02-03-08

Exactly one year ago this very hour we had our first official Sunday service/launch team meeting at our house in Gateway. 30 people sat patiently while Leslie and I gave a tag-team talk about all the fantastical stuff we believed could be accomplished if a bunch of people came together and practiced loving God by loving other people.

Though it's not really Crossroads "first anniversary" (that date will be celebrated August 10th, the day we officially "launched" at the College Cinema), it's still a remarkably memorable day.  So...here's some remarks:

Crossroads would not exist without the people that showed up that day and on the Sunday's that followed.  Most of you still show up every Sunday and make Crossroads work.  Our time at "The House" was a time, not so much of planning and strategizing, but of group dreaming in the presence of God.  Those meetings were sweet and fresh and alive with possibility.  And we couldn't do what we do now, if we hadn't done what we did then.

Thank you to everyone who came that first sunny day in February, as we awkwardly sat on stools wearing blue jeans (a first for me on Sunday), and explained (for far too long a time) what our purpose and all 21 of our core values were.  Hopefully, we've been able over the past year to narrow them somewhat.  Perhaps they'll finally be reduced (not by elimination, but by being brought to a boil and simmered over an open flame) to something like: Love God, Love Others, Serve the World - everything else is negotiable.

I'll never forget how terrified and exhilarated we were on that day.  Many worked all day and stayed up all night until the wee hours to make sure we were ready. Zero sleep - far too nervously excited for sleep.  And before we knew it, the donuts were on the folding table in the kitchen and cars were rolling down the driveway. (BTW, it is really weird having church in your house.  It's a lot like having a block party in your underwear drawer.)    

We drank coffee and ate donuts, and we shook hands and shared hugs.  Jeff and Rusty played, and we sang together, and Nat did communication cards, and Will ran cues and Max did sound, and we prayed together, and we read from God's Word, and it all seems like a dream - like it was a thousand years ago, or like it was this morning.  

In keeping with the spirit of what we talked about in that first meeting (how those who came after us were the truly important ones - how we're here to reach and teach the un-reached and un-taught - how if you're already a Christian and you don't like to work, you probably won't like Crossroads very much - etc.) let's keep our focus on how we can Go and Love and Serve THIS day, and not make too much of THAT one.  Anniversaries are cool, but really current testimonies (like, who did I share Christ with this morning?) are way cooler.  So pause and reflect, but move quickly forward, giving glory to God not only in the remembrance of what he did then - February 3rd, 2008, one year ago today - but in the importance of what He is doing now.