It was a beautiful, sunny evening. 30 people rocked up, including people from all three services. Crossroads House parents even organised babysitters to come. Nick and Shelley cook this very powerful laksa in a massive catering pot. It made Joel sweat and cry because it was too spicy.
I did a seminar on how to find your replacement in ministry. You can get that on the Crossroads website .
Dan then gave us Five things that are going on at Crossroads and why you should care:
- Staff 2009: Dan and I will swap roles, he will become "Home Missionary" I will become "Assistant to the Minister". This is to anticipate me leaving Crossroads at the end of 2009. We will want to increase our budget to pay our staff fully over the next year. It looks like we could have two new MTS apprentices next year. We are on the lookout for a new volunteer secretaries.
- Commit to grow: This is Dan's key vision for next year. We will look at the theme of 'the body of Christ' at the church conference in February. We hope to plant a new Crossroads House church in the new year. Deri will be starting a fourth mixed smallgroup this month. We want to get all of TBT active in evangelism. We hope for a very engaged summer - engaged with the community, with non-Christians, with cultural events and good deeds.
- Make a Mess: Next year will look really messy. Lots of new things, programs, converts, issues. we should expect this to cause fresh kinds of problems for us as a church. Which means...
- Staff 2010: Dan admitted that he was not a 'king' (to use Driscoll's nomenclature). We would need to find a pastor/preacher in 2010 who could help care for the church be tidying up the mess of 2009. But if all of this sounds worrying and scary...
- We'll still be praying the Word, preaching the Word, singing the Word... we'll carry on with the same "101" stuff.
Dan spoke really well. It was an exciting night.
