The Corners Chapel relaunches as independent church

by Nicole Rosselot

The Chapel Nordonia, one of seven branch campuses of The Chapel in Akron, recently relaunched as an independent church, now known as The Corners Chapel.

According to Pastor Chase L. Jones, pastoral leadership at all seven campuses of The Chapel agreed that their growing congregations would be better served if the churches operated independently of one another.

“It was a philosophical shift,” Jones said. “There are a lot of benefits with [our churches] being together, but we realized we can do more when we are focused on our individual plans.”

Last summer, after many months of discussion, church leaders of all branches of The Chapel shared this new ministry model with their congregations. Members at each of the campuses voted on the plan in September, and according to Jones, members voted overwhelmingly in favor of becoming independent.

According to thechapel.life, 97.5% of members voted in favor of the change. The website went on to state, “We envision a future of multiplying fruitful churches in pursuit of seeing the Great Commission fulfilled–a future that is deeply rooted in our rich history as an evangelical non-denominational church.”

The newly autonomous churches remain connected through their biblical beliefs and their joint support and leadership of Camp Carl, a Christ-centered youth camp in Ravenna.

“We [pastoral leaders] do want to make sure we all maintain the same standards of biblical doctrine, so we will hold each other accountable, but there is no governing board,” Jones explained.

On Dec. 4, the Nordonia congregation officially relaunched their church as The Corners Chapel, a new name suggested by Jones. The idea came to him after he learned that over a century ago, the city of Macedonia was called The Corners.

“There is a historical side to the name and then we also say that part of our mission is to see the good news of Jesus reach every corner of the world,” Jones said.

Another change is the structure of church leadership. On Feb. 12, The Corners Chapel installed a new team of church elders. Previously, Jones was the only local leader at the Nordonia campus.

“We installed elders as part of our philosophical shift,” Jones said. “We thought that a plurality of elders was the most biblical model.” Jones is the lead pastor and an elder, along with elders Doug Fuhry, Fermin Gomez, Kevin L. Jones, Will Rasper and Valmir Soares.

The Corners Chapel is also financially independent from The Chapel. “It’s like taking the training wheels off the bike,” Jones said. “It forces us to recognize that all the resources we get now as a church go to our community and our mission partners.”

The Corners Chapel supports collections for The Emergency Assistance Center and holds events like backpack drives for the local schools. Globally, the church trains pastors in Mozambique to start new churches.

The mission and day-to-day services of The Corners Chapel remain the same. Sunday services are still held at Nordonia High School at 10:30 a.m. and small groups meet regularly to study the Bible and connect with one another.

As Jones plans for the future of the growing church, he has three important goals: “We want to be a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic and multi-generational church,” he said. “There is no perfect church and we are not perfect people. We are just a group of people that want to know and love Jesus better.” ∞