One month ago, I shared with the church a renewed vision for The Crossroads as we celebrate our first fifteen years as a church and move forward into the future. The new vision, giving our lives away to build God's Kingdom and to bring God glory, came about as a result of extended times of prayer, seeking God's direction, and evaluating the vision statement that has guided us for the last fifteen years (Loving God, loving people, and rocking the world).
For the past thirteen years, when someone asks me about our church, I have told them the same thing: "We are going to give you an opportunity to give your life away for something that matters for all eternity." That response came about based on a desire to stop fueling the consumer mentality about church that has become a cancer in the American church.
You see, in America, when people ask about a church, the question they often ask is, "What does your church have to offer?" or something similar. By that question, what people typically are wanting to know is what programs do you have to offer for me or my family; what cool, fun, or exciting things do you do; what kind of music do you have; what kind of kid's activities do you offer; what events do you offer that will entertain or engage my family. And if you respond to those in a way that says you are the church that has the best to offer in all the things they are looking for, they will come to your church. At least until there is another church offering something bigger, better, more fun or engaging or entertaining.
If a church pursues that approach, you can draw a crowd, but you continually have to offer something new, different, and bigger than you did the last time, and something better than what is being offered by other churches in the same market. In our market in North Texas, there are megachurches with multi-million dollar budgets, programs for every segment of the family, and musicians that have songs played on Christian radio. The consumer mentality is alive and well in our area, and it actually is destructive to the long-term good of the kingdom of God.
So, I decided that we were intentionally not going to do that, not going to pursue that, not going to fuel that in people. Not that we don't want to do things with excellence, not that we don't want to provide things that are fun and engaging and life-changing, but that's just not going to be the core of who we are. So, I came up with a response that would intentionally deflect those kinds of questions and point people to the heart of who we are as a church. Which is what prompted me to start answering with, "We are going to give you an opportunity to give your life away for something that matters for all eternity."
Over the past year, as I have prayed about the future vision for our church, I've come to realize that is the real vision for The Crossroads. That is who we are, why we exist, and why we want our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and community to be a part of it. As I prayed and thought through this vision, seeking clarity from the Lord, I realized that statement needed just a little bit of tweaking to be a clear, compelling vision statement. What needed clarity was, "What is the 'something that matters for all eternity'? What is it that we really want people to be giving their lives away for? Two things really became clear: God's Kingdom and God's glory. So, the resulting new vision statement for The Crossroads was born: Giving our lives away to build God's kingdom and to bring God glory. I'll share more details about the specifics of what exactly that looks like and how we will live it out in the rest of this series.
For now, two thought questions for you to close: What are you (or your church) giving your life away for? How are you giving your life away?
