History of Cornerstone
Full Gospel Baptist

Cornerstone Baptist Church was organized in October 1993, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama by forty-one (41) members, led by its founder, Pastor Earnest L. Palmer. The Church was originally established as Cornerstone Ministries, Inc., with the purposes of conducting weekly church services, promotion of outreach ministries, and to become a kingdom people, who do kingdom things, the kingdom way.

Initially church meetings were held in various church members’ homes as well as Rollins Mortuary, McDonald Hughes Center, The Woolsworth and Brown Department Store, and Stillman College.  A local business informed Cornerstone about a Church, Emmanuel Baptist Church, which was looking for a buyer.  The facility was located at 610 Brooksdale Drive.  The congregation gathered and prayed in the parking lot, claiming the facility.  Cornerstone was able to hold the next three (3) services at the location at 1:00 pm following the 11:00 am worship service of Emmanuel Baptist Church.  Cornerstone moved into the present site, 610 Brooksdale Drive in November 1993.  This site was in the heart of a drug-infested community with no community-based worship services being offered.  Cornerstone later became affiliated and connected with The Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, and changed its name to Cornerstone Full Gospel Baptist Church in 1999.

By the grace of God, we have been afforded the opportunity to facilitate the needs of thousands of people, both spiritually and physically, over the last twenty-six (26) years at 610 Brooksdale Drive, and we believe that bigger, better, and greater is still to come.  We have seen Cornerstone grow from those 41 founding members to over 1,500 members.  Multiple worship services in multiple locations were implemented on Sunday mornings to meet the needs of those seeking God like never before.

Cornerstone erected a new worship facility in June 2002, to hold worship services because it had out grown its previous sanctuary. In addition, Wednesday in the Word was extended into two (2) sessions on Wednesdays. The Child and Youth Development now known as Kontagious Kidz, facilitate their own worship services on 1st and 3rd Sundays each month. Our Worship & Arts ministry has had numerous opportunities to minister in song with some of the most highly acclaimed gospel artists in the kingdom of God. Most notably, they released their first cd project entitled, The Order of Worship, in 2014 which debuted on the top 20 billboard gospel music charts in it’s first week of release. Our founding pastor, Bishop Earnest L. Palmer, retired from full-time pastoral ministry in October of 2015 and passed the mantle of pastoral leadership on to Overseer Freddie Washington II, who previously served as Executive Pastor.

Pastor Freddie also serves as International Overseer of Minstrels and 2nd assistant to the Bishop of Worship for the FGBCFI. Cornerstone continues to be an oasis of hope within the Tuscaloosa community and around the world, and endeavors to “change a generation” of believers for years to come.