Who We Are

OUR WORSHIP
Cornerstone Reformed Church is a worshiping community gathered around Jesus’ Word and Table each week to celebrate his victory over death and his lordship over the world. Our worship is gospel-shaped, confronting us with the challenges of being Jesus’ disciples as well as the hope that we share in his victory. Grounded firmly in the Scriptures and drawing deeply from the rich traditions of the church, our worship is the heart of all that we are and do. As we worship faithfully, we become shaped by the gospel as individuals and a community and are then sent into the world that needs the
life-changing good news that Jesus is Lord.

OUR HERITAGE
The heritage of Cornerstone Reformed extends far beyond 1999 when we were established as a church in Carbondale, IL. Our roots dig deeply into the long history of Jesus’ church established by him when he was on earth. We embrace as family in Christ all of those–past, present, and future–who are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, confessing Jesus as Lord, and eat at his Table. We are distinctive within the church being a member of the Communion of Reformed and Evangelical Churches (CREC). As the eye is to the hand in the body, so Cornerstone Reformed relates to all of the other Christian churches. We serve the wider church with our particular gifts and abilities.

OUR MISSION
The mission of Cornerstone Reformed flows from our worship. As we are transformed into the community that our God calls us to be, we then call others to come and experience the gracious hospitality of God through Jesus Christ. Under Jesus’ authority and with his promise we work in mission with him to see transformed lives, transformed relationships, & a transformed culture that can come only through the announcement of the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Transformed lives
Every person is created in the image of God and has value in his sight. Though sin has marred that image and done tremendous damage to our lives, in Jesus Christ God transforms the lives of people. We proclaim the message that when a person trusts Jesus Christ and the work that he has done, God forgives his sins, puts him in a right relationship with himself, brings him into his family, and begins a life-long transformation of his life.

Transformed relationships
God created us to be in relationship with others. The gospel proclaims that our relationships can be healed even though they have been broken by sin. Cornerstone Reformed announces this good news and seeks to be a community that fosters this healing. God brings us together in the church where we are united by the story of Jesus Christ rather than race, gender, education, economics, age, marital status, or politics. It is within the diversity of the church that we learn how to live in relationships, proclaiming to the rest of the world that Jesus has made us a new people.

Transformed culture
The gospel heals individuals, their relationships, and social structures at every level: physically, socially, psychologically, economically, and spiritually. The message of Jesus, therefore, cannot be confined to a private experience of an individual but rather vitally impacts the way people relate to one another at a societal level. Cornerstone Reformed is committed to partnering with ministries of mercy and encouraging Christians to live lives of hospitality and service. We are also committed to engaging the culture by promoting and engaging in education that is unashamedly Christian, discipling our children to grow and work to bring every area of life, from their individual lives to government structures, into happy subjection to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Our gospel-shaped lives are to engage and seek the transformation of the culture through truth, goodness, and beauty.