Our Vision
REACHING UP
There is nothing more important than seeking our God in worship and prayer. We want to be desperate for Him. Our worship must reach beyond just Sunday morning, to every area of our lives. We will enjoy the awesome privilege of communicating with our God through prayer
REACHING OUT
Acts 1:8 Instructs us to take the Gospel message to our community and beyond. It is our desire to make Jesus known in Woodland, IL, Illiana, and around the world. We are called to go in to all the world. Home and foreign missions is on the heart of Cornerstone.
REACHING IN
We are like family. That is the reputation we want to have. We love each other, care for each other, and build each other up. We are called to teach and proclaim God’s word, serve each other with humble hearts and be His family. Always speaking the truth in love.
Meet Our Staff
[ourteam img=”165″ name=”Pastor Jerry (PJ) Parker” title=”Senior Pastor”]Cornerstone Values
EVANGELISM
We proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ boldly to the Illiana area and to the world. We believe in using any Christ honoring way to share The Good News; from sharing, caring, sending and going wherever there is someone who will listen.—Ephesians 6:19-20; Acts 1:8; Luke 19:10; Matthew 28:18-20
PRAYER
We are a people of prayer. Prayer is an act of faith that includes communicating with our Heavenly Father and believing His promises. Prayer is an important part of all we do as a church and is encouraged as a regular part of our individual lives.—Ephesians 6:18; Luke 11:1-13; Philippians 4:6
WORSHIP
We celebrate our love for God in genuine worship. We work to make our corporate worship meaningful and relevant. We are not focused on style or on the music, but on the Object of our praise. We also encourage personal worship as a daily part of our lives.—John 4:24; Romans 12:1-2; Psalm 66:4
FAMILY
We are a family. We laugh together and cry together. We are accountable to each other and we encourage each other. We rebuke our family with discernment, encourage our family with love, defend our family with courage and serve our family with sacrifice. We approach our family relationships with grace, mercy and truth.—Acts 2:42-47
DISCIPLESHIP
We equip Christ followers. We are a church that desires to teach and train our church family (adults, youth, and children) to mature in God’s Holy Word. We do this to cultivate a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father. We apply biblical truth to life and equip God’s people for the work of ministry that will transform our world for Christ.—2 Timothy 4:2; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Ephesians 4:11-13
MINISTRY
We are all ministers. We desire to be a church that provides every opportunity for God’s people to use their gifts and talents for His Glory and the building up of God’s family. We are a church that desires to use our God given gifts and resources to encourage and minister to the body of Christ. We also desire to meet the physical needs of the lost, less fortunate, and hurting in our communities.—1 Corinthians 12:7; Romans 12:6; 1 Peter 4:10
What we believe
SCRIPTURE
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New Testament are verbally inspired by God and inerrant in their original writings. The Bible (all 66 books) is a complete and sufficient revelation from God and is the final authority in matters of faith and conduct.
Ps. 119:97-104, Psalm 119:160; Matthew 5:18; John 5: 46-47; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:15-17, 2 Peter 1:19-21
GOD
There is one true God, that concerns Himself mercifully in human affairs, He hears and answers prayer, and He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. God reveals Himself to people as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Eternally existing in three persons; equal in essence and having the same attributes, while distinct in personality and function.
John 17:3; Matthew 3:16-17; John 16:23-27; Galatians 4:4-6; Ephesians 1:3, 17-23; Deut. 6:4-5
JESUS CHRIST
God’s Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, He was fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life and His death in our place and His resurrection fully satisfied God’s justice and made a way for us to enter into a personal relationship with God. He ascended into heaven where He represents the believer before God the Father. He will return …
Matt. 1:22, 23; Luke 1:35; John 1:1, 14; Is. 45:5; Mt. 27:27-50; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 1:18,19; 2:24; John 14:6-9; 1 Tim 3:16
HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. He draws the sinner, and regenerates him upon belief in Christ. He convicts the world of sin and of God’s righteousness and of coming judgment. He seals, gifts, indwells, empowers, instructs, fills and comforts the believer. We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment of Salvation. While we believe that the Scriptures do not teach that certain gifts have ceased, they indicate that use of the gifts vary according to the need that each gift meets. Cornerstone does not encourage the use of the “sign gifts”.
John 16:7-14; Mark 13:11; John 14:26; Romans 5:5; 1 Cor. 3:16; Titus 3:5, Galatians 5:25
MAN
We believe in the 6 day creation. On the sixth day He made man which is His special creation. We believe that man was created in the image of God in innocence and designed to walk with God, but by voluntarily disobeying, left everyone with a sinful nature. All man and all women are desperately separated from God their Creator without hope in themselves. Every person is depraved and in need of a Savior.
Gen. 3:1-6; Romans 3:10,23; Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23; 1 Cor. 11:7; Gal. 3:22
SALVATION
We believe that in response to man’s desperate need, God made a way to settle the debt of man’s sin and provide hope. Jesus was that response. We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He took man’s sin upon Himself and paid the death price for that sin. His blood was sufficient to satisfy both the Father’s love and justice. Jesus rose again defeating death and sin and made a way for salvation. All who are drawn by the Holy Spirit, and confess their sinfulness, repent and by faith believe that Jesus died for their sins and rose again shall be saved and are secure forever in Christ. Salvation is through faith in Christ alone!! Man can do nothing for himself it is only by God’s grace.
Rom. 8:37-39; Roman 10:9-10,13; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 3:16; John 14:6; 1 John 5:13, John 1:12; 5:24
CHURCH
We believe the term “church” is used both for all believers, and for the local body of believers depending on the context of scripture. Believers are those who have trusted in Christ for salvation. The Scriptures command believers to gather in order to devote themselves to worship, prayer, and teaching of the Word and the observance of the ordinances (baptism by emersion as a symbol of our identification with Christ, and communion is a simple reminder of the sacrifice of Christ), fellowship, and service to the body. This service is demonstrated through the use of talents and gifts. We commit ourselves to an ongoing ministry of extending the call of Christ to make disciples at home and around the world. We believe that Christ is the Head of the Church and each local church has the right to govern its own affairs under godly servant leaders.
Eph. 5:23; Rom. 12:1; Acts 2:42-46; Eph. 2:20-22; Titus 1:5; 1 Cor. 14:26; Mt. 28:18-20; 1 Tim. 3-13; Rom. 8:37-39; Roman 10:9-10,13; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 3:16; John 14:6; 1 John 5:13, John 1:12; 5:24
ETERNAL DESTINY
We believe that physical death is not the end of existence. We believe in the security and assurance that every person that is truly saved shall spend eternity in Heaven. Those persons that die in their sins without Christ spend eternity in Hell.
LAST THINGS
We believe in the blessed hope: the personal, pre-millennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the believer and the unbeliever. The believers are raised to spend eternity in the presence of God in Heaven and the unbeliever to eternal separation from God in the torment of Hell.