Oh, crossing family, Happy New Year.
I love you so much and I'm so thankful to be a part of this
church alongside each and every single one of you.
And I want to welcome all of our locations and those of you
watching online and those of you who are part of the crossing
inside. I also want to give a very
special welcome to those of you who are part of our newest
location in Weaver, Iowa. We want to welcome you.
We are celebrating you. We launched this location on
December 24th at 3:00 PM and I figured you guys might want a
quick look of what this launch actually looked like.
So I'm going to have them run some pictures here so you guys
can see what this place looks like.
This is a picture of the lobby that we just finished redoing.
It looks absolutely incredible. It has been a joy for us to be
able to go on this journey with you and sing something that
we've been praying about as a church for over 10 years finally
become a reality. And it is going to be our
privilege to those of you who are in Weaver, Iowa to come
alongside of you as you try to reach the people in Lee County
and Des Moines County and help them find an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. And to those of you who have or
are still considering partnering with us for a year end gift for
an In Your Corner gift, We are using the money to pay for the
renovation that you just saw and the refit and the launch of the
Crossing Weaver, as well as turning all of our lobbies at
all of our locations. And what you see so beautifully
done there in Weaver. And just so you know, if you
were wondering how many people showed up in Weaver for the very
first Sunday, the number that we were praying for was 300 and God
delivered 377 people. Come on.
Oh, I have a very full heart. Well, recently Jerry spoke about
our core values as a church. And for those of you who are new
to the crossing, this is a great chance for you to get to know us
a little bit better and understand our hearts as a
church. To those of you who've been
around for a really long time, I like to think of this time every
year as an opportunity to look at like your baby pictures or
wedding pictures. It serves as a moment of
reflection and inspiration. What I want to do is I want to
kind of run through our core values real quick and then we're
going to kind of see what God has been doing as a result of
that. So here are our core values, our
core values. The first one is that we are
outward. We will do whatever it takes to
reach people who are far from Jesus.
Sometimes this gets us in trouble, but it's the right kind
of trouble. The next one is downward.
We will gladly give up the things we love for a future
generation we love even more. There is a priority that our
church has chosen and our priority is people who don't
know Jesus and people who are young in their faith and young
in life. Just like when you, you know,
get on a on a mass transportation, you give
priority to pregnant women and you give priority to the
elderly. At our church, we give priority
to people who don't know Jesus and we give priority to people
who are very, very young. So what do we do to make sure
that we're outward and we are downward?
We are relevant. We will do fresh things in
fresh, fresh ways to reach people no one else is reaching.
Then our next core value is innovate.
We will take big faith filled risks and never insult God with
small thinking and safe living. We'll talk a little bit about
that here in a minute. Next one is make leaders.
We will develop leaders who honor God and inspire people and
they will change the world. And then the next one is we
grow. We will never stop measuring,
changing, and moving for growth because nothing matters more to
God than people. And then finally, we are one.
The church is the hope of the world and we can accomplish
infinitely more together than apart.
Weaver would never be a reality if it wasn't for all of our
other locations pitching in their time, their resources,
their talents and their abilities and their prayers to
make it a reality. And these core values are rooted
in and informed by our love for God and the mission that he gave
to each and every single one of us.
How important is this mission? Well, this is what Jesus says in
Luke chapter 19 verse 10 for the Son of Man.
That's Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
Whatever church wants, a church wants to put on their wall.
If it is not the very same mission that Jesus came to do,
which is seek and save the lost, it is not a mission that God
honors because when God sent his son, he sent him to help those
who are far from him to eventually be found in him.
So you might be asking as a church, how are we doing?
Well, I'll just tell you, this has been one of the most
incredible seasons of ministry at the crossing and we are not
taking any credit for it. We are just so incredibly
thankful that God is doing it in our midst and he is blessing our
ministry efforts. And I'm going to give you a
sneak peek in what that looks like.
So Rise ladies, how many of you went to Rise?
