2017 YEAR IN REVIEW
Crossroads Community Church LEAD PASTOR Dave Vance EXECUTIVE TEAM Ernesto Alcantara, Wendell Anderson, Lori Biddle, Ron Biddle, Jeanette Chase, Mike Mahek, Doug Taylor, Dave Vance ELDER BOARD Mike Sloan, Wendell Anderson, Ron Biddle, Josh Blakley, Doug Hassenzahl, Bill Hill, Kevin Korbas, John Mack, Mike Mahek, Doug Taylor, Dave Vance
what a year! We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth Colossians 1:3-6 Dear Friends, Every year, I am consistently amazed and grateful as we develop this Year In Review report because there is genuinely so much to celebrate year after year at Crossroads. 2017 certainly gave us great reason to celebrate the faithfulness of God, as He led our church to take audacious steps to impact our region with the Gospel of Christ. This past year, 2017, may be considered one of the most pivotal years in Crossroads history. I say that for multiple reasons. First, we rekindled our call to be a church that impacts the lives of those around us. We have been passionate about making Christ s call to love people and serve our region specific, personal, and obvious. And secondly, we set in motion the Vision 20.20 3-year Campaign, which we believe God is already using to grow a gospel movement throughout our region. From new staff to a new City Center, God is certainly at work all around us, and we have great reason to celebrate this work of God. The information shared in this guide is more than mere numbers about our effectiveness. Instead, these statistics represent the countless stories of people who have experienced God s redemptive and liberating grace. Some met Jesus for the first time, others experienced His power as they shared the gospel through local or global missions, many were encouraged by the love of their church family, and even more grew through their sacrificial giving of time and resources to serve others. No doubt, God is using you to make a huge difference. I pray you will be encouraged and inspired by what God accomplished through your church this year. Additionally, I hope this will excite you to more fully participate in His unfolding story at Crossroads. As we remember all that He has done this past year, may our confidence increase all the more for what He has planned in the future. Because His name is at stake, CONNECT WITH CROSSROADS! www.crossrsoadswired.com Pastor Dave
Contents 2017 COMMITTED to glorifying God Biblical Teaching A review of this year s teaching series Godly Stewardship Mission s giving and 2017 revenue celebrating the generosity of our church Creativity with Excellence A look at the creation of our services CONNECTED in community Worship What worship means to us at Crossroads Meeting Take a look at all there was to get involved in this year Serving We have a church that loves to serve
OUR MISSION STATEMENT Leading People to the Truth that Transforms Lives in North Central Ohio and Around the World COMMITTED TO GLORIFYING GOD CALLED to share Personal Many made commitments to the Lord this year CONECTED IN COMMUNITY Local A look back at our serving opportunities Global A review of our adult and student mission trips CALLED TO SHARE
COMMITTED to glorifying
COMMITTED TO GLORIFIYING GOD Biblical Teaching 2017 For Our City: Can there be such a group of people? Joined together by a common purpose breathing together for a cause that will last for eternity. The Idol Called Grace: Is it possible that the very grace on which our lives rest, has unknowingly risen to a place it was never meant to be? Could grace actually be an idol? Easter @ Crossroads: From Death to Life: Thousands attended our Easter services this year at Crossroads as we celebrated the ressurection of Jesus Christ. Doubting Doubts: Doubt is a topic we don t talk about in church. But we ve all got doubts. Doubting the right thing can actually grow our certainty. Origins: This series explored the Origin, validity, and inspiration of Scripture. Our Home: This series studied the different ways our homes function and how we can grow our home to follow after Christ. Messy Christmas: Messy Christmas explored the side of the Christmas story that is often overlooked. How messy the people, places, and surroundings of Jesus were and how it was all used for God s glory. Christmas at Crossroads: We celebrated Christmas at Crossroads with thousands of our friends and family in 5 services.
