Surfing the Inner N8

On Saturday at CrossWay we had the opportunity to host our conference‘s spring assembly.  We had about 80 people representing 34 Mennonite churches, mostly from Pennsylvania but also New York, Delaware, Maryland, and probably some others.

They asked our praise band to lead the music.  That was the first time we had led music anywhere other than our worship services.  It was neat getting to worship with a different group of Christians!

One of the highlights for me was the message brought by Dr. Ervin Stutzman, who is the executive director of Mennonite Church USA.  I really enjoyed a class I took a year or so ago that he taught, so I’d been looking forward to this.  He talked about how the missional church is about loving God and loving people, which is also our motto here at CrossWay.  We recorded his message, so it should be up on the podcast soon.

Another highlight was hearing Josh Engle, our worship pastor, sharing a “God At Work” story during the conference.  He talked about what God is doing in our music ministry.  He did an excellent job, and with only about 10 minutes notice!

During lunch I went to Panera Bread with Josh, Keith Wilson (the administrative assistant at ACC), and Harry Jarrett (pastor of Neffsville Mennonite Church).  I loved having that time to get to know each other, compare notes, and learn from each other.

In the afternoon we had a great time of reading, reflecting on, and discussing Acts 9:10-19.  We spent quite awhile reading it together–three times–then discussing it around our tables, followed by a conversation with the whole assembly.  It was really cool!  I’d love to be a part of that kind of thing much more often.

As much as I enjoyed all those things, perhaps the highlight for me was the way our crew at CrossWay came together to pull off hosting the event.  Our numbers were small, but as Josh said, you wouldn’t know it.  The place was set up so nice for the gathering, there was a ton of food, the whole music team participated, and we had folks who spent Friday night setting up, Saturday serving, and Saturday evening getting everything cleaned up and ready for Sunday.  It was definitely one of my most satisfying experiences as a pastor at CrossWay.

Exciting times!  A new satellite church location is opening up near CrossWay.  SonRise Church in Berlin is launching a campus just a little up the road from us, toward Ocean City.  Pastor Kyle, who is leading the new site, posted on his blog some of the needs they still have.

Please check out the list here and see what you can contribute.  Thanks!

I don’t understand why we call it “Easter” after the name of a pagan god, when it’s to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Therefore the title of this post.  A few years ago when I was on staff at another church, I brought this up.  Our lead pastor responded, “Yeah, why don’t you head that up?”  So I’m heading it up.  Let’s call it Resurrection Sunday!

So at CrossWay Church on Resurrection Sunday we talked about, of course, the resurrection of Jesus.

Hmm… that about sums it up!  Hopefully the podcast will be up soon.

Next Sunday we begin a three-week series called The Almighty’s Dollar.

Last Saturday we had our third annual Easter Egg Hunt at CrossWay.  It was a blast!  We had about 60 kids and at least that many adults.  God answered our prayers for a break in the weather, and we had a beautiful sunny day with mild temperatures–right in between two chilly rainstorms.

In the sanctuary we had a lot of fun stuff for the kids to do: decorating cookies, a spoon walk (carrying an egg or marshmallow or something on a spoon in their mouths), face painting, some art stations, and the favorite: the ring toss.  That last one had a line so long you’d think they were waiting to get Thrasher’s fries on the boardwalk.

Carolyn shared the Easter story and did a great job.  She started by breaking an egg into a bowl, then asked for a volunteer.  She asked the volunteer if he would be surprised if she broke an egg on his head.  The first volunteer backed out but another jumped up to volunteer and Carolyn cracked the egg on his head.  Lo and behold, it was empty–surprise!  (At this point one little boy shouted: “Try another egg!”)  Carolyn compared the surprise of the empty egg to the surprise of Jesus’ empty tomb, and she explained how Jesus wants to be their forever friend and all they have to do is believe.  It was pretty cool.

Then we had the Easter egg hunt in two groups, one for the younger children and one for the older kids.  We hid a thousand eggs, and they found every single one!

It was a lot of fun for everyone, and it was great getting to spend time with people.

What’s coming up at CrossWay:

We held session 2 of the CrossWay Church membership class on Sunday afternoon.  We now have 12 members!  Our Constitution & By-Laws require completion of the class in order to be eligible for membership, so officially our only members are those who were able to make it both weeks (since this is the first time we’ve actually had the class).  We’ll have the class again soon for those who are interested but weren’t able to make it.

Hey, Jesus started with 12, so I’d say we’re in good company.

After the first session of the membership class at CrossWay on Sunday, where we talked about our core values and explored their biblical basis, one of the women who took the class stopped me before she left.  She said, “Those were things I hoped we still believed!”

Yep, we still believe.  Mennonite churches don’t exactly have a reputation for theological clarity and commitment to orthodoxy, but we’re working to overcome that at CrossWay.  We worship Jesus and believe the Bible.  The rest is details.  (Important details, however, which is why we discuss them in the membership class!)