More World Changers

This past Sunday we recognized our CLC students in our services. Twelve wonderful young men and women crossed the stage to receive their Certificate of Discipleship (first year) or their Certificate of Leadership (second year). All seven first year students will be returning for a second year and three of our second year students will complete their degree next year!

Matt and Mariah Ackman have done an incredible job turning the school around! Out of all the setbacks our church suffered from the pandemic in 2020, the school got hit the hardest and we came very close to shutting it down. However, I believe God has given us a commission to help raise up the next generation of ministers and by God's grace we are rebuilding stronger than ever! It looks like we will have over twenty students enrolled this fall! 

I am so excited to see God raising up future pastors, youth pastors, kids pastors, worship leaders, missionaries and church planters through our school! We have alumni across the country doing incredible things for God and I am so proud of them! I can't wait to see where God will take the young men and women training with us today. 

Sliding Down at the 1 Yard Line

This past Sunday we enjoyed one of the best Super Bowls in recent history. The game was masterfully played by two incredible teams and it really seemed like whoever ended up with the ball last would be the winner of the game. The offenses were as exciting as expected with 73 combined points being scored. However, that doesn't mean the defenses were non-existent - both teams had great defensive strategy and every point scored required real grit and determination. At the end of the day, just like I assumed, the last team with the ball was the winning team. But the story is a little more dramatic than that. 

With less than two minutes to go in the 4th quarter, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes handed the pall off to Jerick McKinnon, who could have easily scored, but instead he purposefully slid down at the 1 yard line, allowing the Chiefs to run the clock down before kicking the winning field goal, leaving the Eagles virtually no time on the clock to try and even the score or win the game. Had McKinnon scored, the Eagles would have had ample time to make that attempt.

You have to know that Jerick McKinnon, like every kid who grew up playing the game, has always dreamed of scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl. To do so would have given him a story to tell his children's children. but instead, McKinnon slid down at the 1 yard line because for a true team player, the name on the front of your jersey is more important than the name on the back of your jersey! 

Do we approach life and ministry that way? Do we make it about the team? Do we make it about everyone winning and not just our own personal accomplishments? We must not forget that there are times when winning means sliding down at the 1 yard line! 

Telling the Story Again

Once again we had the privilege of sharing The Real Story of Christmas this year at Crossroads Church. This was our seventh year to produce the show and we worked hard to scale our efforts after such an amazing response to the show last year. In order to reach even more people with the story, we expanded to two weekends and twelve showtimes - three on Saturday and three on Sunday the first two weekends of December. Our goal was to reach more people and make our crowds more safe and manageable. Last year we had several "standing room only" crowds and it was far from ideal. 

Our efforts paid off in some regards and failed in others. We did have a pretty major setback when the School Board decided not to allow us to put an invite in the hand of every child in the Parish like we have the past few years. However, that didn't prevent us from growing. This year over 15,000 people attended the show! More importantly, over 2,000 responded to the gospel! 

The premise of the show is so simple a child can understand it. The moment our main character - Grace Doll - admits she's broken and looks to the Toymaker for a new heart, the gospel comes alive for so many people and they immediately see themselves in the storyline and desire to become a part of the real story themselves! 

The aspect of our efforts that didn't work as well was spreading the crowds out over the twelve performances equally. The second weekends show were almost all at capacity, where the first weekend we had several shows that were pretty light. We are hoping next year, people will work with us on distributing the crowds more equally. We are considering offering online registration for seating as a measure to achieve this. If we are able to spread the crowds out, we literally could accommodate 20,000 people with our current schedule! 

Another real success for us this year was financing the outreach. It is very expensive! Over the past few years we have opened the show to sponsors, began selling concessions and merchandise and this year made a limited number of prime seats available for purchase. All this really paid off and allowed us to put on the production in the black! The reason this is so important is because, by underwriting the outreach we are able to tell the story again and again! 

Elsie Willow

We are so blessed to welcome the newest addition to our beloved family! Little Elsie Willow arrived just after midnight on December 17th! Weighing in at 8.7 pounds and 20" long, she is bigger than Ezekiel at birth - a wonderfully healthy baby girl! 

Her mom and dad are head over heals in love with her, Poppy and Lovey are completely smitten, Uncle Chase is already securely tied around her little finger and big brother Ezekiel thinks she's the cutest!

I love that she was born on the 17th! My birthday is January 17th. Similarly, Robin's birthday is January 8th and Ezekiel's is February 8th. Donna's birthday is September 11th and Chase's is February 11th. I don't know if I like this for sentimental reasons, or it just makes it easier to remember! 😁

We are so thankful for this little bundle of joy and so grateful for the blessing of enjoying our children's children.