Jose, Lindsay and Erin tune up

October will go down as the month of church-plant-improv and changed timelines. Earlier in the church planting game, our plan was to gradually build our team until we reached a “critical mass” of at least 30-40 people, then begin downtown services with the numbers to be somewhat self-sustaining.

That plan changed when Crossroads Church Kansas City was offered the opportunity to begin meeting in a landmark downtown studio and gallery building, the Arts Incubator. After praying about it, we concluded that we should go looking for used sound equipment, describe our upcoming services as “informal,” and go for it.

In a nutshell, that’s the story of last month. Our team of 15 people stepped up to the plate and took ownership of the upcoming services. It’s been cool to see our people pool time, energy, and a lot of creativity as we get things moving. Starting November 8, we’ll be holding weekly services at the Arts Incubator, 6pm Sunday nights.

In many ways, the Crossroads District downtown is a community of start-ups—artists starting careers from scratch, small businesses beginning in empty warehouses. As our church plant takes on an even more off-the-cuff personality, we’ve been challenged to rely on faith in a sovereign God rather than in a “large launch” or a windfall of resources.  But the correlation between the roots of this church and the roots of the Crossroads area is a something we appreciate.

Last month we also launched Core groups, 2-4 men or women meeting weekly, which we see as critical in forming the Crossroads culture. By design, these groups will help us hold each other accountable for our mission—Love Jesus, connect people, transform cities—and focus heavily on prayer and Bible. The architecture for City groups (10-15 people) is being designed as well.

Midway through the month Lindsay and I decided there wasn’t enough going on (nod, wink) so we decided to move forward into the second phase of remodeling in the Brick House. This meant inviting a team of highly motivated students in to start demo on our kitchen/dining room. There is nothing like a swirling cloud of dust to make all of life seem more dramatic.

This has been a challenging and somewhat chaotic month, but it’s good to know that we’re in the right place, surrounded by a great team, strengthening our ties downtown and following God’s lead into uncharted territory.

As we continue to gear up for services and invest in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, please pray:

- That God would send a worship leader our way—we’re still looking for the right person to lead music for us long term. See our Craigslist ad.

- For more opportunities to serve. We’re looking forward to volunteering at the Leedy-Voulkous Gallery and Arts Incubator in the days ahead, and will continue to look for ways to meet genuine needs in relational ways.

- That worship services will come together. We’re moving fast, light on our feet and light on resources (ha). So when I tell friends I’m not exactly sure what to expect, I’m more than half serious.

Thanks for your prayers. We look forward to pausing a month from now, letting the dust settle, and reflecting on how God is working as we plow ahead.

This update is a little terse, seeing as it’s about 3 weeks overdue, so shoot us a note if you’d like to catch up. As always, we’d love to grab coffee or talk at more depth about what’s going on. And most definitely shoot us a note if you have a penniless but talented indie rocker living in your basement–we’ll put that guy to work.

Things will continue to be grassroots for the foreseeable future. From day one, our intent has been to invest and serve downtown, volunteer our time to meet genuine needs, and let relationships develop on the way. We may do some other low-key promotional stuff, but we have no intention of switching up our baseline strategy. It just makes sense…the day we send out glossy direct mailers hyping the Next Big Thing In Church is the day I take a sledge hammer to our church structure.

Ever since reading a blurb about a new title by Derek Tidball, I was interested in cracking this book and exploring his premise. From the intro of the disarmingly titled Ministry by the Book:

This book seeks to open the imagination about ministry, not to close a discussion down. It seeks to sketch several models of ministry, all of which have their origins in the New Testament, and challenge the stunted understanding of ministry that so often characterizes our churches today. I hope it provides a number of “models of permission” that enable a freer approach to ministry and the way it is conducted, and provides encouragement for those who don’t fit the “McDonaldized” version of ministry so common today.

It became obvious fairly early in my life that I wasn’t going to grow into one of the soft-spoken, bleeding-heart pastor-counselors I saw in churches around me. I wished I could, and speculated about whether I could pump up enough tender, gentle qualities to qualify for ministry.

