At my kindergarten graduation, I stood on a stage with my fellow graduates and declared to our onlooking families that when I grew up, I wanted to be an artist. The stage was full of firefighters, police officers, ballerinas, and professional athletes.
Unsurprisingly, even at my small Christian grade school, not one of us said, “When I grow up, I want to work for a church!”
It didn’t seem glamorous to a group of five-year-olds. And even as you grow up and your dream of becoming a ballerina fades, it still isn’t typically replaced by “church staff member.”
Childhood aspirations transform into adult aspirations. Maybe I can’t be a professional athlete, but I could be a lawyer, a stockbroker, a small business owner, or a CEO. No longer guided by kindergarten passion, normally, adults find themselves guided by money, prestige, and respect.
So how does someone go from artist, to lawyer, to church staff member? How did they end up there? Why work for a church?
Here’s what six staff members at The Crossing had to say when challenged with the question: “Why a church?”
Jim Beaty
Back in 2002, I’d nearly given up on finding a church when my wife Kasey showed me a flyer for a new church called The Crossing. On our first Sunday morning there, we were immediately drawn to the preaching style. It was from the Bible but also clearly connected to our everyday lives. This relevance of the gospel to every area of our lives began influencing who we were as individuals, spouses, parents, and friends. It was a life-saving change. And we knew we wanted to help make that kind of change available to as many other people as possible. We both found places to volunteer our time to help the church serve and grow.
My professional training was a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. I worked as the Chief Scientist for a consulting firm, where I oversaw developing and validating hiring tests for large companies. Most people have never heard of that job. It is a niche, expert role. And I worked remotely and traveled a lot (before remote work was a big thing).
I loved my job. And it gave me the flexibility to serve the church. During the week when I was working from home in Columbia, I helped form staff and volunteer teams. And I implemented the church’s first database.
At that time, Dave, Keith, and Shay divided most of the operational tasks among themselves. Sometimes we’d talk about what it would be like if I left my job and came to work at The Crossing to run operations. I helped organize things as a volunteer, but I could do so much more if I were on staff, and the pastors could focus on preaching, teaching, and counseling.
Then, one Sunday about five years after I started attending The Crossing, Keith had to stand up on stage and ask the church to help replace the mulch outside Crossing Kids because he ordered landscaping mulch instead of playground mulch.
Dave told me, “We can’t do it all anymore. We’re going to hire someone to do operations. We’d like that to be you. But if you don’t want to do it, we must hire someone.”
Oh no. We’d had fun talking about this, but now I had to make a big decision!
Even though I loved my job, I chose The Crossing for two key reasons:
We took a leap of faith, and I joined The Crossing’s staff team. All these years later, what attracted me to The Crossing back then are the very things I still enjoy today: watching God change lives (ours included), working with very talented co-workers, and pursuing an incredible mission.
Kari Nietzel
Some are clearly called into ministry... and then there’s me, who feels like I just stumbled into it. I used to oversee a company that provided services to hundreds of kids with Autism and their families across Kansas and Missouri. Clinic and therapy life was my safe place. I felt confident, comfortable, and successful.
Then God gently reminded me that his plans are so much greater than my comfort zone. I had come to the realization that my job was not fitting well with my husband and my priorities for our family. I ran into Christine Simon, who oversees Crossing Kids, and she mentioned that Agape (The Crossing’s disability and inclusion ministry) needed to hire a new director in the next few months.
The “yes” to ministry in this specific role was quick and obvious. But it took time to humble my pride and step away from a role I had worked hard to achieve and had found success in.
I didn’t plan to work to work for a church. And, years later, I am still amazed that I ended up here. I can now see how the perspectives and experience I gained from being in roles outside the church prepared my heart and mind to walk alongside families in my role at The Crossing. I am able to connect better with the kids, students, and adults who have varying learning styles, communication styles, and physical needs or who are just in need of community.
I always laugh when I get asked, “Do you think you will keep doing ministry or get a real job?” I truly consider it such a gift that my job is to intentionally love and share Jesus with others, especially those in our Agape community.
Seeing a group of people who have shared experiences of hardship or who have lacked connection in other church experiences come together, feel loved, and find community while growing in their faith is exactly how I think God wants the body of Christ to look.
Christian Neuenswander
Before working at The Crossing, I was climbing the corporate ladder. I loved my sales career and was successful in it. When the opportunity to work for our church came up, my husband and I had been a part of the church eight years. And it had transformed our personal relationships with Jesus. But the thought of going to work in ministry, taking a giant pay cut, and working at a place that had fewer extrinsic motivations was a big and difficult decision for me.
