State Of The Church 2024

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.

Luke 19:10

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

Luke 12 · chapter mention

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

[email protected]. 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.