Families Reach Cities

A while back I attended a service where my friend Rich Wilkerson was preaching. He shared an incredible message about how families reach cities for God. His premise was that the Levitical Priesthood is a trans-covenant reality. Just like God chose a family in the Old Testament to serve as His priests, He also chooses families today, in this New Covenant hour to do His work upon the earth. He pointed out the many examples we see around us like Franklin Graham following in the footsteps of his famous father Billy, Joel Osteen taking over for his dad John, the list goes on and on. Rich pointed out that, growing up as a pastor's son, he was raised with the idea that you never attempt to persuade your children to follow you in the ministry. He confessed that he ignored that advice and told his four boys everyday of their lives that, although he wasn't sure what they would do for a living, he believed that they would preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth! Today, all four of his sons are involved in ministry. At the end of the service he invited all the pastors in attendance to come forward and dedicate their families to God. I was there by myself, but as I stood at the alter I took my iPhone and I held pictures of my children up to God and cried out to Him to use them in His service anyway He sees fit!

I am so proud of my kids and so thankful that both of them are in Master's Commission this year following the will of God for their lives! In addition, we just hired my nephew Jordy as our Youth Pastor here at Crossroads Church and it was one of the most thrilling moments of my life! Rich is right - Families reach cities! 

The Year A Bunny, Indiana Jones, The Death Matrix and Ballet Dancers Told The Easter Story

Imagine the most successful Easter Production ever put on by Crossroads Church. Wait! You don't have to use your imagination - It just happened! This past weekend we experienced unparalleled success with our Easter Production called "Imagine." Over 4200 people attended the five services we offered this Easter weekend with 70 people receiving Christ as their personal Savior!

The production gave us the opportunity to see the Easter story though the lens of a child's imagination. In our story that unfolds on video produced by our incredible production team, nine year old Joey (Played by Tom Wood) is curious about the Easter holiday. His mom (Played by Jennifer LaBerteau) explains the origin of Easter and how early pagan influences have all but taken over. Joey's imagination kicks in and provides us with an onstage performance of the old Veggie Tales classic The Bunny Song (performed by Richard Gaspard and rewritten to reflect the bunny's hostile takeover of Easter.) For the performance we used black light technology and full-bodied costumes to create a song and dance number that featured a puppet-version of Joey, his mom and dad, the bunny, evil minions and three singing peeps that you absolutely have to see! (I'll be posting the video here later this week.) Once the scene ended the band went into a lively Reliant K inspired version of Peter Cotton Tale arranged by the always masterful Coy Watson and performed by Jordy Davidson. Jordy was joined by the aforementioned "bunny" (brought to life by Luis Vasquez) and a host of candy-throwing teens from the youth group dressed in bunny attire! Jordy and the kids did a great job and the song was a lot of fun!

In the next scene, Joey is informed by his mom about the efforts that have been made by the scientific community for centuries to discredit the Easter story. She lets him know that there are many credible sources that point to scientific, historic and archeological evidence that supports the story of Easter. Yet, just like in the case of the lies the soldiers told in the first century, many choose to believe something other than the truth. When Joey asks about it, his mother explains what an archeologist does by referencing Indiana Jones. That's all it takes to send Joey's imagination into a onstage scene with he and Indy (Played by our magnificent set designer Rhett Wyatt) in a large cave where Nazi soldiers under the command of Professor Doubt (played by Jeff LaBerteau) try to steal the evidence for the Resurrection of Christ. Fight scenes, gunplay and the familiar Indian Jones theme music make for an exciting scene that everyone enjoyed! (It's always fun to see Nazi's get beat up by a nine year old kid!) When the scene ended the band (comprised of Coy Watson, Kari Campbell, Lance Morgan, Mark Conley, Bill LaLande and Beau Roy) kicked off an inspiring new arrangement of the old 4-Him hit Can't Get Past The Evidence. Jeremy Greene did a great job covering the song.


In our third act, Joey and his family are in church where the Pastor (played by Jason Rhoades) is sharing a sermon called "What Happened Those Three Days Jesus Was In The Grave." As the sermon unfolds, Joey's imagination transports him to an onstage portrayal of Sheol where Satan (played by Jared O'Kelly) and the Grave (played by Jordan Springer) are arguing over the body of Jesus (played by Chaz Jones). They are joined by ghoulish Voodoo dolls and Zombies (played by our Master's Commission students) who are all connected to what amounts to a death matrix - operated by the Grave. All of this played out to a sound track produced by Curvine Brewington that is a 21st Century remake of the old Carman song Sunday's on The Way. Both the track and the Human Video (written by Jared) were REMARKABLE - A definite highlight in the production! At the close of the scene the band covered Tree63's Sunday with Carter Berry providing lead vocals. It's a great song and Carter did an incredible job with it!

Lastly, Joey's dad explains the reason we celebrate Easter by pointing to our own resurrection from the grave. He tells the boy that because Jesus rose from the grave, we can too and makes the point personal by bringing up Joey's late grandfather. When asked what he thinks it will be like to see his grandfather again in heaven at the resurrection - Joey answers, "I can only Imagine." It's the perfect segue to a beautiful ballet arranged by Michelle Sanchez and performed by Michelle, Mariah Hebert, Brittany Alexander, Jasmine Chaisson, Natalie Myers and Skylar Courville. The ballet is set to the MercyMe classic I Can Only Imagine in an onstage heavenly setting. Jane Lantier breathed new life into the song that ended with Joey meeting up with his grandfather (played by Ken Lantier) and joined by Jesus Himself. The crowd loved it!

Once again this year, our team absolutely rocked! This was our last production in our current auditorium. We've achieved a lot in the old venue, but I'm really looking forward to what we will be able to accomplish in the new worship center!

Big Weekends

When I went to work for Willie George at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK in 1994 the church was already running over four thousand. Today it runs over ten thousand in weekly attendance and is steadily growing. I asked Pastor Willie not long after I arrived what he felt like the key to the growth of the church was. Without hesitation, he answered "Big Days." He told me that since the church began, they regularly host big days that attract large crowds, allowing them to add a percentage of those in attendance to their regularly weekly services.

When we moved back to Lafayette to pastor Crossroads Church, we immediately began to implement that strategy. We do several Big Weekends every year. Two of them are no brainers: Christmas and Easter are our greatest opportunity to get people to church so we pull out all the stops. We put on major productions that highlight the things we do best as a church and then partner with our people to get their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers here to the productions. We create tickets for them to pass out to everyone they come in contact with in the weeks leading up to the Big Weekend. This Easter, over twelve thousand tickets have been distributed so far. We are hoping for attendance in excess of five thousand Easter weekend and it's the distribution of these tickets and our people leveraging their influence with others that will make it happen. In addition to bringing in big crowds for the production, hosting these kind of events creates a partnership mentality within our church. Our people understand that if they get people to Crossroads, we will have effective ministry in place and God will move on their hearts!

This year's Easter production is called "Imagine." It is the Easter story as seen trough the imagination of a nine year old boy named Joey. It is going to be one of the best productions we have ever put on and I can't wait to see what God does!