A Brief History of Cornerstone Bible Church
A meeting of interested people first met in November of 1863 with the purpose of starting a Baptist Church in Oil City, PA. In June of 1864 the congregation purchased a small house and lot on Seneca Street and held its first meeting. The original membership numbered seventeen.
In November of 1866, a charter was granted to the church and in February of 1867 the formal organization was completed. A pastor was hired at an annual salary of $1200. In August of 1869 the church was admitted to the Oil Creek Baptist Association. In October of 1869 land was purchased and in September of 1871 a new building was completed at a cost of $13,000.
In January of 1920, the building was destroyed by fire and a recently called pastor was told not to come. That pastor, Dr. B.C. Barrett came anyway. In 1921 a campaign was opened to rebuild the church and property was purchased on West First Street which is its current location. The new building was completed at a cost of $101,635 and dedicated in June of 1926.
Initially the church was called The First Regular Baptist Church of Oil City. At some point the name was changed to First Baptist Church.
In the summer of 1988, the church had gone through a series of pastors over the previous decade and was losing their present pastor. Tim Tygert, our pastor for 30 years, who was the director of Life Ministries in Franklin, PA was asked to fill the pulpit several times in the summer of 1988. In September of 1988, Tim was asked to be the interim pastor. In October of 1988, he was asked to stay on as their pastor. At that time, he told them that if there was a choice between the denomination position and the biblical position, he would stand for the biblical position.
In 2002, the church left the American Baptist denomination because of views held by the denomination that did not agree with the scriptural convictions of the church. In November of 2012, the church changed its name to Cornerstone Bible Church to reflect a name that did not separate or distance itself from the rest of the body but honored the name of Christ.
It has been the philosophy and pattern of the church in recent years to teach the scriptures by going through books of the Bible verse by verse.