OK, ladies, that was that was horrible, but you guys set
another all time record with 516 women coming to rise for the
very first time. We measure that because we want
to make sure that we're reaching people far from Jesus.
This is what's happened in our uncommon conference over the
last couple years. We also set another all time
record and we had 509 people attempt for the very first time.
We tracked that because we want to make sure that people are far
from Jesus, are being found in Jesus.
And then something else happened.
I got to step over here. Churches from across the country
started calling us and asking us to go into their church and help
them do a men's conference. And so our church provides the
funds to help them start and launch their ministry at their
location so that they can reach the men.
Because statistics show that if you reach the man, you have a
higher probability of reaching the family.
And so when you participate and sign up to be a part of our
men's conference, we use the proceeds from that to provide
the starter money so the other churches don't have to think
about the fiscal responsibilities.
They can go, you know what? I just want to reach people.
Will you help us? And people don't stop thanking
us for it. And there are even more to come.
And I'm actually going to the one.
If you're watch, if you're another church watching us
online, I would really like a whole slew of you in the South
in January, February. And I'll, I would love to come
and minister you guys as often as humanly possible.
OK then. Then we had our very best year
ever at our camp this year. Look what happened at Camp
16108. Students went to camp.
I'm praising God for that and you should be too.
To those of you who did sponsorships through the golf
outing, participated in the golf outing, To those of you who
joined Jennifer and I, and you made a scholarship contribution
for kids to go to camp. Because of your efforts, we were
able to take more kids than we have ever taken before.
You might remember we decided to change things up on Christmas
Eve. And I said, we're going to take
a big fateful risk because the previous time that Christmas Eve
or Christmas was on a Wednesday, our church church took a nine
percent drop in attendance on Christmas Eve.
That frustrates us because we're trying to reach as many people
as possible, and we want to tell as many people as possible about
what we found in Jesus. You don't want less people to
hear about it. You want more people to hear
about it. And while we're not responsible
for all the people coming in, we're responsible for doing our
part. And I just figured you guys
might want to know what happened at Easter this year.
We had the largest amount of people in the history of our
church come to our Christmas Eve services.
So instead of a nine percent drop, we had a 17% increase.
Only God can do stuff like that because none of our towns are
growing like this but our churches, and we are
unbelievably thankful for that. Easter was another big time.
You guys heard us talk about Easter every year.
We had 13,666 last year. I have no idea what God is going
to do at this year's Easter, but God is obviously doing
something. In fact, if you're to go back
and look at our average attendance over the last couple
of years, we've gone from a Church of 4500 to a Church of
5900 to a Church of 6500 to a Church of 7300.
We are growing very, very fast and we are giving all of that
credit and all of that glory to the one who deserves serves it
because God is the one who draws people in.
You are simply obedient to what God is doing.
But God is blessing what is happening at our church.
And the part of this that is like the most bonkers that none
of this math makes sense to me is because we also track how
many people come to our church for the very first time and look
at how many people have come to our church in the last couple of
years. And this is really exciting.
How you can do a small golf clap, small this the OK small
golf clap here, nothing big. OK, I don't want you guys to,
you know, be thankful for what God's doing.
I want you to be skeptical, OK? And OK, here's the crazy part.
If you add those numbers up, it's basically 3003 thousand
4000, which means that there are people who are coming to our
church for the very first time and then they're just
disappearing. And So what we're like over the
moon excited about our church grown by over 1000 people.
What is keeping us up at night is that there are people who are
walking through our doors and then they're walking back out.
And when the Bible says that we seek and save the lost,
sometimes we're having to seek people multiple times.
And I just want you to know that we are going to be committed to
doing that. In fact, that's why we're making
some significant upgrades at all of our locations.
That's why we're trying to update our lobbies to make it
easier for people to get connected so they can't fall
through the cracks. There are so many people coming
to our church and we need to remove as a church every single
unnecessary barrier for them so they can take their next step of
faith. You might be asking Clayton, OK,
those are all great numbers, but let's talk about the number
that's the most important. Now, these numbers are not
reported annually. These numbers are captured on
our fiscal year so that they ended October 31st.
