Cornerstone Church (Toledo)

Church beginnings

The Church started in June 1986 when Michael and Kathi Pitts left Lima, Ohio to start a Church in Toledo. The first service drew 35 people in a rented storefront building. Within 8 years the Church moved 4 times, finally into its present location in Maumee Ohio averaging 4000 members as of 2005.

In 1993 the Church started additional services in the historic Eastwood Theater on the Eastside of Toledo. In 2004 the Church sold the building to a local company. Then, in 2014, Cornerstone repurchased the Theater and planted its second campus. The building is used for services on Sundays, and plays family friendly movies throughout the week. In 2015 the Church announced it was growing again, and launched its third campus in Wayne, Michigan. Then in 2016, after much media interest, The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) released that Cornerstone had purchased The Event Center, an historic building in Downtown Toledo, to serve as the Church's forth physical campus. The Church renamed the building "The Summit", and following renovation to allow for a 400-seat auditorium on the ground floor, plans to launch by Easter 2017.

In the past, Cornerstone has also owned two radio stations. As of 2013, the Cornerstone Global Network included 115 Churches around the globe.

Services and buildings

Cornerstone is a multi-site church and meets at various times and locations throughout the week.

Thousands of people gather from various backgrounds, representing "All races. All classes. All ages", attending Pentecostal style services. The style flows freely, transitioning from praise and worship into the preaching without a clear schedule or structure, where one of the goals is for thinking people to feel; feeling people to think; and both kinds of people to do something.

Cornerstone Maumee's children's ministry, with a 22,000-square-foot wing, has several themed rooms - including a rain forest and a 1950s diner - designed by former Disney employees. In addition there is an NRG Zone, where kids can "burn off energy" playing video games and indoor sports.

The Maumee Campus has a 2,300-seat main sanctuary and a state-of-the-art, $1.8 million Performing Arts Center that opened in 2003. With seating for 400, the theater offers Christian concerts, dance, recitals, lectures, and more.

In 2014, Bishop Michael Pitts announced a new direction for the Church in addition to leading the Cornerstone Global Network. This move saw the launch of Cornerstone Church at the Eastwood Theater, an historic movie cinema in East Toledo. The Church had owned the theater before, ten years prior. The Church in 2015 then restructured to announce the third campus in the network, located in Wayne Michigan. In May 2016, Cornerstone announced the desire to additionally launch a campus in the Downtown Toledo area. This move was in line with the guidance of the 22nd Century Committee, an advisory committee to the City and citizens of Toledo, about the potential for a revitalization of a downtown area that had undergone chronic decay since the late 1990s. The Church plans to commence services at the newly named Summit Building in the Summer of 2017. The building will provide residential units on the third and fourth floors, and office space on the second floor. The church will be located on the primary floor.

Conferences and guest speakers

The Church hosts an annual conference in October titled "Heaven On Earth" that has welcomed speakers such as T.D. Jakes, Paula White, Steven Furtick, Tudor Bismark, Sheryl Brady, Ché Ahn, and Samuel Rodriguez. The Church hosts an annual Women's Inspired Conference, with speakers and singers including Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Ministries, Prophetess Jane Hamon, and Lisa Bevere. In 2015, to conclude the Heaven On Earth "Cities Can Be Won" Conference, 10-time Grammy award winner Cece Winans held a night of worship at the Church.

The Church also holds a SKILLS camp for children. Three time Grammy winner Israel Houghton performed a free concert in 2010 after recording his "New Season" album at the Church in 2001. In 2013 TV Evangelist Rev. Benny Hinn held a miracle service at the Church. To conclude the 2014 Quantum Conference, Cornerstone Church hosted a night of worship with Jesus Culture. Evangelist Morris Cerullo preached at the Church in 2014. In 2002, former two-star Deion Sanders preached on a Thursday night at the Church, speaking often of how discontent he was in life before he converted to Christianity. The Church choir performs externally to the Church building, having been invited to perform at the 8th Annual African American Festival in 2012.

Philanthropy

Cornerstone Church's outreach ministry Heal The World works both locally and globally with various partners, from covering the cost of soup kitchen Thanksgiving meals, to collecting Bibles for US soldiers, to partnering with Mercy Ministries, to hosting the African Children's Choir, and supporting Dr Patricia Bailey-Jones who ministers with Master's Touch Ministry Global. Over the past 20 years of ministry, Cornerstone Church has partnered with, and hosted annual WOWJAMs, a ministry started by Stephen and Linda Tavani aimed at reaching poorer communities around the city by utilizing music, games, dances, and prizes.

In 2015 the Church launched a new weeklong summer outreach, named The Volunteer Outreach Week, or more succinctly, VOW. The goal of the event is to partner with local non-profits and add additional support to the work they are doing. In the first year of VOW, more than 350 volunteers were mobilized in 25 different organizations.

In the summer of 2015 the Eastwood Theater Campus commenced a partnership with Lucas County Feed The Children. This partnership was part of the Summer Meal Partners of North West Ohio which had the distinct goal of ensuring no child was hungry over the summer months away from school. Toledo Public Schools have programs during the academic year that offer free meals to students. The free meals were supplemented with wholesome activities during the afternoons as an alternative to the children walking throughout the neighborhoods unsupervised.

As a result of meeting with the Mayor of Toledo Paula Hicks-Hudson in early 2016, Bishop Pitts learned that several city pools had remained closed throughout the three summers prior due to lack of city funding. This conversation coincided with the release of the city's annual budget for 2016, and confirmation that six pools would remain closed without the support and sponsorship from benevolent third parties. As a result, in the Spring of 2016, Pitts pledged $52,000 to open Navarre Pool, on the East Side of Toledo, on behalf of Cornerstone Church. The pool is blocks from the Eastwood Campus, in East Toledo. In addition to opening the pool, Cornerstone provided the funding to open Savage Park Splash Pad in the inner city of Toledo. Both the pool and splash pad were opened with the intention of running Summer programs and activities, as well as adding additional sites to the Summer Meal Program partnership.