Victory At CrossWay

We had a fantastic Easter yesterday at CrossWay Church!  Everything seemed to go well, and it was such a blessing.  The sermon was very well received.  It was called “Victory!” and was about just that: we have victory because Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and is alive!

In the second service, some of the children did an interpretive movement to that good ol’ Easter standby, “Arise My Love.”  I’m not often at a loss for words, but I simply cannot describe it.  When I found out that it was going to be done by kids ages 4 through 10, and most of them about 7 years old, I didn’t see how they could pull it off.  After all, it’s a pretty serious song with some real movement.  But they… wow… I’ve never seen this song done so powerfully!  In my 12+ years as a Christ follower, I have rarely seen anything so powerful in worship.  They executed it perfectly.  Perfectly.  I was blown away.  I didn’t think I’d be able to preach!  They got the only standing ovation I’ve seen in 4 years at CrossWay.  Simply awesome.  Awesome awesome awesome.  I was sooo proud of them!

We had a great time with the music, too.  We did a new song called “Christ Is Risen” which is a really catchy tune that powerfully captures the joyfulness of the resurrection of Christ.

Jesus is alive!  And we experienced Him yesterday at CrossWay!

Published in: on April 25, 2011 at 2:36 pm  Comments (1)  

Praise & Prayer

Last night we had our monthly Praise & Prayer worship service at CrossWay Church.  God’s presence was very powerful, especially during our prayer time.  I loved the freedom in prayer that we experienced as we tuned in to God’s leading and surrounded one another in prayer.  The theme for the night, which we hadn’t planned in advance, was praise.  Everyone who shared from the Scriptures read from Psalms.

God does indeed inhabit the praises of His people! (See Psalm 22:3.)

Our next Praise & Prayer service is Wednesday, November 10 at 6:30 p.m.  I’m already looking forward to it!  Everyone is invited!

Published in: on October 13, 2010 at 11:49 pm  Comments (1)  

Rated R Bible Stories at CrossWay Church

We’ve got a new video promo for “Rated R Bible Stories,” the new sermon series at CrossWay Church beginning October 24:

Published in: on October 7, 2010 at 4:11 pm  Comments (1)  

High Seas Expedition

Yesterday we wrapped up a week of  kids’ ministry at CrossWay Church as we celebrated Summer Bible Camp Sunday.  Our theme for the week was High Seas Expedition, and the kids and workers all had an awesome time!  This is the third year we’ve done Summer Bible Camp at CrossWay, and it seemed to go better than ever.  We had more kids (46) and they had more excitement than I’ve seen yet.

We hit 5 important Bible truths this week as we explored the mighty love of God:

(1) God’s Word is true.

(2) God’s Word is comforting.

(3) God’s Word is surprising.

(4) God’s Word is life-changing.

(5) God’s Word is for everyone.

One of my highlights as a group leaders was that all six of my kids came every night!

Published in: on July 26, 2010 at 2:20 pm  Leave a Comment  

Stuff That Scares Us

We’re in the middle of Summer Bible Camp at CrossWay Church.  We’re on a High Seas Expedition!

A couple nights ago we were talking about how God’s Word is comforting.  The Bible story teacher asked the kids if they’d ever been scared.  One little guy said, “Last night there was a nightmare in my bed!”  Note to parents: When you tuck your kids in at night, be sure to check the sheets and sweep away any nightmares lurking there!

Another four-year-old boy said he’s afraid of ghosts.  When asked if he’s ever seen a ghost, he replied: “I’ve seen a dead ghost!”

(By the way, don’t think about the “dead ghost” thing too much.  Trust me, it’ll only make you dizzy.)

Published in: on July 22, 2010 at 10:27 am  Leave a Comment  

Falling On Our Knees

At CrossWay on Sunday we talked about dying to our sin-riddled selves and being given new life in Christ.  We read the really strange story in Acts 20:7-12 and then walked through Romans 6:1-14.

The highlight of the day for me came at the end of the second service.  When we reached our prayer time after the sermon, I grabbed a chair and used it for an altar, and encouraged others to do the same if they felt led to.  As I got down and bowed my head with my eyes closed, I heard a lot of rustling.  A lot of rustling.  When I finished praying, I started to stand up and saw that everyone was on their knees in prayer!  It was awesome.  I was so moved that I couldn’t say anything, so I just walked up to the drums for the closing song. (Turns out that the prayer gave such a sense of closure to the service that people started to get up to leave, not realizing we had a closing song!)

It was especially cool because our Worship Planning Team met last week and talked about how we can lead people into worshiping through physically humbling ourselves before God.  God definitely responded.

Published in: on May 19, 2010 at 10:20 am  Comments (1)  

Three Years at CrossWay Church

Three years ago today was my first Sunday at CrossWay Church.  It’s the longest I’ve been on staff at a church.  (I was on staff at two other churches for almost three years.)  At the other two churches where I was a staff pastor, I could feel the end of my time approaching.  It’s kind of funny, because even though I’ve been here the longest, I feel like I’m just getting started.  And the time has flown–it seems like it’s been six months.