But here is what's been happening as far as people
coming to faith in Jesus Christ. In 2019, we had 724 baptisms.
This is kind of crazy during COVID when, you know, everybody
hated us and the government and the CDC and Republicans and
Democrats and we were everybody was drinking like hate haterade.
Remember that? You guys want to remember it.
Our church, even though we weren't meeting for half the
year, still baptized 592 people. Can I only God can do stuff like
that. But this year was a really,
really special year because this year as of October 31st, we had
986 baptisms. And if we had a year for you to
hear every single one of those stories, every single one of the
battles that those people were facing, the turmoil that was
going on in their life and how they came to faith and how
they've been wrestling through their faith answers, it would I
mean, I just hear bits and pieces, but God is on the move
in our midst. Look what it's Jesus says this
in Luke chapter 12. From everyone who has been given
much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been
entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
What that means is if you've been given more, more is
expected of you. And I would say looking at all
those numbers, God is presently entrusting us collectively with
more. And because He is, He is
entrusting us with more. More is expected of us.
That is why this year we are going to push forward like never
before. We are going to leverage Super
Bowl Weekend to be the single most outwardly focused we have
ever been during a weekend service, and I believe it is
going to create the most memorable church service in the
history of our church. You will never remember a sermon
that I have preached like you will remember what will happen
to you on Super Bowl weekend at this church.
Mark your calendar now and start thinking of who you're bringing.
It is so sick. I, I, I'm telling you, I'll
snippet. OK, Just I did a sermon and I
talked about how you, you could go into a round pin with a, with
a, with a wild horse and you could get it to follow you
around. Well, apparently the algorithm
was listening to my own sermon and it gave me a contact on a
feed of a guy who goes to churches and takes a, a wild
horse into the church building and he rides it during the
service and he does this as his job.
That's his ministry. And you're going, it can't be a
wild horse. I know it's a wild horse because
we're responsible providing the wild horses and we'll make sure
that they're good and wild. And I, when you watch him do
this in a sermon, what he does is he takes on the role of our
Heavenly Father and the wild horse.
He personifies that as you and me.
And he woos the horse into a relationship with him where the
horse trusts him and you can't watch it without crying.
I'm not giving it away any more than that.
But I'm telling you, Super Bowl weekend, I'm showing up looking
like RIP from Yellowstone. I'm buying boots.
OK. And before I get hate mail, I
stopped watching Yellowstone because I didn't feel right
about watching it. But I learned enough to know my
spirit animal is RIP and my wife's spirit animal is Beth.
OK. That's who we are.
I would like to be John Dutton. I would like to be John Dutton.
And I see some of you looking about me call my wife Beth.
Baby is Beth. Yeah.
She she trust me. She knows.
Trust me. OK.
All right, here's what else you need to know.
We are looking at expanding our ministry to the in crossing
inside into more inside locations.
So for those of you on the crossing inside, we're going to
be opening up in more inside locations.
But we are also going to be looking at repurposing some of
the very same technology that we used to do the crossing inside
to start doing ministry and long term care facilities and
assisted living centers. Why?
Because when, yeah, why are we doing this?
Because when your days on earth are numbered and you are
experiencing the greatest amount of loneliness, we should be in
your corner too. And just like we do ministry for
those on the inside, and we don't expect anything in return,
we are going to do ministry to the most vulnerable in our
communities without expecting anything in return.
Our Heavenly Father will see it. He will reward it, He will bless
it. And all people are created in
the dignity of God and therefore in the image of God.
And therefore they deserve to be treated like children of God
even in their last days. Next thing I'm excited to tell
you about is in August of 2022, our church did a sermon series,
You may remember it called Weeds in My Garden.
It was a sermon series about being honest about mental
health. Since then, churches across the
country have done spin offs of that sermon series and we are
still receiving letters from people thanking us for leading
out in that area. Well, earlier that year on
January 16th, 2022, as I was preaching to you in a sermon
series called There Has to Be a Place, I listed a whole host of
things that I hope that one day our church would be able to do.
