“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations... Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:19–20
Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people
who will be able to pass them on to others.
— 2 Timothy 2:2
We have some VERY EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE with you.
As part of what the Holy Spirit has been doing in our presence over the past 12 months, the leadership has been led to refine our messaging of the mission we have been on from the beginning - to make disciples and plant churches. AND THIS INCLUDES GIVING OUR FRAMILY A NEW NAME!
Beginning the weekend we move into our new space we will gather as CrossTrain Church!
The reasons the Lord led us to this change are many and the decision was made over several months' discussion by the Lead Team and our wives. You can read a short summary of these discussions below. But the primary reason is we want to match our messaging with Christ's mission in a way that helps us keep our focus even as it tells the larger community who we are and what we are about! In brief:
CrossTrain tells people we are about training/teaching (train)
the Gospel (cross). — people who GROW and GO w/ the Gospel.
CrossTrain conveys movement and momentum and MISSION by its very name.
As we use the name, like we use FRamily,
it will mold our THINKING into what we want to be DOING.
This is just ANOTHER STEP in the process the Spirit is leading us through as He helps us be a people who are used by Him to see souls come to saving and maturing faith in Christ. As we move into the new building that will be available as a TRAINING CENTER 24/7/365 (something we have never had for 10+ years) we cannot wait to see how He moves next! Stay tuned! And hang on. The BEST is yet to come!
MUCH love and keep looking UP! - Luke 21.28
-doug (on behalf of the Elder Team) of Cornerstone - soon to be CrossTrain - Church
BELOW IS A MORE COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE REASONING BEHIND THE NAME CHANGE:
Cornerstone, although certainly honoring to our Lord to those of us who know Him as the Chief Cornerstone, conveys little or nothing about about the mission of the church to the culture we live in (or frankly to many other Christians). Nor does it express movement or momentum of any kind as a name. It is a name used in all kinds of businesses so people don’t even ask about it in a way that would lead to conversation about Jesus.
And, It is a VERY COMMON church name. This is one reason why our website and email addresses have to be so odd/long. Almost literally every time anyone asks me where I attend or pastor it goes something like, “Cornerstone. No not that one. No we are not affiliated with them… No they don’t attend our Cornerstone.” If you talk at all to other people about our church, I know you know what I mean. (As an aside, I never really like the name Cornerstone for a church for that very reason when it was decided upon 10 years ago, but the people who pushed for that name are no longer among us.)
Our RENEWED Emphasis
I say renewed on purpose. It is NOT new but we have had seasons of forgetfulness in the MISSION. This could be in part because the name Cornerstone does not communicate the mission to:
TRAIN disciples and PLANT churches.
Do you see the connection? Because our name did little to convey what we are about, it became easy to drift from it.
Beginning with our 10 week shutdown, and since early last summer, I have been asking the Spirit to reveal and renew my spirit in what we are to be about as a church. Teaching, training, disciple-making just kept coming up over and over again. ‘We are going to double-down on training people to teach God’s truth.’ That is our fastball. It is why God started the church 10 years ago.
So we want a name that conveys that mission!
As a bonus, there is not another church with that name. Not only not in our area, not in the nation.
Web domains and email address for crosstrain.church, crosstrainchurch.org, crosstrainchurch.com are all available and now ours. And, believe it or not, THIS MATTERS in this day and age.
CrossTrain is simple and easy to remember and to spell.
When people ask, “Where to you goto church…” you can just say, “CrossTrain!” And now, when/if they ask follow up questions, the connection to Christ and the mission is quick to get to. "We are a church that is serious about training people to teach the truth of God's Word."
10 years since we planted! New location!! Recommitment to making disciple-makers!!! These all make this the PERFECT TIME to refine our messaging to be used by God to expand His Kingdom.
Will lay out more about the plans as we move forward and how it all connects to our new facility and training model.
For now: PRAY… BE PATIENT… and PREPARE… (to be involved)!!!!