a night worth remembering

After all the preparation, memorization, praying, planning and carrying - Tuesday night came.  The night we invited the community, our community to join us for worship.  And worship they did.

The Lord was present in our worship and I pray He was honored.  Here are some of the sights and sounds from our Night of Worship!

everyone worked really hard to get it just right - 4 churches
represented just in this song!

Fellowship is an important part of this whole event - plus we were waiting
for sound!

The theatre is still breathtaking!  A great icon of our community!

So so good to be lead by multiple gifted leaders!

Praise team members from various churches made up our little choir - beautiful!

I have to comment on our fearless musical director, Dan Fleming
on the left.  He has lead every special musical service at
Crossroads for the past 20 years!  So thankful!

The Dotson brothers completed the band.

Everyone so ready to worship the King!

Brittany got us off to an amazing - exciting start!

Pastor Dave's vision to have it at the Ren was definitely
the right decision!

The local pastors were welcomed to the stage for prayer!

There is hardly anything I love doing more than
encouraging young artists and musicians!  Nick
lead us in worship as he created a beautiful mosaic
supporting our theme of "One Church...One Mission"!

On a personal note, I was honored and so thankful
that my mom was able to attend!

Rachel Justice created a beautiful painting which beautifully depicted
our theme for the night "One Church...One Mission"

Some of our male worship leaders pictured here - so much gifted talent in the area - we are blessed!

To help create the Night of Worship the past several years is a responsibility I don't take lightly, but the opportunity to take ideas and lay them at Jesus' feet asking for His guidance and will to be done, is what I love to be part of, and this year was no different.

As the worshippers came and the voices began to fill the room I was nearly overwhelmed knowing God was clearly in this place! He blessed the night - He completed our efforts.

None of us can ever thank you enough for coming, but I'll just say it again, thank you all!  You helped make it a night to remember!

For Our City

The series Pastor Dave begins this weekend is called For Our City.  I'm not sure there has been another series he's lead that he's been more passionate about.

He is not satisfied with success between the 4 walls of Crossroads, he intends to lead us into changing our entire community for Christ!  And the Crossroads leaders believe with all of our hearts 

that is what God is about to do!

Imagine our Mansfield, once made fun of as a place where no one would want to live, vibrant and full of hope!

I'm not referring to physical restoration, but a mighty, supernatural spiritual restoration!

This spiritual restoration can begin to happen as we offer physical help, as we love and give unselfishly, opening the door to share our faith.

We can no longer stay silent with our personal relationship with Jesus unknown to those around us! Our community must see by watching how we live, how unselfishly we serve, that this relationship with Christ is what's missing in their lives.   It's the very thing they long for, even though many don't realize this yet.

Now is the time to step up and reach out from our safe, beautiful church to become like we never have before, a community church as our title suggests.

It's time Crossroads - to live For Our City!

my today

As I sit here in my bed ready to sleep, I'm physically exhausted but spiritually invigorated!

A young lady came to know the Lord tonight at Crossroads.  Her life changed forever, in fact for eternity, tonight!  This is why we even HAVE Crossroads - to be there for the lost - to point them to the Savior!

Another lady who came to Crossroads for the first time this past weekend, and talked for a long time with our pastors when she came back for our dessert fellowship tonight.  We hosted this for people who made decisions for the Lord Easter weekend or wanted to know more about the church.

She had NO understanding whatsoever about accepting the Lord or any of the spiritual next steps to grow closer to Him.  It was so surprising that she had been in church yet had no understanding about a personal relationship with the Savior.

I got to show a new couple around the church and as we walked they explained that their children are in High School - but, one night in the middle of the night they got a call from Georgia from a sister to come get her son.  I don't know what the circumstances were, but they got in their car and drove straight there through the night to rescue their little nephew.  Great people!

Earlier today we worked on details for the Global Leadership Summit that will simulcast into Crossroads this summer.  Soon our auditorium will be filled as many of the top local Government officials and leaders from all aspects of our community gather to be challenged to attend the Summit.  This could change Mansfield...

God has positioned us in a very special place and time here at Crossroads.   Will He use us to be a leader in our community?  Will we get to play a role in bringing unlikely people together?  I can hardly wait to see.

Please pray like never before that the Lord will open our community up to Him - that new relationships will present opportunities for Crossroads to serve even the leaders of North Central Ohio.

weekend report

We got a special treat this weekend when our Student Ministry worship leaders lead our worship services!  It's very exciting to see what the Lord is doing at Crossroads through our young adults as they serve the students of Crossroads!

