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CROSSPOINTE BELIEFS & VALUES

We, at Crosspointe, believe that our daily walk with Christ should be: Theological, Missional, and Functional. Theologically, we believe that our walk should be gospel-centric, God-exalting, family-driven, and taught through expository preaching.

 

We believe that our focus on sharing the Gospel should include a “discipleship web“, be organic, invest in equipping and then releasing those equipped Christians out into the world, and be focused on multiplying the Kingdom.

 

Functionally we believe that the church should be elder-led, allow for the flexible schedules of members and spend reasonably.

Theological

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Gospel-Centric

As a believer in Jesus Christ, each of us are called to make disciples of His. That comes with a message – that Jesus is God who became man, lived a perfect life, died a criminal’s death, and rose from the grave in victory over sin and death. His death was the death that we deserved because of our sin but He took the Father’s wrath in our place. This is the message that guides our lives and we are to continually hold out. Isaiah 53.1-6II Cor. 5. 16-21Col. 2.20I Pet. 2.243.18

Theological

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God-Exalting

In his book, Vertical Church, James MacDonald contends that churches in North America have lost their amazement in God’s greatness. Perhaps the lethargy that is so prevalent is because we have failed to exalt God and majored on growth patterns, cultural trends, or personal preferences. A new church must have at its core an insatiable desire to lift high the Name of God; the Triune God who consists of a Father who provides, and Son who sacrifices and a Holy Spirit who gives us sustenance. Ps. 36.5-92996Eph. 1.21Col. 1.15-20

Theological

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Family-Driven Faith

The home is where the formation of us all is most influenced. We never grow out of this. God has designed marriage to show us sinful tendencies we didn’t even know existed and it becomes most evident in our relationships between our spouses first, and then our children. Guys like Paul David Tripp and his brother Tedd along with Voddie Baucham have given the church wonderful teaching in providing a discipling environment in our homes and equipping fathers to be spiritual leaders. Gen. 18-19Deut. 4.9, 6.6-7Ps. 78.4Prov. 22.629.17II Tim. 3.14-15Eph. 6.1-4, Col. 3.18-21

Theological

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Expository Preaching

The highest regard for the special revelation of God’s Word that we have in the scriptures must be evident. This starts in the pulpit. Under-shepherds are called to feed the sheep and what is most nourishing to hungry souls is the God-breathed pages of the Bible. Verse by verse teaching brings clarity to the minds of the hearers, forces preachers to teach the whole counsel of God’s Word, and must be practical, relevant, and interesting. Deut. 31.12-13Mat. 4.17I Cor. 2.10-13I Tim. 5.17-19II Tim. 3.164.2

Missional

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Discipleship Web

A common misconception is discipleship is what you do after evangelism. We would contend that discipleship is evangelism and evangelism is discipleship. As Robert Coleman demonstrates in the Master Plan of Evangelism, this was the method Jesus modeled for us when reaching the world. In their book, The Trellis and the Vine Colin Marshall and Tony Payne write, “Imagine if all Christians were caught up in a web of regular Bible reading – not only digging into the word privately but reading it with their children before bed, with their spouse over breakfast, with a non-Christian colleague at work once a week over lunch, with a new Christian for follow-up one a fortnight for mutual encouragement and with a mature Christian friend once a month for mutual encouragement.” Eph. 5.19I Cor. 14.26, II Tim. 2.2

Missional

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Organic

While this is a concept that flies in the face of institution and structure, it is evident, particularly in the first couple centuries of church history; that Christianity expanded and grew through interpersonal relationships. Today there are plenty of organizational charts and marketing campaigns utilized by local churches to expand their influence. More than these, God intends to use His followers as salt and light in the neighborhoods, schools and workplaces to expand His Kingdom. This is not to say that structure is not needed but it’s more about the gospel being sown into the culture than the systems and structure in place. Bylaws, for example, must be in place but mustn’t inhibit or strangle disciple making. Mark 3.14ActsI Thess. 123.8-10II Tim. 3.10-11

Missional

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Equip & Release

Certainly church needs to be a place that is clean and safe but there are far too many people filling the seats that are merely consumers. Our solution is often to get them busy doing something but what purpose does it serve to have people doing busy work that doesn’t lead to disciple-making? As pastors and elders our job is to equip our flock to go, baptize and teach. The victory doesn’t come when we simply have thousands of people at an event. It comes when we mobilize our equipped disciples to hold out the gospel and reproduce reproducers. I Cor. 12.7Eph. 4.11-16I Pet. 4.10

Missional

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Multiplying

Our desire is to build an ethic of tithing our people. That may be sending people to the mission field or preparing another core group to plant another local body. Staffing would be aimed at preparing young pastors to plant more local churches. Lord willing, this new work would plant multiplying churches at a rate of one every 5 years or even faster if the Lord allows. Mat. 28.19-20Acts 6.7Col. 1.5-6II Tim. 2.2

Functional

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Elder-Led

Americans are consumed with the individual. For example, LeBron is bigger than the Heat and Manning is more notable than the Broncos. This has become a part of church culture in the west as well. Big name pastors frequently overshadow the congregations they serve. The bible doesn’t describe leadership in churches as a lone venture but being a plurality of leaders. Peter seemed to be the spokesperson for the apostles but there wasn’t an office of “chief” apostle. A plurality of elders will include staff along with lay elders, which, as Alexander Strauch points out, reduces the separation between the clergy and lay leaders. The tendency to leave the advance of the gospel to paid staff is far too common in North American churches. This is not to say that there is no place for congregational involvement but the leading should come from a plurality of elders. Acts 14.23Acts 20.28Titus 1.5I Pet. 5.1-3

Functional

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Flexible Schedule

Event-driven congregations impulsively fill their calendar with activities that actually inhibit disciple making ministries. When we equip our people to make disciples we must release them to actually invest in people. Too much time is spent recruiting volunteers for stuff that doesn’t produce fruit. Rather than adding programs that don’t train people to be disciples or make disciples, perhaps a better approach is to keep a simple corporate schedule and keep members accountable to discipleship and disciple making.

Functional

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Reasonable Spending

Our spending habits tell others, and even ourselves, what is most important to us. Church plants often fail because they have over-committed themselves financially. Many times the investments made are in temporal things that do nothing to glorify God or make disciples of Jesus out of people. A rule of thumb is to spend 40% of a church’s budget on personnel, 30% on building and administration and 30% on meeting ministry needs. This would free a church up to be a blessing to other benevolent ministries, the cooperative program and multiply itself in other church plants. II Cor. 9.6-1511.7-9Phil. 4.14-19

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