Building God’s Kingdom as Missional Disciples
Below is a helpful insight into the values we stand on, the culture we aim to build and the vision we hope to see. We are imperfect, but worship a God who is. We hope you find the below to be true of the people and life at Cornerstone.
Family : Compassionate, active, relational love for one another
Breakdown - We aim to cultivate a culture of family at Cornerstone, where we love each other well. This is my means of day by day support whether through practical help or an encouraging phone call. We hope to be compassionate like Jesus is, and intentionally seeking to help each other flourish.
Social Justice : Being a voice for the voiceless & refuge for the lost & oppressed
Breakdown - We partner with BCHA to provide a drop in for victims of domestic abuse to find help.
We have a collection box for the local Foodbank and can even give foodbank vouchers where appropriate.
We run a twice weekly donations-based café.
We provide a weekly drop in space, also safe youth and children’s clubs.
We run numerous different courses and projects (for example, teaching young people to cook as part of healthy living at youth club, and the CAP Money Course for those wanting to manage their finances better).
Hospitality : Generous love shown to strangers, friends & family
Breakdown - We have a twice weekly donations-based café open to all,
We hold regular large scale community events such as our ‘Fun Day’ attracting 100’s from the local community.
We have many different users of the fantastic church facilities including Boot Camp and NA.
We regularly have open bring-and-share lunches and have many visitors onsite every week for dozens of different groups/clubs/events (amongst other things). We enjoy welcoming many into Cornerstone!
Growth : Inwardly as disciples, outwardly through mission
Breakdown - We have weekly house groups where we explore the bible, pray and seek to encourage each other in our journey with God.
We have sung worship and inspiring talks each week at our Morning Gathering, as well as once a month in the evening to keep a focus on God.
We have a daily rhythm of prayer for those able to join (this includes praying for our local schools and community issues).
We encourage all to worship God with how we live our lives and we intentionally reach out to love, pray for, and practically impact our community. This includes recognizing the gifts God has given each person and empowering them to go for it!
Supernatural : We aim to model our lives on Jesus who lived a life of wonders and miracles
Breakdown - Life in itself is a miracle. We believe God impacts the world today. We read in the bible that Jesus did miracles, and his disciples did too. The church for 1000’s of years has testified to miracles around the world. In a simple way, if God gave us all the miracle of life, it makes sense God can also impact in the world now. We take this invitation seriously and pray for healing and the miraculous to take place in the name of Jesus. We have many testimonies of people being physically healed.
Cornerstone is a Baptist church planted in 1956. We are part of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. We desire to be a cornerstone in our local community by building up others, just as Jesus does as the chief cornerstone of the church. We are informal and regularly welcome new people which we love to do. Our local community of West Howe in Bournemouth is very important to us, and we are honoured to be serving in a special place.