And one of the things that I said that one day I hope that we
will be able to do is that we will be open a high quality
Christian counseling center project.
Hope recently published 10 numbers to know about mental
health. I'm not going to take you
through all 10, but here's some troubling stats.
One in four people are afflicted with mental health at some point
in their lives. 2/3 of people with mental health conditions
don't receive the care they need.
You might be going Clayton that stats artificially high because
of all the developing countries affecting the numbers.
And if you thought that, you'd be wrong, because here in the
US, only one in three people experiencing mental health
illness receive treatment. Depression is now a leading
cause of disability worldwide, affecting one in three women and
one in five men from all walks of life.
Fellas, right here. Men, if you are struggling, I
want you to know that every fifth dude you look at is in the
same boat you're in. You're not alone.
One in four Americans seeking mental health treatment worry
about what other people will think.
And we are going to make it completely OK to not be OK here
at the crossing. It will just not be OK to stay
that way. To add to the crisis, those who
need treatment find themselves standing in line to get
treatment because there are simply not enough providers.
For the last 18 months, we've been working on a plan and a
strategy to make sure that we can be in the corner of those
who are struggling with mental health issues and who want
counseling in a way where the Christ is also a part of the
equation. We've also been figuring out how
to do this in a way where we don't have to partner with
insurance agencies. So that way what you discuss
with your counselor does not show up on your medical record
and affect your other treatment options or somebody that you
know. A while back I had something
wrong with my knee and my doctor said I needed to get something
done with it. And then they did all the X-rays
and all that stuff. And then my insurance company
called me and then they told me that my knee was fine.
And I said, oh, I didn't know you had my freaking knee.
And they're like, well, yeah, we looked at it.
I go, so did my doctor. My doctor said I needed it, but
who are you? And I realized right then and
there, and if you work for an insurance company, God bless
you, OK, We're glad you're here. Jesus saves.
I'm just saying the last thing I would want if my kid was
struggling is for an insurance company to deny my kid the
treatment that was actually working in my kids life.
And if I was getting ready to go and get my life insurance policy
updated, I wouldn't want my life insurance policy rates to be
affected by what I was sharing and supposed to be in confidence
with my counselor. And so we want to figure out a
way to do it where it's high quality, meets all, supersedes
all the regulations that the state and the government put out
there, but does it at an affordable rate and does it with
Christ as a part of the conversation.
That is why I am beyond pleased to announce that on January 1st,
we will be opening our counseling center and it is
called Vinco Counseling. Oh, I've been waiting for this.
I'm such an impatient person. Why do we call it Vineco
Counseling Center? Because we want to connect you
to people to the very true Vine that brings life and brings
healing. And we are so pleased to
announce that we are going to be off able to offer these
counseling services at the most affordable price in our
communities. If people choose to go somebody
else for counseling, they can expect to pay 55% more than what
it will cost them to get help with us.
Some of you, you might be looking for some help and so I
want you to know you can start registering today.
Here is the website vinecounseling.co and if you are
wanting to e-mail them and get some information, you can go to
hello@vinecounseling.co. It's also on the QR code on the
seat in front of you. Others of you might want to help
and here's what we're doing to kind of give a runway to some
people that might be going, hey, I want to try this out.
Or to people who are in absolute destitute circumstances.
We want to give them a cushion to be able to say yes to people
who may have been turned down everywhere else because they
have no money to bring to the table.
So if you are interested, you can hop on and you can buy your
version of this swag. And I'm not nearly attractive
enough to be modeling stuff. OK, so you know, there's a
there's a skinny version at your campus wearing what I'm wearing
that looks way better. Here's what now I'm going to be
upfront with you, OK, I'm going to be upfront with you.
All of these are super expensive, OK, So I don't want
you to hop on there and be like, man, this church is you know,
who do they think they are? I know you have Christmas money,
OK, if you are not the one who bought the presents, OK, if you
bought all the presents, I understand you're broke.
