating new life through the power of Christ’s resurrection. Launching a new church service is one way to celebrate. Cornerstone Church Marshalltown held their first public service on Easter Sunday, April 4th. However, Lead Pastor Steve Bensema is quick to add, “We are not launching a church today, just our worship service. We have already been living, ministering, and serving as the church in Marshalltown for quite a while now.”
Although last Sunday was their first public worship service, the church has been preparing for this launch and meeting together as a campus of Cornerstone Church of Ames for the past two years.
8 Years in the Making
For Pastor Steve, the process of launching a new church in Marshalltown began two years ago when he accepted a church planting candidate position at Cornerstone Ames. But for some members of the Cornerstone Marshalltown core team, the launch of the service is the culmination of a dream 8 years in the making. That is how long they have been commuting to Cornerstone Ames for church. As long as 8 years ago, there were discussions of launching a Marshalltown campus with the goal of eventually establishing an autonomous church. But the timing was never quite right. By the time Pastor Steve arrived, there were two connection groups meeting regularly. Over the last two years, they multiplied to four groups and recently added a fifth. “We wanted to fulfill as many of the functions of the church as we could before launching our weekly gathering. So, we spent a lot of our time on discipleship in small groups and loving people in our community through service.”
Preparing for a Healthy Church, Not a Healthy Service
Pastor Steve said they did not plan anything spectacular for their first service. “We wanted it to be an accurate representation of what our normal weekend service will look like so we didn’t have fireworks or a magic show. It’s like I always say in pre-marital counseling, ‘You need to focus on the marriage and not just on the wedding day.’ Yes, it was fun to hold our first service, but the service launch is not the biggest thing we celebrated. It was the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus. The gospel is central to our church and all of our preparation has been focused on having a healthy church, not a healthy service.”
Have a BCI church story to share?
We love to share stories of BCI churches and draw attention to the work God is doing in our convention. Submit your story using the online form.
