Are you more future-oriented or reflective? Usually, people find themselves in one camp or another, either dreaming of what’s next with hope for change and something new or spending time looking backward and feeling nostalgic.
I read recently that nostalgia increases motivation and often breeds hope and purpose. Really, I think they work together beautifully and that’s part of what God calls us to when he asks us to remember his faithfulness and remember all that he has done.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were reminded of God’s faithfulness and clung to his promises to bring them out of slavery (Deuteronomy 6). In the New Testament, we find encouragement to remember what Jesus has done and who he says he is in order to persevere on this side of heaven (Hebrews 12:1-3).
I’m always encouraged to reflect on a year in the life of our church. Where have we been, what stands out, and where are we hoping to go and grow together?
Focusing on Prayer
Since August, we’ve been focused on growing together as a congregation in our prayer lives. Throughout the fall, our sermon series in Philippians has challenged us on how to find joy in hard circumstances. Paul’s letter from prison gives us perspective for our own lives and encourages us to be faithful to Jesus in all areas of life.
Along with the sermon series, members of The Crossing’s staff team wrote prayers to use each week following the verses taught in Philippians. We handed out 3500 copies of Simple Prayers from Philippians on a single Sunday!
We hope these have been a great resource both throughout this series and to use going forward at any time.
Each week, we've released one of the prayers on instagram, encouraging readers to pause their day to connect with God through prayer.
We also put up two large prayer walls in the foyer spaces to share prayer requests within our congregation. There’s beauty in sharing these cards with our needs and requests, and another person taking them to pray over. Through studies, Simple Prayers, and the prayer walls, we’ve all been growing in prayer as a church! Our hope is that will continue to grow over this upcoming year.
Supporting Love Columbia
We’re still not over it! At Easter, we shared the need for more transitional housing options in Columbia. You responded by raising $1,047,866.25 to give directly to Love Columbia to support their transitional housing program for families.
The generosity of your sacrificial giving allowed this project to come to life. At the beginning of October, Love Columbia broke ground for a new 10-plex housing unit to use for their Extra-Mile Housing Program. This is beyond what we could have imagined, and we’re so thankful to see a tangible way our church can help families in our community.
Growing Small Groups
We have 110 active small groups in our Adults Small Groups ministry with 1200 people in those groups. Those numbers don’t include small groups in Crossing Twenties, Veritas, Mens and Womens, Crossing Students, and Crossing Kids that also meet each week.
These small groups are where lasting spiritual growth happens! People get to go deeper in their faith alongside others, study scripture, and pray together. So growing groups means more people believing that Jesus is more.
If you’d like to learn more about small groups at The Crossing, we have groups for adults over 30, adults in their twenties, college students, and high school and middle school students.
New Sermon Series: “Without Ceasing”
Starting January 26, we’ll spend Sundays exploring passages in the Bible to answer questions that you submitted earlier this fall about prayer. To continue our year of focus on prayer, we want to examine what different prayers in the Bible teach us and how that can enhance our own prayer lives.
Without Ceasing Prayer Journal
Alongside the new sermon series, we will hand out a prayer journal on January 26 to help structure your time in prayer with scripture and prompts for reflection. Each day will focus on a different type of prayer, provide instructions to read a related passage, and ask questions to spur on your own time in prayer.
Joyful Outsiders
Crossing pastors Patrick Miller and Keith Simon wrote a second book that will be released January 21, called Joyful Outsiders: Six Ways to Live Like Jesus in a Disorienting Culture. They identify how to be a joyful outsider, like Jesus, and draw on the examples of biblical characters to introduce six types of joyful outsiders in our culture. We’re thankful for their pastoral leadership to continue to provide resources for our church and beyond.
How do you engage with culture? Patrick and Keith created this short assessment to help you understand which type of joyful outsider you are. Check it out now.
Twenty-Five Years!
Did you know that The Crossing will celebrate twenty-five years as a church this year?
We have so much to share and celebrate together for gathering as a congregation over these last 25 years (that’s a quarter century!). From our small beginnings—meeting in a basement, moving to Memorial Union and then to Rockbridge High School, then building in 2006—it’s hard to comprehend the ways that our church has changed and grown. More importantly, the many ways God has used this church community to change lives! God is working in individuals, families, and communities through our church. We look forward to sharing and praising God for his work through our body of believers in 2025.
How has God worked through The Crossing in your life? We’d love to hear your story.
There is so much to be thankful for as we reflect on this last year and look ahead to 2025. It’s exciting to be part of a church where lives are changing and we’re growing in prayer, discipleship, and serving others. May we continue to give glory to God and praise his name above all – that we may be an encouragement to one another and our community.
Has God worked through The Crossing in your life this year? Let us know!