Past the Launch

I made the following announcement on Sunday...  You can listen to it and much of the rest of the spoken parts of worship at http://crossroadsdc.sermon.net/sermonid/2650287.

We are in the process, here at Crossroads, of figuring out what God wants us to be and do.  It's an awkward time for many folks and we want to move little by little past the awkwardness.  Little by little we want to move into more of a sense of stability and certainty about what it is that God is doing among us and how it is we're going to be forming this group. 

I believe God is calling us to be more than just a typical church--to be a ministry center--to be a place where people healed and transformed and sent out into the world--and maybe sent out to other churches.  This is not just one more church on the block.  I'll say a bit more about that in my message today.

In order to get past the "launch" phase, which has been in process for a few months, since August or so of last year, or maybe before that, we need to be deciding how it is we're going to be making some decisions going forward.  So we're offering people an opportunity to covenant together for the next few months, up till the end of the year.

In order to do that the launch team has approved a statement that we're asking people who believe that God is calling them to sign. 

You may believe God is calling you to do this and you may be sure and that's fine.  I don't believe God has called Crossroads into being to count members. 

God has called us to be partners in a mission and a ministry that has been going on here in the Dassel-Cokato area for a long time, since way before this particular group got together--to reach the lost and not to immediately ask people a lot of questions, to help people know they are loved and cherished just as they are. 

Here is the statement we're going to be asking people to sign on to:

• Trusting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, accepting the Bible as authoritative for faith and life, we believe God is calling us together through 2011 to pray, worship, study the scriptures, serve, care for one another and give financially for the ministry and mission of God through Crossroads Community Church of Cokato.

There are some who have already decided this is something they believe God is calling them to do.  At the building (15905 US Hwy 12 SW, Cokato, MN) there's a table with some sign up sheets on it, where, if you believe this is what God is calling you to be part of, I'd encourage you to sign that statement. 

It's only through the end of 2011.  Those who sign will be our mission ministry partners who will then gather at some point, hopefully before too long, perhaps right after Easter, to start making some decisions about how we'll move past the launch team to some kind of transitional leadership.

We'd ask you to be in prayer about this. If you believe God is calling you to make this covenant with these others who are being called also, I'd encourage you to sign and then we'll get have a meeting after Easter.

I'm sure you'll have questions; please ask me or any member of the launch team.  You can contact me at steve@equalsharing.com or the launch team members individually or through the church email crossroadscokato@gmail.com.

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For more on this see my April 15 post "Getting Practical" and come to the May 1 potluck and information meeting at Crossroads.

www.equalsharing.com