Sunday, December 17, 2017

weekend report

As we prepare for Christmas weekend there was no cut-back in preparations for this weekend's services!

Milo lead us in a great time of celebration as we sang Christmas songs and then as Pastor Dave taught us things we've never considered before and we all saw Christmas in a whole new light...messy!

Here are a couple of shots from the weekend:

Shawn, Michael and Streeter took Drummer Boy to a whole new level!


Our Young Adults set up their Christmas service in our lobby in anticipation of a great night of celebration and an open Coffee House with refreshments!

Our setlist:

Announcements - Jesse Rider on Video

Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)
Angels We Have Heard on High
Drummer Boy
Hark
The First Noel

Video Bumper
Message:  Messy Christmas Pt. 4; Messy First Christmas

Exit song: Hark

To watch our service go to crossroadswired.com

I hope to see you at one of our 5 Christmas Services next weekend!

Thursday, December 7, 2017

blessed

I just got to work and immediately was in tears...again.

Our family has had an emotional year for sure, like many of you have.

The separation from us that someone we dearly loved chose to make caught us totally off-guard.  I guess we had bought into 'having the perfect family' as my friends teased me often.

I've been very emotional this year.  Those I work with have shown patience and my family has all rallied together in Christ to move past it.  But it's very humbling how emotional I still am at the most unexpected things.  I like being in control of my emotions more than I can say.  More than is healthy I suppose.

I totally believe I'm watching God's will unfold in front of us and am very excited about the future!

But, this morning I felt God's presence totally and unexpectedly wash over me when I got to work.

I realized just how unbelievable God has been to me, allowing me to be surrounded by family and getting to see them all use their talents for the Lord!

My son pulled me into his office this morning to show me the Christmas promo he created to use for our Christmas services in a couple weeks, and I immediately began to tear-up.  As I heard the words on the video that my daughter wrote, I was completely overwhelmed with the sacrifice God made to send us His only son.

We're telling the Christmas story from the perspective of Mary this year.   It's made me consider again how God can use the most-unlikely, unexpected people and things to change our world.  In fact He chooses to.

If He used extraordinary people - none of us could relate to them!

As I watched Abi's image come across the screen when my son showed me the promo - it all came pouring back to me.  My family's opportunity to get to know Abi's family when they first arrived from Mexico.  It took my breath away as God revealed the 'good' He's allowed us to be part of.

I left my son's office too emotional to talk - I believe our Christmas services are one of the most important projects that our team creates and our team takes it very seriously.   Our jobs are to tell the story of Jesus.  To use our creativity and talents to make it applicable to people's lives.

So that's my request to each of you.

Please invite your friends to one of our 5 services this year!

Pray for unsaved friends and don't hesitate for one moment to invite even unlikely friends, if they hear His Word, and SEE the story, they just may gain a new understanding of their need for a savior!

This could be a new beginning for many, just as God is moving our family into a new beginning!!

Please plan your holiday around our services and bringing friends and family to Him!  Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 4, 2017

weekend report

My view of the weekend.

Running down hallways with final info about people being baptized.
Talking on walkie talkies.
Rushing into the video booth more times than I have in months!  (Also snagging one of Bob Price's amazing mini cream sticks he brings the tech team whenever he serves!)
Discussing how to save 3 or 4 minutes in the service.
Crying backstage as I send people out to be baptized.
Organizing the group of mom's that send care packages to our college students and college aged military young adults.
Holding a crying little girl who was waiting to go out on stage and be baptized.
Listening to the congregation shout and sing praises to the King witnessing people following the Lord in obedience as they are baptized!
Listening to a challenging message - the first in our Messy Christmas series!

Celebrating again, that this is my job!

A few shots of the weekend.

Ron instructing about how the baptism will work





It was an extremely powerful worship service this weekend - thanking the Lord for my church!

Our setlist:

Found in You
Oh Praise The Name
Oh Come Let Us Adore Him
Pastor Dave explained Baptism and introduced a video describing how many men we've baptized at the Prison!
Prison video
No Longer Slaves (baptisms began during this song)
Broken Vessels
Video Bumper
Message:  Messy Christmas Pt. 1 - Messy Background - Pastor Dave Vance
Exit Song: No Longer Slaves

to watch our services go to crossroadswired.com

Friday, December 1, 2017

my dad touched this

It's always interesting when I feel the closest to the Lord.

