Welcome to Cornerstone Presbyterian

Thank you for visiting our website, and we hope that you will join us Sunday mornings for one of our worship services.

Please look through the website to find out what we believe, what God is calling us to as a church, and practical information about visiting. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions. We’d love to hear from you, and we hope to see you on Sunday.

Office: (615) 618-4707
office@cstonepres.org

Location: 136 Third Avenue, South
                    Franklin, TN 36064

What is the schedule for Sunday morning?

We have two corporate worship services on Sunday morning at 8:00 and 10:45 am. The sermon and the music are identical at both services.  We welcome children of all ages in the worship services. If you so desire, nursery (click here) is available for children under the age of 3.

Sunday school classes for all ages meet from 9:45-10:35 am.

Children’s Classes (click here)

Bucer Group (Youth) (click here)

Adult Sunday School Classes (click here)

 

What should I expect on a Sunday morning?

Don’t be surprised if someone greets you or says hello. The worship service bulletin can be found at either the front or side entrances and contains all of the Scripture readings and the music we sing. Although the worship service is historically rooted, it is presented in a manner accessible to where God has placed us in this time and in this culture. You can expect clear, penetrating, exposition of God’s Word in the sermon, and we celebrate communion every week. By the way, we do not pass an offering plate during the service, but if you’d like to give financially to the ministry of the church, there are boxes available at each entrance.

Adult Sunday School Classes

As part of the ongoing discipling and equipping of the saints for worship and service, we have a regular schedule of classes for adults during the Sunday School hour.

On Being Presbyterian: A Study of the Westminster Confession of Faith in the Chapel

“What is ‘reformed’ theology exactly?” “Presbyterians believe, what?!” If you’ve wondered what exactly Presbyterians believe, or been surprised by what you’ve heard Presbyterian believe, then this class is specifically designed for you! Over the course of the next several Sunday School quarters, Pastor Nate is going to lead a slow tour through the doctrinal standards of our church–The Westminster Confession of Faith. This course will include teaching, discussion, and many practical applications to daily life. Pastor Nate will engage the burning and often difficult questions that you’ve always wanted to ask about God, salvation, and the Christian life. Come ready to learn and engage!

The Epistles of John with Tom Miller (Schaeffer 302)

Conducted in a discussion format, small sections of John are explored each week. This class is oriented toward community building in the truth.

God is a creator and He has gifted His people with the desire to create. Enjoying those things that are beautiful, well-crafted, and artfully formed helps us to understand more of God’s nature and character. In addition, working with the materials that God has made, we can rejoice in the ordering of those resources through the arts—color, movement, sound, time, language.

We place a high priority on the excellent but accessible music that we sing on Sunday mornings keeping beauty and aesthetics as part of our consideration. But we also enjoy exploring other realms of the arts through monthly literature discussions, regular film nights, trips to concerts, encouraging the visual arts, and hosting musical groups or ensembles.

Christianity has a long history of fostering the arts, and we want to more fully understand, embrace, and participate and continue this rich legacy.

Monthly Literature Discussion

The Literature Discussion group is open to anyone of any age at any time. Please contact Greg Wilbur (greg@cstonepres.org) if you have any questions. All meetings are at the Chapel from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

September 12—100 Cupboards Series by N.D. Wilson

October 3—The Rule of St. Benedict

November 7—TBD

Despite its medium size, Franklin has a small town feel.  The downtown community of historic sites, businesses, and restaurants enables the building of relationships and the promise of always running into someone you know. This is the context in which God has placed our church—not only as a quaint and homey environment but as a place to serve.

As a Bible-believing church in the heart of the town, we want to make the Word of God visible in every aspect of life. Living out this ministry intersects the downtown community through arts events, ESL classes, and hosting various ministries as well as the natural outgrowth of the church members living out their callings in downtown—whether in meetings at Merridees, fellowshipping at a coffee house or working in office space off of the square.

We desire to be Christ’s light in downtown Franklin as well as good neighbors. Being on mission begins in the immediate context in which God has placed us and then spreads out from there.

When Christ Community Church moved from downtown Franklin to its new facility on Hillsboro Road in the fall of 2001, the church retained the Historic Downtown Chapel with the desire that it could continue to be used for ministry purposes as well as for church planting. This hope was realized in December 2006, when Pastor George Grant along with elders and deacons from Christ Community planted Parish Presbyterian Church using the Chapel as its home.

Over the next four years, Parish grew to the point of needing three morning worship services to accommodate the congregation. One of Parish Presbyterian’s founding principles was the desire to continue to plant daughter churches. In the fall of 2010, Parish purchased property and a permanent home on Clovercroft Road in east Franklin. With that as a catalyst, Pastor Nate Shurden and elders and deacons from Parish remained in downtown Franklin to plant a daughter church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church.

Cornerstone Presbyterian began meeting on January 16, 2011 as a church plant and received full status as a church in our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, in November 2011. We are grateful that God has blessed our fellowship with members of all ages—from children to large numbers of young families to grandparents.

The Historic Downtown Chapel was originally built by First Baptist Church in 1849. Although the building was damaged in the Civil War, it was rebuilt, then rebuilt again in 1890 after a fire. The First Baptist congregation moved about two miles away in 1988 and sold a collection of buildings, including the chapel, to Christ Community Church. In March of 2012, Cornerstone bought the Chapel from Christ Community as a permanent home.

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A Parish Church of the Presbyterian Church in America

Current Sermon Series

From The Blog

May 23rd

by greg

Worship Notes for Sunday, May 26, 2013

This Sunday we enter the season of the Church year known as Ordinary Time or the Sundays of Pentecost—the period between Pentecost and the start of Advent. The Church calendar starts in Advent with the prophecies and anticipation of the coming and second coming of Christ and then moves through His life and ministry culminating [...]

May 18th

by greg

Worship Notes for Sunday, May 19, 2013 Pentecost

Today we celebrate the birthday of the church in the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. We see a beautiful continuity of the presence of the Spirit by fire that echoes the smoking pot in Genesis 15, the burning bush, the pillar of fire that led the people of Israel and [...]

May 10th

by greg

Worship Notes for Sunday, May 12, 2013

Today we celebrate the Ascension of Christ to His place of glory and power and the right hand of the Father. In many ways, the Ascension and Pentecost (next Sunday) are the completion of the work of the cross and redemption and the Season of Easter. The death of death and the conquering of sin [...]

May 2nd

by greg

Worship Notes for Sunday, May 5, 2013

We return to Luke 10 with the story of Mary and Martha and what is necessary in terms of learning at the feet of Jesus. The service start with the Call to Worship from Psalm 34 and the posture of taking refuge in the Lord and coming to learn the fear of the Lord, We [...]

April 26th

by greg

Worship Notes for Sunday, April 28, 2013

Love for our neighbor and serving one another continues as a theme with this week’s excursion in Matthew 5 and the call to be merciful. We begin with the Call to Worship from Psalm 95 and the invitation to come worship and bow down before the Lord, our maker. We continue by singing Come, Thou [...]