I've been doing some updating today at www.welcometothecrossroads.com. If you haven't checked it out later, go there and let me know what you think. Any suggestions about stuff we ought to have on there?
If anybody has any graphic design skills, I'd really like to put some custom designed stuff on the site. Just let me know.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
How Do You Have Church in a Gym?
For those of you who don’t know, The Crossroads Community Church gathers for worship each week in a gymnastics and cheer gym called Tiger Cat Tumble and Cheer. We are so thankful that God has provided us with this incredible place to meet.
However, meeting in a gym comes with some challenges. Setup and takedown are a lot of hard work, but they are also an incredibly rewarding experience. Each week, we have to come into the gym and take up cushioned mats, move chairs, set up chairs, set up backdrops and instruments and sound system, put together our coffee area and welcome center, and create a nursery and children’s area.
The net effect is that the space is totally transformed into our unique worship area. Several people whose kids take gymnastics at the gym and the owner of the gym have told us how amazed they are at how things look. They say it doesn't even look like the same place. Which is great for us.
One of the primary things you want to accomplish in being a portable church is making your meeting place your own for the time you are there. Our team is doing such an incredible job at this. We set up bistro tables in our coffee area, hang coffee signs on the wall, and put out greenery and decorations to give it a coffee house feel.
In our worship area, we put up backdrops and use whatever props we can to further the theme of the message series. We actually worship on the gym floor where they ordinarily do tumbling. We remove the padded mats each week. Under the mats is a floor of plywood (actually oriented strand board for those of you who know about building materials). This floor is over some large foam blocks. The net effect is that there is still a little bit of spring to the floor, which makes it lots of fun when the band really starts rocking.
For our nursery, we actually use the mats from the gym to create padded walls. We have folding rocking chairs and toys and mats to put on the floor. It really makes the nursery an inviting area.
Our kids' ministry actually meets outside right now. One of the advantages of planting in Texas is that the weather allows us to do this for about 9 months out of the year (that is except for when huge gusts of wind come along). This allows us to do some neat games and activities with the kids, and puts them in an environment where they can be loud and have lots of fun.
The first time we did all this, it took us over three hours. We now have it down to about and hour and fifteen minutes, and we seem to be getting better each week. It’s hard work, but it is also an incredible way for us to connect with each other as a team and with new people as they come in and help us out. We arrive each Sunday morning at about 8 AM, and with a lot of prayer and a lot of coffee, we get rolling on setting up.
However, meeting in a gym comes with some challenges. Setup and takedown are a lot of hard work, but they are also an incredibly rewarding experience. Each week, we have to come into the gym and take up cushioned mats, move chairs, set up chairs, set up backdrops and instruments and sound system, put together our coffee area and welcome center, and create a nursery and children’s area.
The net effect is that the space is totally transformed into our unique worship area. Several people whose kids take gymnastics at the gym and the owner of the gym have told us how amazed they are at how things look. They say it doesn't even look like the same place. Which is great for us.
One of the primary things you want to accomplish in being a portable church is making your meeting place your own for the time you are there. Our team is doing such an incredible job at this. We set up bistro tables in our coffee area, hang coffee signs on the wall, and put out greenery and decorations to give it a coffee house feel.
In our worship area, we put up backdrops and use whatever props we can to further the theme of the message series. We actually worship on the gym floor where they ordinarily do tumbling. We remove the padded mats each week. Under the mats is a floor of plywood (actually oriented strand board for those of you who know about building materials). This floor is over some large foam blocks. The net effect is that there is still a little bit of spring to the floor, which makes it lots of fun when the band really starts rocking.
For our nursery, we actually use the mats from the gym to create padded walls. We have folding rocking chairs and toys and mats to put on the floor. It really makes the nursery an inviting area.
Our kids' ministry actually meets outside right now. One of the advantages of planting in Texas is that the weather allows us to do this for about 9 months out of the year (that is except for when huge gusts of wind come along). This allows us to do some neat games and activities with the kids, and puts them in an environment where they can be loud and have lots of fun.
