Lead PAstor

Rev. Joshua M. Knott

Joshua counts it a great joy and privilege to have been raised in a Christian home. He made a profession of faith when he was young and gradually came to understand both the depths of his sin and the sufficiency and beauty of his Savior. Around the same time the gospel “came alive” he was drawn to the Word of God and to anyone he could share it with. Sensing a call to ministry throughout his youth, Joshua pursued a Biblical Studies major and Philosophy minor at Grove City College (B.A., 2001), and, after marrying his high school sweetheart, did his graduate work at Reformed Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2004). After serving 11 years as an Assistant and then Associate Pastor in Newark, Delaware, the Lord called Joshua and his family to Cornerstone in August of 2017.

Associate Pastor

Rev. Tim Burden

Tim comes to Cornerstone with a heart for adult discipleship and small groups. While studying at Covenant Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2004) he interned at the Francis Schaeffer Institute and at Grace & Peace Fellowship. After serving as an Assistant Pastor at Peace Presbyterian Church in Cary, NC he became Senior Pastor at Eau Claire Presbyterian Church here in Columbia, where he served for four years. Tim joined us in a part-time capacity in March of 2019, full-time Assistant Pastor in June 2022, and Associate Pastor in June 2023.

Worship Team Leaders

Debbie McDermet is a singer/song-writer and published author who brings years of experience leading praise and worship at both Cornerstone and Celebrate Recovery. Deb taught English in the public high schools of South Carolina for 25 years. She earned her B.A. in English and M.A. in British Literature from the University of South Carolina and M.Div. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives in Lexington, South Carolina, with her husband, Mark, and a myriad of rescued pets.

Bianca McDowell comes to us with a wealth of past music experience: Freeway Music as a voice and piano instructor; Shandon Baptist as a worship leader, choir director, and voice instructor; Musician Supply as voice and piano instructor; Northside Christian Academy as music teacher and choir director; Treehouse Music, LLC, as voice, piano, guitar teacher; and Richland Northeast High School as a vocal coach for their music magnet program. She graduated Cum Laude from Newberry College with a Bachelor of Music, Major in Vocal Performance and Minor in Piano.

Children's Director

Debbie Wenger

The daughter of missionary parents to Zimbabwe, Debbie grew up during a ten-year-long civil war in that nation. Such a childhood gave her many opportunities to see that God answers prayer and is at work today just as much as He has ever been. Moving to the US in 1987 to go to college at Columbia Bible College (now CIU), she graduated with a B.S. in Elementary Education and an M.A. in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) before marrying her husband, Mark

Debbie loves opening the Word of God with others, particularly children and young teens, and has used her training and her gifts in these capacities in every place she and her family have served: first at Cornerstone, while raising support to go out as trainers of cross-cultural workers in South Korea, then as a mother and teacher of her own children and those of others in her home, neighborhood, and then again at Cornerstone. Rather than going out as career trainers of cross-cultural witnesses of the gospel, the Wengers found God calling them to stay in Lexington, SC, where Debbie has continued to serve in the church as a teacher and volunteer throughout the past eighteen years.

In 2016, God moved her husband out of the work he had been doing and back into cross-cultural work as administrator of an organization sharing the Love of Christ where He is least known. Prior to that change in Mark’s employment, however, Debbie had already stepped into interim leadership of the children’s ministry at Cornerstone. She continues to delight in helping children–and the adults and youth working with them–fall more in love with God by creatively attending to His Word, prayer, and worship.

Financial Officers

Rev. David Mulholland

Vicky Wahab

Custodial Care & Hospitality

Shely Sweeney