JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — Cornerstone Fellowship Church, a non-denominational church plant launched eighteen months ago in a strip mall suite between a nail salon and a mattress store, has announced its permanent closure following what founding pastor Derek Hoover described as "an unwinnable competitive environment."
"We gave it everything," Hoover said in a video posted to the church's Facebook page, which had 47 followers. "We had a vision, a calling, and a fog machine. That wasn't the problem."
The problem, he said, was the Chick-fil-A.
Cornerstone Fellowship had been meeting Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. in Suite 4B of the University Plaza shopping center since November 2024. The Chick-fil-A at the opposite end of the same shopping center opens at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays, a policy the company describes as a "community commitment" and which Hoover described as "a 30-minute head start to steal my congregation."
Average Sunday attendance at Cornerstone Fellowship peaked at 22, including Hoover's family of five. By March it had dropped to 11. By April, the parking lot data told the story Hoover had been trying not to read: 47 cars at Chick-fil-A. Three at Suite 4B.
"I'm not saying they're not a good restaurant," he said. "I'm saying they have free refills, a consistent product, and a rewards app. We had a sermon series on Colossians and a coffee maker from 2017 that made the coffee taste like the plastic it was made of."
Hoover said he spent three months trying to diagnose the attendance problem theologically before a member of his remaining congregation suggested he was not losing a spiritual battle. He was losing a preference war.
"She said, 'Derek, people don't choose where to be on Sunday morning based on salvation. They choose based on waffle fries.'" He paused. "I prayed about it. She's not wrong."
In his final sermon, delivered to nine adults and one infant on April 27, Hoover addressed the congregation directly.
"The chicken sandwich has won," he said. "Not because the gospel is weak. But because the gospel does not come with dipping sauce. And I have had to sit with that."
Chick-fil-A did not respond to a request for comment. Their parking lot was full at the time of this reporting.
Hoover said he is not leaving ministry. He is taking a season to discern. He has downloaded the Chick-fil-A rewards app and is on his way to a free sandwich.
"I figure if you can't beat them," he said, "at least get the points."