The first time we did all this, it took us over three hours. We now have it down to about and hour and fifteen minutes, and we seem to be getting better each week. It’s hard work, but it is also an incredible way for us to connect with each other as a team and with new people as they come in and help us out. We arrive each Sunday morning at about 8 AM, and with a lot of prayer and a lot of coffee, we get rolling on setting up.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Surprise!
Sunday was another awesome day at The Crossroads. Attendance was down a little, but we saw some more new faces, and had some returnees as well. Our worship time was just incredible. Robby and the band did a terrific job, and everyone just seemed to have this really awesome spirit of surrender. The message was great, and I don't say that because I preached it, but because God really spoke to me during the message.
I just am always really touched when I consider the depth of what Christ did for us on the cross. The reality of his sacrifice on the cross should drive our lives of service and worship to God.
But, here's the cool/funny/frustrating/surprising thing that happened. Before the service, our worship dude, our church planting intern, and I got together to pray like we always do. I was preaching on how we are supposed to live our lives for an audience of one, so our prayers were really focused on God, on his majesty, and his sovereignty (all really good places to go in prayer). So, I felt impressed in that vein to pray that God would surprise us today, that he would do something totally unexpected, something that we didn't prepare for, that he would do something that was way beyond what we had planned for the day. Cool prayer, right?
Well, here's the thing. Even though I prayed that prayer, I had expectations about the way God would answer that prayer. I had a certain framework in which I thought would be reasonable for God to work in a way I didn't expect. Do you get the irony there? I had expectations about the unexpected thing I was asking God to do! I wanted God to surprise me, but not too much.
So, fifteen minutes before our service is going to start, I tell our team that one of my primary goals for the day is that we start on time. Five minutes before start time, we heard a loud thud from outside, where we do our children's ministry. We have canopies that we set up outside that our children meet under. We go outside, and a huge gust of wind has come along and totally lifted the canopies, and two of them are now on the roof of the building sixteen feet up in the air.
We all had a good laugh while we figured out how to get our now destroyed canopies down. We were thankful that no kids were under the canopies. And my awesome team did what I am always telling them to do. They were flexible, and they quickly relocated children's ministry and did a great job.
Needless to say, we did not get started on time. And, yes, God did surprise me, but so not in the way I thought he would. But maybe God showed us that it really is all about him, that we constantly walk in dependence on him, and that our ability to plant a church, to reach people, to have a worship service, to sing praises to him, is all completely dependent on his activity.
After all that, we had an awesome worship time. Maybe the fact that we had already seen God answer our prayers in a very unexpected but very quick way made us very ready to see him, fall before him, and hear from him. It was a great surprise!
I just am always really touched when I consider the depth of what Christ did for us on the cross. The reality of his sacrifice on the cross should drive our lives of service and worship to God.
But, here's the cool/funny/frustrating/surprising thing that happened. Before the service, our worship dude, our church planting intern, and I got together to pray like we always do. I was preaching on how we are supposed to live our lives for an audience of one, so our prayers were really focused on God, on his majesty, and his sovereignty (all really good places to go in prayer). So, I felt impressed in that vein to pray that God would surprise us today, that he would do something totally unexpected, something that we didn't prepare for, that he would do something that was way beyond what we had planned for the day. Cool prayer, right?
Well, here's the thing. Even though I prayed that prayer, I had expectations about the way God would answer that prayer. I had a certain framework in which I thought would be reasonable for God to work in a way I didn't expect. Do you get the irony there? I had expectations about the unexpected thing I was asking God to do! I wanted God to surprise me, but not too much.
So, fifteen minutes before our service is going to start, I tell our team that one of my primary goals for the day is that we start on time. Five minutes before start time, we heard a loud thud from outside, where we do our children's ministry. We have canopies that we set up outside that our children meet under. We go outside, and a huge gust of wind has come along and totally lifted the canopies, and two of them are now on the roof of the building sixteen feet up in the air.
