Cornerstone Church History
The story of Cornerstone United Methodist Church is short, yet filled with great accomplishments occurring at a pace that can only be attributed to God and the people He has gathered to serve together in this young church.
1999 :: Cornerstone came to life in 1999 when Rusty Hutson and his family moved to Auburn to plant a church for the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. The first meeting was held at the Auburn Wesley Foundation with a small group of 35 who learned that the church would be named Cornerstone United Methodist Church. They began with weekly Wednesday night meetings to plan, pray and grasp God’s vision for the new church.
2000 :: The core group worked hard planning and praying. On January 9, 2000, Cornerstone held its Launch Service at Lambert’s Skate Center in Auburn with 225 people in attendance. The first service beneath the now-famed disco ball included Cornerstone’s signature smiling greeters, nursery and children’s workers, setup crews and a worship team to lead the services.
2001:: With the life of Cornerstone quickly progressing, the Alabama-West Florida Conference purchased 20 acres of land along Hamilton Road that the church now calls home. Cornerstone shortly received its charter during a special service in January, 2001.
The members and everyone who regularly attended this new and fast-growing church were dedicated to creating a welcoming environment where all who came would be recognized and accepted as the unique people God created. Cornerstone Café, with sausage biscuits, pastries and great coffee, played a central role in that vision. Distinct family-friendly events were planned, always a bit different, such as an evening Vacation Bible School held in an open arena and Trunk or Treat in the Fall for kids of all ages.
To help create a greater sense of community as the Sunday worship crowds grew, the Cornerstone Community Groups were launched to allow people to gather in family homes to get to know each other as they learned more about Christ together. These groups and the Life Development Institute continue to provide the backbone of Cornerstone’s spiritual growth opportunities.
2003:: By 2003, and with attendance at worship services held in the Skate Center growing to an average 220, a Building Committee was tapped to weigh the options for building at the Hamilton Road property. Through a series of town hall meetings, everyone learned that the church’s future home would be a guest-friendly, all-purpose facility focused on children, youth and worship. The Building Campaign was launched in May, 2004, as attendance under the disco ball soared to 400.
2004 :: News of the December, 2004, groundbreaking for the new church home came quickly and was openly received. A building fund was created and by October 31, some $1.2 million was committed by Cornerstone members and attenders to make the building a reality.
Life at Cornerstone continued to pick up pace with the church offerings expanding to include the Free Friday Night Flicks movie series, Camp Cornerstone, a mission trip to Quito, Ecuador, the Maximum Impact Simulcast for community leaders and a growing youth and Community Group program. Attendance continued to climb.
2005 :: The new state-of-the-art facility opened its doors on Sunday, December 4, 2005, to a huge crowd. The day began with a farewell service at the Skate Center, followed by a caravan of cars, led by police escort, to the new church. That first worship service featured a new, larger disco ball, much to the pleasure of the crowd. The children’s area known as Kidztown wowed everyone touring the building.
2006 :: Since that opening day in December, 2005, attendance has continued to climb steadily to an average near 750 and occasional days of 1,100 plus. In January, 2006, the church expanded Sunday morning worship to two services at 9 and 11 am with Kidztown worship under way at the same times. The church staff had grown to 13, including our new Pastor of Connections, Josh Agerton, hired in late 2007.
Also growing continuously were the program offerings to members and attenders. What was once a program of Community Groups had emerged as the Small Group Ministry to include community groups, study groups, service groups, prayer groups and fellowship groups with enrollment above 360 participants. The youth program grew to some 50 youth who also gathered for small group study and evangelism projects on a weekly basis. Kidztown attendance topped 200 children each week.
2010 :: In light of our continued growth and need for expansion, in the Fall of 2010 our Executive Team approved the formation of a Building Team. Their task was to explore the type and cost of a new facility that would allow us to continue to grow and accomplish the mission of leading people to know and serve Jesus.
As we looked ahead to the future of Cornerstone Church, 2009-2010 had already brought welcomed new challenges that faced the church with a slowing economy, while maintaining growth in numbers and maturity. In early 2009 we launched a new website platform that would become the basis for a growing presence and dedication to the online community, as well as our current members.
Cornerstone was embracing the challenges of continued growth under the guidance of a Vision Team formed to determine how to best meet the needs of the varied people who attend our church. Areas being addressed by the Vision Team included program development, building plans and staffing needs.
2011:: In early 2011, our building team determined it was not feasible nor good stewardship for our church to spend 8-10 million dollars on a building. So, the team began to explore another option of growing off-site. This idea resonated with our leadership and congregation, so we made the decision to become a multi-site church.
We hired a consultant named Jim Tomberlin to help us create a plan for becoming a multi-site church. At the same time, we began planning for a capital campaign to be held in the Fall that would fund the startup of the new site, eliminate our current debt and allow some enhancements of our current facility.
The campaign, called the Exponential Project, ran from the beginning of September thru the first part of October. We raised $1.6 million. Simultaneously, we were gathering and developing our Lee-Scott launch team, preparing for the opening of our new site in February of 2012.
Present:: On February 5, 2012, we launched our new site at Lee-Scott Academy in Auburn. There are over 175 adults and 86 children who have left the Hamilton Road location to become pioneers and servants to another part of our community. This is the first big step in reaching a group of over 100,000 people in our county who are disconnected from God and the church. We are now visioning for the future of exponentially leading more people to know and serve Jesus.