Vision + Values
Who We Are
Mission + Purpose
We exist to make authentic disciples who live their faith and change the world.
We are called to help change the world around us by seeking the heart change that brings life change. Our heart is to challenge you to become more like Christ so you can find an extraordinary life with Jesus and others.
Vision
God has given us a vision of seeing ordinary people and families find extraordinary life in Jesus.
This means we work to help people and families at every stage of life take steps to grow closer to God and others through Jesus. We aim to be Christ’s hands and feet, helping individuals, families, marriages and communities find His healing and real life.
Values
We treasure Jesus
We are passionate about Jesus. We treasure His Person, character, work and reputation. We believe that the greatest use of our lives is to point to Him as the source of true life. He is our life, our greatest joy and our model for the life that is real life. What He loves, we seek to love. What He hates, we seek to hate.
We treasure people
The more passionate we are about Jesus, the more compassionate we are toward people. Jesus loves people and that means that Jesus loves broken, selfish, sinful and sad people, the rich and the poor. We’re glad for that because we understand that we are among them! We know that we only love Him because He first loved us.
We treasure joy
One of Jesus’ gifts to His people is the joy that comes from living life with Him, in His strength and in obedience to Him. Joy, whenever it is present among believers, is a treasured evidence of Jesus’ gracious work among them. Everything is better with it, because everything is better with Him.
We treasure generosity
A cheerful giver is glad to give lavishly to others, for the sake of others, for the sake of Jesus. It’s someone who will give of their time, their money and their gifts so that others can discover the extraordinary life found in Jesus. Someone who will give treasured things away for others as Jesus did for them—generously giving Himself away first for the sake of His Father and then for the sake of others. We treasure the same kind of generous life.
We are passionate about Jesus. We treasure His Person, character, work and reputation. We believe that the greatest use of our lives is to point to Him as the source of true life. He is our life, our greatest joy and our model for the life that is real life. What He loves, we seek to love. What He hates, we seek to hate.
The more passionate we are about Jesus, the more compassionate we are toward people. Jesus loves people and that means that Jesus loves broken, selfish, sinful and sad people, the rich and the poor. We're glad for that because we understand that we are among them! We know that we only love Him because He first loved us.
One of Jesus’ gifts to His people is the joy that comes from living life with Him, in His strength and in obedience to Him. Joy, whenever it is present among believers, is a treasured evidence of Jesus’ gracious work among them. Everything is better with it, because everything is better with Him.
Pastors and Ministry Staff
Meet Our Team
Steve Corts
Lead Pastor
Steve is a fourth generation pastor, born and raised in Winston-Salem. He graduated from Wake Forest University and completed a Ph.D. in Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He became Lead Pastor of Center Grove in 2006.
As a pastor, he is committed to “fulfilling his ministry” (2 Timothy 4.5) with expository preaching and gospel-centered leadership. His heart is to see the gospel advance as people discover and then practice a “lived faith” in Christ. Steve sees his mission and calling to be that of helping people find and live the extraordinary life Jesus gives, together in healthy, local churches. Consequently, in addition to shepherding the church family at Center Grove, Steve serves as Director of the Tar Heel Center for Pastoral Ministry, an organization which has now mentored over 900 pastors from across the state of North Carolina. Steve’s favorite scripture passages – his “life passages” – are Psalms 15 and 16 and 2 Timothy 2.20-21.
Beyond spending time with his family, Steve enjoys writing, reading biographies and books on leadership and current cultural issues, running and paddling the rivers and lakes of North Carolina. He and his wife, Cheryl, have three grown children and have loved becoming grandparents to Charlie, Elle and Sellars.
Pastors + Ministry Leaders
Eric Waldrop
Mitch Monroe
Jackson Cornatzer
Roman Hendricks
James McDonald
Nathan McGahee
Katie Grace Marckel
Ryan Holland
Ministry Team
Justin Piper
Sarah Jenkins
Catie Clore
Stanley Vinson
Robin Paley
Pam Harrell
Erin Austin
Emma Sepe
Renee Ketchie
Our Strategy
What We Do
Our strategy for making disciples is simple. We help you:
LOVE God through worship
GROW alongside others in Life Groups
SERVE the needs of others
SHARE the Good News of Jesus
GIVE generously so that others might live
Our Beliefs
What We Believe
The faith convictions of our church family and our staff can be found in full in the Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern Baptist Convention with which we are affiliated.
The Southern Baptist Convention is a network of more than fifty thousand cooperating churches and church-type missions banded together to advance the gospel of Christ through education, missions, ministries of mercy, church planting, evangelism and engagement in matters of cultural concern, pertaining to ethics and religious liberty.
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Scripture
The Holy Bible was written by men, divinely inspired, and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain until the end of the world, the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21
God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal being – the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him, we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature, essence, or being.
Deut. 6:4.; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6; Gal. 3:20; 1 Thess. 1:9; Jer. 10:10; Job 11:7–9; Job 26:14; Ps. 139:6; John 4:24; 1 Tim. 1:17; Deut. 4:15–16; John 4:24; Luke 24:39; Acts 14:11, 15; James 1:17; 1 Kings 8:27; Jer. 23:23–24; Ps. 90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17; Ps. 145:3
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and completed the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the one mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
Genesis 18:1; Psalms 2:7; 110:1; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5, 21- 22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; 8:9; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.
The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous, local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation, each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3; 14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; 5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9- 14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 21:2-3.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and it is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal, upon principles of His righteousness, of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes. It enables man to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8- 10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2- 23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5
Our Story
100+ Years of Center Grove
Starting in 1914
A long history
Center Grove began in the spring of 1914 with a group of cotton and tobacco farmers gathering under a brush arbor in a place known as Snow Hill, located behind a farm on what is now known as Center Grove Church Road.
They were the practical “get it done” kind of people. With land donated from one family, and lumber from another, they built their first worship center, a chapel, by hand.
This small group of rural folk was noteworthy in a few ways. They loved Christ, the Bible and people, and they were willing to sacrifice themselves for all of the above.
For many years, the church was not unlike many thousands of small churches in North Carolina. But over the past 25 years, the church has seen some unusual works of God.
The early 90s
A season of growth
In the early 1990s, the church was catapulted from a small rural congregation of 50 attenders to a very large one of over 800 in this small rural setting, at the end of a road going nowhere. During that period of growth the church expanded its capacity as a new, larger building was constructed down the road to what is our present Clemmons campus.
Now and the future
A fresh vision
After a time of transition, Center Grove called Dr. Steve Corts as lead pastor. With this new leadership, 2006 became a critical year for the church. A year in which we deliberately set out to become a different kind of church and a different kind of people—the kind of people we knew that Christ deserves.
We wanted to become a church that the community could not ignore and could not imagine being without because we made such a positive difference in the lives of people in the name of Jesus.
We set out to define and describe in the clearest terms what God wanted of us as a church. We clarified the basics of who we are and what we do—and it became, quite simply, the way we do church.
As we look back at our hundred-year-old church, we see clearly the God of the impossible doing what only HE could do among us.