TMG
Hello, Crossroads Family!
We’re enjoying good times of worship and fellowship on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and God is knitting together a growing body of believers in Christ; it’s an exciting time to be part of Crossroads Church!
Thank you for your attentiveness last Sunday to the sermon on church leadership, church elders and pastors. And thank you for your prayers for our current team of church elders. I want to tell you a little about the elders meeting that took place after the worship service last Sunday.
We were blessed by a delicious lunch of pork and potato salad, with cake for dessert. (Very grateful to Kim and Linda for their kindness to us.) During lunch, we visited about what’s going on in our personal lives, and we discussed some “big picture” questions for Crossroads Church, such as…
- How are we doing as elders? How can we be successful elders? What is the mission statement of the elder team?
- What are short-term or long-term problems or needs we should anticipate at Crossroads? What should be our attitude and approach toward numerical growth in the church?
- Is there a need for a revision of the church by-laws? (In particular, one area of some frustration is our current pattern of electing a new elder every year. Currently, by the time an elder board gets formed and builds some momentum as a team, it’s time to make a change on it.)
Points of emphasis that came out of that time of discussion were (a) the need for good communication on the elder board, and between the elders and the congregation, and (b) the need to stay committed to a faithful presentation of the truth of God’s Word in the church. We also discussed additional teaching needs in the church, both now and in the future. We felt good that we haven’t been overly preoccupied with numbers of people ; but, now it appears we are in a stage of numerical growth. Making the effort to develop new relationships is going to be important and a blessing.
The second part of our meeting (about 45 minutes or so) was devoted to worship. We had a leisurely, Spirit-led time of prayer and … (get ready) … singing! Wow, four good singers there! It was good to worship the God upon whom we depend as a church. It’s highly likely you were prayed for in some way during that part of our meeting.
In terms of “business” items discussed, …
- We heard from Michaela about Crossroads and Crossroads Children’s Church t-shirts! The prices will be $15 for adult sizes, and $12 for kids’ sizes. Michaela will have order information for us starting this Sunday.
- Our May fellowship event will be a church picnic at one of the Nevada parks (weather permitting). It’s being organized by the Vestal family, but the date has been changed from May 19 to May 5. Please mark your calendar for a picnic on Sunday, May 5, following the worship service.
- Stacey is looking into setting up a Venmo account with our bank to make it easier for some to give.
- We discussed current needs in the church building:
- We are close to ordering a sign to be installed on Highland Avenue.
- We are looking for a solution to the need for doors with windows in two of the classrooms.
- Our Decorating Team is at work on plans for decor in the new building, as well as the creation of an “Information Station” to help facilitate communication in the church.
- We want to use one of the small rooms as an office area. We’re still in need of two small file cabinets and a desk for that room.
- We’re looking for someone who might keep the empty chair racks in storage on their own property, thus freeing up some space at our building and allowing us to feel better about canceling the storage unit we’ve rented the past two years.
- We discussed the need to construct a ramp at our outside entrance.
- Yardwork is in full swing, including removing old shrubs, cutting down a tree, and planting new shrubs. Thanks to everyone who has been helping with this so far!
- We discussed needs of ministry teams — follow-up to our Ministry Teams meeting of March 3.
- We reviewed what’s coming up on the church calendar :
- Church picnic, May 5
- Help with concessions at Gospel Night for Bushwhacker Days, June 13. (Julie Kemper will provide details.)
- Help with the Sunday night meal at Kamp Keirsey, July 21.
- The elders signed themselves up to organize a fellowship picnic in August.
- We discussed Tom having some vacation time this summer and the possibility of one or more of the elders filling in for him.
I feel like there’s so much more I could say, but this is enough for now! Please continue to commit all of the above to the Lord in prayer. Thank you!
Remember, tomorrow night (Wednesday) is Immerse starting at 7:00, and, of course, there will be worship Sunday morning at 10:00. Tyrell and Rachel Shoemaker, our missionaries in Chicago, will be speaking. I hope you will reach out and introduce yourself to the Shoemakers. I will be out of town from Thursday through next Monday for the wedding of my son Sam to Maddie Golightly.
Currently, we’re experiencing a little trouble with the combination lock on our outside entrance door. We do have a key to the front door of the building and to the interior door to our worship area, but only one copy of each key! Hopefully, we’ll have the problem resolved by Sunday. At any rate, the building will definitely be open tomorrow evening for Immerse and Sunday morning for worship! I hope to see you then!
— Tom
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