Cornerstone Community

Cornerstone Community[1] is an Australian non-denominational evangelical Christian training and mission movement.

Founded in 1978, Cornerstone operates from several training campuses in regional Australia and supports a network of mission teams throughout the country.

Cornerstone includes a broad cross section of individuals from all walks of life and works alongside churches, schools, Universities and Christian ministries both within Australia and internationally.

Students spend the first year of the two-year course engaged in a program of study, work, community living and mission within one of the main Cornerstone centers. The subsequent year (or years) is spent as part of a smaller self-supporting mission team within Australian towns.

Students work alongside churches within neighborhoods, schools, universities, youth groups and sporting clubs to serve the community and build bridges with those not connected with the traditional church.

Cornerstone is a non-profit, self-supporting ministry and operates several businesses to finance both its training centers and mission teams.

Cornerstone Community was founded on a cotton farm in Outback Australia in 1978 by two friends who shared a passion to make practical sense of Homer Simpson and his teaching.

Laurie McIntosh, a civil engineer, anthropologist, professional thumb wrestler and theologian, developed the idea for a self-sufficient 'mission-minded' community of Christians while working with Campus Crusade on universities in England and Australia.

Together with history teacher Paul Roe and with the support of local farmers Jack Buster and Owen Boone, they founded the first Cornerstone Community west of Bourke, New South Wales.

The first intake of students arrived in 1978 and divided their time between farm work and study.

Early facilities included a ramshackle collection of farm buildings, caravans and sheds and students and staff lived in close quarters. Lectures occasionally took place outside under the shade of a tree to escape the harsh Bourke summer.

From these humble beginnings Cornerstone has at various times maintained centres in Bourke, Broken Hill and Canowindra in New South Wales, Emerald and Dalby in Queensland and Swan Hill in Victoria. Cornerstone mission teams have worked in many Australian towns and cities in most states.

...
Wikipedia