It's not when I'm enjoying a big accomplishment, a completed assignment or renovation.  It's when I touch something that is connected to a memory of simple things.  Quiet things.  Things possibly  overlooked at the time as completely insignificant!

This morning as I pulled an old electric skillet out of the cabinet, I remembered all the times I watched my dad's hands touch this.... 

He cooked bacon in it for us kids, he used it to make crazy concoctions out of leftovers, things that don't go together at all!

Mostly what this old pan reminded me of, was how valuable time was with him - how fast things change and how much he cared for us.

The other thing that caught my eye was all the old stains.  Possibly things he could have scrubbed off in days-gone-by, but now they were here to stay.  Cooked into the fiber of the pan forever.

Our heavenly Father longs to touch the stains of my life.  He wants to forgive them, forget them - remove them from me as far as the East is from the West, but will I let him?

Why do I choose to hold onto hurts, allowing them to become permanent instead of releasing them to the Savior?

I invited my father to touch my life today - removing stains - renewing me.

Christmas is the story of what it took to offer me this forgiveness and I choose today to receive His touch anew - releasing all the stains and accepting His touch....

My earthly father is in heaven - I don't know what earth awareness God allows us to have once we're with him, but if you can hear me dad, "thanks for touching my life in so many amazing ways growing up, but mostly thanks for making sure I understood the Heavenly Father's touch.  I love you and miss you!"


Monday, November 27, 2017

weekend report

It's been a busy, amazing, growing, unbelievably worshipful 2 weeks at Crossroads!

Last week we celebrated Pastor Dave's birthday with our amazing choir and this weekend we added a beautiful cello to the team!

I'm thankful every single weekend as I participate in worship with my friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord at Crossroads...so thankful.

These pictures give just a glimpse into the privilege we have to gather each weekend together to express love to the Lord!

Take a peak!





Michael having fun drumming!

Our choir was amazing


Cello has always been my favorite instrument - so thankful!

Ernesto and Jocelyn's voices were beautiful together!

I love these band guys!



This weekends setlist was so amazing!

Our setlist:

Announcements on video

Call Upon The Lord
When the Fight Calls
Closer
In Christ Alone
I Have Decided

Bumper
Message:  Project Next Step - Jesse Rider


Exit Song: I Have Decided

Additional praises - we adopted out every single child in our community that would have been without a Christmas without us!  Thank you Crossroads for being the most generous church I've ever known!

We start our "Messy Christmas" series this coming weekend - you definitely don't want to miss!!

To watch our services go to crossroadswired.com

Friday, November 17, 2017

a couple weekend reports

What a difference a couple weeks makes...

Two weekends ago Jocelyn lead our worship, it was a beautiful service with communion as part of it and ended with a powerful ballad, Slow Down reminding us how fleeting our time with our kids really is. The beautiful song complete with an amazing music video brought people to tears.  As I watched her sing it I thought back over this past year and the heartache she and our family was going through a year ago, and I thanked the Lord that He held her and her beautiful daughter so close to Himself through that dark time.  After the service I was waiting for the choreographer for our Christmas services to discuss the dance we're working on and when I saw her coming, still emotional I lost it too, and we weren't the only ones...  the Lord moved during this service!

Such a great service complete with Pastor Dave's message "One Generation - raising kids", on video!  Many people didn't even notice!  It was so good!

One of my favorite things - families teaching their
loved ones what it means to serve in the church - amazing to watch!
Notice Ben's gloves to provide 'no touch' prep!

Preparing for communion

Our precious praise team!  Faithful Jesus workers!



Jocelyn lead us beautifully - working hard to be prepared and lead well!
Performing "Slow Down" pictured here was so powerful!
Tammy and Jocelyn performing 'Slow Down'...so good!



