ABOUT US
SUPPORT US
BIOGRAPHY
PRAY. GIVE. JOIN. Adam is a native to the Northwest. Born in Seattle, he grew up in Olympia, but returned to attend the University of Washington. While at the UW, Adam met Jesus, his wife Jen, and earned two Bachelor degrees. Adam and Jen have been married for nearly a decade and can often be found adventuring around downtown Seattle with their two young children, Carter and Macy.
Adam was actively involved in Mars Hill Church, in Seattle, WA, for over a decade. He served five years on staff in several roles, including Acts 29 Assistant Director and the West Seattle Campus Pastor. He has continued to work closely with Acts 29, including most recently, serving as the Northwest region lead and the area director for Latin America. He is currently completing his Masters degree in Biblical Studies through Reformed Theological Seminary.
That’s where we’re going, but we need your help. Pray. For all our strategizing and preparation, we cannot succeed without the Spirit
of God building His church. Please pray with and for us daily. Give. Our aim is to be self-sustaining by the fall of 2014. The following chart
demonstrates how we will transition from being a church supported by outside financial partners to becoming a self-sustaining, multiplying church. 100% 80%
External Funds
60% 40%
Internal Funds
20% 0%
YEAR 1
Jeff Lilley President of Union Gospel Mission, Seattle
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YEAR 4
AMOUNT FREQUENCY $10,000 one time $5,000 one time $1,000 one time $250 monthly/3 years $100 monthly/3 years $50 monthly/3 years $25 monthly/3 years
ENDORSEMENTS
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YEAR 3
Until then, we are seeking churches and individuals to join us as financial partners to help cover the cost of ministry through one-time gifts and 3-year monthly pledge commitments. Please consider partnering with us at one of the following levels:
Adam’s passion is to see the Gospel take root in the city of Seattle, rebels made into disciples of Jesus, and churches planted throughout the world.
From the first day I met Adam I was not only impressed, but blessed. He continues to invest personally in my life, and it is also an honor to partner with Adam and Downtown Cornerstone Church in ministry to Seattle. I love his passion for the City; his integrity and strength of character; and his singleness of purpose, especially when it involves the Gospel and its message of hope! Adam is a godly man who I’m honored to call a friend, and I am thrilled that God has called him to Seattle.”
YEAR 2
*All donations are tax-deductible.
Join. Lastly, pray about joining us and becoming an integral part of this new work.
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Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 1 Peter 2:6
In all honesty I can’t think of a leader I know more qualified to plant a vibrant gospel-centered church. I have the deepest respect and admiration for Adam and his family and fully support and recommend his new venture to honor Jesus through planting Downtown Cornerstone in Seattle. Dave Kraft Pastor of Leadership, Mars Hill Church, Seattle Author of Leaders Who Last
For more information about Downtown Cornerstone and to download the full vision prospectus, visit our website. www.downtowncornerstone.org info@downtowncornerstone.org 1700 7th Ave, STE 116 #324, Seattle, WA 98101-1323
DOWNTOWN CORNERSTONE
OUR CITY
OUR VISION AND VALUES
AN INTRODUCTION
SEATTLE
THE MISSION
Seattle is a beautiful, diverse, strategic and paradoxical city. Surrounded by vast bodies of water, paralleled by the towering snow-capped peaks of the Cascades and Olympics, and shrouded under cloud cover over 200 days per year, Seattle is a natural anomaly. It’s been called “Rain City”, “Jet City”, and more recently “Emerald City”. It’s the birth place of Jimi Hendrix, Windows OS, “grunge” music, Amazon.com, the 747, and the ubiquitous Starbucks Mermaid.
WHY WE EXIST.
Seattle is a city of polarities: corporate yet raw, smart yet simple, hopeful yet deeply skeptical, professional yet real, established yet creative, home-grown yet worldwide, independent yet communal, natural yet technological, traffic-filled yet “green”. On any given day you will see corporate executives, tourists, exchange students, men wearing kilts, college hipsters, veteran cyclists, soccer moms, tattooed baristas, and guitar-toting musicians rubbing shoulders in a single city block. This is Seattle.
