Church Spotlight: Cornerstone Church

When I first started blogging, one of the aspects I most enjoyed was sharing stories from churches and leaders who might be off your radar. I’d like to begin sharing some of those stories again. I think these will be an encouragement to those of us in church leadership. With that, meet Rusty Hutson, Lead Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Auburn, Alabama.

TONY: Tell us a little bit about your call to ministry.

RUSTY: I was in a discipleship group of men who challenged me and caused me to reassess my purpose in life. In 1992, I accepted a call to ministry and my wife and I moved to Wilmore, Kentucky where I attended Asbury Seminary and received a Master of Divinity degree in 1996. I also read the book “Rediscovering Church” by Bill Hybels and it changed my whole idea of doing church. We packed up the kids and headed to Chicago one Friday afternoon just to see what was happening at Willow Creek. I was deeply impacted by the experience of being at this amazing church. I was appointed by the United Methodist Church back to my hometown of Montgomery, Alabama as an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church. After 3 1/2 years, I was then appointed to start a new church in the Auburn, Alabama area.

TONY: When did your church launch?

RUSTY: Cornerstone started as a classic “parachute drop”. I had no people and no buildings. It was just my wife and our three boys. We gathered a small group of people in October 1999 who were committed to seeing a new church happen. We met every week to pray and gain a vision for whatever God wanted to do through us to reach non-believers with the love of Christ. We launched on January 9, 2000 in an Auburn skate center with 235 people in attendance. Ten years later, here we are with 1,000 in attendance and three services accomplishing what God set out for us to do.

TONY: Where are you located?

RUSTY: We are located in southeast Auburn in a growing section of town. We have a 20,000 square foot facility on 20 acres of property right off a main artery that connects Auburn and Opelika.

TONY: Tell us something unique about your church.

RUSTY: One of the most unique things about our church is where we started. When our original core group began to research possible locations to worship, the only place we could find that would suit our space needs was the local skate center. We felt like it was the place God had chosen for us, so we took it (even after experiencing the overwhelming smell of sweaty socks and stale nachos from the snack bar). We became known as the “skate center” church, which ended up being a good brand for us. We didn’t have access to the building during the week, so we had to set it up and take it down every Sunday. It took an army of deeply committed servants to accomplish this each week for five years. However, that spirit of service has stuck with us. In keeping that spirit alive, we decided to buy the disco ball from the skate center and had it put right in the middle of our worship space just before the grand opening of our building in 2005.

TONY: Any ministry highlights from recent months?

RUSTY: We just celebrated our tenth anniversary this January, which was a huge milestone for us. We have also almost completed a vision we have been working on in Uganda since 2006. We partner with a church in a town called Buloba. We have dug a well right near the church where all the people from the area come to get clean drinking water. The people who live within walking distance know that Buloba Community Church provided this for them. It has become an incredible tool for evangelism. We have started a child sponsorship program in the community. This fall we completed our goal of sponsoring over 300 children. We are in the process of completing a church building that will house worship, a school and offices for the pastor and the administrators of the school/child sponsorship program.

TONY: What’s your latest leadership learning?

RUSTY: I guess I am learning how to lead at this level. Every time we grow I feel like I’m having to gain new skills that help me deal with more staff, more leaders and more complexity. Also, as we look toward the future I’m on my knees a lot more. This is good because, honestly, I’m not the leader God needs me to be yet. I think I’m learning to rely on Him more and less on any ability I may think I have. I’m learning how truly inadequate and privileged I am to get to do this.