When I entered seminary, I once again felt the bite of square peg/round hole syndrome, as I struggled through classes that tried to groom me for a suit-and-tie-wearing, Sunday school-class organizing, business meeting-driven model of church leadership. This also was not happening, and at times it made me wonder what the heck I was doing.

During these years, I began to realize that leadership and ministry was not homogeneous in the New Testament, shouldn’t be homogeneous today, and that I didn’t need to fit myself into various homogeneous existing models of ministry. So I stopped trying, continued to read the Bible carefully, and did my best to figure out Jesus’ vision for my gifts and ministry instead of taking my cues from various church cultures.

Now, as I start through Derek Tidball’s Ministry by the Book, I’m thinking, This one would have saved me a lot of angst, confusion, and wasted time if it had existed 5 years sooner and, say, been required reading at my seminary. Hopefully it will prove as eye-opening and liberating for readers today as it would have for me back when I was trying to change myself into a soft-spoken, tie-wearing, pastor-counselor. (Who I’m not, but who of course have a place in the church.)

Jon, Bethany, Ruth & Jessica at our Covenant-Signing Party

Jose & Erin sign their lives away--uh, that is, sign the Crossroads covenant

We’re pumped about more people God has sent our way, Jose and Erin Martinez, with their three-year-old, Max, and Bethany Brown—all great folks who love the gospel and love downtown. A few days ago we pulled out our team covenant and added the new autographs amid applause and some mild trash talking…God continues to add people to the mix who will bring new gifts and vision to the table. If you suspect God is tugging you this direction, get in touch.

Ezra helped me paint the door "electric Jayhawk blue"

First Friday is a major event for the downtown community, as the 60+ galleries located in the Crossroads District open their doors, and thousands of people flood the streets to eat, drink, and take in the art scene. After three months of slow but steady renovations in the Brick House, we were ready to throw a First Friday pre-party and invite friends to come hang out en route to the galleries. We had a great time, had some good conversations, made some new friends, and will be hosting more parties in the future.

After a conversation with Jeff, the director of the Arts Incubator, we prayed about his invitation to start informal services in the Arts Incubator studio/gallery building downtown, and decided to go for it. This is a modification to our original plan to start services with a larger, more polished “launch,” but we feel God pulling us this way. We’re excited to start worshipping, preaching, and praying Sunday nights at ground zero in the Crossroads Arts District, a move which will give us another avenue for our downtown friends to participate and hear about Jesus. Pull out your calendar: Our first service will be Sunday night, November 8.

In addition to the above, I got a chance to preach on Acts 2:42-47, one of my favorite passages, at Crossroads Church Grain Valley (our sidekick in the mafia brotherhood of churches). A couple church planting roundtables were crammed into the usual mix of meetings and planning, and I also had the opportunity to facilitate a training session on social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) for some local pastors and leaders. We tackled another service project on the West Side. And our team continues to gather Sunday nights for Bible and planning as well as Wednesday mornings for prayer.

We invite you to pray…

Viva la Crossroads!

1. For more church partners. We’re gearing up for public services with their accompanying costs. Pray that some more gospel-loving churches will step up to the plate and get involved in what’s happening downtown–ideally in relational, volunteer ways as well as financially.

2. For the services coming up. We’re working to keep our mission and values in front of us as we plan services that will be simple & unpretentious, but appropriate and Jesus-centered. We need wisdom and prayerful planning to stay ahead of the curve. We’re also still looking for the right worship leader to help us pull this off.

3. For continued Brick House renovations. Working with skilled volunteers is perfect for our budget (ha ha) but a slow process, since it means coordinating lots of schedules. We’d like to finish out the office/meeting room space, our first major project, and move forward on other remodels. Each step forward gets us closer to using this Brick House for meetings and hospitality the way we want to.

4. For continued engagement with friends downtown. We like how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 9:19 (The Message). “I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!” This is who we want to be as well.

Once again, thanks for praying for the Crossroads plant and helping resource this gospel endeavor. We feel like the whole ride so far has been high speed, and we’re about to accelerate again. Our saving grace is that we serve a sovereign God who is way out ahead of us. And that’s good news for all of us.

Peace,

AJ (Ariel) & Lindsay…closely followed by Aidan, Asher & Ezra

Crossroads Church Kansas City