Equip

“Equipping” has always been a key element of Crossroads’ ministries. In fact, it is in the biblical job description for pastors given in Ephesians 4:11-14. Pastors are called to

 “…equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (ESV)

Multiple very long posts could be written about equipping and training, but simply stated, we develop ministries and programs at Crossroads with the desire that men, women, children, and students be maturing in three areas, which taken together reflect “sound doctrine” at work in their lives:

• Character - life and values marked by proven qualities of biblical maturity.
• Content - understanding the Bible and doctrine in ever-deepening fullness.
• Competence - skill in biblical living, service, and mission.

We desire to equip every believer so that they are growing in biblical, godly maturity. Each one should be skillfull in living - able to serve Christ in their families, their church, their communities. We do it through preaching, teaching, mentoring, discipleship, and sometimes, just creatively hanging out with one another.

We seek to equip every member seeking the greatest spiritual maturity for each by teaching sound doctrine and provoking obedience.

n  How are you continuing to be equipped for ministry and spiritually formed in your faith?

An Experiment …

We often try “experiments” at Crossroads. Some of them go well. Others, not so much. But that’s why we experiment - to discover new, effective means of carrying out our ministry programs and engaging potential new opportunities. As we experiment we find that some things just don’t come together the way we thought they would, or that there are some unique challenges, or that some things work even better than we thought.

One example will be our Wednesday Family Service experiment this week (May 14, 2008, for those who read this blog archive two years from now). We have been discussing ways and means of enhancing the “family” things that make up the church … testimonies, kids singing, baptisms, parent dedications and more. So often these special events get rushed or just left out in our regular worship times. For example, we have 20 baptisms this week … and we can only adequately handle two or three in our worship times.

We’ve been tossing this around as a staff for many months and decided to see what might happen if we created an alternate time for some of our practices on Wednesday evening when so many are already in the building. Of course we didn’t realize we’d have so many to baptize, but we can try to get a feel for how this might work, we won’t have to delay membership for some folks (baptism is a requirement), and we might find a new venue for teaching our children about the worship and work of the church.

Experiments also allows us to see the value in change now and then - especially when we see renewed value in what we are doing. Somewhat ironically, a number of years ago (while still on NE 8th St.) we added baptisms to our morning worship services rather than doing a special service on a Sunday evening. Adding a real baptistry to our platform and retiring the leaky horsetrough was a nice touch too. We had several members concerned we would “devalue” baptism as the testimonies had to be a bit shorter and they were no longer the main focus that they had been. I think most found that it was a good choice. In fact, it’s something we’ll continue while trying to find ways to further enhance the ministry. The great thing is that we have so many to baptize this month!

If you’re around, join us at 7:00 PM. Come early for our inexpensive Wednesday dinner in the cafeteria.

Connect

Jerry Mitchell writes that it is his intent that at CBC “we will connect every member in vital community as we assemble together in large and small group settings”. 

At the most basic that means:  

• We want everyone to be connected to Christ. People need salvation!
• We want people to be connected to Crossroads Bible Church. Membership is important to us.
• We want every member to be connected to one another to such a degree that they can meaningfully practice the “one anothers” of the New Testament.

 Connection is also foundational to equipping, serving, and our mission. We have several ministries that facilitate connecting at Crossroads, and we are committed to developing effective and meaningful places to connect.

n  Where are you connecting with other believers in vital relationship?

Jerry on Our Vision

Pastor Jerry Mitchell has a brief, basic, overview of our vision and strategy which he’s posted on our church home page:

We believe that the church is the pillar and ground of truth for this age. It exists for the glory of God to fulfill Jesus Christ’s great commission to make disciples throughout the world. The Elders and Pastors of Crossroads Bible Church have adopted “Building a Community to Change the World,” as our simple vision statement to capture our distinctive strategy to achieve our part in the great commission.

We will focus our energy in four areas of the Christian life to achieve mature discipleship in the lives of believers who fellowship with Crossroads Bible Church. We will Connect every member in vital community as we assemble together in large and small group settings. We will Equip every member through the preaching and teaching of sound doctrine which leads to an ever-maturing obedience. We will train every member to Serve one another in ways appropriate to their own spiritual maturity. Finally, we expect every member to engage in some way in the Mission of the gospel both locally and globally.

These concepts are vital to our strategy and philosophy of ministry which I’ve begun (slowly) unpacking on this blog. One of our highest priorities for the next few years is to revitalize ministry programs so that every member of CBC will be encouraged, and have opportunity for, connecting, equipping, serving, and doing the mission as an outworking of our worship.

