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How Cross Point Creates a Welcoming Environemnt for Everyone What would you do if Westboro Church threatened to picket your church because you refused to hurl hateful speech at sinners in your community? That s the threat Pete Wilson, the Senior Pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, Teneessee received in 2013. When Pete learned the news, he recorded a short video for the church and posted it on all their social media channels. Pete s message? Pray for them. Respond to hate with love. Answer the protest with grace. Ironically the same kind of grace that prompted the protest in the first place. If you hate the haters, you become one, Pete says. Even though this video message was sent to the congregation to help 1
them prepare for a potential protest, industrial feel. To the left, there s a it could have easily been the sermon warehouse that looks abandoned. on any given Sunday. To the right, a few scattered shipping containers dot the landscape. Grace to the grace killers isn t a slogan but a way of life at Cross Point. The church s response was simply a reflection of their DNA. When you can just be yourself, you don t need a PR plan. One Sunday at Cross Point Cross Point is one church with many locations. But on a beautiful fall Sunday in Nashville, I visited the downtown campus, located just a When you exit the Interstate, the first mile and a half from where the thing you notice is the huge sign in Tennessee Titans play professional the parking lot. It turns out, the city football. wouldn t allow the church to tear The neighborhood is somewhat down the sign or alter the structure. gritty, full of manufacturing plants So a fresh coat of paint and a and warehouses. And Cross Point website address covers the old fits right in. electric company logo. A nod to the area and a tip of the hat to the In 2012, the church moved into the history of the neighborhood. former Rexel Electric building, turning the space into a house of worship yet somehow maintaining the H O W C R O S S P O I N T C H U R C H C R E AT E S A W E L C O M I N G E N V I R O N M E N T 2
There s one lone tree soaring into the parking lot, the only green against a backdrop of grey, a sign that there s something alive, something growing. Down on the ground, volunteers in bright orange vests direct traffic. The games and the keg full of root beer were there to create the mood for a series called House Party. The Cross Point team thinks of things like this to create a welcoming environment for everyone, and show guests they aren t afraid to have a There are signs of life in a lot of churches passionate worship, exciting teaching, and a welcoming environment. But at Cross Point, the signs of life begin outside the building. We re industrial chic with duct tape and zip ties. Lots of wood, concrete and a ton of intentionality. little fun. It might be church, but here, there s a greater chance for a belly laugh than a guilty punch to the gut. I stepped inside the lobby, an inviting space that matches the neighborhood. The smiles on the faces of the volunteers get bigger as you walk toward the front doors. And Instead of handshakes, there are high-fives. I notice a few kids playing giant Jenga blocks and something that looks like a keg. To my right, there s a picture-taking station built out of pallets where you can snap a picture and share on social media. I bet Nashville is full of pallet repurposing experts. We re industrial chic with duct tape and zip ties. Lots of wood, concrete and a ton of intentionality, says 3
Stephen Brewster, the Creative Arts Pastor. This might describe the facility, but it also describes the church. Straight ahead is a welcome center, staffed by a volunteer wearing a t-shirt that says everyone s welcome and standing in front of dozens of Cross Point gift bags ready to give to first time guests. This church is prepared for people. To my left is a coffee station, where I can grab a Starbucks before heading into the service. The Starbucks was actually a surprise, not that the church would provide coffee, but that it would be something so corporate and seemingly anti-hipster. H O W C R O S S P O I N T C H U R C H C R E AT E S A W E L C O M I N G E N V I R O N M E N T 4
If I had to give a grade to my guest experience so far, it would be an A+. Friendly volunteers in the parking lot, fun music playing in the lobby where I could grab a cup of coffee, and intentionality everywhere I look. It looks like Cross Point was prepared for my visit. The Startup Story Cross Point church launched in September of 2002, when about 150 people showed up for the first service. I was scared to come out, Pete said in a video about the church s history. I was like, I don t know if I can preach this message. I don t know if anyone will show up. People have been showing up for the better part of 15 years now. But why? In a city full of churches, why are so many people gravitating to Cross Point? Their website provides a glimpse into the startup story. We knew Nashville didn t need just another church. So we spent some time dreaming about the kind of church we would want to be a part of. Cross Point set out to be a community of believers that is radically devoted to Christ, irrevocably committed to one another, and relentlessly dedicated to reaching those outside God's family with the Gospel of Christ. That s the official vision statement of the church, something they talk about collectively every year. 5
