Cornerstone Church

Cornerstone Nashville
Established	1983
Attended by Scalfanis	2014-2022; 2023-present

Cornerstone Church is a prominent Pentecostal Christian megachurch situated in Nashville, Tennessee. It is currently the church regularly attended by the Scalfanis on Wednesdays and Sundays. This religious institution is part of the Assemblies of God denomination.

In February 2026, Cornerstone launched a sister location at Jack's former city of Hendersonville, Tennessee.

About Cornerstone

Murderchurch Maury

Maury Davis, an American evangelist with a criminal past, once served as the senior pastor at this church. On 27 January 1975, at the age of 18, Davis was involved in a violent crime alongside his friend Ricky Payne where he stabbed and nearly decapitated Jo Ella Liles, a 54-year-old Sunday school teacher. This happened as Davis was looking to purchase a vacant house managed by Liles, getting a look of the place when white paint left over from remodelling work spilled on his shoe, causing him to snap and repeatedly stab Liles with a buck knife, severing her carotid artery and windpipe and slicing into her spinal cord, nearly decapitating her. Davis and Payne quickly fled the scene in their two-tone Cadillac, and Davis took his bloodied clothes to a dry cleaner before leaving for lunch.

A mailman witnessed the incident unfold and provided investigators with a description of the two men and their car. It was first found that the license plate had been swapped; the blood-stained Cadillac was regardless located by Captain John Looper, who brushed past Davis passing by, but decided to first get an arrest warrant before taking action. Looper knocked on Davis' apartment to find his roommate David Gay, who was apprehensive about telling on Davis, however changing his tone upon finding out Davis was suspected for murder. Davis was later arrested at his girlfriend's house, telling Looper: "I don't know, man. I just went fuckin' crazy." Davis admitted his guilt to his father by phone, saying: "Daddy, I'm in jail for murder. And I'm guilty."

Prosectors sought to give Davis either life imprisonment or the death penalty by electric chair. After Davis blamed the incident on a laundry list of issues, including Satan and drug use (Marijuana was found at his apartment but not hard drugs), he was only ever convicted of manslaughter with a maximum 20-year sentence. After eight-and-a-half years, Davis was released due to overcrowding and good behavior. Having preached the good words of Jesus to fellow prisoners during his sentence, Davis eventually became a born-again senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in 1991, when it had approximately 250 members, and he grew it into a megachurch with a 3,200-seat sanctuary and a televised ministry. He stepped down from the senior pastor role in 2018 and now operates as a "global pastor", travelling and consulting.

Ron Liles, the only son of Jo Ella Liles, has described watching Davis preach as watching "Satan's angel," telling the Nashville Scene in 2009 that "the price of his spiritual rebirth, his professed salvation, was the blood" of his mother. Davis' co-called redemption story has been described as edited and embellished by critics.

Animal abuse

In August 2018, Cornerstone featured a live display of wild animals with the help of Hollywild Animal Park, including a caged lion, for its "Mascot 2018" program to demonstrate fear versus faith. The stunt was condemned by PETA.

Cornerstone and the Scalfanis

Scalfanis join

After moving to Tennessee in June 2014, the Scalfanis began to search for a church. Dissatisfied with many churches in the area, Jack was eventually recommended Cornerstone as an option. On one Wednesday, a friend asked the Scalfanis to drop them off at Cornerstone. Initially not wanting to stay over for the service themselves, the Scalfanis decided to sit down anyway. During the service, Pastor Maury proceeded to talk for five minutes about how "We need to napalm the Palestinians" and Jack fell in love, commending Maury for not being "afraid about who's judging him." Ultimately, the Scalfanis decided to make Cornerstone their home. Jack described quickly befriending many people at the church, deciding to arrive at 4:30AM to help out with the men's breakfast.

In November 2015, Jack promoted Pastor Davis' books on the Cooking with Jack Show. In September 2020, Pastor Maury's son Galen, himself a pastor, conducted Junior and Brianna's wedding. Pastor Galen appeared on a Cooking with Jack video the following month.

Scalfani detour

In February 2022, the Scalfanis left Cornerstone for Long Hollow Church. Originally, Jack refused to comment on this move, however multiple theories existed:

• Some theorized Jack had a rift with other churchgoers. A corroboration for this can be found in a Facebook post from 16 January 2022: "Dear Church members, stop acting like gang members. It's embarrassing and it's not very Christlike.󠁾󠁾󠁾󠁾" Due to bad weather that day, there was no in-person church service, with another post from Jack complaining about "how much churchgoers comment during online broadcasts?" It is possible Jack might have clashed with people in the stream chat, however any record for this chat is long lost.

• Alternatively, this might have happened after the Davis family - who the Scalfanis are big fans of - was ousted by the church board, who considered Galen Davis - the heir to the Cornerstone empire - a liability due to his steroid and liquor use. In November 2022, the church's new pastor became Jeremy Austill.

Scalfanis return

In March 2023, after Jack's fifth stroke, the Scalfanis suddenly returned to Cornerstone. Once again, nobody in the Scalfani clan addressed the situation publicly, besides Tammy's mother Carolyn who wrote: "We are Happy To Be Home". Some observers believed that Cornerstone's support of faith healing reeled the Scalfanis back in. In July 2026, Jack finally addressed both moves, stating that the Holy Spirit itself wanted him to move to Long Hollow to "bring the spirit" into the church. Later while laying at the hospital following the fifth stroke, the Holy Spirit again spoke to Jack, saying it was time to return to Cornerstone as nobody from Long Hollow was willing to visit him at the hospital. Regardless, it is possible that other factors affected the moves.

After returning, Jack has taken a liking to Pastor Jeremy, complimenting him for his "mad shoe game". According to a family relative of Jeremy who reached out to Aunt Myrna's Parlour, Jeremy "interacts with [Jack] as if he’s a special needs kid and will maybe like or repost a tweet he makes every now and then".

On 14 July 2025, Junior and Brianna held an oddly empty coed baby shower at Cornerstone. On 19 October 2025, Cornerstone held a baby dedication for the newborn Scalfani child Atreus.

Gallery

Pastors

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  The murderpastor himself, Maury Davis.

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  Jack showing off Pastor Maury's book.

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  Pastor Galen on Cooking with Jack.

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  Cornerstone Nashville's current pastor, Jeremy Austill.

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  Jack lusting after Jeremy's shoes (Yes, he takes random photos during service).

Scalfani appearances

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  Jack, imbued with the power of Christ, "raises" his gimp arm at Cornerstone.

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  Jack and Tammy appearance on a March 2023 promo.

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  Junior appearance on a March 2023 promo.

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  Ditto.

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  Jack and Tammy appearance on a January 2026 promo.

Miscellaneous

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  What, does your church not serve Domino's too?

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  A screencap of the Mascot 2018 service.