April 3, 2017 Update

This week’s Team Update is a guest post by Chris Williams, Assistant District Superintendent of the Crossroads District. Chris comes alongside leaders and churches to help them reach their potential and increase their missional effectiveness. Chris and his wife, Marietta, live in Marion with their three kids, Sean, Anika, and Elliot.

April 1 marks the beginning of the final month of the inaugural fiscal year for the Crossroads District. As we approach the end of the fiscal year, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some upcoming opportunities and key dates of which you will want to be aware.  ​

District Conference

​The Crossroads District Conference will be held on Friday, June 23 and Saturday, June 24 at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana.
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This year’s conference is being designed as a vision casting and ministry equipping event. We will be looking back at what God has done across the district in the past year and looking ahead to what God wants to do in the year ahead.

In addition, we will be sharing the mission and vision for the Crossroads District and outlining our top three priorities: Leadership Development, Church Health & Revitalization, and Church Multiplication. Each of these priorities will be supported with resources and initiatives that your church can leverage to move to the next level of missional effectiveness.  

We are excited to announce that Alex Sicilia, lead pastor of Senda de Vida Church in Mexico City, will serve as our keynote speaker for the conference. For the last two decades, Pastor Alex has been on a journey of helping his church make disciples who make disciples. As his church has made the biblical mandate of making disciples their priority, they have grown and are now starting to see multiplication of new churches takes place. Pastor Alex is joining us at district conference to share about the importance of disciple-making and multiplication in the life of the church.

Our worship leaders for district conference are Scott and Elizabeth Rhyno, Maritime Canadians-turned-Hoosiers as of August 2016. Over the last 17 years, they have served in a variety of ministry capacities including church leadership, creating and running a community arts program, itinerant worship ministry and consultation, and Wesleyan higher education at Kingswood University. The Rhynos are parents to three fabulous teens, Mackenzie, Morgan, and Grace. They've all jumped into the mission of Waterline Church in Fishers, and are excited to be leading worship at District Conference.

For more information about district conference, including the schedule and lodging information, visit conference.crossroadsdistrict.org.

Tools to Help Local Churches

​​In the Crossroads District we want to see every church moving to greater levels of health and missional effectiveness. For this reason, we have made two tools available to local churches.

Maximizing Impact is a weekend consultation process that helps a church discover its top five strengths and its five most important areas for improvement. The consultation team, after reviewing the extensive self-study compiled by the church, spends two days in conversation with key leaders in the congregation. Following these conversations, the consultation team offers their observations and recommendations in the form of a written report presented to everyone in attendance on Sunday morning of the consultation weekend. The report outlines the five strengths, five areas for improvement, and five prescriptions to help the church make the needed improvements. Once the consultation weekend is complete, the congregation has a month to consider the findings of the consultation team before deciding whether or not to accept the report and implement the prescriptions.

We have just secured dates with our lead consultant, Rev. Paul James for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. If your church is stuck, struggling, or just trying to discern the next steps to go to the next level of effectiveness, Maximizing Impact may be the right tool for you.

StratOp, shorthand for Strategic Operations, is a strategic planning process that helps churches develop a clear and focused plan for effective ministry. Originally designed by the Paterson Center, the Crossroads District works with The Unstuck Group to bring this process to your church. District facilitators will guide your leadership through a series of conversations over a three-day period that are designed to clarify mission, vision, strategy, and next steps for your church. StratOp differs from Maximizing Impact, in that, StratOp facilitators do not offer prescriptions. They simply facilitate the conversation so your team can determine the ministry path for your congregation.

With two trained facilitators in the district, we have several StratOp dates available. If your church has completed Maximizing Impact and you are wondering what your next steps are or if your church is looking for ways to increase your missional momentum, consider StratOp.

If you would like to know more and Maximizing Impact or StratOp, contact me directly ([email protected]). I am available to answer any questions and to help you process whether one of these options is the right tool for your church at this time.

Festival on Preaching

​​College Church, in partnership with Wesley Seminary, is inviting you to the Festival on Preaching which will be held at College Church on May 22-23. You will have an opportunity to learn from some amazing preachers, including Dr. Lenny Luchetti, Rev. Carson Adams, Rev. Dr. Jo Anne Lyon, and Dr. Steve DeNeff.
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To view the conference schedule, see the full lineup of speakers, and to register, visit: collegewes.com/festival

Exponential Conference

​You are invited to join with Crossroads District leaders at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida April 24-27!

The Exponential Conference is a gathering of leaders committed to accelerating the multiplication of healthy, reproducing faith communities. You can learn more about the conference HERE.

In order to make this conference more accessible to leaders in the Crossroads District, the District Board has created $500 scholarships for up to 40 individuals from the district to assist with registration, lodging, and travel costs associated with the conference.

In order to quality for the scholarships, individuals must:
1) Complete the Scholarship Request Form to reserve a scholarship.
2) Register for the event and make their own arrangements for travel and lodging.  
3) Attend the Expy’s, a gathering of Wesleyan leaders at the conference.
4) Submit a reimbursement request with receipts attached following the event.

The district will then reimburse up to $500 for costs associated with attending Exponential.

There are a few scholarships left. If you are interested in applying for one of the remaining scholarships, click HERE.

Year-End Reporting

Annual Service Reports, Statistical Reports, and all other year-end reports are due by May 15, 2017. This allows committees and district staff to complete their necessary work prior to district conference in June. Look for communication this week with detailed instructions on year-end reporting.

Radically Hopeful,
Chris Williams
Assistant District Superintendent ​