Their desire is to be a community where everyone's welcome, because nobody's perfect, and anything's possible. Over the years, that slogan has become a way of life at Cross Point. It wasn t created during a strategic planning meeting and it s not the work of a church growth consultant. It was more organic than that. Stephen Brewster said the statement already had momentum when they decided to print it on a bulletin. The words were core and the church embraced the heart behind them. When it was printed for the first time, the unofficial slogan became the official mantra. When you find something that has momentum, just chase it, says Steven. Find out where God is working and just go there. I have no real proof, but I think growth really took off when we made that statement our slogan. It just sums up who we are and what we are about, and people noticed, says Eve Annunizo, the director of Volunteers. Eve says the statement sums up the vision of the church, but in a statement short enough for Twitter or something you can print on a t-shirt. Today, greeters wear shirts that say everyone s welcome. When you get baptized, you get a shirt that says, anything possible. And nobody s perfect that describes the message you ll hear at Cross Point a message of grace and hope. The Service Cross Point is a big church. The auditorium seats about 1,600 people and there are multiple services. But even though the church is big, it feels friendly. They say Nashville is a small town dressed up like a big city. Maybe Cross Point is a small church wearing mega-church clothes. There are a lot of people available to help me find a seat, but it s not too difficult. I choose a seat upstairs, with a great view of the large-screen and the large stage. There s a fiveminute countdown that looks like it was custom created for today s 6
series. It s professional, like everything else I ve witnessed so far. As the countdown hits zero, the band people of Nashville, with a wardrobe straight out of Nashville s hipster east side. takes the stage - six musicians and three singers, a mash up of highenergy beats and. Later in the service, the band returns to lead worship again. This time, it s a backdrop for dozens of baptisms. One by one, people are immersed in water as the entire church worships and celebrates. It s refreshingly unscripted, you don t even know the names of the people being baptized. But you re somehow a participant, not just a spectator. The service is simple. A few songs. A welcome from a staff member with an announcement or two. And a message from Pete. The Message When Pete takes the stage, the first thing you notice is he s cool. Not regular cool, but Nashville cool, which is an entirely different level. If the building reflects downtown Nashville, with the repurposed wood and But when Pete starts talking, you quickly realize he s not pretentious or arrogant. He s a regular person speaking to regular people. In many ways, he comes across as the antimega-church pastor. Or at least, he beats back the image of what many people think of when they think of a mega-church pastor. Pete delivers the sermon with an approachable attitude. The message is truthful and thoughtful, but not hard or shallow. He s real. He s funny. He s got the heart of a pastor. Industrial chic décor, Pete reflects the 7
I know that every Sunday there are people looking at me and saying, bogus, bogus, bogus, Pete says. They don t believe a word of it. So Pete crafts his messages with these doubters, seekers or whatever you want to call them in mind. Lifelong Christians will find something to chew on, but people not yet a part of the faith are not pushed away. Pete explains: We really believe that life is messy. It is messy for Christians, it s messy for non-christians. Whether it is a relational aspect of life that is falling apart, whether our kids that have gone haywire, whether it is a health issue, a financial issue, career issue, life is just messy. We wanted to create environments where people could bring that mess with them and they didn t have to pretend to be somebody that they weren t. One of our taglines that we say a lot is that everybody is welcome because nobody is perfect, but anything is possible. It is possible for there to be transformation in their life. We choose to believe the best and that God can work in their life. A Welcoming Environment for Everyone It s one thing for a church to say they are welcoming to all people. It s something altogether different to follow through on that promise. It might sound overly simple, but one of the things that sets Cross Point apart is their ability to make everyone feel welcome. It s embedded in their DNA, comes from their heart, extends to their facility and permeates their service. Whether you ve been a Christian for a decade or you re looking for a place to explore faith, Cross Point wants you know to know you re welcome. As an outsider you won t simply feel welcome, you will be welcome. Cross Point is an authentic environment, a church full of real 8
people who are not pretending to be perfect. One striking feature of the church service, and the entire church at a deeper level, is the balance they strike between authenticity and professionalism. The service was well-done, technologically sound, and wellproduced. But it was not so polished that it came across as slick. The quality was there, but it wasn t a performance. For example, the campus pastor who made the announcements stumbled through a few sentences as he welcomed everyone to church. He communicated well, but he wasn t overly-scripted or overly-rehearsed. Honestly, this tension is tough to maintain. Many churches avoid planning and polish, saying they want to be led by the spirit. The result is a disorganized and decidedly unwelcoming environment. Other churches produce and polish everything, stripping the life out of the service in the name of professionalism. I asked Stephen Brewster about this. We give our campus pastors permission to be who they are. We want them to communicate effectively, but not be robotic. They might have bullet points, but not necessarily a script. We also want them to be themselves, so Chris is a jokester and Zach is high energy. They take the information and make it who they are. He was a real person, genuinely welcoming everyone to church. HOW CROSS POINT CHURCH CREATES A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT 9
Learn more about Cross Point s intentional connection process and takeaways for your church by subscribing at churchfuel.com/one. You ll get a case study like this every month. 10