Beliefs

Cornerstone began in 1970 as a Bible study group that grew into a church meeting in homes near UMKC. The church grew through outreach to students at UMKC and the Kansas City Art Institute. From the beginning, church-planting has been part of the Cornerstone DNA. Churches in Columbia, MO (1975), Lee’s Summit (1989), Belton (2000) and the Crossroads district of Kansas City (2008) started with church-planting teams sent out by Cornerstone. We also have close relationships with missionaries in Germany, Romania, Italy, Japan and the Philippines. As a church we are affliated with the KCKBA and The Gospel Coalition.

Our purpose is to glorify Christ by knowing and enjoying Him to the fullest.

With this purpose, our missional vision is to join God in His mission of creating a new community of lives transformed by the gospel.

So, in the church we dream of being, our lives will be transformed by the gospel, our community will be shaped by the gospel, and our mission will be defined by the gospel. We sought to articulate this gospel-centered vision in a series of sermons in the fall of 2010, summarized in these seven statements:

1. In the context of loving God and living for his glory, mission is the central focus of the church in the world; mission is the central focus of Cornerstone.

2. The gospel drives us out of our familiar, safe places to initiate with neighbors, the nations, and the needy.

3. In our gospel ministry, we want to do three things: build relationships with non-Christians, introduce them to our church community, and share with them the gospel message. Every one of us can do these things!

4. Because the gospel breaks down barriers, we want to be a family that’s inclusive, integrated, and intergenerational—all kinds of people, all relating to one another in love.

5. As a gospel-shaped community, we want our church to be a place of friendship, authenticity, and healing.

6. The gospel is for our non-Christian friends; the gospel is also for us. As we believe and internalize the gospel, we must expect that our lives will be transformed.

7. We expect our ministry to be flexible and changing, driven by people and passion, not by program or precedent.

The Cornerstone Covenant

We invite our people to embrace this vision by affirming the Cornerstone covenant:

We will love Jesus — “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” (Revelation 1:5) He is our rock, our rescuer and redeemer. He is the center of our lives. He is our life. We will pursue him daily in the Word and in prayer, feasting on the bread of life, quenching our soul’s thirst in Christ, the living water.

We will love the gospel. It is God’s power for salvation for the lost and God’s power for transformation for the redeemed. We will run to the cross of Jesus with our sins and brokenness and savor the taste of his mercy. We will rest in our Father’s welcome, love, and approval, purchased and proven at the cross. We will elevate and internalize the gospel of grace and expect that by that gospel our hearts and lives will be transformed.

We will love one another. Not just the people like us, not just the people we like. We will cross boundaries and widen our circle, extending ourselves to the “alien” among us, to the broken, the outcast, even our enemy. We will pray for one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, weep and rejoice with one another, be hospitable to one another, and lay down our lives for one another, as our Lord has done for us.

We will open our lives to one another, as true friends. We will throw away our masks and masquerades, own up to our sins and weaknesses, be merciful and forgive, and offer ourselves as God’s instruments for mending and building up one another. If we find ourselves stuck in soul sickness or sin, we will invite a friend into our fight for the freedom and joy that belong to us in Christ. We will reject a spirit of independence and isolation and involve one another in our struggles, sorrows, joys, and decision-making.

We will embrace our mission as Christ’s witnesses, where we are now and wherever we go. We will seek to live our everyday lives with “gospel intentionality” and exert ourselves in daring initiatives with neighbors, the needy, and the nations. For love of the Lord, for his kingdom and glory and fame, we will pursue, serve and befriend outsiders, introduce them to our network of relationships, and share with them the gospel message.

Pledge of affirmation: “I take these resolves as my own. I trust God through his gospel to transform our lives, shape our community, and fulfill our mission. I will strive for these things in dependence on God and in partnership with all the Cornerstone family.”

Confession of Faith

Cornerstone shall stand in the historic continuity of the Christian faith. The following shall represent the statement of faith of Cornerstone Community Church.

The Scripture

The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. It was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and was written without error in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in faith and life in every age.

God

There is but one God, infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, the Creator of the universe, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – each of whom possesses all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality.

Man

God created man in His own image, and man, as he was originally created, was innocent before God.But man chose to sin by disobeying God, and therefore, was alienated from his Creator and came under divine condemnation. Thus all human beings are born with a corrupted nature and without spiritual life, and are totally incapable of pleasing God in and of themselves.

Jesus Christ

God the Father, by His own choice and out of love for sinful men and women, sent Jesus Christ into the world to reconcile sinners to Himself. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. He is God in the flesh, both true God and true man. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and voluntarily suffered and died as our substitute to pay the penalty for our sins, thus satisfying God’s justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone. He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. He bodily ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, makes intercession for His own. He will return to earth – personally, visibly and bodily – to judge all men and establish His kingdom.

Salvation

Men and women are freed from the penalty for their sins not as a result, in whole or in part, of their own works, goodness or religious ceremony, but by the undeserved favor of God alone.God declares righteous all who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ, to convict men and women of their sins and to impart new life to all who place their faith in Christ. He indwells believers from the moment of spiritual birth, seals them until the day of redemption, allots spiritual gifts to them for ministry and empowers them to live a life pleasing to God.

Assurance

All who are born again of the Spirit can, through the sure promises of God, be fully assured of eternal life from the very moment they put their faith in Christ. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit but upon the finished work of Christ, who completely paid for their sins and upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is the deposit guaranteeing their inheritance.

The Resurrection of the Dead

At physical death, the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his or her body to everlasting glory and blessing. At physical death, the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his or her body to everlasting suffering, judgment and condemnation.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Jesus Christ has instructed those who believe in Him to be baptized in water as a symbol of their new birth in Christ.Baptism should be by immersion and is only for those who have personally believed in Christ. The Lord also instituted the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of His suffering, death and resurrection. Neither baptism nor the Lord’s Supper have any merit in helping a person obtain eternal life.

The Church

All true believers make up the church worldwide and should assemble together in local churches – for worship, prayer, fellowship and teaching – to become conformed to the image of Christ and to become equipped to carry out the “Great Commission” that Christ gave His followers in Matthew 28:19-20.

Marriage

Human sexuality is a gift and is to be celebrated and practiced exclusively within the marriage covenant between one man (by birth) and one woman (by birth). Additionally, in accordance with the clear teaching of Scripture, it follows that any sexual activity outside of that marriage covenant is sin.