Setlist:

Do You Hear What I hear - Deas Vail
Traditions Video
Announcements:  Jocelyn Nicolas
The Frist Noel (Holy Is The Lord)
Great Are You Lord - All Sons and Daughters
One Thing Remains- Stanfill/Nothing But The Blood of Jesus
Message:  God's Gift of Peace For You - Brian Boone
Exit Song:  Original song - Are You Not Like Me

To watch our services on line go to crossroadswired.com

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

Leading

So much of the success at Asia's Hope is about leadership.

The children's homes are lead by amazing house parents, the country director is Savorn and even among the kids you can see young leaders emerging.

Within these structures there's Biblical and school lessons taught by leaders, dance taught by leaders, everyday skills taught by leaders  and on and on.

I'm sitting at the youth conference right now waiting to watch Aaron and Jocelyn help lead 400+ students.  So many opportunities exist here - just waiting for leaders to come, to be prepared to grow up enough to take over...well  it's all just very exciting to watch!

does creativity just happen?

I wish!

Today I have spent some time pursuing creativity!  I have been networking with other 'Directors of Programming' across the country picking their brains for suggestions or events I can attend - or creative processes or meetings they attend that I could shadow or SOMETHING to take me out of my little Crossroads box...

A couple of my best contacts have recently moved on to other areas of ministry so I feel like I'm kind of 'out there'...certainly not abandoned by our teams or staff, but just kind of needing something to point me at some new things I have not yet discovered on my own.  New ways to help 'create the need' and 'reveal the Savior' to those who are seeking.  Jesus was relevant when he walked the earth, He used stories and current things that surrounded the culture to teach those who followed Him or crossed His path.  That is why I can never stop pursuing creativity.

It takes no fancy tricks or gimmicks, that is not what I mean when I discuss creativity.  Instead I long to investigate every beautiful piece of His creation, everything that people consider moving and all the vast ways to communicate with our congregation.   We are all wired differently, music speaks to some, art to others, the written word to some and simplicity to others.  So my job is to investigate as many shapes and forms of these endless possibilities as I can every week - and I feel a need recently to learn from others.  So today I sent emails and made contacts with other leaders in my position.  I am praying there will be some divine appointments made as I lay myself open for suggestions and most of all to learn.

another amazing Saturday

We were truly blessed tonight with Knute Larson's teaching...truly amazing!

It is funny how we have preconceived ideas about people - especially people that have experienced a level of success. Such was the case of my perception of Knute Larson. I just assumed that he would be reserved, NOT!

He and his amazing wife were such blessings and so easy to talk with and get to know.

I really love the opportunities that God has given us to spend time with other leaders and people within other ministries. It brings such encouragement and connection!

If you weren't at Crossroads tonight you have to come tomorrow!

what I learned today

This is a statement I came across in my reading today. Change is made by leaders who are proud to be called heretics because their faith is never in question.

Heretic : anyone who does not conform to an established attitude, doctrine, or principle.

We can all just get by, go along with the flow. Anyone can live within the confines of established rules and guidelines. It seems to me that this would be a very boring existence. So, can change ever happen within established attitudes? Unless these attitudes are truly given up I do not think change can happen, at least not long lasting change. I served in a previous ministry where we tried to move the church from their established ways of doing things. They said this is the direction they wanted to go, but then changed their minds later. So, for a season there were beginnings of change, but they were short lived. Attendance fell, and they were content to stay where they were. And I believe this was best,
it's not about me!

What I LOVE about Crossroads is that we change constantly. Have we been called heretics? Probably. But, to my knowledge, no one has ever questioned our faith in Christ!! Change is not good just for changes sake. But when we find ourselves doing anything just because it is the way it has always been done! Find the nearest heretic and get things changing!

walk out the door

With the new week before me I realize tomorrow I need to sit down and prioritize my to do list.

1. I have to create some blog training for my teams
2. Finish writing evaluations for my staff
3. spend some time reviewing old systems that we aren't really using anymore and rework or abandon them
4. create 2 new small groups
   
5. organize an ongoing writing schedule
   

As I was considering what to work on first I came across this question on one of the blogs I was reading.

If we got fired and they hired a new guy, what would the new guy change or do different? Let's walk out the door and walk back in, and make those changes.

Walk out the door and walk back in, what a great illustration! We would have a completely different perspective on what had to be done if we were new on the job. I want to stay fresh minded and identify things as a leader that aren't working.

The blog went on to say...When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near. You look back with smiles and lots to celebrate, but you don't have a lot to work forward to.

How sad to only be able to look back and to no longer be visionary. I really want to dream, to look ahead. I think with all the problems facing our country right now, we as leaders will be required to have a clearer, stronger vision than ever before. If the economy continues in the direction it seems to be heading, memories may be all many of our people have left.

We need to all walk out the door and come back in again to see things as they really are and to be brave and visionary enough to make changes that need to be made. And to always base those changes in the never changing message of Christ where our hope comes from!