We all had a good laugh while we figured out how to get our now destroyed canopies down. We were thankful that no kids were under the canopies. And my awesome team did what I am always telling them to do. They were flexible, and they quickly relocated children's ministry and did a great job.
Needless to say, we did not get started on time. And, yes, God did surprise me, but so not in the way I thought he would. But maybe God showed us that it really is all about him, that we constantly walk in dependence on him, and that our ability to plant a church, to reach people, to have a worship service, to sing praises to him, is all completely dependent on his activity.
After all that, we had an awesome worship time. Maybe the fact that we had already seen God answer our prayers in a very unexpected but very quick way made us very ready to see him, fall before him, and hear from him. It was a great surprise!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Family Stuff
I've kind of gotten you up to date on the plant, but what about the family? Many of you are probably interested in how LaRissa and the kids are doing.
As we start life in a new town, LaRissa has also started a new job. She is now the new 1st grade teacher at Joe K. Bryant Elementary in Anna.
LaRissa was pretty nervous about starting this new job. Before she got started she was already missing her friends from Pottsboro, but God has definitely blessed her as she strikes off on this new adventure.
Within her first week at school, LaRissa had already made incredible friends with the teachers on her team. She is having a blast working with some incredible ladies who she really loves. LaRissa is an incredible teacher and is already doing a great job in her new environment.
All of the teachers on LaRissa’s team came to our Kickoff Service. God continues to give LaRissa opportunities to be salt and light in her new job. Many of the opportunities we have had to connect with people in Anna have come as a result of her job. So, we thank God for that.
LaRissa plays keys for our worship band. Her skill level continues to grow incredibly, and she has such a passion for worship and worship music. I am so incredibly blessed to have a wife who not only supports my calling as a church planter, but who also has that same sense of calling and who is completely loving this amazing adventure we are on.
We also are so incredibly excited at how our kids are adjusting to life in a new school. James was a little nervous about starting in a new school, but he is making lots of new friends, and he is loving band. He is learning to play the saxophone. It sometimes sounds like he is strangling a goose, but he is getting better every day. Looks like he may have gotten his mother’s musical talent.
James is also loving our journey of being church planters. He said that he is enjoying church planting even more than when I was pastoring in an established church. One night a couple of weeks after school started, as he was saying his prayers, he prayed, “Lord, please let this week be over soon.” I thought, “Oh no, school is not going well.” After he prayed, I asked him why he prayed for the week to be over soon. He said, “Because I can’t wait for it to be time for church again. It is so awesome seeing people come to know Jesus!”
James and Grace are both playing soccer in Anna. They were not terribly excited about that because apparently Anna has the worst soccer team in the league. The exercise is good for them, though, and it gives us another opportunity to connect with people in Anna.
Grace and Katie are both students at Joe K. Bryant Elementary. They, too, are making new friends and enjoying their new school, even though they miss their old friends. The first part of this week, Grace went to the Collin County Adventure Camp for a couple of days and had a great time. (Kevin Spaeth, the director of the camp, and his team really do an awesome job.)
Grace helps out each week in the nursery at The Crossroads, and Katie helps in Kids’ Cove, our children’s area. All of our older kids are a big help with setting up and taking down each week. We really want them to see it as an incredible privilege to be a part of what God is doing and to be the pastor’s kids. Katie is taking tumble at Tiger Cat Tumble and Cheer, the place where we meet for worship each week. That is yet another opportunity for us to make connections in the community and forge a stronger relationship with our landlord.
Abby goes to daycare at Kiddie Kastle in Anna. She has lots of fun and is making new friends, too. We asked her what her friends’ names were and she said, “Umm, girls.” I still get to spend quite a bit of time with her. She is definitely Daddy’s buddy.
We are so thankful our kids are excited about this amazing adventure to which God has called our family. It is so neat to see them as active participants in our ministry who are learning at an early age what it means to be on mission Christians.
As for me, I am busy, busy these days. I spend quite a bit of time in my office (the Java Jams coffee shop in Brookshires) meeting new people, trying to be a pastor to the staff of Brookshires, and working on my computer. I also just this week started substitute teaching in Anna. If things go well, I should be able to teach quite a bit. This will be great because it will help supplement our income as well as giving me an inroads into the number one community connection in Anna, the schools.
