a different Christmas

 This will be a different Christmas for sure!  

My daughter's first baby arrived early so I had the privilege of being down in NC with her for the past week 1/2.  What a joy to see how amazing she and Jared are parenting this little one, already pointing him to Jesus!  I have loved every moment of it!

Being here also means I'm less involved then normal with Crossroads' Christmas.  I still have responsibilities but missing all the final meetings and tweaks to the plans.  Christmas was always one of my favorite ministry seasons although some of the pastor's I've worked with didn't particularly love it - ha ha!

It's always a magnificent thing to watch everything fall into place as God's hand touches our work and forms it into exactly what His will is.  None of us ever dreamed COVID would still be controlling much of what is happening around us by December, but alas it is.  Still, I see God's leading even in things like Pastor Dave's suggestion for live animals this year - and the fact that they have to be outside.  This removed all worry about COVID by wearing masks and being spread out from one another in the fresh air!

It gives everyone at Crossroads the opportunity to invite anyone they've been wanting to invite to church to stop by...even if it's just to see the animals!  Please use this opportunity to invite families, even if you don't think they'll stay for the service it may be Step #1 in getting them to Crossroads.  Meanwhile inside the Gospel of Jesus will be celebrated through beautiful song and God filled teaching! 

Everything we plan is intentional, everything pointing them to the Savior! We'll have people out with our animals in front of the church to welcome everyone and chat with them about Christ's birth - we just need you to help us get those people here!  We'll even have a camel!

Remember if you invite people with Elementary aged kids or younger, there will be children's services just for them at all of the 5:00 p.m. services - December 22, 23 & 24.  

Even in the ugliness of all the sickness, we can still safely worship and honor King Jesus while remaining a safe distance from one another! I'll be back from NC soon and hope to see you there!

Events+Response = Outcome

I was reading in Jonah this morning and came across my notes from a series Pastor Dave, taught previously at Crossroads Church.

This note caught my eye and I felt it was SO applicable to what we're experiencing in our country right now.  Events+ Response = Outcome.  PROFOUND!   He went on to remind us that the only part of that equation we get to participate in or have control over is our Response!

God allows or creates the event because He knows what needs to happen in order to accomplish HIS outcome! 

I've seen a lot of disappointing responses to our current circumstances, so what do you says brothers and sisters, can we lay our opinions, our worries and our whining aside and trust God for the outcome?  Am I confused and disappointed in our current circumstance?  Of course! I had many  plans and projects that I had invested tons of times into that all got cancelled!

But, I believe fully that all God needs from me is a controlled - godly response.  And possibly to just be quiet!  Will you join me?

Fear and Trust are Opposites

God's given us today, July 10th.
How will I spend it?

If I'm scared, I am not trusting.

Fear and Trust are opposites and cannot exist at the same time.

I thought back to a recent conversation I had with a friend expressing that I was worried that it will be impossibly to even have an honest election.  I ended the conversation by saying, "but the Lord needs all of this to happen in order to fulfill his plan, so we just have to rest in Him".

As I walked away from that conversation I found myself not long afterward worrying this time about 'defunding the police departments'...

Did my worry honor the Lord?  Did it change tomorrow?  Did it demonstrate trust?

No, it instead supports a lack of trust.  AND wastes time the Lord gifted me with by allowing me to have today.  And over a period of time worry can actually shorten my life by ruining my health.

Matthew 6:27 & 34

27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What I'm trying to be diligent about is going to prayer the minute I find myself slipping back into worry.  For me this means I need to avoid listening to news and anything that takes my eyes off of Jesus.  This refocuses my mind toward TODAY and the things that God has placed before me to care for, work on, and spend this day doing.  We have the opportunity right now to be the biggest witnesses we've ever been if we can demonstrate a calmness, a kindness and reliance on God, and refuse to become part of the frantic, endless search for answers the world is pursuing!

