Cornerstone Ministries, The United Methodist Church Takes Christian Education on the Road
As all of us were beginning to emerge from the COVID pandemic, Cornerstone Ministries began to explore ways to re-engage children in the community with Christian education. A plan was developed to purchase and equip a mobile children’s ministry unit trailer and select a site with a high concentration of children who may also be facing issues of food insecurity.
With support from a WV Annual Conference Congregational Vitality grant, Cornerstone Kid’s Connection successfully launched in July 2022. Offering a meal, crafts, games, Christian education, reading enrichment, and a take-home food kit, Cornerstone ministered to roughly a dozen children each week, most of whom came from a targeted apartment complex, through the months of July and early August. The event culminated in Back-to-School Bash which distributed school supplies. Next year, Cornerstone plans to expand its number of site with nearly two dozen excited volunteers.
Cornerstone Ministries, The United Methodist Church Launches the Upper Room Prayer Center
In 2018, Cornerstone Ministries moved on a vision to establish an administrative and ministry center in the community and purchased a house adjacent to the Boothsville United Methodist Church. As the property was being developed as the Cornerstone Parish House and Ministry Center, the vision emerged to convert a detached garage on the property into a dedicated prayer chapel and prayer ministry center.
While COVID greatly slowed the development of the prayer center, in 2022, the Trustees re-engaged the project and the Upper Room Prayer Center was completed and began its ministry in the late summer of 2022. In addition to offering a dedicated space for daily prayer teams, Cornerstone ministry is developing a robust ministry of prayer counseling, special days of prayer observance, emotional and physical healing services, public prayer request boxes, and a dedicated prayer line. The facility contains a chapel area and two prayer counseling rooms. The combination lock entrance system has been shared with other area churches so that this ministry can truly support the entire community.
The project will be complete in 2023 with the addition to a replica of an outdoor replica of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and a small steeple.