Well, that's about all I've got for now.
As we start life in a new town, LaRissa has also started a new job. She is now the new 1st grade teacher at Joe K. Bryant Elementary in Anna.
LaRissa was pretty nervous about starting this new job. Before she got started she was already missing her friends from Pottsboro, but God has definitely blessed her as she strikes off on this new adventure.
Within her first week at school, LaRissa had already made incredible friends with the teachers on her team. She is having a blast working with some incredible ladies who she really loves. LaRissa is an incredible teacher and is already doing a great job in her new environment.
All of the teachers on LaRissa’s team came to our Kickoff Service. God continues to give LaRissa opportunities to be salt and light in her new job. Many of the opportunities we have had to connect with people in Anna have come as a result of her job. So, we thank God for that.
LaRissa plays keys for our worship band. Her skill level continues to grow incredibly, and she has such a passion for worship and worship music. I am so incredibly blessed to have a wife who not only supports my calling as a church planter, but who also has that same sense of calling and who is completely loving this amazing adventure we are on.
We also are so incredibly excited at how our kids are adjusting to life in a new school. James was a little nervous about starting in a new school, but he is making lots of new friends, and he is loving band. He is learning to play the saxophone. It sometimes sounds like he is strangling a goose, but he is getting better every day. Looks like he may have gotten his mother’s musical talent.
James is also loving our journey of being church planters. He said that he is enjoying church planting even more than when I was pastoring in an established church. One night a couple of weeks after school started, as he was saying his prayers, he prayed, “Lord, please let this week be over soon.” I thought, “Oh no, school is not going well.” After he prayed, I asked him why he prayed for the week to be over soon. He said, “Because I can’t wait for it to be time for church again. It is so awesome seeing people come to know Jesus!”
James and Grace are both playing soccer in Anna. They were not terribly excited about that because apparently Anna has the worst soccer team in the league. The exercise is good for them, though, and it gives us another opportunity to connect with people in Anna.
Grace and Katie are both students at Joe K. Bryant Elementary. They, too, are making new friends and enjoying their new school, even though they miss their old friends. The first part of this week, Grace went to the Collin County Adventure Camp for a couple of days and had a great time. (Kevin Spaeth, the director of the camp, and his team really do an awesome job.)
Grace helps out each week in the nursery at The Crossroads, and Katie helps in Kids’ Cove, our children’s area. All of our older kids are a big help with setting up and taking down each week. We really want them to see it as an incredible privilege to be a part of what God is doing and to be the pastor’s kids. Katie is taking tumble at Tiger Cat Tumble and Cheer, the place where we meet for worship each week. That is yet another opportunity for us to make connections in the community and forge a stronger relationship with our landlord.
Abby goes to daycare at Kiddie Kastle in Anna. She has lots of fun and is making new friends, too. We asked her what her friends’ names were and she said, “Umm, girls.” I still get to spend quite a bit of time with her. She is definitely Daddy’s buddy.
We are so thankful our kids are excited about this amazing adventure to which God has called our family. It is so neat to see them as active participants in our ministry who are learning at an early age what it means to be on mission Christians.
As for me, I am busy, busy these days. I spend quite a bit of time in my office (the Java Jams coffee shop in Brookshires) meeting new people, trying to be a pastor to the staff of Brookshires, and working on my computer. I also just this week started substitute teaching in Anna. If things go well, I should be able to teach quite a bit. This will be great because it will help supplement our income as well as giving me an inroads into the number one community connection in Anna, the schools.
Well, that's about all I've got for now.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Kickoff of The Crossroads
Well, I promised you earlier in the week an update on the church plant, so here's some of the highlights of the last couple of months.
We had our official Kickoff Sunday for The Crossroads on September 7, and we are now having services every Sunday. We have been waiting for this day for so long, it is hard to believe it has finally come.