I found Ernesto - hidden in the tech areas trying to learn all he
can about our current systems and enjoying our faithful volunteers!
Our setlist:
Announcements
Lord I Need You
Communion - the song Yours
Yours - stood crowd and completed singing the song
Revelation Song
Great Are You Lord
Video Bumper
Message:  Our Home Pt. 7:  One Generation - Raising Kids - Lead Pastor Dave Vance on video
Special Music: Slow Down - Jocelyn Nicolas with music video


It was a beautiful weekend!

So much changes so quickly!

Ernesto Alcantara and wife Vanessa and girls, joined us at Crossroads officially last week and everything changed.

We're very excited about what the future holds and can't wait to do life with them!

We're all celebrating the fact that the Lord brought us Ernesto and his family!

So good to have past team members return!  The band
played beautifully we're blessed!


Our precious Dan and vocal team - love these people so much!

It was great to worship together!


Our Setlist:
Pastor Jesse Rider opened last weekend with announcements  - listing item after item of exciting information about upcoming events and especially our open house at the new City Center!
He also had the privilege of introducing Ernesto, our new Worship Arts Pastor,  which lit up the auditorium!
Zeal
King of My Heart
Good Good Father
Video Bumper
Message:  Our Home Pt. 8:  Course Correction - Pastor Dave Vance
As our series ended Pastor Dave lead in a Call to Commitment to our families and there was a strong response to the challenge as people came forward to pray and take a stand as families committed!
Spirit of the Living God

It's been an amazing past two weekends - God is so good!



Sunday, October 29, 2017

weekend report

Well, not sure where to begin!  It was a weekend full of blessings, so I guess I'll write about our service first and then show you the rest of our blessings in another post.

Twice each year when there is a 5th weekend we do a Student Takeover where the students run most of the areas of the church, but this one was especially special.  This was the first time Students lead worship alone without any of our worship leaders helping them on stage.  And they were amazing!

They parked cars, welcomed everyone, worked in the Coffee House, ran cameras, video directed, ran lights helped with audio, sang and played in the band, there were students that cooked breakfast for the teams and then did all the clean up.  We even opened with our children's choir and had a child dedication lead by our Family Ministry Director, Jeanette Chase while Mike Mahek our generations pastor continued teaching in our HOME series - thematically everything supported one another beautifully.

The congregation talked about how much hope it gave them to see students loving Jesus and they talked about the encouragement it brought them, so good!  Take a look!

These were our front door greeters in their HELLO T-shirts - so good!

The first thing that greeted you was our student parking team!


Dan, Milo and Joci loved working with the kids and when I looked at
them it seriously looked like proud parents looking at their kids!
Tremendous leaders!



Our children's choir opened the service with a beautiful worship song.

Today was a special Child Dedication for us as our daughter dedicated her daughter Trinity - it was a huge blessing to see
these parents make a commitment to lead their children toward the Lord!

The adults worked to get the pastor's mic working correctly,
but - funny we were the only ones struggling with equipment!
Jocelyn lead the pre-service meeting, and let me tell you, it takes a huge amount of focus to review
each element in the services including transitions and covering all their work in prayer.
Student enjoying running one of the cameras.

Running audio is not an easy job!

Camera student #2 on Camera 1

Running the video switcher is big work!

Running the CG (character generator) requires great focus!

MacKenzie read from God's Word as part of the worship team -
and we got to celebrate her birthday with her! Not sure how
many teens would tie up a birthday to serve the Lord!

The most precious moment of the weekend for me
personally, was witnessing my daughter dedicating her
precious daughter to the Lord!


Child Dedication was the perfect fit on a weekend we were studying the family!

Our students pictured here and below have become very dependable leaders!


Students lead us well!

Pastor's son Jacob was one of our excellent drummers!

Our setlist:

One Thing Remains - Children's Choir
Child Dedication (9:00 a.m. only) - Jeanette Chase, Family Ministry Director
Announcements - Jesse Rider - High School Student Ministry independent
Alive
Glorious Day
Scripture reading - MacKenzie
When the Fight Calls
Anchor
Message:  HOME series - Mike Mahek
Exit Song - Alive

To watch our ministry on-line go to crossroadswired.com