Published in: on May 6, 2010 at 1:29 pm  Comments (4)  

The God of This City

Yesterday at CrossWay we talked about the vision for our church.  We read Acts 18:5-11, in which God appears to Paul in a vision and tells him that He has many people in the city of Corinth, where Paul was preaching.

God is the God of that city, and He is the God of our city, too!  He is the God of our community.  He has many people here.  He is doing something in the West Ocean City/Berlin area, and He’s bringing His people together to make it happen.  Not only that, but Jesus Christ has people in our community that don’t know Him yet, and He wants to work through His churches here to bring those people to Himself.

In this passage in Acts, Paul preaches in the synagogue–the established church, if you will–and they not only oppose him but actually abuse him.  So he goes literally right next door, preaches the gospel, and revival breaks out in the city!  CrossWay is on a mission to make lifelong followers of Jesus Christ throughout our community and around the world, and that means we can’t hide in an insulated religious bubble.  We must go out into the community.  Sometimes there’s a dormant revival right next door, just waiting to explode as soon as the gospel is shared.

So we talked about our vision of being a place where anyone can understand and respond to the Bible.  That’s how we make lifelong followers of Jesus.  We know Jesus by reading and understanding the Bible, and we follow Jesus by responding to the Bible in faith and obedience.  We can fulfill our vision by living out our core values: Community, Reverence, Outreach, Service, Spiritual Growth.  As these five things come to define us, we’re in position for God to bring His kingdom to our community.  He is the God of this city!

Published in: on May 3, 2010 at 5:24 am  Leave a Comment  

Nickels 4 Neighbors… Dollars 4 Daughters

Each week at CrossWay we have a children’s offering called Nickels 4 Neighbors.  It’s something that our conference does.  All 34 churches in the conference collect this offering each week, and every six months we give it to a ministry that benefits children.  It’s really cool to see all the kids come up each week to drop in their money.  They’re learning to give, and to give as an act of worship.  It’s also pretty neat that this offering helps other kids.

The past three weeks, Laura Marie has participated in the Nickels 4 Neighbors collection.  Since she can walk now, she’s able to come up (with some… um… direction) and drop money into the container.  It’s so cute to watch her walking up there with the other kids!

As I was reflecting on last Sunday’s worship service, a certain irony hit me.  Laura Marie came up during Nickels 4 Neighbors, carrying her dollar (apparently this offering was named before inflation), but she didn’t want to let go of it!  Here’s her daddy three minutes away from preaching about money, and she won’t let go of her dollar.

Actually, it’s a pretty good illustration of stewardship, but I didn’t think of it at the time.  She was given that money specifically for the purpose of giving it to the children’s offering, but she wanted to hold on to it.  How often do we do that with what God has entrusted to us for a specific purpose?

When I told Carolyn about all this, she told Laura Marie that she should have stayed in the service for the sermon.  Funny mommy.  That reminds me: Sunday marked a milestone for Laura Marie.  She stayed in the nursery without her mommy for the first time!  Of course, it helps that she had four other babies to play with.

Published in: on April 29, 2010 at 9:30 am  Comments (3)  

Trusting God With Our Money

On Sunday at CrossWay Church we talked about trusting God with our money.  It was the second week in our three-week series “The Almighty’s Dollar.”

The words “trust” and “faith” are very closely related.  To have faith in God is to trust Him: to trust Him with our souls, our families, our health… and our money.  The Bible has a lot to say about how we can exercise our faith in God by what we do with our money.  Money is very much a spiritual issue.

We discussed three ways of trusting God with our money:

(1) Give first.  Rather than paying off all the bills and seeing if there is enough money left over to give to support the church, other ministries, and people with financial needs, the Bible instructs us to give first (see Exodus 23:19).  Giving first shows that we trust God with the rest.  The Scriptures teach that we should give at least 10% of our income to the church–the Bible word for this is “tithe.”  Just as Jesus took one kid’s lunch and multiplied it to feed thousands of families (see John 6:1-13), so He can take our 90% after the tithe and do more with it than we could do with 100%.

(2) Give sacrificially.  This means giving to the point that we can feel it.  It means that our giving really costs us something.  This is very different from giving a little out of our extra.  Jesus teaches about this, among other places, in Luke 21:1-4.

(3) Give cheerfully and generously.  God loves a cheerful giver!  Some people give out of guilt, but God says not to do that.  Instead, we should give joyfully, as an act of worship and gratitude.  The more generously we sow, the more generously we reap.  (See 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 for a passage about this that is so simple yet so profound that we would do well to order our lives around it.)

By giving first, giving sacrificially, and giving cheerfully and generously, we actively trust God.  We show that our faith in God is not just something we talk about, but how we actually live.

Next week: Following God with our money.

Published in: on April 20, 2010 at 9:41 am  Comments (1)  
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