For our Kickoff Service we had 75 people in attendance, and three people gave their lives to Christ. Praise God!
Our whole team worked really hard this summer in preparation for Kickoff Sunday. Throughout the summer, we have been meeting once a month in Summer Preview Services. These services were a chance for people from the Anna community to come check out what the church is about, and where we could identify areas that we needed to work on to prepare for Kickoff. These were really beneficial in helping us figure out our setup and takedown, elements of our services, and who would take responsibility for what jobs.
Our Preview Services also were a great time of growth for us. With each Preview Service, our congregation grew. There were about 35 people at our first Preview Service. By the second one, we had grown to 46 people, and by the third, there were 68 people in attendance. During these Preview Services, a mother who had just gone through a difficult divorce gave her life to Christ.
We have also been using community block parties this summer as a way to reach out to people. We have hosted four block parties at which we gave away door prizes and free food, had inflatable games for the kids, and showed a family-friendly movie on a 12-foot, inflatable, outdoor movie screen. These were very successful since so many families in Anna are looking for something they can do together.
At each of these block parties, we had families register for door prizes by filling out a brief survey. These surveys are helping us to better understand the people we are trying to reach and adjust our methods accordingly.
We have also been doing these same surveys door-to-door in our target communities. One of the women we visited while doing these surveys was in our Kickoff Service. She had grown up Catholic, but had not been to church in a long time. She said she had never experienced anything like our services. At the conclusion of the Kickoff Service, she gave her life to Christ.
Finally, one of the members of our team had been praying for his father and step-mom for a long time. On the morning of our Kickoff Service, he came to me and excitedly told me that they were coming to our service.
At the conclusion of the service, as I was looking through the decision cards, I discovered that both his dad and stepmom had given their lives to Christ that morning.
That is why we are doing what we are doing. We are so thankful for the four people who have already come to know Jesus because of The Crossroads. Four people will never, ever spend even a second in hell because of what we are doing. Praise God!
We had our official Kickoff Sunday for The Crossroads on September 7, and we are now having services every Sunday. We have been waiting for this day for so long, it is hard to believe it has finally come.
For our Kickoff Service we had 75 people in attendance, and three people gave their lives to Christ. Praise God!
Our whole team worked really hard this summer in preparation for Kickoff Sunday. Throughout the summer, we have been meeting once a month in Summer Preview Services. These services were a chance for people from the Anna community to come check out what the church is about, and where we could identify areas that we needed to work on to prepare for Kickoff. These were really beneficial in helping us figure out our setup and takedown, elements of our services, and who would take responsibility for what jobs.
Our Preview Services also were a great time of growth for us. With each Preview Service, our congregation grew. There were about 35 people at our first Preview Service. By the second one, we had grown to 46 people, and by the third, there were 68 people in attendance. During these Preview Services, a mother who had just gone through a difficult divorce gave her life to Christ.
We have also been using community block parties this summer as a way to reach out to people. We have hosted four block parties at which we gave away door prizes and free food, had inflatable games for the kids, and showed a family-friendly movie on a 12-foot, inflatable, outdoor movie screen. These were very successful since so many families in Anna are looking for something they can do together.
At each of these block parties, we had families register for door prizes by filling out a brief survey. These surveys are helping us to better understand the people we are trying to reach and adjust our methods accordingly.
We have also been doing these same surveys door-to-door in our target communities. One of the women we visited while doing these surveys was in our Kickoff Service. She had grown up Catholic, but had not been to church in a long time. She said she had never experienced anything like our services. At the conclusion of the Kickoff Service, she gave her life to Christ.
Finally, one of the members of our team had been praying for his father and step-mom for a long time. On the morning of our Kickoff Service, he came to me and excitedly told me that they were coming to our service.
At the conclusion of the service, as I was looking through the decision cards, I discovered that both his dad and stepmom had given their lives to Christ that morning.
That is why we are doing what we are doing. We are so thankful for the four people who have already come to know Jesus because of The Crossroads. Four people will never, ever spend even a second in hell because of what we are doing. Praise God!
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