What a fun year to be part of the Family Ministry! Our mission to partner with families in teaching students to KNOW God, helping them GROW in their faith, and preparing them to GO and reach others was accomplished in many ways! Throughout 2017, we came alongside parents in offering numerous relationship building and marriage strengthening Bible studies because we know that strong marriages build strong families! While parents were learning and connecting, kids were able to attend fun, Wednesday night Bible studies of their own! From Veggie Tale fun for the preschoolers, SuperBook Academy for elementary students and I m a Christian, Now What? for preteens, it was great to see entire families learning and growing! 45 preteens attended our annual summer camp! LOUISVILLE STUDENT MISSION TRIP Another 10 families participated in our 2017 Child Dedication, committing to raise their children in a Christian home in partnership with the church, and 12 children were baptized. What a great opportunity for us to come alongside families and watch God at work in their everyday lives! Our Children s Ministry continues to grow as we welcomed new families and volunteers throughout the year. We are blessed to minister to over 1,600 kids and volunteers each month! Never a dull moment with Crossroads Kids! From ice cream and cookie decorating parties, to Volunteer Pool Parties, Summer Family Movie Days, Outdoor Hikes and Camp, it has been a fantastic year for everyone involved in our ministry! We welcomed Brooke Norman as Preschool Coordinator and Susie Howman as Elementary Coordinator. Y T c c i Y Y B m s Y P
generations ministry Student Ministry A typical weekend hosts around 140 students and includes a great time of worship, fun games and relevant teaching. Student Takeover Twice over the past year, the entire weekend experience at Crossroads has been taken over and run by the Student Ministry. Over 100 students volunteered church-wide on the Cooking Team, Greeting Team, Worship Team, Tech Team, Parking Team, in the Coffee House and in Children s Ministry. Wednesday Nights Around 100 students participated in our Wednesday night small groups. In our fall semester this year, we studied through curriculums tackling topics on being a disciple, the Psalms and the study of Scripture as a seamless story. Between our Weekend and Wednesday night student services and events, we served over 250 students in 2017! Young Adult The Crossroads Young Adult Ministry (YA) continues to grow since its launch in 2015. The community of individuals, ages 18-35, connect in 4 different community groups: College, Young Professionals, Young Marrieds, and Young Families. Between these community groups and our monthly Young Adult Worship service, YA serves over 100 Young Adults. YA was thrilled to welcome a new Young Adult Pastor in 2017, Jesse Rider.
COMMITTED TO GLORIFIYING GOD Godly stewardship YOU ARE A GENEROUS CHURCH! MISSIONS GIVING globallead: $11,100 MISSION GIVING TOTAL: $425,018 ASIA S HOPE SPONSORS & SPECIAL PROJECTS: $103,375 LOCAL OUT- REACH: $9,100 ADOPT A CHILD: $80,000 TEXAS HURRICANE RELIEF: $10,000 MISSION IMPACT/ GUATEMALA GIRLS SCHOOL FUNDING: $33,754 MISSION TRIP FUNDING: $169,289 RICHLAND PREGNANCY SERVICES: $6,000 THE NEW STORE: $2,400
GENERAL FUND All this is for your benefit, so that the Grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 2 Cor. 4:15 $1.74M 2015 GENERAL FUND $1.90M 2016 GENERAL FUND 7% GROWTH VS $2.04M 2017 GENERAL FUND To God be the Glory! 2017 has been a year of growth for our ministry. Through your generosity, more people have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Crossroads, your commitment to the core values keeps the mission of our Savior moving forward. 2017 was a blessed year, and we anticipate 2018 to be even better. Join us in praising the blessings God has given, and pray for all of us to make a bigger impact in our community in 2018. May the gospel move forward! Thank you for your faithfulness! CROSSROADS MAINTAINS AN AVERAGE EMERGENCY FUND OF 12 WEEKS Thank you for your faithful giving!
