Cornerstone UMC: Helping People Know Jesus and Making Him Known

Earlier this year, we reported how the fastest-growing large United Methodist congregations in the USA are overwhelmingly led by evangelical senior pastors.             

In this series, IRD’s UMAction Director John Lomperis interviews some of these leading pastors about why their churches are growing while the rest of our denomination shrinks in this country, and about what other churches can learn from them.

This interview is with the Rev. Brad Kalajainen, founding and lead pastor of the multi-site United Methodist congregation, Cornerstone Church, in West Michigan.

John Lomperis: Why does your congregation exist?

Brad Kalajainen: Cornerstone was a new church plant in 1990 to reach a growing population on the south side of Grand Rapids, MI. I never felt that we were a neighborhood church but thought regionally from the beginning. Our mission statement is spoken almost every week and is posted at all campuses in large block letters on worship center walls: HELPING PEOPLE KNOW JESUS AND MAKE HIM KNOWN. People can say the mission from memory. They believe in it and act on it.

JL: Please share about your congregation’s recent history with growth. To what do you attribute this growth? 

BK: We are highly invitational. It’s in our DNA.

We are a church that grew up in the suburbs. The church began in a high school. Grew from 25 meeting in my basement to 350 in 6 ½ years. We had managed to save three-quarters of a million dollars and built our first site on 10 acres. Neighborhoods developed around the church site.

Growing ministry happened for 12 more years. We totally maxed out the site. We were conducting 7 services per weekend when we decided to move in the heart of the recession (2007). The move required great faith. Michigan led the nation in unemployment. But we felt God was actively telling us to move to a larger site that would serve as a launching pad for multisites.

In 2009 we broke ground on a 38 acres site with approximately 1200 in attendance. In the next 5 years, attendance has grown to approximately 2500 per weekend. The current location is 2 miles away from the last and farther out into a rural area.

In 2013 we began our second campus in the urban center of Grand Rapids. We purchased an old church building and did a number of innovative upgrades. Cornerstone Heritage Hill is one of the only churches in the inner city with a contemporary music format and casual worship style. The two sites offer live preachers (Campus Pastors) and the same series, sermons, programing, etc. The Heritage Hill Campus, with campus pastor Alex Fernandez, now attracts 350 attendees.

Our third site, Cornerstone S. Wyoming Campus will open in the fall of 2015 with 2 services. We anticipate between 250-300 attendees almost immediately at this campus.

One of our unique niches is the development of lay people into leadership roles. Our two campus pastors have come out of our congregation and are pursuing local pastor licenses. Both are transitioning from other jobs and began our sites as part time employees. We are now developing a “farm club” of prospects for future sites as God leads us to them.

Each site was launched with 100 people from the sending campus and entailed 14 weeks of training. Attendance was excellent in both cases. People are eager to learn and be empowered as “planters” themselves.

We believe the church should always be growing and planting. God blesses the planting process. Cornerstone has also helped plant 2-3 other churches in our 25 year history that are now stand alone churches. We also encourage planters of all denominations.

In summer we switch our Saturday service to Mondays to work with relationally with the culture instead of against it (given how many leave home to spend their weekends at the lake). This have been a big success.  An average of 400 attend on Mondays.

We also offer three or four ways to give electronically.  Consistently, 43 percent of our giving is given online.

JL: Why do you think the United Methodist Church has been facing such steady membership decline in this country for half a century?

BK: It’s not hard to determine why UMC churches are in decline. Most stubbornly refuse to change. Music styles appeal to those in attendance, not the community. Preaching styles are very academic and have not engaged the way people listen and hear. Many churches refused to call people to commitment to Jesus Christ and deeper discipleship.

I get to consult and coach a great deal. Many churches have lost touch with the mission field around them. They have aged and seem content to continue their declining ways. Most want “young families” without willingness to share power or change worship styles.

Most congregations over time lose sight of their vision and the mission of Jesus. At Cornerstone, we go through a major new vision process every few years. Our current three-year vision specifics include:

• starting multisites as God leads us
• retire current debt
• glocal transformation:  in-depth involvement in one high-poverty school in Grand Rapids through stuff (coats, boots, etc.), volunteers, a Jesus-based evening summer camp, and much more. Also, we have made an in-depth commitment in northern Kenya. We have established a nonprofit water drilling company; we evangelize through the “Jesus” film and purchasing and distribution of The Treasure, a solar powered device with the New Testament in various languages.
• family ministry: marriages, students 0-18, engagement, parenting.

JL: Has your congregation implemented any particular practices for the process of receiving new members or for the selection and training of leaders that have been especially helpful for your ministry?

BK: Cornerstone has just over 1,300 members but over 2,500 in attendance. Our three two-hour membership classes teach: commitment to Jesus, Wesleyan history and emphasis, discovery of spiritual gifts and passions for ministry, Cornerstone’s detailed vision components, and a follow up coaching session to connect with a life group and area of service.

JL: Many other United Methodists around the country would look at your congregation and wish that their own was experiencing such growth. What would you say to them? Are there specific principles, practices, and programs you would recommend?

BK:

• Music that speaks to the mission field
• Hospitality that is genuine, authentic, and well-developed
• Preaching that is less formal in delivery but deeply spiritual and connects with the culture
• Outreach into the local community as well as global in a “hands on” kind of way
• A discipleship system that a person can clearly navigate. A person needs to know the “next step” and how to walk with God.

JL: What could your congregation do if you received a new grant of $50,000 every year, over and above your regular budget, restricted specifically for ministry to make new disciples of Jesus Christ?

BK: We have other population centers in which we would like to open multisite campuses. The monies probably would be used in that way.

We are committed to “Glocal” Transformation. Going “in depth” with a ministry need locally and globally to change a community…both evangelistically and need-based.

JL: Do your sermons and teachings ever include hot-button culture issues currently affecting the Church and culture, like attempts to redefine marriage to include same-sex pairings?  What do you teach?  What do you do to try to teach it in a sensitive way?

BK: We do deal with many issues. We do not feel that same-sex topics (specifically) are best preached. They are better discussed in “town hall” formats where people can talk back and ask questions.