Went to the GARAGE tonight at the Annex to watch the youth service! Youth ministry has always been a priority at Crossroads. You know, many church plants don't even offer any kind of youth ministry at all until they reach 300 or so attenders. But we have done youth ministry since day one. In fact, we met as a youth group at our home before we ever had our first service for adults!
Shortly after we moved to the Annex, months before we launched at the College Cinema, Pastor Ben and Kelly Rice took responsibility for the young people of Crossroads. Under their faithful and constant care and nurturing, youth ministry at Crossroads has been a vital, growing and effective part of how Crossroads connects people with God, to each other and with the world around them.
So it was an exciting, and emotional moment personally - as I'm sure it was for Ben and Kelly, as Pastor Ben handed the mantle of youth ministry leadership to Pastor Chris Brooks. Chris and his wife Jessie have been a part of Crossroads since the second service we had way back when at our house. Chris has served as a communicator at Crossroads, as well as being a regular drummer in the worship band, and Jessie has spent virtually every Sunday morning working diligently with our nursery/toddler/pre-school-age children. Chris came on as part of our full-time staff at the church a couple of weeks ago, and will assume full-time responsibility for Crossroads youth ministry in a few weeks.
Thank you Pastor Ben and Kelly Rice for everything you have done in youth ministry and for the many ways you continue to serve, heart-deep, in everything that happens at Crossroads. You guys are ROADIES to the core and represent the very best of all of us in the way you conduct your lives, the way you give selflessly, and the way you serve God and other people. It is a privilege to call you friends, and I am honored to serve God and minister alongside both of you.
