Families and friends joined together at Cornerstone Church in Edinburgh on Sunday to celebrate the ordination and induction of Israel Guerrero as Church Planter for Cornerstone’s Spanish Speaking Congregation.
There was standing room only at the service at the Old Schoolhouse in Morningside on Sunday morning. Following the formal elements of the service there was a round of applause by the congregation as Israel and his family begin a new chapter.
Over the past few years, Cornerstone Church, including the Spanish speaking congregation, has grown in number. Bi-lingual services are held monthly at the church and the Spanish speaking congregation once a month on Sunday afternoons. Once the church plant is underway there will be more services in Spanish plus a growth in Spanish language discipleship, community and mission.
Rev Neil MacMillan, of Cornerstone, said: “We are going through a time of change at the church. Last week we spoke about the kind of change that God brings about in peoples’ lives as he gives us a new heart and a new spirit to love God and to follow Jesus and worship him. God is doing an amazing work in transforming the lives of individuals. That’s part of a much bigger picture of the great work of transformation that God is doing through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
“Change is a really big part of what God is up to. That change doesn’t happen to us in isolation but it happens to us in community.”
Neil looked at the passage of John 13: 21-35. He spoke about the power of the church, the purpose of the church and the people of the church.
He said the early church grew because the “power of loving community spoke to the Roman world in a way that was irresistible”. He said that people saw the love of the early church and were convicted by it.
“Church is a community of people who love each other, and church is the number one way in which God chooses to spread his love through the world.”
Following the sermon, Roddy Macleod, clerk of the Edinburgh and Perth Presbytery, said the prospect of having a new congregation gave the presbytery “great joy even more so because of the cross-cultural nature of such an endeavour”. To the best of our knowledge this is the first Spanish speaking church in Edinburgh and perhaps even in Scotland.
The Spanish speaking congregation will continue to meet at Cornerstone and be part of its intercultural ministry. We look forward to hearing what the Lord is doing there over the coming weeks and months. Israel will begin work as the church planter once he has the correct visa.
During the service, four new deacons were also ordained: Andrew Armstrong, Andrew Johnston, Esneider Hernandez, and Ian MacCormick.
