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.

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.