There will be no normal services at ANY of our locations on Sunday 24th March 2024, instead all sites will be gathered at Cornerstone Converge. Please join us at Newington College Stanmore.

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Pastoral Blog Posts

Making the most of Getaway

Getaway Photo

Getaway is Cornerstone’s annual weekend away. It’s an opportunity for our four congregations to fellowship together for a concentrated period of time. It’s an opportunity for you to be refreshed and encouraged (and perhaps challenged) by the living word of God. It’s an opportunity to get to know better and encourage a brother or sister in Christ.

Having grown up at Cornerstone, I can say with confidence that Getaway is always a massive highlight of the year, especially as a kid or youth. Getting to spend the whole weekend at an awesome place with my closest friends? Sign me up!

On top of this, going to getaway year after year instilled in my younger self the importance of spending time with church family, of intensely studying God’s word, and of taking time out of normal life to reflect on God.

Arriving on Friday night at Getaway enables you to make the most of these opportunities that Getaway offers. Here are 4 reason’s why.

1. It makes the most of the opportunity to spend time together.
By arriving on Friday, you have the time to settle yourselves and the family into the new surroundings. You may only miss one session by coming on Saturday morning, but let’s face it, after the mad rush of driving down, going straight into two sessions and followed by lunch on Saturday, the bulk of the weekend is already over.

2. It makes the most of the opportunity to sit under God’s word.
Arriving on Friday enables you to prepare your heart to receive God’s word. After arriving at Getaway, we need some time to settle in to the new environment in order to really pay attention to what God might be saying to us through his word. You’ll also hear the first talk which sets up the context for the rest of the weekend’s talks so that you’re not lost trying to figure it out.

3. It makes the most of the opportunity to serve and encourage one another.
Arriving on Friday is not only a great encouragement to the many volunteers who have spent countless hours planning the weekend away for the benefit of the church, but your mere presence is an encouragement to everyone else who made the same effort to get there on Friday night. In addition to this, arriving on Friday means more time to spend with people, which means more opportunity to serve and encourage one another.

4. It makes the most of the opportunity to teach your children.
Arriving on Friday, amidst the chaos and the rush and the frustrations, sends an important message to your children. It says that although this is hard, although I had to arrive at or leave work early, although we’ve made sacrifices, I adjusted our usual routine so that we could be here because I believe this is important. What we say to our children is an important teaching method, but what they see us doing communicates to them equally as much, if not more, about what we really believe.

Arriving on Friday night is a great way to make the most of the opportunities that Getaway offers. I appreciate that for some, this might not always be possible, but for the majority of us I want to encourage you to make the effort, and to make the most.

You can register for Getaway here: https://trybooking.com/BNRY
If you have any questions, including requests for financial assistance, please speak to your congregation’s Getaway Team member - Simon Holding (Strathfield), Josh or Candace Lum Mow (Concord), Ruth Lee (Eastwood), Andrew Garven (Homebus Bay).