Cornerstone Church of Silicon Valley is the first New Church Development (NCD) of San Jose Presbytery in about a decade

"... we've come a long way, but we've still got a long way to go."

By Paul Lee, Pastor

One recent development has been the move from a nesting situation to our own location. We had been searching for a suitable place for us to move into that would allow us to worship in the morning. For five years, we worshipped in the midafternoon. For almost the same amount of time, we received calls after calls that ended with, well, we're looking for a morning meeting ... (insert your favorite cry of ministerial anguish)

Part of the problem was that we had it so easy with our wonderful and supportive nesting church. In fact, moving was one of the first things I proposed (shot down with questions about my moral character and emotional stability before folks got personal). We had the run (practically rent free) of an enormous campus in one of the toniest parts of Silicon Valley. The only compromise was a time that did not fit our needs. As the organizing pastor, I realized that we were dangerously close to settling into a renter's mentality.

Finally, after a couple of disappointing starts, we all started to realize that this basic part of our church's identity needed to be changed. But this is where being new worked to our advantage. We had no legacy other than the one we were starting to build. So, we started to look.

For over two years, we faced disappointments. Then, we suddenly received a call from our excited stated clerk — yes, stated clerks do get excited at times other than parliamentary inquiries — alerting us of a possible location. To put things into perspective, our presbytery is located in an area where the median home price is well north of 600,000 dollars for a three bedroom fixer-upper (translated for non-Bay Area folks, cottage). So, hoping for the best (our initial deliberation: anything short of dioxin, asbestos or some meshugahs, we'll strongly consider), we showed up for a look-see.

What we found was a 7,000 square foot office filled with cubicles. Now I would love to tell you that we saw a mysterious office chair burning in the middle, but, well, we didn't. It wasn't perfect. But it was strangely right. It was then that God moved us with both grace and powerful assurance.

We prayed. Then we crunched the numbers. We thought, No! The numbers don't add up. However, instead of giving up, we prayed some more. And along the way, something wonderful happened. In less than three weeks, God revealed a way for us to move into a place that we had never even thought possible. The presbytery partnered up with us, and within our church we came to a consensus in our steering committee to, well, commit. So there it was — a strange call among the cubicles.

A month and a half into the new place, not much has changed. But we are in the game, engaged in our culture of Sunday brunches and hikes. Are we perfect yet? No, not really. But we are just a little bit more relevant and that helps.