WRITING EXAMPLE
by Benjamin Bradley
I wrote this article to highlight Cornerstone Church’s accredited Master’s degree program. It was written for our “Intersect” magazine which presents compelling stories of our members and ministries.
Raised Up, Sent Out
New Ministry Training Program Offers Seminary Credit
Cornerstone’s equipping ministry has gone through many changes since 1994 when Cornerstone began. Many of the early equipping offerings were loosely structured classes addressing various discipleship and spiritual growth issues. More recently, the equipping ministry has begun to shift toward a more structured academic instruction program called Cornerstone School of Theology (CST). CST is the new ministry training program offering seminary courses for credit at both the undergraduate and Master’s level.
“We began to realize that the best context for discipleship and spiritual growth is the connection group,” says teaching pastor Jeff Dodge. “There will always be a strong push for believers to grow deeper in every area of their spiritual walk, and connection groups will continue to be the primary context where that takes place.”
Alongside this realization, the pressing need for a more rigorous training experience to raise up leaders for the next level of ministry has grown as new leaders emerge at every level of ministry. Whether potential students want to be more effective in their current ministry roles or are interested in pursuing full-time ministry, CST is able to provide thorough instruction.
CST is able to offer these courses for credit as a satellite campus of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is located in Kansas City, Missouri. Through Cornerstone’s partnership with MBTS, students are able to earn a Master of Arts in Theological Studies in as little as two years through courses offered here at Cornerstone.
The growing vision of CST is to develop leaders for ministry here at Cornerstone, aggressively train and send out ministers and church planters regionally and globally, and to do it in the context of a local church. After all, Cornerstone is a “local church with a global vision.”