I’m excited about what is coming together. It means a bit more re-structuring for our staff (we’ve already done some to accomodate growth), adding some additional staff, and a lot of communication to come.

 

Worship at CBC - A Few Thoughts

Worship is a significant priority for believers. In fact, it is the ultimate priority. It is one of our five key values, and the consideration of this concept alone could (and has) resulted in lengthy books and blog posts. Knowing that most online readers will choke after much more than a screen or two of text, I’d like to briefly highlight some thoughts about “worship” in the context of Crossroads’ ministry. Over the life of this blog, we’ll attempt to periodically expand on these.

We seek to regularly focus the entire church on God his works by considering who God is and what He has done. We come together as a broad community to engage together in bringing God glory in praise, prayer, communion, baptism and expository preaching of the Scriptures. We submit ourselves to God and honor Him by our presence. To that end we have made several commitments that may be distinct from some other churches.

We hold that, rather than targeting a certain demographic in worship, we should understand worship as the broadest common point of equipping, connection, service and mission for the entire church - young or old. To that end we embrace and encourage a blended style of music that might be meaningful across generations, and we hold that the Word of God preached will work in the hearts of all through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. We also hold that it is vital that we all endeavor to be worshipping together regularly as an entire community.

• We desire that all believers from Junior High age up, regularly attend and participate worship services. We encourage parents to model and encourage this commitment with their adolescents. (of course, some parents choose to train their younger children in the practice and presence of worship as well). We do have youth ministries, fellowship groups, home groups, men’s groups, women’s groups and other ministries that are more accessible for different demographics.
• We hold that the careful, verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture is the best approach to preaching to unwrap the whole counsel of God for the entire family of God.
• We also believe that the worship services of the church are primarily for believers who should, out of the overflow of that worship, live as redemptive agents in the world. We also believe that unapologetic worship and teaching of the Scriptures will impact those who do not yet believe.

Five Words

My last two posts were about staffing at Crossroads. One of the key considerations we have as we go about the process is how each position and potential leader fits into our strategy and philosophy of ministry. Every church has a vision even if it isn’t clear or well communicated. The leadership at CBC has been working over the past year to redevelop our vision and strategic plan. Senior Pastor Jerry Mitchell will be talking more about this over the next few months, but we have already begun to arrange our staff around that vision and hire new staff with it in mind.

Worship. Connect. Equip. Serve. Mission. Those five words are at the core of what we want to do. We want every program, every staff member, and every member to be engaged in these important concepts.

 

Looking for Staff - Children’s Ministries

As I mentioned in the last post, we are in the midst of a significant season of staff hiring. Children’s Ministries is one of the positions we are seeking to staff.

 

Since October of 2007, Children’s Ministries at Crossroads have been in a transition. Children’s Pastor Jim Welles and his wife Sharon will be leaving Crossroads’ staff this Spring. Since October, Jim has focused on finishing up the Team 3 curriculum and materials (Team 3 is a unique children’s mid-week club program created by Pastor Jim and friends).  This great ministry fills our building with laughter, learning and happy kids on Wednesday evenings. This past year has had the greatest participation. What a great legacy Jim will be leaving!  In order to maintain the quality of the Team 3 programs we have hired Elisabeth Tasche part-time as Team 3 Director.

 

I’ve been told by many other church leaders that the most difficult position in a church to fill well is that of Children’s ministry leader. So, … while we are currently searching for a Children’s ministry leader, it may take some time - probably into the Summer - until the position is filled.

 

With Jim focusing on Team 3 ministries, Charla Mills has been serving as Lead Coordinator for Sunday Children’s Ministries.  She’s actually fulfilling the role of a Director (no matter what title we give her), and she has been doing it with grace, skill, and a wonderful servant spirit. The ministry has not wavered one bit in this time of transition. It is always amazing to see how God puts His team together.

 

Charla will be the first to say that having a great staff of coordinators and volunteers makes it possible to have such excellence. I have to agree - what a wonderful team of workers we have at Crossroads! Dian Williamson currently handles training and staffing for infants and toddlers, Anita Fossum is our Elementary Coordinator. Mindy Rowe covers so many broad administrative tasks, and Faith Sodeifi provides backup for all - including Team 3. Melissa Dideriksen has done a great job with the mid-week Children of the Word (COW) ministry in support of Women’s Bible studies. Saturday evening children’s ministries have been covered by Patricia Sessions (along with Joanne Dingman who has brought her expertise to overseeing the unique One Way children’s programs at the Saturday service). Our goal is to once again bring all of these diverse children’s programs under the oversight of a single overseeing leader.

