Today we visited Cornerstone Bible Church in Lilburn. First, here are some impressions we got just from their website, prior to visiting them:

The website lists the pastor's training as Dallas Theological Seminary. Zola Levitt established well the problems with Dallas, especially their Replacement Theology, which demonstrates their highly errant interpretation of Scripture. I'm not sure when Dallas started to stray, and since the senior pastor of Cornerstone graduated Dallas in 1971, there's a fair chance his training preceded Dallas' apostasy.

The senior pastor has been with Cornerstone since he graduated seminary. This could be a good thing, since he's more likely to have faced the consequences of his choices at Cornerstone. This could also be a bad thing, since it can--and often does--imply an empire mentality; that is, the church could be viewed as the pastor's little empire, imply self-worship, megalomania, or merely control issues. Our one visit was unable to prove this out one way or the other, except that I got the distinct impression the senior pastor was indeed an egotist.

The associate pastor is the one responsible for actual pastoring, caring for the flock, discipleship, etc. I am forced to wonder what the role is for the senior pastor. Clearly, "pastor" doesn't fit him. Often, such an arrangement means the senior pastor is the "visionary" (as if the pastor's vision trumped the Lord's).

The associate pastor, children's pastor, and administrator were all raised at Cornerstone. This may be an excellent testimony to Cornerstone, or it may be a problem of "inbreeding", doctrinally speaking.

Altogether, the website's description of the staff paints a picture that just might say "control freak" and "pastor worship". Our brief time there did not suggest anything better.

The sermon, delivered by the senior pastor, was quite bad structurally and aesthetically. It was poorly delivered, monotone, and almost put the whole room to sleep. While the sermon was presented in the notes as being connected to a Scripture lesson, the pastor's anecdotes and "profundities" seemed very disconnected. What points he did make were clearly baby food. It was scattered, almost random, and he seemed to really work to stretch his desired point to make it come anywhere close to the Scripture he was supposedly preaching. He quoted many big names in church history, though, and these quotations were certainly good even if isolated and disconnected.

The only doctrinal question I could see was when he said we are rewarded "precisely to the degree" we suffer (presumably for His sake). It's true that we are rewarded for our suffering, but I don't believe Scripture says that suffering is our only source of reward or that our reward and suffering are "precisely" linked. The way he said it, especially emphasizing the word "precisely", he seemed to imply rewards were only for suffering and only insomuch as we suffer. Obviously, Christ did not want us to become masochists for His sake, let alone forsake all the other good deeds we do out of obedience.

The church was quite packed. I'd estimate over 300 people attended the one Sunday worship service. I'm not sure even a single seat was open. They were generally friendly to us, even if they didn't seem to recognize us as visitors. One of the elders finally caught on that we may be visitors and asked us so on our way out. (He seemed to have a gentle, humble spirit.) The music, a good mixture of hymns and contemporary, was mostly familiar--I think two of the eight songs were unfamiliar to me--even if not lively. In fact, the whole service was much less than lively. Leaders and congregants alike seemed to be merely going through the motions. There was certainly no charisma.

Overall, they were friendly even if seemingly spiritually dead or comatose. I believe they suffer from the usual malady of pastor-worship, and the senior pastor doesn't seem to discourage this. While doctrinally reasonable at first glance, given our short exposure, their stated and preached doctrine don't seem to have substance. Cornerstone almost seemed like the skin of a church without much in the way of living organs. I don't think we'll be returning.