Spicy Chili & Crossroads Church

[Crossroads Church Plant]

Time for another story from the Crossroads Church KC start-up. Today’s
metaphor is spicy chili (something Lindsay is the maestro of). The
longer it simmers and marinates, the better it gets. You can’t throw
it together quickly. It needs to stew.

Crossroads Church has been growing slowly and steadily. Like most
people who start churches or businesses, my ideal scenario was a
community that grew from 4 people to 100+ in a couple months,
shattering records in the process. This would be something like the
hot dog model of start-ups. With about five minutes notice, you can
have a smoking pile of, er, food.

The reality has been different, but I’ve come around to the point of
appreciating this slower growth rate. So long as people continue to
encounter Jesus, I’m happy.

Over a year ago, Mark and I connected on Facebook. A downtown resident
with an interest in Jesus, he was curious about Crossroads. Eventually–
as in 16 months later (remember the chili metaphor?)–Mark grabbed
grabbed lunch with me and Steven, another of our guys, and we swapped
stories. Before our burgers were gone, we were discussing God’s love
for cities, Jesus’ perspective on other religions and what the Bible
says about sex.

As a theology-loving dude, I walked out thinking, This is the
beginning of a beautiful friendship. In the months since, we met
numerous times for coffee and conversation about Jesus. Mark started
hanging out with our folks, coming to Arts Incubator services, and
joined a Core group, the small groups that meet weekly for Bible,
prayer, and vision.

Mark has moved from placing Jesus on his roster of spiritual
influences to actually joining Team Jesus. In a recent text he wrote,
“I want to understand what it means to seek the Lord with all my heart…
my goal as of yesterday is to seek him mind, body & soul, ultimately
learn what that means.” “Absolutely,” I replied. “Awesome goal. Will
do everything I can to help. My ultimate goal is to see people doing
that.”

And it is. Seeing people encounter Jesus as he is–not as dysfunctional
religious people have portrayed him–and thereby being changed is what
keeps us going. Pray that there will be a continuous stream of friends
entering the Crossroads community and meeting Jesus. We’re in it for
the long haul…we want spicy chili.

News & Notes

We’ve switched our Sunday night Arts Incubator services to Sunday
morning at 10:30am. Most of our friends downtown think “Sunday
morning” when you say “church.”

In May, we set up our space in the Arts Incubator for First Friday
with seating, coffee, and acoustic music and met dozens of people.
This month (June) we had a good crowd at our place for a First Friday
pre-party before people headed downtown to hit the art galleries.
Great times taking advantage of KC’s First Friday atmosphere and
hanging with friends.

We’re still working on remodeling the first floor of our home/groups
staging area/office, and it is taking FOREVER. I’ve started
threatening to learn electric and plumbing to finish this thing out,
but Lindsay is smart enough to know that would be catastrophic. If you
know anyone in the construction trades interested in volunteering, put
us in touch…do it yesterday. Thanks!

As always, thanks for your prayers. Our prayer for you is that God
will give you an appreciation for the gradual changes he’s making
around you, e.g., that you’ll enjoy spicy chili.

Peace, out.

AJ Vanderhorst & the Crossroads team