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New Orleans LA: Some weeks, I find myself using my blog series (TGCS) as excuse to spend time with friends I don’t see often enough. This Sunday was exactly one of those moments. My friend, CarolSmith (I usually call her by her full name), is one of my most spiritual friends and favorite people to be around. She and I met at Mosaic, a non-denominational church I went to for about a year back in 2006. She offered me support while I was going through an extremely difficult time in my life via a listening ear and thoughtful suggestions. She even wrote me a couple of little meditation / prayer books that I still reference to this day.
We both left Mosaic for different reasons and both went to Cross Point, another non-denominational church, at different times. I didn’t stay long at Crosspoint (for a myriad of reasons), but I do remember how well the message hit home every Sunday. CarolSmith still goes there, along with her boyfriend, Jeff, and they were both happy to have me join them this weekend.
Aesthetics: Located a mere 4 blocks from my previous residence and down the street from
Thistle Farms), Crosspoint is housed in a brick, institutional-looking building, but don’t the exterior fool you. This place is the hippest hotspot on Charlotte Ave. As I walked through the open double doors, I could hear music pumping through the lobby area. Had I not known better, I would have guessed I had accidentally walked into a club instead of a church. Inside the mega-church-like seated area were what looked the props from a school play. Bamboo fences, beach balls hanging from the ceiling and Hawaiian beach towels tossed around made me yearn for a snow cone on a summer’s day.
Greeting: Those open double doors I mentioned above, were held by two friendly greeters, genuinely happy to be doing their job. Inside the lobby area was also a café with a full spread of coffees, teas, waters, etc. As I waited for my friends, I noticed lots of hugs and catching up between friends, even if it had only been a week since they’d seen each other. One person said hi to me, as I stood by, looking perhaps a bit worried that I had missed my company.
Community: I started counting the number of people in attendance but eventually stopped when I had to pull out my calculator. Jeff told me the place holds about 900 people and the 10:30am service (which we were) is usually full. Additionally, they have three other services on Sundays, five other “campuses” (with multiple services) and are streaming online. It was a wide range of people, but it was mostly a mid-20s – 30s “in” crowd. My former reflection from my time at Crosspoint in 2008 was that I had never seen so much hair gel in one place… and that was on the men. There’s not as much hair gel now, but it is still a place to be seen.
Music: I conflicting feelings about the music performed at Crosspoint. The five piece band (keys, bass, guitar, drums & 2 vox) is a full on ROCK BAND. There’s a light show that compliments the movie-like imagery on the screens, along with the words for the congregation to follow along. I love a good live show. It’s just hard for me to go on a Sunday morning and potentially see the same thing I saw Saturday night (usually with the word “God” replacing a more secular word at a concert). This music is, no doubt, moving... I just don’t know if I could take that energy each week.
Service: A five minute countdown on the two screens let us know the service was about to begin. The band rocked out an intro song, then went into three additional songs, a bit more mellow, with fading lights to adjust the mood.
Pete Wilson, the senior pastor, is taking some summer vacation time off, but he was still able to film a video to introduce the church's guest speaker,
Jon Acuff. After Jon's funny and poignant talk, an acoustic guitar and voice performed a beautiful song by Colin Hay called "
I'm Waiting For My Real Life To Begin." Then updates on service projects (including volunteering at
The Bridge Ministry and in Honduras), another video showcasing the kids' summer camp and a final goodbye.
Message: Just as in my past experience, the message really hit home. Jon called his talk "The Beautiful Mess." He pointed out the fact that bad things DO happen to good people. But there is a way we can deal with it (and in only four easy steps!):
1) Admit that it hurts
2) Be honest with God
3) Don't let the world numb you
4) Know that God is not done and He is good
Through Jon's humor and easy-to-follow-along-and-really-believe speaking style, I could feel my head nodding in agreement to the hopeful words he offered. One thing he said in particular that hit home was that "we want pain to be quick and over. Fear tells you pain is forever, but God isn't done with you yet." Just taking a step back to try to understand that THIS is not it -- that I am merely in the midst of my journey -- makes me want to continue moving forward to see what's next.