I'm with there. OK, I, I see you, but here's
what we're going to do. If you buy the T-shirt, you are
subsidizing 1/4 of the cost of an, of a counseling session.
And if you buy a hoodie, you're covering half the cost of a
counseling session. And we built that into the price
on top of what it costs to do the, the shirts and everything.
So if you're going, hey, I want some swag and I want to help
people get help that they need. Use the QR code and you can get
this or you know, the T-shirt version.
For the last couple years as a church, I've been using this
graphic. I call it the spiritual
spectrum. And I'm going to be unpacking a
little bit more about this over the next couple couple of weeks.
But we exist as a church for absolutely every single person
on this spiritual spectrum, for those who don't believe in God
and those who hate God and those who've been walking with him for
as long as they can remember. And if we see people as moving
from a -, 1 to a + 1 as the moment that a person is
baptized, there are a lot of people in our church who are
very, very young in their faith. However, the way you move from,
from as you're looking at it from this side to that side is
not by time served or knowledge, but through obedience.
And since to whom much is given, much is expected, we realize
that as a church, we needed to not double or triple, but
quadruple our efforts and help people discover and live out
God's plan for their lives. That's why this year we are
going to be launching a new experience called The Outlet.
Here is the purpose of The Outlet.
It is to get everybody in our church allergic to apathy.
We want everybody in our church who calls the crossing home to
experience all that God has to offer and to join Him in His
mission to reach people who are close to them but far from God.
It is going to take some time, but hear me, our hope is to have
every person in our church go through The Outlet and take
their next step of faith. The Outlet is not a class, but
an experience that will help you join God in His glorious
mission. Why?
Because we believe the Bible and the Bible says that people who
don't have a relationship with Him are going to hell and we
must do something about that. If you included the counties
where we have campuses and the counties where people drive to
one of our locations, there are 450,000 people who do not have
the hope in this life and in the life that is to come.
And if our church were to keep growing by 1000 people a year
and baptizing 1000 people a year, it would be wonderful and
great and there would be no part of me that wouldn't celebrate
that. But it is a drop in the bucket
of what this region actually needs.
And if we really are going to set our minds on making this
place the hardest place on planet Earth to get to hell
from, we got to start dialing it up.
Why? Because we believe to the core
of our being that God's way is the best way and every single
person deserves to experience it and hear about it.
Therefore, I need to let you be aware of some things that are
happening in me as I keep seeing these stats, as I keep seeing
what's happening at our church. You just need to know where I'm
at. I am pre ticking you off for the
next 5 minutes. I will not apologize for
preaching God's purity because God's holiness demands it.
I will not apologize for calling people to live generously
because I believe God changes us through it and He blesses it and
people are saved because of it. I will not apologize for
biblical fidelity because there is no foundation upon which you
can actually build your life. I will not apologize for calling
you to obedience because it is the love language of God.
I will not apologize for raising the bar because I believe the
gospel is worthy of it. I will not apologize for making
our church allergic to consumerism because the Spirit
calls us to contribute. I will not apologize for urging
people to have faith because that is how we please God.
I will not apologize for normalizing sacrifice because
the cross demands it. I will not apologize for making
discipleship a priority because Jesus commanded it.
I will not apologize for making you feel uneasy, unsure, and
uncomfortable, because that is nothing compared to the martyrs
who carried the faith to us. I will not apologize for a
strategy that might be outside of your strengths.
Because He promises to be our strength in our weakness, He
will be strong. I will not apologize for
believing that God is who He says He is and will do what He
says He will do. I will not apologize for
believing that the best decision a person can make is starting an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ because I've
experienced it. I will not apologize for doing
everything in my power and calling this church, and that
includes you, to do everything in our power to make this region
the hardest place on planet earth to get to hell from.
Because what else could we possibly give our lives to?
We will not stop. We will not quit until every
person in our region is able to say what Avery Willis said best,
and I can't wait until our whole church is able to echo these
words when he said this. I'm a part of the fellowship of
the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power.
