After months of conversations between 4th Street Baptist Church, Cornerstone Baptist Church (www.exit137.org), and the South Carolina Baptist State Convention, Cornerstone Baptist Church has committed to adopt 4th Street Baptist Church for the purpose of developing a new campus in Hartsville.
Cornerstone Baptist Church was founded in 2002 under the guidance of lead pastor Dr. Bill Curtis. In 2006, the church relocated to its 53-acre campus at exit 137, at the junction of I-20 and Hwy 340. Over the past 20 years, the church has experienced God’s favor in many ways, including the addition of more than 1,100 members and the development of a multi-use campus.
Dr. Curtis is a co-founder of The Pillar Network for Church Planting, whose offices are located in Raleigh, NC (www.thepillarnetwork.com). Over the past 20 years, Cornerstone has partnered with 18 national and international church plants, including serving as the lead sponsoring church for 8 new congregations.
While most of Cornerstone’s planting work has been located in other parts of the country, CBC Hartsville is our first campus in the Florence/Darlington region. Our Hartsville campus will share the same mission as our home campus:
Our primary mission is to magnify the glory of God by serving as a gathering place for people of all ethnic and socio-economic groups, united in purpose around the person of Jesus Christ and the inerrant Word of God.
This mission reveals itself through three primary areas of ministry focus:
- God-glorify worship: Worship at Cornerstone revolves around dynamic praise and Bible teaching. Both of these elements, energized by the Holy Spirit, are essential for authentic worship to occur in the lives of people. At Cornerstone, we utilize a variety of worship elements to help worshipers connect with an ancient message through contemporary methods. We use all of these methods to enhance our understanding and pursuit of the glory of God!
- God-glorifying small groups: Disciple-making at Cornerstone revolves around a comprehensive approach for growing Christ-followers in every age group, from children to adults. Through weekly life groups and Aspire training partnerships, it is our desire to see people grow in their capacity to glorify God with their lives as they grow in their understanding of God’s Word.
- God-glorifying missions: At Cornerstone, we believe that every Christian is gifted by the Holy Spirit to glorify God through Christian service. Our goal is to help every disciple discover their gifts, so that they may use those gifts in multiple ways to multiply the spread of the Gospel for the glory of God.
As you read this, you may be wondering about the timeline for the launch of this new campus. As you might imagine, there is much to be done before we are ready to officially launch. We want to be sure that we have everything prepped and ready when we invite our Hartsville neighbors to begin worshiping with us.
In the meantime, there is something you can do for us—PRAY! Please ask God to guide our steps through this transition phase. Then, drop by this page for regular updates about our status. Finally, keep your eyes out for what’s happening on our 4th Street campus—you’ll be able to see things changing in the coming days!
Blessings to you!
Dr. Bill Curtis, Lead Pastor
