The History of Cornerstone

Cornerstone Church was started as a daughter church of Hunt Valley Church to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ in the northern Carroll County area.

In February of 2004, Todd Hare was hired by Hunt Valley Church as an Assistant Pastor, to prepare for the launching of a new church. After ordination by the Presbyterian Church in America in June of 2005, work on the new church began.

In the Fall of 2005 a group of people began meeting at the home of Todd and Nancy Hare to discuss a new church.  After exploring the possibility of beginning in the Westminster area, it was determined that a new church, begun in the Hampstead/Manchester location, might better serve the goal of reaching new residents in northern Carroll County.  The need for a new church was evident by a growing population in an area where older churches were struggling to reach new residents.

The group developed a strategy to reach out to families in the community during a series of Sunday evening events called “Cornerstone Café.” The Café’s ran from February to May of 2006.  Meeting at the North Carroll Sr. Center, in Hampstead Maryland, the weekly Sunday night meetings were a combination of Bible teaching mixed with a variety of activities for children and adults.

In the summer of 2006, bi-monthly outdoor worship services, called “Sundays in the Park”, were held at Cape Horn Park in Hampstead, Maryland. On September 19, 2006, weekly Sunday morning worship services began in the newly renovated North Carroll Senior and Community Center on Hanover Pike in Hampstead, Maryland.

When the Senior Center became unavailable in January of 2010, the church met for two and a half months in the “Boy Scouts Room” at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Manchester.  On March 28, 2010, Cornerstone began meeting at its current location, 4219 Hanover Pike, in Manchester Maryland.

On November 20, 2011 Cornerstone Church was officially organized as a particular church of the Chesapeake Presbytery, Presbyterian Church in America, marking its departure from mission church status. During an evening service of praise and dedication the church’s first ruling elders, Chuck Freitag and Bremen Trail were elected and installed and teaching elder, The Reverend Todd Hare, was officially called by the congregation to serve as Pastor.