Downtown Cornerstone, 

Like every year, the Lord was good to us in 2025. However, it was an exceptional year. 

For one, we got into our new building. It's difficult to adequately express the significance of this. Of course, churches have rented and retrofitted spaces downtown for decades. Suburban megachurch multi-campus sites have come and gone. Existing mainline churches have partnered with developers to create new multi-use spaces. 

But for a downtown church to buy, build, and continue to be around, that—at least according to my research—hasn’t happened in over a hundred years. This is clearly God’s doing. 

This was also an exceptional year because we turned 15 years old. We didn’t make much of this at the time because of all that was going on, but it's worth taking a moment to reflect. Technically, DCC was born on Sunday evening, August 29th, 2010, when we formally constituted as a church by committing to Jesus and one another, by taking the Lord’s Supper together for the first time. Then, on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011, we began holding public gatherings.

Over the last 15 years, we’ve grown from 14 people to a multiethnic, multigenerational, multilingual, diverse assembly of hundreds. Jesus is doing the humanly impossible in the least religious metro in the US. Can you believe we get to be a part of this together? 

While much has changed, both within our church and around us, our reason for being hasn’t: We exist to know Jesus, and to make Him known, for the glory of God and the joy of all people. We still long to see as many as possible, from the avenues to the alleyways, know Jesus, and live life as it was intended, in Him. We still aim to make disciples who make disciples. We still pray to see churches planted among the neighborhoods of Seattle and the unreached peoples of the world.

So, this Annual Report is a simple digest of one more year of God doing that work, in and through us, for His glory and our joy. Not all fruit can be seen, let alone counted. But some can. So, it’s fitting to praise Him for it, while asking for more. Some of this fruit-that-can-be-seen is recounted here for our encouragement and His praise:

Evidences of Grace
Preaching
Making Disciples
Being a Faithful Presence
Readying Our Future Gospel Outpost
Taking the Gospel to the Nations
2026: Looking Forward
Evidences of Changed Lives
Partner with Us

What a privilege to be part of the greatest cause on earth together in our beloved city. His story is still unfolding, and we’re a part of it. Let’s ask Him to do what only He can in 2026 (Eph. 3:20-21). He is able. 

“Your name, O Lord, endures forever,
your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages.” Psalm 135:13

Christ is all, 
Pastor Adam

EvidencEs of GraCe

MILESTONES

We celebrated our 15th birthday as a church and moved into our new permanent building, a God-given Gospel outpost for years to come!

Salvation

We witnessed many friends put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We also rejoiced in 13 stories of God’s grace through baptism!

PREACHING

We began the year with our annual New Year Essentials series. We continued our verse-by-verse series in Luke and concluded our series in Hebrews 11. On the first Sunday in our new building, we walked through Isaiah 28:16, our new building’s street address, and by Christ’s providence, the passage illustrating Christ as The Cornerstone. We studied Romans 1 during our Easter Sunday Gathering and then began a new series titled Psalms: Songs for Life. On Reformation Sunday, we studied Galatians, and we concluded the year in John for our Christmas Eve Gathering.

Leadership

We had our yearly Leadership Lab for ministry leads in our body. We voted to install 8 new deacons, with many more in development.

Membership

We welcomed 59 new members! We (sadly) said goodbye to 22 members, the majority of whom moved.

Discipleship

Equipping Hour, DCC's Sunday School, was launched in September. Discipleship classes are offered weekly for infants through adults. We began with Missions, How to Grow, and Women's Bible Study for adults, in addition to our regular Foundations and Exploring Christianity classes. Others, like our premarital class, also happened throughout the year.

Over 160 people attended at least one Foundations Class in 2025, and an additional 190 people attended at least one of the other classes offered.

Over 90 folks attended our Midweek Bible Study, which worked through 1 Peter and is continuing in the book of Acts.

Communities

360 people participated in one of our 17 Cornerstone Communities to eat together, pray together, study the Bible together, and share life together.

Families & Biblical Care

Discipleship among our children and students took big steps forward through the addition of weekly Equipping Hour classes and an inaugural CYouth summer retreat.

Our Disability ministry continued its progress of making our local church more inclusive for people of all abilities through the launch of our Access Bible study for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Counseling ministry successfully repeated a Biblical Counseling training cohort in the spring that equipped 24 members with scriptural vision and practices for change, challenge, and comfort.

Mercy

We continued to strive to be a salty, bright, faithful presence in Seattle. We welcomed 4 new foster children among our church family with 3 care teams. Over 50 participants helped contribute to 16 mercy service events this year, ranging from meeting tangible needs of our neighbors to serving meals for homeless shelters.

MISSIONS & Church Planting

We continued to support church-planting efforts around the globe, including two DCC members serving in SE Asia, one having completed training at Radius International, two training at Safir Global Training, as well as church planting efforts in Japan and Turkey.

FINANCES

By God's grace, we exceeded our budgeted goal for giving in 2025. That allowed us to meet all of our obligations. We are grateful to the Lord for his continual provisions that come from his people with DCC.

* These numbers don’t include the countless coffees shared, counseling times, and discipleship moments had over the past year.