Cornerstone of the church and of reality itself. We exist for Him.
Yet, amidst the beauty, creativity, ingenuity, and passion of this city:
here. We are not in the city to stand above the city (in judgment) or to hide under the city (in fear) or to mirror the city (in surrender), but to serve and challenge the city (in love).
There is a story unfolding all around us. It’s a story we’re all a part of. It’s the story upon which all other stories rest. It’s the greatest story ever told, filled to the edges with the greatest news ever imagined. It’s a story in which life, joy, and hope are at stake, now and forever. It explains our deepest longings and our highest hopes. It’s a story no one can escape, though many try. It’s a story that tells us who we are and who we will be. It’s a story
that explains why the world is the way it is and why we long for something more, something better. It’s a story filled with great evil and immense good, wicked sin and fantastic grace, the heights of pride and the depths of humility, soul-numbing hate and wondrous love. It’s a story that promises to redeem all evil and, in time, make everything new. This is the true story of God. This story has one central character, Jesus
the Christ, one central event, the Cross, one central people, the Church, and unified by one central message, the Gospel. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3) to bring us home to God, destroy Satan, forgive sin, reverse the effects of the Fall, and once-and-for-all create a people for God out of all tribes, tongues and nations for His glory. The Gospel changes everything. Tragically, many do not know this God, this story or this Gospel. In
fact, many avoid Him, ignore Him, neuter Him, distort Him, domesticate Him, misunderstand Him, add to or subtract from Him, or simply hate Him. Many, however, have simply never heard of Him. So, we must go to them...
What you hold in your hands is the beginning of a new Gospel work, a church, forming in the city center of Seattle, founded on the chief cornerstone, Jesus the Christ. We invite you to read on and join us as we follow Jesus together.
■ L ess than 4% of the Seattle population identify themselves as Bible-believing Jesus-loving evangelical Christians. ■ S eattle serves as the epicenter of the region with the nation’s highest density of people who say they have no religion, including atheists & agnostics. ■ S eattle is the leading city in a state that regularly ranks among the least churched and least religious states in the country. ■ Th e majority of large evangelical churches have either left the city, moralized or politicized the gospel, or ceased to love the city. As a result, many are plateaued, declining or dead. ■ T o the average Seattleite, particularly in the urban core, evangelical Protestantism is invisible. Simply, Jesus is unknown.
THAT’S WHERE DOWNTOWN CORNERSTONE COMES IN.
The people of Downtown Cornerstone exist to build a great city through the Gospel for the glory of God by cultivating communities of Spirit-led Jesusfollowers that enjoy God, redemptively engage the city and reach the world. WHO WE ARE. Jesus. We love Jesus. He is our God. He is truth personified. He is the
Gospel. The Gospel is God’s good news to broken sinners that Jesus Christ
came to live, die and rise again for the forgiveness of sin. This news offers to bring us home to God for life that is truly life - every day. City. We love Seattle. We live here, work here, play here, and raise our families
Church. A church is a people, not a place or an institution, who have been
redeemed by Jesus and sent into their context to make God look as good as He really is. We are an urban expression of God’s people in the city. Mission. The mission of God is to make disciples (followers). We want to see
as many people as possible experience the sin-cleansing, shame-removing, lifechanging, world-altering power of the Gospel. We exist to share this news and our lives with urban workers, urban dwellers and the world. Renewal. We are committed to building a great city, not just a great church,
through justice, mercy, creativity, and partnership. We do this by redemptively engaging the city through spiritual, social, and cultural renewal. Multiplication. Do it all again. Everywhere.
A NEW CITY We envision thousands of people from every corner of the city united under a new identity in Jesus and sent to love, serve and challenge the city...and the cities of the world. Out of personal Gospel renewal, urban renewal will flow, as the very spiritual, social and cultural fabric of Seattle is redeemed. To achieve this, our prayerful aim is to create a movement of autonomous Gospel-centered churches in every neighborhood of the city. Through the city, we’ll reach the world.