Our Story

In March 2016, a few families began meeting in the living room of Ryan & Arin Thompson for intentional and serious prayer about reaching Nederland, TX and the surrounding areas with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the next several months, these families gathered together often and dreamed and prayed about what God might accomplish for the sake of His name through a Spirit-filled people living on mission together to make much of Jesus in their city. The vision of Cornerstone Church became to be a family of disciples of Jesus who love God, love His Word, and love each other. Our hope was to see lives changed and communities restored by the power of the good news of Jesus.

In April 2017, Cornerstone Church officially launched public worship services in an old flower shop on Nederland Avenue. The core team became the first covenanted members of Cornerstone Church and multiplied into four community groups. Ryan Thompson became the Lead Pastor of this new church. The vision God had given these few families in a living room prayer meeting was coming to fruition as friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers were engaged with the gospel through authentic community. The church was strengthened in faith and continued to grow larger (Acts 16:5).

It was not long after starting Cornerstone Church that the space we were meeting in weekly for worship became overly crowded. We prayed in faith that God would direct our next steps and provide a new building for us to gather in His perfect timing. Our desire was to be in a permanent location where we could worship together and better serve our city for years to come. In God’s kind and merciful provision over us, He provided an opportunity to purchase and renovate an old, abandoned church building at 1123 Canal Ave in Nederland. After months of renovations and hard work, we held our first public worship service at our new home in April 2019, exactly two years from the launch of Cornerstone Church.

We planted Cornerstone Church with the vision of not just starting one new congregation in Southeast Texas, but to be a church that multiplies. Our hope and dream is that the glory of God through the local church would saturate Mid-County and spread to the ends of the earth so that every man, woman, boy, and girl has a daily encounter with Jesus through His people.

In August 2020, God began to bring this vision to fruition in greater ways than we could have even dreamed when we planted Providence Baptist Church in Beaumont, TX and commissioned Brian Allen as the Lead Pastor and Church Planter.

We are praying that God would raise up more pastors and leaders in our church to start more healthy, gospel-centered churches. "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied." (Acts 9:31).

In January 2023, Cornerstone Church adopted a neighboring, sister church, Crossroads Fellowship Church, into her membership. God providentially brought Cornerstone and Crossroads together--in proximity, in familial relationships, and for this ordained moment--because the two churches could accomplish more in the community for the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom of Christ as one church family. Crossroads donated their worship facility at 2005 N Peterson St to Cornerstone Church, and Carl Durden became the Associate Pastor at Cornerstone.