Our Story

We are a church in Saint Mary's County, Maryland who seeks to meet people and help them come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  We hope and pray that each day individuals would grow in knowledge of what they believe about the gospel, recognition of why it is universal good news, and how to live the gospel out in daily life.

In 1989, Jim and Jeanne Mansfield started a Bible study in their Leonardtown home. By 1991, more than thirty people were attending the Bible study each week. As the group grew, so did its vision to start a church and its desire for a pastor to lead each of them. In April 1991, Pastor Terry Baxley and his family arrived to Southern Maryland to lead the work of planting a new church.

Pastor Terry's vision was not just to have a church that would serve a few Reformed Presbyterians, but to have one that would reach people who hadn't heard about Jesus with the gospel. Thus, the church core group called over 20,000 residents of St. Mary's and Calvert Counties in the summer of 1991 to ask those who did not already have a church home if they would like to receive information about Cornerstone. 

From April to September 1991, sixty people met weekly in the Baxley's 1,800 square foot home. Each Sunday, everyone squeezed into the dining/living area for a time of praise and worship. The church quickly outgrew its space and over time it became clear that God was leading Cornerstone's heart to pray for a church building.  God answered these prayers by providing a church building in the Town Creek neighborhood in 1994.

By 2000, Cornerstone had once again outgrown its church building, and Cornerstone began to pray through plans to build a new sanctuary building on the property.  The construction of the new sanctuary was started  in late 2000 and in the Spring of 2001, the Cornerstone sanctuary  was completed!

In 2009, after 18 years of faithful service at Cornerstone, Pastor Terry Baxley retires and Cornerstone calls Pastor Walt Nilsson
as Senior Pastor.

In the Spring of 2021, we celebrated 30 years of God's work through Cornerstone!

"We are here today because previous generations have invested in us... Why has God prospered us? For our reputation? Make no mistake. It is so that we would bless others."  We desire to be a blessing to our community through the making and growing of disciples in SoMD and the world.