The Future of Cornerstone Church

OUR MISSION

While our mission is to glorify God through going into the world, making disciples of Christ (Scripture’s Great Commission – Mt 28:19-20) and loving God and our neighbors (Scripture’s Great Commandment Mt 22:37-39), we state that mission with three simple words: Reach, Equip, & Multiply.

Our mission is to bring God glory and to bless people through:

 

  • REACHING the North Shore and beyond with the transforming message of Christ.
  • EQUIPPING God’s people to know, love, and serve Jesus.
  • MULTIPLYING disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.

OUR MESSAGE

The message that’s core to our mission and is the central message of the Bible is called the “GOSPEL,” which simply means “good news”. The gospel declares that: 

GOD: The One, true God is utterly holy and this holy God created all things good and created humanity in His image to enjoy Him.

Q. How have humans responded?

SIN: Humanity has responded with sin. All humans have sinned (Rom. 3:23), rejecting God as ruler, trusting in ourselves and in idols, and breaking relationship with God. In sin, we are all naturally spiritually dead and guilty before the holy God.

Q. What will God justly do about our rebellion? God will not allow humans to rebel forever. The penalty of humanity’s sin is death and eternal damnation (Rom. 6:23) and humans are unable to save ourselves. While just, this news may be despairing, but there’s hope…

JESUS: When we were dead in sin, God, in grace, sent His perfect Son. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, fully God and fully man, sacrificially died to pay the penalty for our sin in order to reconcile sinners to God (Rom 5:8, 2 Cor. 5:2). The atoning and redemptive work of Jesus Christ, includes: His historical incarnational birth, perfect law keeping life, humiliation and death on a cross, burial, resurrection, and His promised return.

Q. How should sinners respond to the good news that Jesus made a way for our salvation?

RESPONSE: Now that Jesus endured the punishment for our sin, conquered death, and has been raised, those who repent and place faith in Jesus Christ are justified by grace, through faith. The Christian’s sins were accounted to Jesus and Christ’s perfect righteousness was credited to the Christian so that we who believe might be declared righteous, and reconciled to the holy God. In justification, therefore, God has drawn a sinner to repent of sin, receive forgiveness, obtain eternal life, be grafted into God’s family, and become able to glorify God and enjoy Jesus Christ forever.

    OUR VISION

    While a new building is neither our mission nor our message, we believe that a more functional space for our congregation to worship, serve, grow, and also to bless our community, would serve as a more effective tool for advancing our mission and proclaiming our message.

    With this in mind, God has blessed our church with 3.6 acres of land on a strategic spot right off exit 15 on School St. Humbly and prayerfully, it is our intention to construct a new building on that location where the gospel will be proclaimed, our neighbors on the North Shore will be served, disciples will be made, and God will be glorified.

    From a functional perspective, Cornerstone’s goal of building a new church is predicated on numerous, modern-day design enhancements, all of which are presently lacking in our building at 20 School Street. Though we all love our church building (built in 1844), we also realize that our second-story sanctuary, lack of handicap accessibility, lack of off-street parking, lack of elevator, limited office and classroom space, and limited visible exposure can make it a challenging physical home for ministry. 

    Lord willing, we will construct a new church building that not only visually pleases residents and visitors alike as they enter Manchester from Route 128, but one that is replete with off-street parking (making attendance convenient, especially during snow-filled, winter days), handicap access, offices for pastors, staff, and interns, classrooms for our children, meeting halls for corporate worship, activities and weddings, a commercial-grade kitchen for church breakfasts/lunches/dinners and weddings and events, handicap bathrooms, and greenspace for outdoor fellowship.   

    Thank you and God bless you for reading about our vision! Lord willing . . .

     

    GIVING

    If it’s on your heart to give, we sincerely thank you for your generosity and direct you to the details below.

      HOW YOU CAN HELP

      If you’re compelled to give to this exciting project, we sincerely thank you for your generous support:

      MAKE A GIFT