thechurchblog

On Saturday, November 11, the core members of the new church got together for an all-day retreat to do some planning, visioning, and organizing of the new church. Perhaps the most significant event of the day was the development of the name for the new church. We are now officially calling ourselves CrossRoads Church of Las Cruces!
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People are tired. They’re tired of working for unappreciative bosses (supervisors, teachers, pastors, etc.), tired of wasting time on repetitive tasks, tired of having to work a job to make a meager living. People are tired of the way things are — and they wish things could change.

I’ve had the chance to talk to a large number of people as part of the process of planting this new church. Many seem interested in the new church — but often because of the simple fact that they’re tired of their old church. (Lots of them have in fact been through several churches in their past.) They’re tired of “not getting fed,” tired of “too many glitzy programs,” or even tired of “spending so much money on staff and buildings.”

You know what I’m tired of? I’m tired of lost people going to hell.
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As part of the process of starting a new church, the topic of how we intend to raise up leadership always comes up in discussion when we talk with folks about how things have been going. Now, there are the usual “pat answers;” such as, “Our leadership is comprised of elders who are qualified according to what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1.” While these principles are undoubtedly true, we feel that a few more qualifications need to be true as well.
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I’ve found that this kind of work is full of “ups” and “downs” — and most of the time it is somewhere in the middle. A good friend of mine who is currently living overseas sent this story which clearly illustrates this (albeit from a slightly different cultural perspective). Enjoy! And be encouraged. . .and if you’d like to check out her blog, it can be found here.

There is a trickster character in my country’s folklore named Jhooha. It’s almost like if the guy in the “So a guy walked into a bar…” jokes had a name. There are tons of these jokes / stories. We have read and heard several of them, and the people here think they are hilarious. Sometimes, the humor doesn’t quite translate, but this one was pretty funny.
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