A watching world cannot deny God's power when they see us rest in Him instead of getting caught up in the worry frenzy around us!

my day off

As I sat outside on this glorious morning having some quiet time with the Almighty, today's study was on waiting.  That sounds familiar - Pastor Dave's been taking us through the book of Habakkuk!

The interesting part she discussed about waiting was what they did while they waited.  She talked about the fact that there's always work that can be done during the waiting.  Sometimes it's simply being quiet before God and doing some soul-searching and making ourselves available.  And other times there's actual physical work that needs to be done just to prepare us for what God's going to reveal at the end of the waiting.  Like Noah did while he waited for rain!

So to those of you in a season of waiting, take great encouragement from the amazing people God used in the Bible that waited, possibly much longer periods of waiting than God may ask us to be in.

I don't feel like I'm waiting right now, but still I'm asking myself as I write this, what is God's plan for this day before me?  How can just a day-off affect eternity for His glory...I guess I'll just remain in Him and wait and see what He has for me as I put one foot in front of the other and enter this day!

spreading seed

I'm in my happy place today, spending time in God's Word on my sunny deck.

Watching birds eat from our feeders, dogs play and just exhaling.  It's a very good place.

The devotional I was reading today reminded me that each of us is gifted exactly as God intended so that we can be used by Him for the purpose of spreading His message.

I Corinthians 3:8-10 says, "He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled[a] master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

It reminded me that although the Lord is the divine Sower, He places seeds in MY hands!  I don't have to have it all figured out, just be ready to take advantage of opportunities he lays right in front of me every day to sow into someone's life!

I loved this line from the study, " When I'm exhaling and not hyperventilating He uses me to spread seeds."  We are not usable when we're running non-stop and not listening to that quiet voice that allows us to recognize opportunities to spread the seed so the Holy Spirit can do God's work in someone's life.

I had a conversation with someone at Crossroads this weekend who said "as I get older I just look at my life and wonder, what have I done with my life?"  This is the tug at our heart to find our life's work and worth in Jesus alone.  Simply living an 'available' life with a heart surrendered to Him - with time to listen is all He requires.

It's no accident where God has placed you, there are seed to be sown that only your can spread!!

our Easter celebration

Our worship of the risen Savior began long before the public viewing of our work.

It began with ideas that we weren't sure would even work or how we were going to do them.  It began with prayer over those ideas asking the Lord to make it clear to us what He chose.  It began with casting the vision and convincing others to join the work.  It began with a commitment to whatever it required to be ready in time.  And it began with a hope that God would use it to change lives for all of eternity...and He did!!

We gave out over 50 Believers Packets as Pastor Dave carefully explained what it means to make a decision for Christ - to Empty ourself of all the shame, guilt and past regrets to simply follow Him!

It was obvious in our world that's so FULL of stuff and choices that people still feel so EMPTY.

Isn't it ironic that we have to be willing to give up our junk, to EMPTY ourselves in order to truly feel FULL?  Only the death and resurrection of a Savior fills us.

This is what my Easter season looked like!

I loved this picture, it's perhaps the one that sums up everything!  From children to
adults writing on the empty tomb - writing what they wanted Jesus to empty their lives of!

Behind the scenes at Crossroads with Justin our actor!  He worked hard to memorize
the drama for our video!

My precious son Eric our amazing videographer
working on behind the scenes pieces of the video drama.

Eric video taping Justin in his office.

Willow Creek was so generous to explain to me how
to make the 'oil concoction'.  

This is one of my favorite pictures...my son and grandson shooting the 'hand shots'
from the video/drama.  Where God washed the dirt of our lives away...

Although holidays are the busiest for us in ministry, we always try to still make
it fun for our family!

We miss our precious ones in North Carolina, but the Lord is already using them
in amazing ways as a family in their community and church!

I LOVED the simplicity of Good Friday.  It was the first Good Friday service I've ever gotten
to create and it was one of my favorite services in 23 years!  I think our lives are starving for
simplicity in Jesus...a focus away from the emptiness of life.

We even had fun at rehearsal!

The boys in the band!!

