THE CROSSING WEEKLY

LOOKING AHEAD

VARIOUS DECEMBER DATES

Life Group Christmas Parties are being held in lieu of our traditional Christmas Eve Eve service. Life Groups are at the CORE of our community expression. This is a great time to try one out, if you haven’t committed to one yet. We hope you’ll join us at a Life Group this Christmas season.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18TH

Celebration of Life to observe the passing of Jason Debow’s father, Paul, who went to be with Jesus on December 5th. Jason and his family invite you to join them as they celebrate Paul’s life on Saturday, December 18th at 12 PM in the sanctuary, with fellowship and refreshments to follow.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 1ST - SUNDAY JANUARY 2ND

24 Hour Prayer Burn from 5 PM – 5 PM come pray and worship in the New Year.

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EY (Emerging Youth) 6:30 PM, is a gathering of ages of 12 – 18. Contact Josiah Armstrong to get involved jarmstrong@lifealliance.org

Prayer Furnace 7 PM in the sanctuary, come pray and worship with us!

Young Adult Group 7 PM, contact Laura to get involved messinanc@gmail.com

Life Groups are at the core of our community expression and are the primary place for connecting with people in our community at a personal level. Find one near you!

Celebrate Recovery 7:30 PM in the sanctuary – Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12 step recovery program for anyone struggling with hurt, pain or addiction of any kind. Contact Aaron to get involved aaron_tocci@yahoo.com

Life Groups are at the core of our community expression and are the primary place for connecting with people in our community at a personal level. Find one near you!

First Principles classes are at 6:30 PM. The First Principles Series is a set of 13, six-session Bible study guides used to establish believers and churches in the Christian faith. New enrollment occurs in fall and spring. Learn more about First Principles!

Coffee and Conversation Women join us every third Saturday morning of the month from 9 AM – 12 PM, contact Anna Benedict Anna.benedict@gmail.com

Worship Service 10 AM. Find our messages HERE.

Children’s Church drop off times are from 9:40 AM – 10:15 AM. Kingdom Kids (age 1-5) is across the street at the Daycare. Power Kids (ages 6-11) is in the main building’s hall. Learn more about Children’s Church.

Café Kerygma is our very own cafe which opens at 9:30 AM for coffee and fellowship.

Dreamers’ Ranch sells their products from 12-12:30, or directly after service. Come buy our beef, lamb, pork, and eggs as available.

School Of Warrior Arts offers various classes throughout the week featuring Martial Arts, Dance, and Music lessons. Click HERE for more details!

COMMUNITY MOVIE NIGHT
Sarah Daniels on Hearing God's Voice Creatively

If you have not been to a Crossing Community Movie Night, you’re missing out on a fun and powerful time in fellowship with your Church family!  We recently connected with Sarah Daniels, who started the movie nights to have fun, engage in creativity, and experience God and how He creatively speaks to us.

 

Sarah has hosted five movie nights so far, including showings of The Neverending Story, Harriet, and just this past week, It’s a Wonderful Life.  In this Q&A, Sarah shares with us her heart behind these gatherings, what you can learn, and why you need to join us for the next one.

 

Can you tell us about Community Movie Night? How did you come up with the idea? 

 

Sarah:  I originally had the idea 20 years ago when I was a youth group leader.  It was a way to create a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere where people could bring friends outside of the church – friends who maybe wouldn’t be comfortable coming to church but if all we were going to do is watch a movie… why not?!

 

I wanted to start up the movie nights at the Crossing for a while.  Our first five have been great. We watch the movie and then afterward just talk about it like, “how did you see God in that movie? What did God show you? Did anything speak to you?”  God really does speak a lot through movies – I’m constantly getting stuff and I know I’m not the only one!  

 

What is the heart behind movie night and what can folks expect when they attend?

 

Sarah:  I’ve been having a lot of inspiration about creativity.  I read a really terrific devotional called The Story of With by Alan Arnold.  The main message in the book is about embracing your creativity.  He talks about how the world has done God-given creativity such a disservice because it’s put creativity in a box.  It’s like, “you’re only creative if you paint or if you dance.” Yes, those are creative things but those aren’t the only creative things. 

 

Being creative is finding what you’re super passionate about, what gets you really excited, and then showing it to the world in a way that it’s never been seen before.  That’s true whether you’re a hairdresser or a hockey player, or a single mom, or a car mechanic – it’s about partnering with God to move your passion forward. 

 

That’s part of why I started this.  I’ve had such a passion to see people embrace their creativity, whatever that may be, and this is mine.  Movies are a passion and I want people to see movies as a tool to help spread the Gospel.  And it doesn’t matter if Jesus is mentioned in the movie or not – God can speak where and however he wants to. 

 

When I first started, I wanted to show support for the people that were making Christian movies so that we could make more of them and better ones.  But now I also want to show movies that aren’t specifically Christian because I want to show people that you can find God in movies like that as well.  I’m trying to reach across a lot of different genres because different movies are going to speak to different people. 

 

What kind of conversations has movie night opened up? What are folks learning through the movies you have watched together?  

 

Sarah:  The discussion time we have afterward is just as important as watching the movie itself.  I’m dying to hear what people got out of the movie.  How did God speak?  What did He show you?  How did He inspire you?  And how does this relate to you in your own life?  Movies are stories.  Jesus used stories!  He used parables to get His point across and I think movies are a version of that. 

 

Before we watch the movie, I like to do a bit of research and share a few insights that people may not know, a bit of trivia about the movie itself.  For example, when we watched Here Comes the Boom – I don’t know if everybody knows this, Kevin James is a Christian and really infuses his faith into his role and the film as he was a co-creator.  I love it when actors can have that kind of input in the movie and I like to share stuff like that because I think people watch the movie in a different way as well.  It has all been really encouraging to people.

 

For those of us who haven’t yet been to a movie night, what would you like us to know?

 

Sarah:  Come with an open mind and be expectant!  Expect that God is going to speak to you.  If you come with that mindset, He absolutely will and it’s really exciting.  Keep your eyes out for the next Community Movie Night – we’d love to have you join us. 

 

We’d love to know… Is God on the move in your life?  If you have a testimony, click the button below to share in an upcoming edition of The Crossing Weekly!