What We Said Yes To

​This weekend the Crossroads District gathered at College Wesleyan Church, and the gathering became what we had prayed it would be. We marked ten years as a district, and we stepped into the next layer of what God is building among us.

We did not arrive at this weekend by accident. For most of the past year we listened. We sat with pastors and lay leaders across central and northern Indiana and asked honest questions about the health of our churches and the health of the people who lead them. We named seven things we heard. Some of them encouraged us. Some of them were hard to say out loud. And out of that year of listening, we committed together to a road ahead with a destination worth naming.

Here is what we said yes to. By 2031, every Crossroads pastor has access to coaching, to a cohort, and to ongoing spiritual and leadership formation. And every Crossroads church has a Great Commission Plan and a developing leader ready for their next Kingdom Expression.

Read it again slowly, because a sentence like that is easy to applaud and easy to forget. Every pastor formed and connected. Every church with a plan and a leader for what comes next. That is the moonshot, and we said yes to it not as a slogan but as a commitment we intend to keep.

We could only reach for something like this because of what was built before us. For ten years this district was led and strengthened under Dr. Mark Gorveatte, and the foundation he and so many others laid is the reason we can build now. We honor a foundation by building on it, not by maintaining it. That is what this weekend was about.

I want to thank the people who carried it. College Wesleyan Church hosted us with grace. Dr. Jim Dunn, newly installed as our General Superintendent, stood with us. Michael Wood, Scott Rhyno, Dr. Carla Working, and Rev. Grace Lopez gave themselves to the details most delegates will never see. Dr. Craig Thurmon, our District Secretary, kept the careful record of all we did together. And Rev. Dan Van Duyne, who served as our District Conference Director, along with his entire team, is the reason the weekend ran as smoothly as it did. And the delegates themselves, credentialed ministers and lay leaders who drove in from every corner of the district, did the real work of a gathering like this: they showed up, they prayed, and they said yes together.

When the people of God returned from exile and began to rebuild, Nehemiah told them plainly what God had done, and they answered, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work (Nehemiah 2:18). That is the posture I am praying we carry out of this weekend. Not relief that the conference is behind us, but resolve that the building is in front of us.

A plan affirmed in a room becomes real only when it is repeated in a hundred churches. That is why this newsletter exists, and it is where the repeating starts. Over the next six months I am going to walk us through this plan piece by piece, one theme at a time, so that what we said yes to on Saturday becomes what we actually live by January. If you want the whole plan on a single page before then, the Impact Map lays it out. The vision will not survive on the strength of a good weekend. It will survive because pastors took it home, named it to their boards, and took the first step.

So take the first step. Before July, revisit the action steps from the conference and choose yours. Sign up for a cohort. Begin a Great Commission Plan conversation with your team. Take the global engagement inventory. Identify one person you might bring to the first Encounter Event. Consider whether your church should be one of the Disciple-Making Lab pilots. Pick one. Write it down. Take the step while the gathering is still fresh, because I am confident of this: he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

We said yes together. Now we build together.

This week's step: Before the calendar turns to July, name the single action step you are taking from the conference, write it where you will see it, and tell one person you are doing it.