COMMITTED TO GLORIFIYING GOD Creativity with Excellence We begin all of our creative processes at Crossroads fully Committed to Glorifying the Lord. We do this through attention to all of the creative detail in our services and special events. Only after our pastors share what God has laid on their hearts to teach does the thematic creative process begin. We discuss all of the creative ideas our team has and begin work to fully develop each of the individual service elements: from the teaching series graphic design to the writing and recording of announcements, video shoots, photography, preparation of radio podcasts and advertising. Creativity done with excellence helps to lead our congregation to a deeper relationship with the Lord. This year has been a year of transition for our department as we added a Worship Arts Pastor to our team. This addition has allowed our Creative Arts team to be even more focused on creativity throughout our ministry, while our Worship Arts Pastor brings greater focus to the area of worship. The two areas separate, yet fully connected in purpose. In Creative Arts we are FULLY COMMITTED TO GLORIFYING GOD and as always our desire is to present our creative work as a gift to the Lord! I thank you for allowing me to lead this amazing creative process in 2017, and it s with great anticipation that we walk into 2018 as teams even more committed to creative excellence! -Lori Biddle Director of Creative Arts Creativity done with excellence helps to lead our congregation to a deeper relationship with the Lord.
Easter Attendance: 4,402 Christmas Attendance: 4,804
CONNECTED in community
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Worship Worship is not just a genre of Christian music, or a combination of religious rituals. Worship is a lifestyle of surrender to God through our daily choices. Choices which often go against the grain of our natural but selfish desires and ways of the world. It doesn t take long to realize that living for Christ is not always easy - but we don t have to walk alone! We have the Holy Spirit and our church family to help us on this journey. My hope is that Crossroads would always be a place where people can experience personal change through the lifechanging power of the Holy Spirit, God s transformational Word, and the warmth of community. -Ernesto Alcantara Worship Arts Pastor This is why we gather together as the Church; to intentionally encourage and spur each other on in this lifestyle of worship. We accept that we are all broken and flawed people in need of constant reminders of God s freeing Truth. This is why we sing songs together, we pray together, we read scripture, we hear teachings, and we learn how to invite others into this same hope. In doing so, we fan the flame of our worship lifestyle, which enables us to function as the true Church of Jesus Christ.
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Gathering 8% increase in attendance in 2016 15% increase in attendance in 2017 Over 500 first time visitors filled out Connection cards in 2017!
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Meeting We were able to offer 173 Classes and Community/Connection Groups in 2017 with over 1,500 individuals participating, doubling the number from 2016! We have a church hungry to learn and grow in their relationships with the Lord and with each other! Life change happens best in Community -Doug Taylor, Communities Pastor
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Events It is always exciting to have events that draw in people from all over the community. In 2017, we were able to host many events that did just that! The Global Leadership Summit Simulcast drew in over 300 business owners, leaders, and members of the Mansfield community- all hoping to learn and improve their leadership skills. We had a blast hosting the SOLD OUT Revolution Tour with Michael W. Smith, Jordan Feliz, and Nathan Tasker. We joined with worship leaders and pastors from 12 area churches for a Community Night of Worship at the Renaissance Theater! In October, we hosted our 3rd LeaderCross event at Crossroads. Tim Hawkins SOLD OUT two shows with over 2,400 people on Sunday, November 19th, 2017. Dr. Les and Leslie Parrot joined us for a Marriage Conference.
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Serving over 1,000 volunt eers SERVING IN NEARLY 45 DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE CHURCH! Our volunteers spent over 31,200 hours preparing for and serving in our weekend services!
CALLED to share
we are called to share In Matthew 28:19, Christ commands us to go therefore and make disciples of all nations and in Acts 1:8, he tells us you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. God s word makes it very clear that it is not optional, that we are called to GO and to Share, so what does that look like here at Crossroads? We intentionally look to develop on-going, deep relationships personally, locally and globally that provide opportunities to live out and share the Gospel. The heartbeat of our Crossroads congregation has been to have a focus on children, families, education and communities. As Christ-followers, we are each called to reach out to those in our own Jerusalem our sphere of connection and influence to develop those relationships that point people to Jesus. Crossroads Missions offered the classes Insanity of Obedience and Understanding Poverty and the Church to help us grasp our call to personally share the Gospel and challenge us to live like Jesus is worth it! As a church, we look to provide opportunities with Local and Global Missions partners. Locally, we partner with Richland Pregnancy Services, The Richland County Children s Auxiliary (The New Store & Adopt-a-Child) and City Center events. Globally, we partner with Asia s Hope Cambodia, Mission Impact Guatemala (our Coffee House Farmers) and globallead. Where will you get involved for 2018 to share His love and grace? - Darlene Rudrick, Missions Coordinator
CALLED TO SHARE Personal Over 1,400 individuals have been water baptized since Crossroads started in 1996! In 2017, we had 120 water baptisms during our indoor and outdoor baptism events. It s amazing to see this outward expression of an inward change! 186 people made decisions for Christ in 2017! 73 new members signed covenants this year.
