Crossroads Church KC, 2010 Summer Update

[Crossroads Church Plant]

Lindsay and I were standing in an outdoor concert venue when Fall
arrived. Like the Holy Spirit, it caught us by surprise and gave us
chills. Autumn trends to snow and ice pretty fast in Kansas City, but
it does give me an opportunity to glance back at the summer and write
a long overdue update.

Stop-Motion Summer (Choppy but Good)
In our 1.5 year experience starting Crossroads Church, summer has been
choppy, with our team on a rotating vacation schedule as the city
heats up. However, Jesus has been good to us, and we’ve seen slow and
steady growth happen in the last several months. John and Hailey are a
recent addition to our team, both making their presence felt. John, a
talented musician, is helping lead our worship services and Hailey is
helping stage our services and City group with a great eye for
aesthetics.

We’re still meeting for informal services in the Arts Incubator (AI),
which has been a great location for us, imbedded in the arts
community. The director there has continued to work with our team and
has made a couple additional spaces available as our needs have
changed. We’re slowly getting acquainted with several artists, and
praying for more relationships. Matthew, who has recently jumped in at
Crossroads Church with his wife Karen and three kids, has just been
approved as an artist at the AI, and we’re looking forward to how
seeing how God will work through this.

We’ve seen a steady stream of new faces at our informal services, and
some of those people have stuck around and bought into the vision we
have for seeing downtown KC transformed with the landmarks of the
gospel–prayer, preaching, life together, belief in Jesus (Acts 2). Our
team, which originally could have met in a closet, now could fill a
coffee shop venue nicely. Others are entering the community and
considering what it means to be involved at Crossroads–including some
who have been outsiders to the gospel until now. Several people you
can pray for are Jamil, Justin, Amanda and Jake.

Fewer Moving Parts (= Fewer Broken Pieces)
We’ve multiplied our most basic discipleship piece, Core groups, which
are 3-4 men or women meeting together weekly to pray, get in the Bible
and hold each other accountable to our mission: Love Jesus, connect
people, transform cities. We now have five of those groups
operational. I’m thrilled that Mark, who committed his life to Jesus
over the summer, is part of my Core group.

We’re also poised for our first City group multiplication. City groups
meet in houses for food, prayer, and Bible. They also help us hit the
streets to serve our city by adopting local causes (like the Arts
Incubator, beautification projects, and children’s art programs).
Along with our services and Core groups, these make up the building
blocks of Crossroads. We like the “fewer moving parts” idea!

Social Currency (This is a Team Sport)
A couple days ago we hosted a “First Friday party” at our house,
inviting a bunch of friends over for a colossal bar-b-q before
downtown KC’s biggest monthly event, the First Friday Art Walk. If
you’d showed up you would have seen a packed house of Christians and
non-Christians hanging out, talking together, and enjoying the cool
evening on our back deck, which overlooks the Crossroads District.
This is the kind of party we love to host. It gives us opportunities
to spend time with the people we think Jesus would befriend. In the
next month, we’ll be repaving a community basketball court, helping
clean an art gallery and volunteering at a fundraiser for the local
arts scene. We’re looking to meet genuine needs, invite our friends
along, and speak the gospel with our actions as well as our words.

At the moment, Crossroads Church is rich in leaders and servants if
not in dollars. God has sent us some people who love the gospel enough
to let it challenge and shape them, who increasingly see gospel as a
life-changing mission and the church as more than a social club. These
are people who get up when they get knocked down, accept challenges as
part of the game, and love KC and each other. We’re proud of them and
eager to tackle the future with these men and women.

Chaos Lives Here (At Our Address!)
On a personal note, Lindsay and I have become somewhat acclimated to
the chaos of simultaneously starting a church, remodeling a house, and
raising solar-powered, action-figure boys. Since the church is still
growing, we’re still demolishing walls, and we are pregnant with baby
#4 (due March 14), none of this will end anytime soon. When you have a
minute, pray that God will keep giving us times of rest, peace, and
renewal in the middle of all this. We appreciate it.

Also pray for Crossroads that we’ll be people who are committed to
steadily living the gospel. In the most important sense, the next
months hold more of the same. More championing the gospel in sermons
and conversations. More modeling the gospel with our hospitality and
generosity. More inviting our friends to join us in pursuing Jesus.

Thanks for your prayers and gifts, and may the Father generously bless
your gospel work, wherever you find yourselves.

Peace,

Arie (AJ), Lindsay, Aidan, Asher, Ezra, and (boy?) baby #4.


ariell...@gmail.com
http://CrossroadsChurchKC.com