The die has been cast. I've stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of his now.
I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed. My presence makes sense.
My future is secure. I'm finished and down with low
living, sight, walking, small planning, smooth knees,
colorless dreams, attained visions, mundane talking, cheap
living and dwarf goals. I no longer need preeminence,
prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or
popularity. I don't have to be right.
First, top recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded.
I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift
by prayer, and labor by His power.
My face is set. My gate is fast.
My goal is heaven. My Rd. is narrow.
My way is rough. My companions are few.
My guide is reliable. My mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned
back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of
sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate
at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of
popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won't give up, shut up, let up till I've stayed up, stored up,
prayed up, paid up and preached up for the cause of Christ.
I'm a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give
till I drop, preach till all know work till he stops me.
And when he comes for his own, he will have no problem
recognizing us because our banner will be clear.
We are Jesus people on a Jesus mission and I hope, crossing
family, you'll join us in that. We are moving to a time of
decision. To those of you who are here and
you know Jesus or you don't know Jesus, man, is this church here
for you. If you knew, Oh my goodness, if
you knew all the ways we think about you and trying to figure
out ways to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus,
Man, you're loved at this place. We take a lot of people off here
just so you could hear this stuff on a regular basis because
deep down inside, we genuinely believe it's the best decision
you could ever make. And you need to know you might
be looking at the Christian life and going, yeah, I think I want
it. But you're trying to live the
Christian life on your own power.
And you cannot live the Christian life until Christ
resides in you. And for some weird reason, I'm
going to, I think I'm preaching on this later this year, so I
don't want to give the whole sermon away.
But for some weird reason, believing in Jesus and being
obedient to Jesus have been separated.
And for some of you, you've you've been following Jesus for
a while, but you've never been obedient in the area of baptism.
And there's a lot of debate about what happens and when does
your salvation take place and when are you right with God.
And I, I get all that. I would just say that the clear,
consistent teaching of Scripture is that the moment someone
believes in God, they are obedient in the area of baptism.
And with one exception in Scripture, when people get
baptized, that is when the Holy Spirit stops working on them and
starts working in them because it lives in them.
And so there are some of you trying to figure out a way to
live the Christian walk in the margins.
You're trying to figure out how to live the Christian life with
the exception to the rule, instead of actually doing the
very thing that God has called you to do, to trust Him, to be
obedient to Him, to follow him. And so if you're here today and
you've never started a relationship with Jesus Christ,
you're on the fence. I just keep saying this over and
over again. If you've got questions, ask
them, because the only person who wins when you don't ask him
and those questions are going to help you develop a faith or take
steps of faith. The only person who wins when
you don't ask him is Satan. And why on earth would you give
him any more wins? He's got far too many already.
So just a few moments when the people around you standing
singing, some of the people come to the steps and pray.
I'm going to encourage you, it's either talk to somebody who
brought you, talk to somebody who's sitting next to you, or
walk right over here underneath that screen next to the Baptist
St. and talk to somebody about some of the questions you have
when it comes to faith. To the rest of you in this room,
to those of you who know Jesus, would you spend a little bit of
time praying that you will be right in the middle of what God
is trying to do in this region? That He would use you in ways
you never thought possible? Stir stuff in you that you
thought was long gone? And maybe would some of you be
willing to get down on your knees and pray for all the
people in our region who desperately need counseling,
specifically the men, and are too ashamed to reach out, that
we would be a place where they do?
Could you stand with me? It's crazy what you're doing
here, God. And in some ways it's just so
much that it's hard to take it all in, and in other ways that
feel so incredibly small compared to the need that
exists. And so, God, if your blessing
that's happening at this church is in response to our faith,
would you forgive us? And would you forgive me for
believing so little? We just want to be a church that
makes you proud. We want to be a church that
makes you smile. We want to be a church that
pleases you. And so, God, you know the work
that needs to happen in our hearts and our lives today.
And so, God, would you just give us the courage to be obedient?
Your name I pray. Amen.