I loved the simplicity of the set design and I LOVED they way it

connected Good Friday to Easter!!  (HUGE shout out to Eric Longstreth's work)

Our amazingly gifted Senior Pastor Dave Vance - our friend!!

Monica and Ernesto using what God gifted them to do!

Meanwhile leading up to Easter, our fearless Worship Pastor Ernesto,
was also playing the role of Jesus in a musical!  What??

Our lobby at Crossroads

People used the backgrounds exactly as we had prayed they would!
Both as a place to write the things the Lord was emptying them of
as well as a place to take pictures with friends and families.  These simple backgrounds
become part of their families' forever stories.

I stood off in the distance and watched a precious friend battling
cancer write Empty of Cancer on the tomb and wept when she
walked away - lifting her in prayer!!

In all the years I've been involved in creating things at Crossroads, I think these two guys by far have logged the most hours
helping me!  My amazing, perfect husband Ron and our dear friend Greg Crawfis!!  They roll their eyes but don't complain!  ha ha ha!!  A huge shout out to Dan Zachman for helping construct the tombs!

We decided at the suggestion of a friend to leave the walls from the EMPTY tomb up this weekend for people to see what was written on those walls during the other services of Easter weekend.  

As our new series EMPTY begins it will continue to be relevant as we examine our lives and submit them to the Lord!

To God be the glory - for His sacrifice for us.
And thank you to the leadership at Crossroads which gives us space to create, figure it out and ultimately be a team God uses to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!

preparing for Easter

I was reflecting with my hubby today about the fact that this will be the 21st year I've been involved in helping design Easter for Crossroads. The years pass like the blink of an eye!

Every year I wonder what we can possibly do to provide another experience that will draw people to Christ, bring a new understanding of His sacrifice for us, and we pray and we plan and we hope...

I always go through a difficult nervous time of casting the vision for all the pieces and parts that I've gathered all year long, ideas I think we need to include (vision casting is NOT one of my gifted areas), and when the original idea is all approved I LOVE the part of hands on work.  Kind of the middle part of the process - writing scripts - tweaking ideas we find to make them our own, physically showing the teams pictures of what I want created.

Then I hit another nerve racking part of the process, turning all the things over to the experts on our staff -  like shooting video and being willing to hold loosely to my ideas as other gifted people also touch the project and bring their own view of what should be created.  Everyone involved gets to insert 'better things' then what the original idea included!  And one of the most frustrating parts of waiting always has to do with set design both on stage and in the lobby because I'm so visual I desperately need to 'see' it fast, and that just can't happen.  And if my eyes aren't focused on Him, I worry.

And that's the part of Easter we're in now, waiting for everyone else to complete their parts.  This is the part that all I can contribute for the next few days is prayer over the project, lots of prayer, and just staying out of the way!

Each time we get to take the creation of a special event or service and lead others to join us in order to complete the dream - it's actually a pretty good example of the life Christ creates for us.

He creates us with a specific 'role to play' that no one else can fulfill.  He then surrounds us with all the people and resources we NEED (not want), to fulfill His plan.  It's the letting go of OUR plans, it's the discipline of accepting it won't look exactly as we think it should and finally just sitting back when all you can do is pray part that's the most difficult.

So, as we finish preparing Easter services at Crossroads, will you pray with us? 

The entire process takes place to win others to Him!!  We can create the fanciest, most amazing service of all time and still not accomplish a thing, unless you invite your friends to join you!!   Please grab a handful of the Easter postcards we created and just lay them on a friends desk at work, invite a  relative that you know needs to meet the Savior and together let's be crazy determined to do our part, the part only we can play, to make all the work and planning and praying usable by the God of the universe!!!

21 Days

As many of you know, our ministry is partaking in 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. 

I love an organized plan of action like this!  Even though I haven't asked anyone to hold me accountable for a daily commitment to prayer and fasting, just knowing so many of my Crossroads Church brothers and sisters are also participating makes me feel responsible to be committed.

