Week 26 - Crossroads Community Church

crossroadschurch.net

This week found us in the world of megachurches. There are only a handful of such churches in our county and it was inevitable that we would end up in at least one. Crossroads Community Church is one of the largest, and probably the largest single-campus church in our area. It is the church that seems like everyone you know has gone to at some time in their life, if they have lived here for any length of time. As you might expect they have a large multi-million dollar facility, which is also home to Cornerstone Christian Academy. The multi-use site is also often used to host larger regional events, like Mission Connexion as recently as 2014.

CCC's building, where the weekend services take place, includes a large foyer, they call it the Family Room, with a complete cafe, adequate seating to visit with friends, and a water feature that serves as the baptismal font. The auditorium seats around 1000 and at the service we attended was at least 75% full. Lighting is provided solely by artificial lighting and was dimmed during the music performance which helped to accentuate the stage lighting. Dual side screens were used to project announcements, song lyrics and the speaker during the message. Music was provided by six instrumentalists, including two vocalists. Song selection was primarily contemporary praise songs and while well performed with lots of energy, but not overdone, we strained to hear the voices of several hundred congregants over the band. 

One thing that was unique about the service at CCC is that they live simulcast the service online. On the whole this didn't really affect much other than there were three large video cameras with operators located close to the stage. Several references were made of off-site viewers and a countdown clock was displayed during the five minute meet-n-greet so that people got back to their seats promptly. Loren does have to admit that he did find himself frequently trying to figure out when each camera was being used throughout the service. The drummer definitely received plenty of camera time during the band's performances. In keeping with the social media age the Creative Arts Pastor even encouraged people to pull out their smartphones and do a "check in" on Facebook and then tweet the service to their friends.

Did we mention that CCC has been around for awhile? About 40 years actually. Bill Richie was the founding pastor and served as their senior pastor until he retired about four years ago, handing the job over to a young, 30 something, upstart from California named Daniel Fusco. 

Pastor Fusco's style would best be described as "smooth like Jazz," fitting given his background as a professional Jazz musician. His message this week was a continuation of a series entitled Little is the new Big: Huge lessons from the Bible's smallest books. The specific talk drew from Jude 1-11 and was called The Struggle is Real. Working through this small, and often overlooked, book we were reminded that there is blessing for those who have been called, sanctified, and preserved in Christ (vs. 1-2). Then we were admonished to remember to fight for the right things (vs. 3-4) and learn from the past (vs. 5-11). Finally, we were challenged to view this recounting of past actions as a testimony that tells a story of how real the struggle is to be faithful to the life we have been called too. The service ended with a brief call to respond to the message and come forward for prayer.

Crossroads is big, no getting around that. We were fortunate that we knew a couple of the greeters as we came in. If you go as an unaccompanied visitor don't expect too much in the way of spontaneous connection. This is typical in megachurch settings so they do provide plenty of options to connect with a small group at other times. There is something for everyone and every age. In all likelihood you will eventually run into someone you know.