Preaching

GOD IS GLORIFIED WHEN THE DEPTH OF HIS RICHES, WISDOM, AND KNOWLEDGE, IN JESUS, IS Heralded FROM HIS WORD—LEADING TO NEW HEARTS, RENEWED MINDS, AND FAITH-FILLED LIVES.

New Year Essentials

As part of our annual New Year Essentials series, we considered important themes that we must repeatedly return to for the glory of God and the transformation of our lives.

Luke

We continued our multi-year study of Luke, currently 72 sermons, being reminded weekly of His life, death, and resurrection to rescue a people of His own from among the nations.

Hebrews 11

We finished our series in Hebrews 11 titled Living Forward to a Better Country, which studyed the faithful endurance of ancient believers, stories which call us to hear and respond in faith.

ISaiah 28:16

The first Sunday in our new building, we considered Isaiah 28:16. This passage is one of the most important in the first testament that speaks about God’s promise of a coming Cornerstone - our namesake - that will be a sure foundation for His people.

PSALMS: SONGS FOR LIFE

We began a new series in the Psalms titled Songs For Life, learning how this book offers ancient, inspired prayers for orienting us to God in the day-to-day.

Easter Sunday

On Good Friday, we remembered Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross. On Easter Sunday, we celebrated Jesus’ climactic victory over the grave through his resurrection. In our passage in Romans 1, we were reminded of the widespread New Testament assumption that Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead. The Apostle Paul argues that Jesus’ resurrection is irrefutable proof that He is the unique Son of God.

Reformation Sunday

On Reformation Sunday, we took time to consider whether the Protestant Reformation is over. Sadly, the answer is “no.” The Reformation continues. The concerns raised with Catholicism remain largely unchanged, as it continues to spread a false gospel. So, how can we help? By protecting, upholding, and spreading the only authoritative, God-given, Apostolic gospel that saves.

Christmas Eve

We concluded the year with our Christmas Eve service, as we studied one of Jesus’ unsearchable riches, the glory of His invitation in John 17.

We also hosted our annual workshops on biblical exposition in partnership with Charles Simeon Trust to train and grow faithful biblical preachers and expositors across churches in our region.

Making Disciples

The heart of Jesus’ commission to his church is to make disciples. The term disciple refers to being a student, a follower, or a learner. Being a disciple of Jesus is the lifelong process of learning to trust and become more like Him in every sphere of life—and help others do the same.

The Lord has been faithful in the life of our church family, amidst the waiting, as we focused on discipleship, worship, and service:

• Sunday serving teams worked to tangibly love another, and to welcome and support those new with us.

• Cornerstone Kids & Youth partnered with parents to joyfully teach, show, and model who Jesus is to the children.

• Newcomers’ Coffee and Foundations classes have been a relational on-ramp for those new with us, and our Pre-Marital and Exploring Christianity classes have helped disciple both those new and mature in the Faith.

• Our Midweek Bible Study continued in the fall, led by DCC pastor-elders, studying 1 Timothy, Philippians, and 1 Peter.

• Mercy events, including two blood drives, served the tangible needs of our neighbors.

• We continued to care well for those hurting through growing our peer-to-peer counseling capacity.

• We hosted three Men’s and three Women’s Discipleship Events over the year, as intentional times for training and spiritual growth.

Sunday Gatherings: 2025 Top 5 Songs

These are the songs, in order, we sang the most on Sundays in 2025.

1. God Is For Us

2. Grace Alone

3. How Great Thou Art

4. Come Thou Fount

5. More Than Conquerors

Bookstore: 2025 Top 5 Books SOld

1. ESV Study Bible

2. The Lord of Psalm 23, David Gibson

3. The Rhyme Bible Storybook, L.J. Sattgast

4. When People are Big and God is Small, Edward Welch

5. Praying with Paul, D.A. Carson

Bookstore: 2025 Top 5 Genres

1. Spiritual Disciplines

2. Kids Story Bibles

3. Theology

4. Devotional

5. Bible

313 Total Books Sold | 285 Titles Offered

Being A Faithful presence

Declaring the good news of Jesus and being a display of that good news to our city.

For years, we prayed that the Lord would provide a permanent home for us in the heart of our city. By God's grace, that prayer was answered!

Since our earliest days as a church, we asked the Lord to give us a permanent home in the heart of our city. A place to worship God, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, train leaders, build meaningful relationships, plant churches, and love our city to life. In a city where churches compete with developers and tech companies for real estate, a permanent home seemed like a distant hope. But not to Jesus.

By God's grace, in December 2020 the Lord opened the door for us to purchase a building on the corner of 1st Ave and Broad St, in the heart of Belltown. Over the following years, he provided the resources we needed for a complete gut and remodel, and on Sunday, February 26, we gathered for our first worship gathering in our new home!

The road to that day was not without challenges and delays. Yet the Lord proved kind and faithful at every turn, going before us and providing for our every need.

This building is not an arrival, but the next chapter. It is a gift meant to serve the mission and be passed to the next generation until Jesus returns. Take a moment to praise and thank the Lord for his faithfulness, and for this place he has entrusted to us.

God has given his people, the church, the mission of making and maturing disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). Disciples are made through the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 10:14-15) and are brought to maturity by engaging in the life of the church (Eph. 4:11-16).

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