This year is really flying by! We had so many great things going on in April and May, way more than showers and flowers! Although we have definitely had our share of showers!
We had an incredible Easter weekend with a Saturday night service and two Sunday morning services. We had four services last year and decided we would try doing three instead this year and definitely regretted it. We will be back on schedule with four services next year for sure! Our sermon series in April was called The Trial and Easter's message was called Pilate, Barabbas and The Cry of the Crowd. Media pulled together some awesome video support and Meghin found great songs to drive the message home. The video clips were really special. We knew movie footage would be limited and dated so we found ways to illustrate the dialog of each piece with really cool graphics and imagery. It was very artistic and creative. We had a huge response with right at 4,000 in attendance and over 40 salvations.
Once again this year we recognized the Directors on our Lead Team. We have been doing this several years now. Along with honoring the Pastors on the team in October, we love celebrating these incredible members of our team whose responsibilities are more directional in nature. Pastor Matt Ackman and his wife Mariah direct our Leadership College, Holane Davidson directs our offices, Marshal Hunter directs our Media Department and Courtney Lantier directs our Accounting Department. The church really blessed our team this year and showed them a lot of love!
The first weekend of May we got to honor our High School and College graduates. This is always such a treat! We are so proud of these young men and women. We celebrated 39 graduates this year! We call each one up on stage, announcing their name, their school and any accolades they have achieved and Pastor Matt and his team are there to present them with a nice gift from the church. Once they're all on stage, I go up and lead the congregation in prayer over them. Before and after service they have refreshments in the Green Room and are hosted by representatives from Chi Alpha and CLC. Pastor Matt shared a powerful message that day. I am so thankful for the incredible job he and Mariah do with our students and with the Leadership College. Mother's Day is always special at Crossroads. When we first took the church it was one of the least attended days of the year. Everyone went to church with their moms at the Catholic church. However, we got really intentional with it and converted it into one of the largest days of the year! We have a gift for every mom, special music, funny video, message just for moms and great photo opps. My message series in May was Identity Crisis and I kicked it off with my Mother's Day message called A Mother's Identity. We do baby dedications that day and it typically is our biggest response to that ordinance of the church. After service we took Donna to eat Indian food ad she really enjoyed it!
We wrapped up May with our annual Viva la Serve event where we celebrate over 600 volunteers that serve our church each week. We do great give aways and celebrate the results of the past year of ministry, announcing the numbers of visitors, salvations, baptisms, etc. We share some vision for the coming year and then feed our teams all-they-can-eat boiled crawfish. It is a HUGE hit every year! I am so grateful for all the amazing volunteers that work shoulder-to-shoulder with us as we reach people at the crossroads of life!
We have enjoyed the spring's flowers and showers and are now ready for a busy summer to begin!
