Building Bridges to God and Helping People Across
"It's urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living. -- John 5:24 (The Message)
Learnings Conference
Crossover's Key Learning: Community Outreach
We learned a lot at Crossover this last year. We learned some about mission and vision, leadership development, and Home Groups, but our main learning was in community outreach, particularly to the school system.
We reached out to the schools in three ways:
--One of our elders used a connection he had through his work to connect to the TLC school in Humboldt. It started very simple with backpacks of supplies and has exploded since then.
--Our pastor used a connection as a parent and began working with the PTO at Williams Elementary. The principal at Williams wanted more community involvement in the school.
--Finally, through an ecumenical idea to pray for our schools at the beginning of the year, our pastor was given the task of communicating with the Superintendent of Schools. We have held Pray for the Schools three years in a row.
THE FRUIT -- At the beginning of this year, before school had resumed from break, a tragedy occurred. A high school student was killed in a car accident. Because of our work with the schools, the Superintendent called our pastor and asked him to organize some pastors to help with the crisis. Through these connections, we ended up participating in a Candle Light Vigil at the high school with 500 people in attendance.
We are convinced if we hadn't proved ourselves faithful to the school system in other ways, this opportunity to truly be the church in the community would never have occurred.
Interview with School Administrators and Teachers
MP3 (Right Click & Save As)
Jeff Rockey on Becoming Part of Your Community
MP3 (Right Click & Save As)
Randy Myers on Personally Connecting to Your Community
MP3 (Right Click & Save As)
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Bullet Topics for Crossover Learnings
-What is the role of the church in the community?
-What do we need to unlearn? Why do some churches hit a brick wall with schools?
-Interview with school officials
- Ask them what one or two things if could be changed would make a big difference?
- What are the issues you are having to readdress in the school system over and over?
-Pray for Schools Event
-Big Brother/Big Sister Mentoring through the school
-Volunteer in Kindergarten or band -- look for real needs and meet them.
-PTO volunteer/officer -- Principals at Williams are sad that I will no longer be an officer
-TLC Scholarship
-TLC Supplies
-TLC partnership with Haiti school
-TLC food backpack program
-Crisis Opportunity worked because we had proven ourselves trustworthy and helpful