I loved this statement in the challenge "Repentance means an internal change of heart that leads to an external change of action" - it explains so well the 'why' of repentance.

As I've spent some time preparing my heart for today, I pray for an internal change that identifies what needs to change in my life!

Will you join me?

alone time

Since it hasn't been as easy to just hop in my Jeep and run around the past couple days, I've been at home more than usual....a lot of alone time and have found I've enjoyed it immensely.  (Well outside the fact that our furnace is only capable of running at about 55 degrees...).

We were so busy over the holidays that it never even entered my mind to make new commitments to the Lord -  New Year's resolutions - so to speak.

That's why I'm thankful we waited to launch our "21 Days of Prayer and Fasting" until February.  You'll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks, we're working to prepare the 'guide booklet'!

I would encourage each of you to prepare now to make time in your day to really commit to being part of this!  Can you imagine the ways God could use Crossroads if we all fully turned our time and focus over to Him??

Shortly after our 21 Days come to an end, we'll also host one of the Community Nights of Prayer on March 12th. All the churches are being asked to consider hosting one of these nights.   This will be a tremendous time of prayer - coming together as the Mansfield community to lift up our leaders, broken community and ministry to the Lord!

Our area of Ohio is now known as one of the worst drug areas in the country - we can't change that alone- but God can when His people come together to make a difference through prayer and showing  the lost the only way to a meaningful life - Jesus Christ!

We know the Savior of the World personally, and it's time to start letting our community know!!

what Christmas meant

As we get rested up from Christmas, I've had some time to consider what Christmas meant this year...

The emotions ran high!

I went from doubting that it would ever come together - to the excitement or progress, and then felt loneliness under the weight of responsibility  - I went from exhaustion to the exhilaration of accomplishment and then fell into a deep contentment as we were surrounded by family!  I just love the challenge to create and relish the years I've been involved with many other team members working on the details.  The enjoyment of creating doesn't lessen the emotions we experience, but this year when we gave out over 60 new believer packets to people that raised their hands indicating a decision to follow Christ, any worry we had experienced was immediately forgotten and turned to praise!

In the midst of preparing Christmas there were intentional moments of reflection on the true meaning of a Savior born for me...a breath taking realization!

I love the season despite it's hectic requirements - and realize what a privilege it is to try each year to tell the story in a true, compelling way praying it makes the story of Jesus come alive to someone for the first time!

You can watch our service here Christmas at Crossroads

I took many pictures that I'd like to share - they tell the story of the journey called Christmas!

Crossroads Artist Group created light-bulb decorations
for the Crossroads tree at Kingwood

Grandmas helpers with the Crossroads' Christmas
tree!

When your talented daughter writes a book...what a blessing to read this Christmas!
Jocelyn Hunsader, author.

This precious little one was part of our Christmas video shoot!

My talented son Eric Biddle shot the Christmas videos

Our precious friend Kristin playing the part of the doctor in our video

It was a cold video shoot day

Such generous Crossroads' attendees braving the cold for our video shoot

Family all together at the carousel! 

Ernesto brought the house down with "Mary Did You Know"!
It was a definite highlight!

Loved working with these hilarious, talented gentlemen!!

A whole row of my Ashland cousins - so thankful for extended family I love!!

Blessed to have the amazing group The Trio playing in our lobby!

Beautiful flowers for the talented granddaughter dancer!

A star is born!

Good friends for Christmas lunch - Dana and Sue!

Cousins so happy to be back together!

Not sure who likes legos more?

Oliver and grandpa carrying Grandma Forbes' new tv down to her!

Family helping to take all the decorations down and clean for the Celebration services!

Loving being together again!

I encourage all of you with grandkids to let them serve with you and see you serve in the church,
if they grow up doing it they take such pride in serving others and spending time at church!!

This about wraps up my blessed Christmas.  I can't thank all of you who made Christmas at Crossroads a possibility, and all of my friends that prayed for me and encouraged me as we planned and executed the services with our amazing teams!!  Happy New Year!