CALLED TO SHARE Local We participated in 12 local service events and partnered with 10 different organizations throughout the summer, in anticipation of our presence in the downtown through the City Center. Adopted Johns Park for the summer and held 3 events there. o Playground equipment repaired and painted o Blacktop stencils for active play o 4 Beautiful murals painted on the bathroom building o Lots of landscaping o A picnic, bounce house fun day for the neighborhood Other activities included: o Children s Festival Downtown o NECIC 60/60 clean up o Oasis of Love Block Party o Mid-Ohio 13er o The New Store Backpack stuffing 2,300 bags! o Richland Pregnancy Services 5k Walk/ Run o Matthew 25 produce giveaway o Culliver Reading Center o Shelby Bicycle Days Young Adult team On behalf of the City of Mansfield s Parks and Recreation Department, we would like to thank you for all the work that was done at Johns Park this year. The park has never looked better and we know that it wouldn t have been possible without all the volunteers and time that your organization put into it. From the painting of the murals to the painting of the restrooms, no detail has gone unnoticed and we are deeply grateful for all the hard work that went into the weekends spent at Johns Park! -Mansfield City Parks Department
CALLED TO SHARE Local 2017 Adopt-a-Child: gifts for 1032 children were distributed (500 were sponsored by Crossroads attendees) 137 bikes 40 beds 500 dozen cookies with gallons of coffee and hot chocolate 500+ volunteers Many prayers and opportunities to have a gospel impact In our partnership with The New Store, our volunteers have the opportunity to show the love of Christ to many of the neediest children throughout Richland County during the Dressing Days and the Adopt-A-Child program.
CALLED TO SHARE Regional Missions Louisville, KY Missions locally, regionally and globally is a huge part of Student Ministry at Crossroads. Through local opportunities at The New Store, The Salvation Army, Johns Park and The Woods Senior Center, the students learn to serve and love like Christ. These biblical lessons are then grown and stretched through service in inner city Louisville, Kentucky. A team of 79 students and leaders served there for the 4th year, continuing relationships and developing new ones with some impactful organizations. Victoria, TX Our nation experienced a devastating hurricane in Texas and you responded with giving $10,000 in relief funds directed to Samaritan s Purse. A team of 4 men then followed up by spending a week in Victoria, Texas helping with the demo and rebuild of homes and more importantly families and lives. This is the second year we have been blessed to work with Samaritan s Purse to respond to disasters both with physical help and gospel impact!
CALLED TO SHARE Global Missions Global Missions had a busy year with teams going to Cambodia, Guatemala, and the Philippines. Our Mission strategy at Crossroads is to develop deep, long-lasting relationships with a few partners that then provide the opportunities for gospel impact and social justice. We treasure our 9-year relationship with Asia s Hope in Cambodia. Through the support of our two sponsored homes there, we have seen the rescued children grow up in healthy loving families, receive a wonderful education, some enter and graduate from university and most importantly become passionate Christ-followers ready to impact their country for Jesus. In Guatemala, we have developed relationships on many levels through partnership with Mission Impact. In Santa Maria de Jesus, the village of our Coffee House farmers, we sponsor girls to attend school, support school projects, build fuel-efficient stoves and spend time with our coffee farmers. This gives opportunities for Christ to be shared by our head coffee farmer, Julio, with the families in the coffee co-op. Our teams serve in a remote village with clean water filters and dry-compost latrines. The handmade textiles sold in The Coffee House directly support women in a very remote mountainous area, where there is no access to work, education or health care. All the proceeds go directly to these women! The trip to the Philippines with globallead gave 4 Crossroads men the opportunity to disciple, teach and encourage leaders from 4 different countries in a Church Ministry Team Strategy Training. During their time, they also had opportunities to encourage some local pastors and the globallead Asia staff.
