+ SALVATION

Faith, repentance and confession in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the only way to obtain forgiveness of sin and obtain eternal life. This is referred to as a “born-again” experience.

+ BAPTISM

Water Baptism is an outward sign of what has happened in your heart. We believe in water baptism by full immersion. We baptize according to the words of Jesus when He said to baptize them “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. We do not believe in “sprinkling” or the baptism of babies or children who do not understand the principle behind water baptism. We do believe in dedicating babies and parents to a lifetime of instruction and nurturing in the Lord.

+ HOLY SPIRIT

As born-again believers in Jesus Christ, we are entitled to being baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. This baptism empowers us for service as witness in all the world. We believe the outward sign of this baptism is “speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance”. We believe in the nine manifestations commonly referred to as “gifts” of the Spirit. We believe they did not die away with the last apostle and are working in the church today.

+ THE BIBLE

We believe the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God. Plain and simple, we believe in the integrity and authority of God’s Word. It is to be read, studied, followed, and obeyed completely. Cornerstone does not endorse any one version of the Bible. Pastor Tom’s favorite translations include the King James, New King James, The New American Standard, New Living and Amplified versions. We do recognize there is a trend in the Christian world to liberalize the translations of the Bible. This liberalization softens the message towards the issues of the day such as abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, gender identification and even the sexual gender of God Himself. Given this trend in liberal translations of the Word of God we caution our church family to watch against this and choose a translation that is in keeping with the character of God.

+ NEW TESTAMENT LIVING

The Book of Acts found in the New Testament is God’s pattern for His church today. It is not just a history book but what believers should be doing and experiencing in their walk with God. We believe in the five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and that the church will exhibit completeness when these are in full operation. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

+ WORSHIP

We believe that music is critical in worshipping God. God made music and therefore it is good. We do not endorse any one type of music over the other. Worship style at Cornerstone would be considered “contemporary or modern”. We seek to worship God in Spirit and Truth as Jesus taught. We use a full range of instruments to express that worship in line with the scripture which teaches the use of instruments to praise the Lord. We have loud, boisterous praise music and worshipful, contemplative, reflective music as well. Generally these will be part of every worship service at Cornerstone.