TMG
Hello, Crossroads Family!
I hope you were blessed as much as I was yesterday by the worship and fellowship we shared together. Those are good Sundays when God’s presence seems evident in a special way.
There was also work done yesterday, as our Elder Board had a lengthy meeting following the service. I’ve passed along a few notes from our meeting. You’ll find them below. Dave will also give us a report on the meeting this coming Sunday.
Don’t forget that this Thursday is a Newcomers / Membership Meeting at 7 pm at the church. I hope we’ll be done by 8:15. Anyone is welcome to come. It’s going to be an informal time of getting better acquainted with each other and with Crossroads Church. Coming to the meeting does not obligate you to join the church as a member, but one of our requirements for church membership is that you attend a meeting like this one. I hope to see several of you this Thursday evening!
Some Notes from Yesterday’s Elders Meeting
Building Needs
We spent some time on needs related to our new meeting space.
- Digging a hole for a church sign on Highland Avenue has been more complicated than we anticipated. We’re trying to get clarification on the markings painted in the grass last week by Dig-Rite in order to understand correctly where fiber optic cables, etc, are buried. Finding the person who can answer our questions has not been easy. The pole and sign are ready to be installed. Please pray that God would bring some answers in the next couple of days. Thank you!
- We are acting on some of the recommendations given to us by the Decorating Committee for the interior of our space. One of the items in that action step is to purchase an announcement board to go on the west wall by the entrance to the church. Once that board is selected and purchased, we would like to organize a short workday to try to accomplish the following:
- Hang announcement board.
- Take the cross off its rollers and hang it on the east wall.
- Hang the door to the children’s church room.
- Two or three other smaller projects.
Venmo Account
We are opening a Venmo account for the church to facilitate giving in case you’re away or don’t have a check or cash. Be aware that Venmo will charge the church 1.9% on each transaction, so the amount you give will be slightly smaller than what you intended. That’s a disadvantage, for sure, but maybe in the long run we’ll be ahead by opening up a new avenue of giving so we’re not limited to cash or check on Sunday mornings only. Thank you for your generous giving in this year of change and growth for Crossroads!
Ministry Teams
We discussed needs on some of our ministry teams. We would like to organize, on a Sunday in September, a time for all the ministry teams to meet together after the morning worship service. This is something we’ve done in the past which has allowed ministry teams to maintain focus and organization.
Calendar
We discussed some of the significant dates coming up on the church calendar:
- Newcomers / Membership meeting this Thursday night, June 27, 7 pm.
- Baptisms at the Vestals following worship on Sunday, July 21. Please let me know soon if you would like to be baptized. Thank you!
- Kamp Keirsey cookout, Sunday, July 21, in the evening. (More information below.)
- Elders preaching on Sunday, August 4. I will be on vacation the first Sunday in August. Our elders are going to tag-team preach that Sunday, something we’ve never done before!
- Congregational meeting, Sunday, August 11, following the worship service. Among other things, at that meeting we will take a look at church finances, and we’ll hear more about plans for the fall session of Immerse.
Church Invitation
We have someone in the church designing a Crossroads Church invitation that you will be able to use to invite friends to church.
Next Elders Meeting
The elders will meet again on Sunday, July 14, following the worship service. We’ve also agreed to read a book together called Autopsy of a Deceased Church: Twelve Ways to Keep Yours Alive, by Thom Rainer.
We concluded with prayer for ourselves, for Crossroads Church, and for others beyond the walls of our church.
Kamp Keirsey Cookout
We have the privilege this year of providing the evening meal on the first day of high school camp at Kamp Keirsey. We would love for as many from Crossroads as possible to have a part in preparing and serving the meal and in supporting the campers and staff at Kamp Keirsey. Crossroads will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and sides, and some simple desserts.
Could you please reserve that evening to be a part of the fun of blessing high school students and camp staff? Dinner will be served at 6:00, and you’re also invited to hang around for chapel at 7:00. The chapel service will include worship led by our own Jessica Baker and Erin Townsend, and a sermon by some guy you’ve heard before.
We’ll have some sign-ups starting this Sunday for specific jobs and foods to provide for the cookout. Thanks for being willing!
Kamp Keirsey is a camp run by the Osage River Baptist Association and is located on State Highway J just north of the Miami, MO, schools, about a 45-minute drive from Nevada.
Weather
I love what Mike Mason says in his book, The Gospel According to Job, about part of God’s speech to Job in Job 38:28-29. God, speaking out of a raging storm, asks, “Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?”
Mason observes that people talk a lot about the weather! Weather is a topic of conversation anyone can fall back on, perhaps the one topic we all have in common. Mason says an awareness of the weather is the closest some people come to God. “The weather is one of the most conspicuous ways in which the divine manifests itself in secular lives. Chatting about this phenomenon is one way for a godless society to satisfy its natural yearning to be godly. It’s a way of talking about the Lord without the embarrassment of having to mention Him by name.”
Then he adds this: “Don’t people’s attitudes toward the weather tell much about their feelings toward God ? For man, God will always be either too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry.”
I didn’t know if I should laugh or grimace when I read those last two lines. It is true, though, isn’t it? Our attitude toward the weather says a lot about our attitude toward a providential, wise, all-knowing God.
Next time you look at the bright summer sky we’re experiencing this month, remember that this is one of the most basic and frequent interactions we have with God! Just as He gave the Israelites manna every day in the wilderness, He gives us, every day, our weather — out of His mighty, endless store of rain and dew, ice and frost, hot and cold. He is so powerful, and we can trust Him fully!
(I’ve been slowly reading The Gospel According to Job for about 2-1/2 years now! It’s a wonderfully insightful and sometimes surprising look into the book of Job. It’s written in devotional form — each chapter exactly two pages. I recommend it to you!)
I look forward to seeing some of you Thursday night, and hopefully many of you next Sunday morning at 10:00!
— Tom
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