WEEKEND UPDATE (112909)

Greetings!  Smashing weekend at Crossroads, following an indescribably wonderful Thanksgiving week!  Here's a few quick hits:

1. MANY rededicated their lives to Christ on Sunday!  MANY first-time attenders.  (You gotta WANT to come to church on Sunday after Thanksgiving).  We had a great turnout and amazing attendance for a holiday weekend!  Average attendance for the 5 weeks of November was 265.  We're growing together!
2. Santa For Seniors kicked off Sunday.  Great job by Nat & Will Lurie getting prepared.  Overwhelmingly positive first-weekend response.  Of the ornaments on the Christmas tree in the lobby, representing 50 seniors to purchase Christmas gifts for, I think over 40 of them were taken!  Way to go Crossroads family!  Your generosity is helping to make Jesus famous in Enterprise!  
3. LOVED worship yesterday!  Band sounded great.  LOVED the opener! Totally rocked.  One long-time Crossroads attender wrote on his Communication Card: "Most of the songs the band covers are BETTER than the original!"  I agree.
4. Tough to let Nic and Janna go as they take off the month of December to have a baby.  We'll miss you guys, but we promise to not just HOLD the fort, but ROCK IT to the foundation while you are gone!
5. We fortunate to have such a great tech team that brings high quality support to everything that happens on the stage.  Without them, Crossroads would be an uninteresting and very dark and very quiet place!
6. We are also fortunate to have the people that take the stage as communicators at Crossroads.  Rachel, Natalie and Chris make us feel comfortable, welcome and informed every week.  Thanks guys!
7. Ben Rice brought the message yesterday for Part Two of PAY IT FORWARD and did a great job inspiring us to make generosity infinitely practical with this simple challenge: 7 DAYS - 3 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS.  Great job Ben!  Your Crossroads family loves you for your incredible faithfulness and willingness to ALWAYS bring your best to everything you do!  Band geek.
8. Thanks to ALL of our leaders and volunteers who show up week in and week out and bring it!  There IS no Crossroads without you doing what you do!
9. Great to see so many old friends we haven't seen in a while yesterday.  Always fun to get a hug and say hello again!
10. Can't say enough about Children's Ministry at Crossroads.  It was a thrill yesterday to show someone who hasn't been to Crossroads in a while our new Children's Annex!  They were blown away by the growth at the church.  So am I!
11. We got to see a video of Thanksgiving at the Annex.  There was a lot of Kleenex in use by the time that video was over.  (NOTE: For the MANY who asked, the Thanksgiving video WILL be posted on the Crossroads facebook page today.) 
12. And finally, your response to Crossroads first Benevolence Offering was simply AMAZING!  We now have over $2400 in the Benevolence fund.  That's a GREAT way to start!  Well done church!   

Again, thanks to all who made November a TURNING-POINT month at Crossroads!  From your overwhelming, New Testament-church generosity, to your unselfish service in meeting the needs of others in our community, we are coming STRONG out of the corner as we head toward Christmas and the New Year.  As you put into practice the things we have talked about over the past few weeks, and as you commit to 7 DAYS - 3 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS, think about what the Apostle Paul said: "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself." (Philippians 2:3) Living this scripture in REAL LIFE is key to turning Random Acts of Kindness, into an intentional lifestyle of serving others.

Peace.