After a year of planning, prepping, and hard work, our newest CrossPoint church is now open and proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the people in and around Russell, Kansas!
About four years ago, I sat down with the people of First Southern Baptist Church in Russell and shared our church’s vision for reaching rural places with the Gospel throughout Kansas. We discussed possibly partnering to restart their church as a new CrossPoint location. I walked away from that meeting unsure of the future but sensed that God was at work ahead of us. Fast forward a year and a half, and First Southern had decided to shut their doors as many churches in small places have done in the last several years. But, because of our friendship and partnership with the Central Baptist Association, the new owner, we now had an opportunity to start a brand new location in that same building.
As all of this was happening, God was stirring in the heart of Shawn Powell. God had been working in his life, and he was beginning to ask what God had for him next. As we sat at Qdoba, he asked me, “What’s the next CrossPoint plant?” I told him about the possibilities in Russell. Just as he didn't know how God had been working in that situation, I didn't know that Shawn was from Russell and that he still had family there. A light bulb went off, and we started to dream about what could be for that church building and the city.
Honestly, this announcement could have been done in a short sentence or two on social media, but I felt compelled to share a little behind the curtain. Here is why: I believe God is already working on the next church in the next town so that the next group of people may hear and come to know Jesus.
CrossPoint has set a goal of being 20 locations by the year 2030. Here is the tension and the beauty of goals like this: God will have to show up in a big way for this to happen. We have great people, staff, and systems, but unless God calls his people to obedience and we respond accordingly, it's all for not. We set the goal based on our faith in what God can do through His church. That means, somewhere in the CrossPoint family, God is working on someone to take that courageous leap to surrender their heart and life to be on a team that starts the next location. That means that some building in some city is about to become available so that the next location can worship together. That means that someone out there is sensing the call to shepherd the people of God and needs a place to lead.
That means those someones might be you!
Please join me in celebrating CrossPoint Russell's launch and praying for the next opportunity to plant the next church.