In the early 90s, longtime friends were sharing about their church experience and how God was impacting their lives. After spending time in California and experiencing worship that spoke directly to their heart and culture, they all started to dream about the possibility of a church like this back in Seattle. Their heart was to foster a contemporary community that was focused on reaching Asian-Americans with the Gospel of Christ.
In 1992, Joe Yoshihara started to attend seminary when he faced his first big setback. Key members who were going to help start this church felt the conviction to not proceed and had to step away. After critical encouragement from other pastors Joe and Rita both felt the conviction to continue moving forward. What began as two dozen people gathering in a living room on Saturday mornings eventually grew into a full launch team.
On March 24, 1996 Cornerstone Christian Fellowship held its first Sunday service in the chapel of Eastside Christian School. A whopping 140 people showed up to the service - which was more than anyone had expected.
In 2008, Cornerstone moved to Lake Hills Elementary and in 2016 we acquired an office building that we remodeled into a ministry center to house mid-week ministries and our administrative offices.
In 2026, after 30 years of pastoring Cornerstone, pastor Joe Yoshihara officially steps down and commissions pastor Gordon Tsai as the next lead pastor of Cornerstone. A lot has changed over the years, but what has stayed the same is our desire to extend God's Kingdom, to grow passionate followers of Christ, and to have a love that is contagious!