Denomination: It doesn't technically say they are non-denominational but I don't believe they're affiliated with any one group. Their "about us" page says they are a multi-site Church that is focused on communicating the timeless truth of God's word in a culturally relevant way by incorporating a variety of methods to create a multi-dimensional approach to understanding and applying God's Word to our lives today.
Overall: I get Cross Point. There's a hipness that makes it relevant to young people, especially. They promote Facebook posts and Twitter mentions and Foursquare check in's. But it is really big and the way to connect is to join a small group and/or work on service projects. At this point of my life, I don't think I have the kind of time to invest in such a big church community. Plus, I would have to bring earplugs with me each week. But if you would have caught me 15 years ago, I would have totally been there.
Contact:
Nashville, TN 37209
Reflections on the Journey Thus Far: I've been a fan of Jon's blog, Stuff Christians Like, for a while. In fact, I recently thought about emailing him to get some thoughts on writing coaches in LA. I didn't know where he lived and found out the night before I went to this particular service that he lived in Nashville. Curious to see what his religious rooting was in, I googled "which church does Jon Acuff attend" -- mere hours before I would hear him speak at the same church I discovered he attends. It's the little "coincidences" in life that make me really believe there is a God. And not only is he not done with me yet and good... He has a great sense of humor.
One More Thing: No yearning will be denied at this church! As we exited the building, they were handing out pre-made snow cones for everyone! If that didn't quench your desire for summer enough, maybe this would: playing "Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince as we exited the seated area. As much as I love early 90s R&B (and that song in particular), there is still just something... different... about hearing it at church.
Or maybe that just means I'm getting old....
Aesthetics: Located a mere 4 blocks from my previous residence and down the street from Thistle Farms), Crosspoint is housed in a brick, institutional-looking building, but don’t the exterior fool you. This place is the hippest hotspot on Charlotte Ave. As I walked through the open double doors, I could hear music pumping through the lobby area. Had I not known better, I would have guessed I had accidentally walked into a club instead of a church. Inside the mega-church-like seated area were what looked the props from a school play. Bamboo fences, beach balls hanging from the ceiling and Hawaiian beach towels tossed around made me yearn for a snow cone on a summer’s day.
Community: I started counting the number of people in attendance but eventually stopped when I had to pull out my calculator. Jeff told me the place holds about 900 people and the 10:30am service (which we were) is usually full. Additionally, they have three other services on Sundays, five other “campuses” (with multiple services) and are streaming online. It was a wide range of people, but it was mostly a mid-20s – 30s “in” crowd. My former reflection from my time at Crosspoint in 2008 was that I had never seen so much hair gel in one place… and that was on the men. There’s not as much hair gel now, but it is still a place to be seen.
Service: A five minute countdown on the two screens let us know the service was about to begin. The band rocked out an intro song, then went into three additional songs, a bit more mellow, with fading lights to adjust the mood. Pete Wilson, the senior pastor, is taking some summer vacation time off, but he was still able to film a video to introduce the church's guest speaker, Jon Acuff. After Jon's funny and poignant talk, an acoustic guitar and voice performed a beautiful song by Colin Hay called "I'm Waiting For My Real Life To Begin." Then updates on service projects (including volunteering at The Bridge Ministry and in Honduras), another video showcasing the kids' summer camp and a final goodbye.
Message: Just as in my past experience, the message really hit home. Jon called his talk "The Beautiful Mess." He pointed out the fact that bad things DO happen to good people. But there is a way we can deal with it (and in only four easy steps!):
Denomination: It doesn't technically say they are non-denominational but I don't believe they're affiliated with any one group. Their "about us" page says they are a multi-site Church that is focused on communicating the timeless truth of God's word in a culturally relevant way by incorporating a variety of methods to create a multi-dimensional approach to understanding and applying God's Word to our lives today. 
One More Thing: No yearning will be denied at this church! As we exited the building, they were handing out pre-made snow cones for everyone! If that didn't quench your desire for summer enough, maybe this would: playing "Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince as we exited the seated area. As much as I love early 90s R&B (and that song in particular), there is still just something... different... about hearing it at church.