CrossPoint Newsletter

Twenty First Edition 1/6/2025

Welcome to a brand-new year filled with fresh opportunities! Have you thought about what you want to be different in 2025? Whether it’s physical health, life goals, or spiritual progress, making intentional plans is the first step toward transformation.

But here’s the truth: goals alone won’t get you there. Goals are the finish line, but the race is run with every step you take beforehand. To make progress in any area, especially spiritually, you have to commit to the daily steps that lead you forward.

At CrossPoint, we want to help you take those steps toward spiritual growth. One foundational step in growing your spiritual life is immersing yourself in God’s Word. Regular Bible study is a game-changer, and it’s one of the most powerful disciplines for spiritual development.

In Daniel Im’s book, No Silver Bullets, Lifeway research identified eight markers of spiritual maturity, which include generosity, sharing your faith, and serving others. Interestingly, the study revealed that one practice positively impacts all other areas: daily personal study of God’s Word.

If diving deeper into the Bible is part of your vision for 2025, we invite you to join the CrossPoint Reading Plan, a unique journey that’s more than just a plan. Here’s what the CrossPoint Reading Plan offers: 

1. Convenience and Accessibility

The plan is easy to access through our app and website, making it simple to stay on track no matter where you are.

2. One Chapter a Day, Five Days a Week

By following this plan, we’ll read the entire New Testament together in 2025. Just one chapter a day for five days each week–how incredible is that?

3. A Unified Church Experience

The Reading Plan isn’t just personal; it’s a church-wide journey. Here’s how these readings will tie into everything we do:

• Weekend Teachings: Each week’s message will align with the chapters you’ve been reading.
• Grow Groups: Our group discussions will follow the same schedule, helping you dive deeper into the Word in community.
• Multiplier Groups: These discipleship groups will also follow the plan, creating a consistent rhythm across the church.

4. Bible Memorization

Together, we’ll memorize one key Bible verse every four weeks. These carefully selected passages will strengthen your faith and equip you spiritually.

Why Join the Journey?

This is one of the most exciting church-wide adventures we’ve launched in a long time! It’s a chance to grow personally, stay connected as a church, and strengthen your relationship with God.

While we can’t help you drop those extra 10 pounds, we can help you build spiritual muscle! So let’s go! All you need to do is take the first step.

Ready to start?

Access the 2025 Reading Plan here!

Together, we’ll make 2025 a year of meaningful spiritual growth. Join us on the journey, step-by-step, one chapter at a time!

Andy Addis

Lead Pastor

First Southern Baptist Church of Russell closed its doors in early 2020 after serving the community for more than six decades. When we launched Crosspoint Russell in the same building in September 2023, there were many unknowns for the future.   

Now, only 15 months after our launch we average 45-50 people in attendance each weekend. We’ve had six baptisms and are looking forward to at least four more. CP Kids has been a hit, with 20 children participating in our first Christmas program this December. We currently have one Grow Group, but it keeps growing and I am convinced we will have two by the end of January. Discipleship has and is taking place amongst our staff and congregation. One way we hope to reach our community is by starting a daycare. This fall we were awarded a grant! We hope this is the first step of many, in making this daycare a reality.

While it is great to praise God for what has taken place, we will also seek prayers as He continues to transform lives amongst us.

We covet your prayers for the families in our church. May those relationships be a witness to God’s transforming grace and a light in darkness.

We pray for disciples to make disciples. May we learn to follow Jesus more boldly and sharpen each other along the way.

We pray for our building and land to serve the community well. We don’t own anything, we are just a steward of it. May we use what’s been given to us to reach more people with the Gospel.

May we all reflect back a year from now and keep praising God for the work He is doing amongst us!

Shawn Powell

Location Pastor

Giving Tuesday Reflection

I want to thank you for the gifts God provided through your generosity during Giving Tuesday in December. The many gifts testify to God’s goodness and your love for His Kingdom expanding in McPherson, Kansas!

We received several gifts totaling nearly $4,000 on Giving Tuesday (12/3/2024). More gifts were given in the few days following Giving Tuesday totaling an additional $3,500! We give God all the glory, and are committed to being good stewards of your support. The dollars given will go toward church planting in rural communities wherever the Lord leads.

Please pray for the unity and testimony of CrossPoint McPherson to reach people who do not yet have a relationship with Christ, and that many of them would come to know him as Savior and Lord.

Value Focus: Mobilization

During the fall sermon series, Unleashed: Our Seven-Year Vision, we were introduced to a new expression of CrossPoint’s values as a church, mobilization. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are a family of missionaries sent out to proclaim the Gospel to a world in need of him.

Mobilization, at the core, takes Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19-20 seriously:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Chances are you have heard or read this passage hundreds of times. I have always focused on “Go” but the imperative, or command, in this passage is actually to “make disciples.” That is, call people to commit to Jesus as Lord and Savior and help them grow in their faith. Go, baptize, and teach various facets of the “making disciples” process. At CrossPoint, we boldly empower every believer to make disciples through relationships, fostering an ongoing culture of Kingdom advancement.

20-30-1 Vision 

By the year 2031, we are aiming to be a church network of at least 20 locations across the state of Kansas. After planting CrossPoint McPherson, that leaves planting/replanting eight more locations in six years…a God-sized goal for sure! 

Let’s break down the numbers: 20 locations, 30% of CrossPointers actively making disciples, and each location reaching 1 more percent of their community. This will not happen apart from the mobilization of God’s people living as Everyday Missionaries.

How can this be done? What could this look like? For some, it may mean diligently praying for God to bring about additional opportunities to plant or replant a church. Others may choose to financially contribute directly to the launching of new locations. Still, others may decide to rearrange their life and move to a new community for the purpose of advancing God’s Kingdom. Ask God what your role will be in our 2031 Vision.

It is exciting to consider what our church will look like by 2031. What new communities will CrossPoint call home? How many lives will be transformed because Jesus’ disciples mobilized and lived their lives as Everyday Missionaries? Be prepared. When you plant a church, anything can happen!

Jake Ronning

Advancement Director | The Harvester Foundation