God never ceases to amaze me. When the leadership team determined the goals for our Easter Sunday, I believed that only with God's help could we attain them. I know many of you prayed daily for God to move us, and He most certainly did. Six (6) new members, over twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) in a single offering, and over two hundred in attendance at worship (204), are clearly a demonstration of His presence in our church.
Most of you are aware of the challenges faced by our congregation in the past twelve months. However I believe we have turned the corner on those difficulties and that the accomplishment of these goals is evidence of that reality. You see, struggles are not always all bad. God often uses them to test our faith and commitment. He will use them to cause us to grow in ways that we are either afraid or unwilling to grow in. They make us reassess our motives and our beliefs. They make us stronger in the end.
This is not to say that we still do not have more challenges to work through. However we now have a true spirit of unity and cooperation in which to deal with them. With God's guidance and help, none of them are beyond our ability to work through. Some of them will require that more changes be made in the way we do things. We will need greater commitment from all of our members, including those who serve in positions of responsibility within our church.
On that subject, I want to express my appreciation to a man who has served as an elder in this congregation from its very inception, Neil Anderson. During my eight years, Neil has served continuously as an elder, with the exception of an accident-forced sabbatical. He has worked in both leadership and service. He has served in shepherding and in oversight. He has stood strong in the face of criticism and of difficulty. He successfully led us through three building campaigns. It is no exaggeration to say that Crossroads would not be where it is today without Neil Anderson.
Recently, Neil has stepped down from serving as an elder. He will continue to serve as the coach of support ministries and wants to focus his energies there. This is the ministry that deals with the maintenance of our facilities. As you might imagine, as our building has grown, so have the responsibilities for taking care of it. Neil, along with his wife Jennifer, has recently taken on the task of cleaning the church each week. This is no easy task, with all that we are doing through the week as a congregation. I am sure he would love to have more volunteers.
The leadership team will be looking to add more elders in August. We will be speaking to several men in the meantime about this. Please be in prayer for Scott Thatcher, Dave Nordhielm, and myself, as we continue to lead Crossroads.