 

 

A Season of Staffing

Since Crossroads is facing a staffing challenge this Spring I thought that I’d summarize some important principles regarding staffing that guide our leadership beyond the mere financial considerations.

• Volunteers. A basic philosophical principle for staffing at Crossroads is the development and use of volunteer leaders and workers within ministries as much as possible, in both shepherding and administrative roles.
• The need for compensated staff. Paid staff is considered when a ministry develops beyond the ability  of its volunteer workers to continue its vitality and growth (due to lack of specialized skills and/or time); and if the Elders determine that the ministry is essential to carrying on the goals and priorities of the church. As a rule, staff is not be hired to start ministries that do not currently exist in some form.
• Goals of the Church. A ministry position (and staff category) is evaluated in light of intentional commitments to ministry and goals as developed by the staff and elders.
• Goals of current staff. The goals and direction (both ministry and personal) of current pastoral staff is normally taken into account, evaluated, and prioritized as part of any long-term staffing decisions. Not only does  this help staff stay aggressive and creative, it also helps them to strategize and plan better, and chart a course for personal development.
• Source of Staff. As a rule, leadership should be developed from within the congregation before searching outside the congregation.

We are currently seeking to fill four ministry staff positions — Children’s Ministries, Adult Ministries, Junior High Director, and College Director. More about these in the next few posts.

More Parking

As noted in my last post, as we began the master plan work we made some important discoveries quite quickly. We wanted to consider how to maximize use of the facility and determine what we still needed to finish. Since we moved in so quickly and built out much of our building on the fast track, we wanted to talk more about effective and  efficient room use. We needed to be preparing for future growth, future ministry plans, more office and administrative space. However, we quickly discovered that first we had to deal with determining what additional parking, if any, we could, and would add. For example, while we can still accomodate more people on Sunday morning for worship and classes, we have little room to park their cars.

When we moved in 2004 we understood that we would be able to add a few spaces on our current property and that it would most likely incur significant expenses beyond the cost of paving or striping (mostly having to do various mitigations). However, our master plan team found the means of adding up to 200 spaces on our site, and when checking with the City it appeared that we might avoid some of the extra expenses. We decided to pursue this option aggressively - working with the City of Bellevue, our architects and various engineers to solidify the plan - using some of the funds from Project 2007. We have applied for a construction permit and hope to have approval from the city by the middle of summer. We will then have up to three years to actually complete the work, but we can immediately do more effective planning.

We can now develop a realistic master plan to finish what we started, add what will be needed, and determine how much it will cost to do it all. We can also create sensible phases and funding plans. So, when you see the “proposed work” go up please pray that our neighbors will be amenable and that the city will approve our plans without extra work (and cost!). Early estimates are that it would be $1.5 million to add what amounts to approximately 40% more parking. With an outstanding line of credit we are taking no further action other than the permit and getting estimates. But the leadership have asked the Business Administration Task Group to investigate possible funding scenarios for the future, that will pay down the loan balance and allow for parking and other possible masterplan additions and renovations. In the meantime the Elders have created a “Parking Expansion Fund” for those who might want to contribute towards that project.

 

Of Special Projects and Parking Lots

After so many years of seeing God work generously through his people at Crossroads I should not be surprised, but I still marvel at the faithful, consistent, and generous giving of this congregation. And that without a collection in the service! 

Many will be aware that we initiated a low key special giving project in May 2007. We hoped for $250,000 to be used toward some parking and lighting improvements, replacement of one of our four aging rooftop HVAC units, and some miscellaneous   improvements that need to be done around our entries. We also needed some funds to create a new facilities master plan.  Anything above that would go towards paying down our line of credit that remains after our move into the Eastgate facility.  

So, what happened?

I’ll leave the detailed accounting to the Business Administrator, but this short-term special giving project will wrap up on May 1 and we have received just under $250,000 through the end of March.

And, what got done?

We actually added HVAC capacity made some repairs to one of the rooftop units. The Fireside Room is now much more comfortable and controlled, as is the foyer and the youth room. The damaged lighting in the parking lot was repaired, and the most significant trouble spots in the parking lot were patched and repaired. We also began the process of designing new covered entries, but decided to hold off on constructing  them when we dug into the initial master plan work … a greater opportunity presented itself and we chose to change the scope of our work to focus on that. More on the that in my next post.

Oh yeah, as for our line of credit, between extremely generous contributions to the general fund, and some under-spending in our staffing and programs, we were able to make a significant “payment” on the line of credit too.