watch this video

Kay Warren May 1-2, 2010
Click on the above link



Michelle Armstrong is such a gifted photographer! You can see her work on her website - Michelle Armstrong Photography.

Thanks for creating this video for us Michelle. I love you!

weekend report...Kay Warren!

Crossroads was SO privileged to host Kay Warren from Saddleback ! Kay blessed our congregation by teaching us this weekend - oh my goodness it was great! We just dropped her off at the airport..I hope she will someday come back to Ohio to visit again!







My beautiful friend and Pastor's wife, Michelle, took these fabulous pictures. I LOVE the hands...it describes Kay's immense care for God's people. She was gracious and sincere in her concern for our congregation!

Our setlist:

Pre-worship: If You Let Me Love You
Pre-worship: Shout To The King
Welcome video
Praise: A New Hallelujah
Praise: Majestic
Worship: Trust God
Worship: Surrender

Message: Say Yes To God Kay Warren

Closing Special: Until The Whole World Knows- Casting Crowns
Our Fabulous Tech Coordinator - Steve Browning (www.stevebrowningwired.com) created a video within this song made up of all of our Crossroads local and foreign mission opportunities! Very powerful!! You can watch this video as well as the entire service at www.crossroadswired.com

Also to see what other ministries used in their services go to www.theworshipcommunity.com

Kay Warren is coming!!!

It's almost time for Kay to be with us at Crossroads!

One week from tonight Kay will be doing our weekend teachings at Crossroads. You really MUST be there!! It is a great privilege to host Kay. Please plan to join us for one of the weekend services. Saturday at 7:00 p.m., Sunday at 9:30 or 11:00 a.m.

Crossroads is located at 1188 Park Avenue West in Mansfield, Ohio. I hope to see you there!

Kay Warren is coming

Crossroads is about to be blessed by a visit from Kay Warren!

Kay is a very accomplished teacher and author. She wrote and co-wrote, "Dangerous Surrender and Sanctification" among others. She is very involved in the fight against HIV and has brought great attention to this devastating disease and the people affected by it. Kay is the wife of Pastor Rick Warren from the Saddleback Church in California, and we are so fortunate that she is willing to come and spend a weekend with us on May 1 and 2.

I spoke at length today with her assistant, Paulette who I have come to love across the miles! We discussed every detail of her visit and it is going to be amazing for our congregation!

Sometimes it feels like no one else could possibly understand the challenges and loneliness we experience in ministry. Then you come to know others who have experienced the same struggles...they come along beside you and you become so overwhelmed with thankfulness that you are able to continue strongly. You give thanks to the Lord and you look for opportunities to pass the blessing on to others.

The blessing began the day Kay said she would come. And now we prepare to become just a little piece of Kay's life.

what I learned today

"Figuring out God's ways isn't any of my business. Following Him is." This is a quote from Kay Warren.

Just follow Him. I am definitely good at making this much more difficult than it needs to be. Do you ever have to have everything completely figured out before you follow Him?

The most amazing times of my life are easily when I step out totally in faith and follow Him. Not able to rely on myself because I have no idea how to accomplish it on my own. So I follow.

I like to lead, following is difficult for me, especially if I don't think who or what I have to follow deserves to be followed. But, God - there should be no questions when it comes to following him. When Jesus called the fisherman, they left everything and followed, when he told Zacchaeus to get out of the tree, he did, and followed after God from then on, on and on he called and people followed him without question.

I learned today it's not our job to understand Him, just follow! Cool!

another day is over

So...evaluation time as the day comes to an end. Would I change stuff, sure. Would I change everything, no. What I would change are the wasted words I spoke today. Unnecessary words, some critical, some sarcastic and some just a waste of precious time. Everything we do, and everything we say comes together to form a picture of us. A picture of our life.

Today in Kay Warrens book "Dangerous Surrender" I read the following, "The Polaroid picture of what God was doing in my life was still mostly gray and blurry...I had an inkling that I was on an adventurous journey that would include growing in intimacy with God."

What a cool way to describe our lives, like a developing Polaroid picture! What I feel the most like recently is the part of the process when you take the picture and shake it, waving it around in the air to aid in the development. (I've always wondered if that really helped speed up the process.) Shake, shake, shake what will I look like in the end? Good question.

I still haven't gone back and read all the pages I wrote when I woke up the other night. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, should be interesting. Maybe some of the things I poured out to God could be the topics He wants me to write extensively about? Maybe He doesn't want me to write, I'm fine with either. I just really want to know what is next? Don't we all?

my day off

Had a nice slow day with my hubby. Breakfast, laundry, errands, back home to phone calls organizing Mission trips.

On one errand I purchased Kay Warren's book Dangerous Surrender. This book is amazing! What a challenge to step outside our personal world and dare to care about the whole world. I certainly care deeply about those less fortunate but when Kay listed these statistics it really got my attention. Kay said, "If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world!! (And listen to this), if you have ANY money in the bank, some cash in your wallet and spare change thrown in a dish at home, you are in the TOP 8% of people on the earth; 92% have LESS to live on!" WOW, talk about perspective! It ended up being a day of prayer and soul searching. I later discussed with Ron my thoughts concerning accompanying him on his next mission trip.

My dilemma is this, I am 100% behind the mission of Asia's Hope, the agency that Ron will again travel with this fall. They rescue orphans in Cambodia and Thailand, an amazing - Biblical based concept. Ron and I personally contribute to this ministry, but, as far as being personally called to go, I don't know what God wants me to do. I'm continuing to pray seeking his will. Ron and I have always done everything together for 30+ years, so I would go even for the common experience if that is what he wants me to do. Is this reason enough to go, or does God want me to send the portion of money I would spend to support the orphans? Tough call. I have a little while before I have to make a commitment to go, for Him to reveal His will to me. I will obey.

I finished the day by attending the Global Youth Ministry Network's open house. How richly God has blessed this ministry! This ministry equips youth leaders around the world to lead in their own ministries. He has graciously provided a beautiful facility for this amazing Mission organization, through a generous friend! How good God's people truly are! It has been a day to look beyond myself and begin to develop a far reaching more global perspective, a God perspective!

Kay Warren

Oh my goodness, my dear friend and Pastor's wife, Michelle and I got to go see Kay Warren! (Thanks to Joy, Kay's wonderful assistant who invited us to come). Kay is the wife of Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback. She was in Columbus, Ohio where she taught a session at a Youth Conference and later sat down with pastor's wives.

What a privilege it was to sit in a room with only about 25 other people and ask questions and receive encouragement. Kay is an amazing woman who has been through tremendously tough times. She is a breast cancer survivor and has just had a second knee replacement. Despite her discomfort she came and ministered to us! Kay has an unbelievable love for her Lord as well as for the local church.

When the session ended we got to talk to Kay one on one. She may never know how much that meant to us! She could have been speaking to any group anywhere she chose, but she chose to care for pastor's wives. What a blessing.

God chooses just a few that can serve with great success and remain authentic. Kay is one of the few. She is an extraordinary communicator who speaks straight from her heart to others. Amazing! I would have never dreamed that I would get the opportunity to meet such a great Godly leader. God is so good!