A Great Church...

I took my first staff position with a church in 1984--the summer before my Senior year at Union University. Since then, I have been involved in quite a few different churches having served on staff at six different churches and being very involved in several others. I grew up in the church--my dad was a pastor. I attended a Baptist High School, a Baptist College, and a Baptist Seminary. My whole life has revolved around the church. It's with a lifetime of church-related experience, then, that I make the following statement. The church that I now pastor is the greatest church that I have ever been associated with.

I'm thinking that it might be of use to someone out there to hear some detail about how Cornerstone functions and the philosophies that support her. I know that what works for us might not translate into another community but...it might. I want to get into some detail so this is most likely going to be an ongoing project. I would eagerly receive any questions that might help to clarify my descriptions or help to create discussion.

I came to Cornerstone in the Summer of 2000 with a clear and resounding call by both God and the church. I had served for the previous six years at FBC, Lipan, Texas while attending Southwestern Seminary. My experience in Lipan was bitter-sweet. FBC had been a seminary church for many years with a mulititude of pastors coming and going. In the church's 120 year history they had seen more than 40 different pastors. My six years with them gives me the distinction of having the fourth longest tenure of any pastor in their history. I can summarize my time at Lipan as follows: 1994-96--honeymoon, 1997-99--conflict, 1999-2000--reconciliation. I feel like my time at Lipan was a great period of development for both my character and my leadership abilities. God blessed us a great deal in Lipan and yet I was often frustrated by my inability to lead the church forward.

It was with this ambitious yearning to lead under the Holy Spirit's direction and a burning desire to see what God could truly accomplish through His people that I came to Cornerstone.