Ultimately, I realized my fears about the transition came from my own battle with pride, idolatry, control, and security. I was operating under the belief that money and career success would keep us safe, keep us happy, and make me worthy.
Through prayer and wise counsel, we decided it was the right move for me and our growing family to take the job. I was excited to be a part of the place and operation that God used in our lives to transform our relationships with him.
I love a good plan. I love details and working out the logistics of an event so that people feel like they were thought of and cared for before they even walked through the door arrival. Now, I get to help ministries conduct small group meetings, one-on-one meetings, large events, worship nights, and Sunday morning services in the auditorium.
We make our big church feel small and personable, helping people overcome feelings of distrust, hesitancy, and being overwhelmed as they walk into our building. These things pave the way for them to hear they are loved by God and, from there, come to know him more and follow him with their lives.
Grady Frazier
Before I worked at The Crossing, I was a full-time musician. I struggled with the thought of being labeled as a “Christian artist” because I worried that my career would suffer. I didn’t want to be put into a box. And I definitely didn’t want to be a worship leader.
My work at The Crossing started as a humbling answer to prayer. While struggling to build a career in music, I asked God to provide a job for me where I could learn music and production skills. On a whim one Sunday, when I was volunteering for the music team, I asked if the production team had any part-time work I could do. And they did. I was excited to work in a place that produced music at a high level with lots of different musicians.
I’ve learned and grown a ton since then, more than I imagined when I started. And my part-time work to learn (and help pay the bills) has evolved into a full-time role where I am, in fact, a worship leader.
I continued working at The Crossing because of the people I get to work with. Our staff team cares about the mission and the people we serve. And I get to play a unique role in God’s continued work of redemption in our community. This team is special, our work is meaningful, and I’m grateful and honored to be a part of it.
Abby McClelland
I have always wanted to be a teacher. And when I became one after college I realized it was a way in which God had gifted me. I loved it!
So, it was a tough decision when I was presented with the opportunity to work full-time at The Crossing. I had been a teacher for 9 years, and it was the only adult job I had known. By deciding to work in a church, I’d be giving up working with kids all day every day and a decent retirement system... and I would have to work with adults more than I ever had.
My biggest worry wasn’t that I wouldn’t be good at the work or that I wouldn’t make much money. It was that I was losing something that I already knew I loved doing. That felt like a big risk.
Ultimately, I decided to work at a church because I believed in the mission. I wanted kids to know more about Jesus and to have a great experience on Sunday mornings. It was an exciting opportunity to be part of really cool things God was doing with Crossing Kids.
One of the things that gets me the most excited about working in full-time ministry is witnessing the incredible legacy that others are leaving in the name of Jesus. I’ve seen kids become students, students become leaders, and leaders become parents with their own kids-- all at The Crossing. All these people continue to be a part of what God is doing, and it both inspires me and keeps me going.
It’s hard to regret working in a church when you can see God at work every single week, see generations sharing God’s Word with the next, and believe in the same mission as your entire team.
Kyle Richter
I came to Columbia to study Civil Engineering at Mizzou. Until about six weeks before graduation, I was planning to head back to Kansas City to work at a large engineering company as a project manager.
That all changed when Ryan Wampler, the Co-Director of Veritas at the time, asked if I’d consider working at The Crossing. It took me about 5 seconds to say, “No!”
I already had a plan, and working at a church was NOT it!
After initially saying “no,” God almost immediately began softening my heart toward the idea of saying “yes.” I love people, enjoy helping others, and am motivated by being a part of something bigger than myself. God changed my life through Veritas in college. Having the chance to be a small part of that in the lives of others is what ultimately compelled me to say, “Yes!”
Here’s a snippet of an email I just received:
“I just want you to know that because of Veritas, and because of God’s goodness, my life has been changed for the better. I can honestly say that I have no idea where I’d be or who I’d be if I hadn’t gone that first Tuesday Night.”
It’s stories like these (and the hundreds of others) that make all of the sacrifices worth it. I might be a little biased, but I think I have the best job at The Crossing!
From the outside, working for a church may seem like a setback on the way to higher, better, more aspirational careers. But these Crossing staff members see themselves as joyfully participating in God’s life-changing, eternal work.
The work done by The Crossing’s staff team is only possible because of the our church family’s generosity. When you give financially, you allow our church to help more people believe that Jesus is more. And we need your help to keep it going in 2025.If your faith has been impacted by people at The Crossing, would you join our staff team in God’s kingdom-building work by giving generously?