WS Chronicle

Cornerstone of Faith Ministries Inc. held a Community Night at their soon-to-be new location on Urban St. on Nov. 20.  The church fed the community hotdogs and snacks and gave away free turkey dinners to the residents.

Cornerstone will take over the vacant building that used to belong to Urban Street Baptist Church. Senior Pastor, Bishop Grosjean L. Stephens, says he wanted to relocate from their current location on Farrington Point Drive to the Urban Street address because their congregation was growing, which meant they needed additional space.

“Our old location just became too small for the kind of projects and things that we wanted to do,” said Stephens. “I have had some things on my heart that I really wanted to do that affects men ages 17 to 22.  Everyone is not going to college, so we have some contractors within our congregation and we want to have classes, so these men can have a trade and then pair them with companies.

“We also have a possible charter school from someone who is in our congregation, that has already been awarded for that, so we have a lot of things going on and our location just did not fit our vision, which really prompted our move,” he continued.

Stephens says he used to serve as the minister of music at the former Urban Street church when he was younger.  He also looked at purchasing the building a few years ago, but decided not to go forward at that time. He says it came up for purchase once again and chose to jump on the opportunity.

“We looked at other locations, but it just wasn’t anywhere that would fit what we wanted to do,” he said.  “So, when it came back around, it was like God was saying ‘OK, you ready to stop tripping, you know I got you.’  When I came around to the fact that God was with us, it was a no brainer after that.”

Stephens said the Community Day was to introduce the church to the residents surrounding the church. 

“We kind of wanted to get to know people in the community,” he said. “I don’t want to be a church that just comes in and just goes in our church to do our thing and then go home.  Ministry doesn’t start until you leave the church.  Jesus did his ministry away from the church, so that has been our passion, to do things that empower .“Our mission statement is empowering believers to expand the greatness from within, so I am just real big about encouraging others about the goodness and greatness that’s within them, that they may have overlooked.”

The church plans to move into the chapel of the new location by February of 2019.  They will work on fixing the sanctuary during that time, then move into it by the end of next summer.  Stephens says they will keep the old location for an event center and a place for rehearsals.