Viva la Serve 2021

Several years ago we implemented an event to celebrate the hundreds of volunteers that help us do what we do at Crossroads Church. We decided to call the event Viva la Serve (translated - live the serve!) 

We take a Sunday night, bring all our serve teams together for a time of worship, vision casting and appreciation. We give them all a t-shirt with an annual Viva la Serve logo. (Here's this year's shirt design modeled by Donna and I with our friends Spanky and Kerry Arsement!) One by one, we call out the teams with representatives on stage while the crowd cheers them on. Then we highlight the past year’s stats - newcomers, baptisms, Next Steps participants and finally SALVATIONS! When this number is announced, everyone on stage shoots off confetti cannons and the crowd goes wild! This year part of my final prayer included the request, “God may we always have confetti on this floor until you come!”

Through the evening, we do giveaways with really nice prizes as a way to say “thanks” for the hours and hours our volunteers serve. I will have a brief message of encouragement prepared and then we feature a funny video parody of a song like Uptown Funk (we turned it into Serve Team Pump), Viva Los Vegas (we turned it into Viva la service) and this year’s Queen cover, We are the Champions (which we turned into We Are the Serve Teams). The crowd seems to love it so we will keep churning out this cheese until they tell us to stop! I will feature this year's video here in an upcoming blog post!

Last, but not least, we serve our volunteers all the boiled crawfish they can put down. Our amazing friend Spanky Arsement (pictured above) has a connection that provides us with the biggest, select crawfish you can find and our dear friend Phil Faul and his team from Fezzo’s Seafood boil them up to perfection. Every year when crawfish season comes around I usually wait for this event to enjoy boiled crawfish because it is simply incomparable! There is always a non-allergenic option for those who can’t do crawfish, but this year our crowd put down 2,100 pounds of the south Louisiana favorite. We do a non-allergenic option for the shellfish-sensitive that our friend Chef Troy at Cafe Josephine's whips up for us!  

The Lead Team

For years now, we have honored and celebrated the pastors on our Lead Team during Pastoral Appreciation month in October. Our Lead Team here at Crossroads is made up of eleven very special people. Six of them have responsibilities that are more pastoral in nature and five of them direct areas of ministry that are every bit as important as the pastoral team and, in actuality involves them in almost everything we do as a ministry.This year we decided to take a weekend in the Spring and honor and celebrate these five Lead Team members and their families. 

Pictured here is Holane Davidson and her husband Danny. Holane is our Office Director and my personal assistant (she also happens to be my sister). Because of her role managing our offices and serving as my personal assistant, she interacts with everyone else of the team and their staff members and does an incredible job keeping us organized and moving forward. Next to the Davidsons is Marshal Hunter and his wife Apple with their three awesome boys, Aidan, Malachi and Kaleb. Marshal is our Media Director. So much of what we do is supported by different forms of media and Marshal and his team do an incredible job serving our church and it's mission. Next to the Hunters are Paul & Michelle Jaqua and their sweet kiddos Isaiah, Nessa and baby Judah. The Jaquas direct our Leadership College. They are actually graduates of the school and now do a great job overseeing this training program dedicated to raising up the next generation of church leaders. Next to the Jaquas is Courtney Lantier and her husband Devin. Courtney directs our Accounting Office and does an incredible job overseeing our finances. Devin actually serves as the Secretary/Treasurer for our Board of Directors and together they have helped us achieve the highest standard of financial excellence and accountability. Courtney is also the granddaughter of Gabe and Annie Welch - the couple who founded our church way back in 1956! Last, but certainly not least is Rhett Wyatt and his wife Tiffany with their amazing kids Amelie and River. Rhett is our Properties Director and oversees all property management, helping facilitate everything we do as a church. 

Words cannot describe how much these families mean to me. I am so thankful to have them on this team and so grateful to get to do life and ministry along side them! We are truly blessed! 

THE Carman

I am truly saddened today at the loss of a CCM legend - Carman was one of a kind.

He began his career about the same time as I entered Student Ministry and his music helped shape how we did what we did. His songs were the quintessential go-to for Human Videos - an art form that incorporated elements of mime, lip sync and stage acting in order to tell compelling gospel stories. Songs like Sunday's on the Way, The Champion, Lazarus and Satan Bite the Dust were performed in almost every youth group and showcased Carman's unique approach to song writing. 

Carman's spiritual influences were very similar to my own. At one youth convention where he performed, Jimmy Swaggart and David Wilkerson were both in the audience. That night he said he could relate to Simon Peter when he was tempted to build three tabernacles. He had great revere for those men's ministry. Songs like God Don't Care What the Circumstance and Revive Us oh Lord revealed Carman's theology concerning a strong faith and his heart for the local church. 

The thing I admired most about Carman was that he was, at the heart of it all, a committed soul winner. For him, the songs, the shows, the humor, the pageantry - were all about reaching people for Jesus. He was one of the few artist of his time who did not charge admission for his concerts. Consequently, he packed out arenas like a musical Billy Graham! 

Toward the end of his hay-day, he lost a few of us with his attempts to cover rap and hip hop. Yet, even then I could appreciate why he was doing what he was doing even when I didn't much care for what he was doing - it was always an effort to stay relevant and reach more people. 

I moved back to Lafayette in 1999 about the time Carman's hay-day was dwindling. We were contacted by his promoter to inform us that Carman was performing at churches again. To make sure we understood the magnitude of the opportunity - he said, "I'm talking about the Carman!"

Carman's life has ended at the young age of 65. He has been battling cancer for the past few years, but was doing better and was making plans to embark on a 67-city tour as soon as his health would allow - Driven to win souls right to the very end! 

In pop music, few reach a status of celebrity where they're known by one name - Cher, Madonna, Elvis. I guess it helps to have a unique name. In Christian circles I can only think of one person who reached that status - THE Carman. 

Birthdays!

The first of the year is a HUGE birthday season for our family. Robin's birthday is on January 8th - she turned 29 this year. My birthday is on the 17th and I am 30 years older than Robin so you do the math! Chase's birthday is on February 11th and he turned 27 this year. 

We always celebrate birthdays at the birthday boy or girl's favorite restaurant. The meal usually includes King Cake for desert. This year, both of the kids wanted Indian food. We allowed them to choose the menu and we enjoyed the meal family style. Here is a pic of us celebrating Chase's birthday at Royal Curry in Lafayette. Chase's girlfriend Katy drove over to celebrate with us. Katy is from Kinder, LA and she and Chase have been dating almost a year now. We really like her! 

Ezekiel's birthday is February 8th and he turned two this year! He is getting so big and this is such a fun age! He will try to say anything! His party was this past Saturday and he got lots of new books and toys to play with. He loves them! Last week he stayed overnight with us. He and his Lovey were going into the bedroom we have set up for him and he looked at all his toys and said, "I like toys!" 

The theme of his party was "Twodles." It was a creative play on one of the features of his favorite TV show, The Micky Mouse Playhouse. Robin and Eli are very creative with their party planning! All the kids attending the party got swag bags with mouse ears and other party favors. 

We are so blessed to get to have Ezekiel spend the night with us almost every Thursday night. Since the kids moved out, Thursday nights have been our family night with the kids coming over to eat, play games, watch a movie or just catch up on conversation. During the COVID-19 shut down last year, Robin and Eli started allowing Zeke to stay overnight with us and then spend the day with us on Friday. It's my favorite part of the week!