Our Story

  • It all began with 35 people and a dream...

    The first service of Cornerstone Christian Community Church was held in February 1998 in a rented community centre hall. To understand that beginning, however, you must explore further...

     

    In 1994, a core of 35 people from the English-speaking congregation of a primarily Chinese church began praying and planning to launch a new church in the Markham area. Their God-inspired vision was that this church would be intentionally intercultural — designed to reach people from a wide variety of ethnicities and backgrounds. This core group imagined a church that would be a welcoming, relevant and safe place for the the spiritually curious to explore message of Jesus, as well as a place where Christ-followers could put down deep spiritual roots. It was also envisioned that this new church would become a major force for God and good in the greater Markham community.

 

  • In June 1996, this group held their first public service as the English congregation of Markham Christian Community Church, near Kennedy Road and Denison Street. There the congregation grew until it relocated its services in early 1998 to the Markham Village Community Centre at Highways 7 and 48, and at that time it also took on a new church
    name: Cornerstone.

     

    Over the next four years, this young church touched many lives for Christ, serving hundreds of residents in the local community in practical ways. Due to steady growth, Cornerstone began to feel the pinch of limited space at the community centre, and following a prayerful search, God provided the church with its current meeting place, Markville Secondary School at McCowan Road and Carlton Street, where our growing congregation of over 300 adults and children from over 30 different countries-of-origin gathers to worship Jesus each week.

     

    Over the years, we have built relational bridges with our neighbours in the greater community in a huge variety of ways, including sports and recreation, life-skill seminars, public service projects, handycraft groups, and car repair clinics. Our annual Easter Family Fun Fair, Free Community Car Wash, and International Food Fair have become signature events in the Markham community.

  • our story (bridges)

 

  • Not only are we highly involved in our local community; Global Missions is also part of Cornerstone's DNA. In the past 7 years, well over 100 people from our congregation have joined our short-term missions teams to various conutries, and we have also established long-term partnerships with a church in Nicaragua, and a ministry focused on the island of Roatan, in Honduras.

     

    But this is only the beginning! God has given Cornerstone a God-sized vision for the future that promises to see many lives transformed for Jesus in Markham and beyond. This includes plans to build the Cornerstone Centre, a special facility that combines the concepts of church building and community centre.