134 CALLED TO SHARE t raveled for mission work 15 Guatemala (January 7-14th) 23 Asia s Hope (February 9-23rd) 9 Asia s Hope (July 20 - August 2nd) 79 Student Ministry - Louisville (July 9-14th) 4 Texas Hurricane Relief (September 30 - October 6th) 4 Philippines (October 29-November 6th)
over CALLED TO SHARE 64,347 hours making impact through Missions outreach in 2017 City Center // John s Park // Bookbags Guatemala trips Asia s Hope trips Texas Relief Louisville trip Global Lead Trips Philippines RCCA (The New Store & Adopt A Child) Dressing days // Prairie Peddler// Gift Tags // Adopt A Child With These Hands Student Mission s Community Service 6 Red Cross blood drives
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Vision 20.20 In January 2017 we launched a 3-year campaign called Vision 20.20. Vision 20.20 was our response to God s invitation to join Him in His great plans for the next 20 years of Crossroads Community Church. We were compelled by what we see in our community and region to make a greater impact with the gospel of Christ to the 65%+ of our community who are unchurched or dechurched. Goal: We asked you to commit to $1 million over the next 3 years (2017-2020) There three main focuses of the Vision 20.20 Campaign: Downtown City Center A centrally located facility that will give us the opportunity to serve more, give more, and reach more of the low income and under-served in our region. The Downtown Ministry Center would be the service hub for children and families who find themselves in hopeless situations. Mortgage Elimination Our current mortgage designates nearly $287,000 per year of funds. The $24,000 per month towards our mortgage constitutes more investment than every ministry area combined. By relieving us of our current mortgage we will have the opportunity to strengthen our gospel footprint in the region and expand our ministry impact. Multi-Venue Campuses Increase quality ministry space and reach new neighborhoods/communities by launching new multi-venue campuses through healthy acquisitions and strategic locations. Committed: $1.1 million ($464,000 received in 2017) Campaign Update: City Center - Completion 2017 - $310,000 Total Spent Nicole Blakley City Center Director Mortgage Elimination Made a $250,000 payment of the $600,000 due this past year Multi-Venue Campuses After multiple conversations with a few different churches, we are in serious conversations with a church building in a neighboring community. More info to come.
CONNECTED IN COMMUNITY Short-Term Strategic Plans & Goals Committed to glorifying God: Biblical Teaching - Create additional opportunities to develop teachers and leaders - Build a more robust internship program Godly Stewardship - Raise current giving units from an estimated 25-30% to 40-50% - Raise the average per attendee from $16.50 to $20.00 per weekend - Increase our General Fund giving from $2 million to $2.5 million Connected in Community: Worshipping - Increase consistent average weekend attendance to 2,500 and those who consistently attend 2 or more times a month to 3,000 Meeting - Increase participation in Communities from 35-50% to 70% of adult population Serving - Increase individuals Serving on Ministry Teams from 1,000 to 1,200+ - Create a Crossroads Leadership Training Institute Called to Share: Personal: First-time decisions for Christ 150-200 per year and over 120 baptized each year Local: 1-2 Multi-Site Campus Venues Global: Increase number of participants on mission trips by 25% and add 1 global partner
Building community within us, reaching community around us. Leading People to the Truth that Transforms Lives in North Central Ohio and Around the World
Main Campus: 1188 Park Avenue West Mansfield, OH 44906 City Center: 29 North Main Street Mansfield, OH 44902 Phone: 419.529.0750 E-mail: info@crossroadswired.com Website: www.crossroadswired.com