“We know these are people who need them and can use them,” he added.
Not only can each family member receive a blanket, free Bibles will be available. Volunteers will be handing out the Bibles and serving meals, according to Sandra Williams, Elkhorn’s director of church and community ministries and coordinator for the blanket giveaway.
“It’s an opportunity for us to touch their lives in a positive way and meet a practical need,” she noted.
This is the eighth year for Crossover Kentucky, which precedes the Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting. The emphasis is patterned after the annual missions event that takes place in Southern Baptist Convention host cities prior to the SBC annual meeting.
The Crossover approach has taken on different forms in years past, and this year the emphasis is individual churches. Associational leaders have taken the lead in planning Crossover events, but local church leaders have spearheaded their own events.
“It’s going to be up to each individual church,” said Stuart Cundiff, director of missions for Franklin Baptist Association. He has encouraged his churches to get involved in Crossover through prayerwalking and handing out community surveys door to door. The association also has provided training for those activities.
Blanketing areas in prayer
Prayerwalking is a common initiative for this year’s Crossover. Members of Elkhorn Association churches will prayerwalk through areas of Lexington, specifically the Irishtown neighborhood in the city’s downtown area.
Groups will pray over the community in the morning, then lead a parenting seminar for women in the afternoon, according to Pam Pyle, who directs Elkhorn’s Irishtown ministries. Volunteers from Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown will lead the event.
“It’s going to be helping the mothers learn to interact with their children in a positive way,” Pyle noted. The training also will provide mothers with information on proper discipline for overactive children.
Not all Crossover events will happen on Nov. 8—many already are in progress or will be held prior to next weekend.
One of Elkhorn’s Hispanic congregations, Ministerio Christiano Esperanza in Nicholasville, got a jump on Crossover in early October by partnering with the Jessamine Jamboree, a community fall festival held near the church.
Ray Van Camp, director of church planting and development, reported that church members and Pastor Emilio Zapata connected with 120 people during the festival through kids’ games and free food.
In the heart of Lexington’s Hispanic community, Iglesia Bautista Cardinal Valley will host a festival in the church’s parking lot on Oct. 31. Van Camp estimated there are about 15,000 Hispanic people living within walking distance of the church, offering an abundance of opportunities to connect with unchurched people.
Meanwhile, Tates Creek Association has been hard at work on the Rose Lane Project, a home repair job that began back in early spring.
The home belongs to a man in his 50s, according to Jimmy Closterman, pastor of Faith Decision Baptist Church in Paint Lick. He said the house was in bad shape with a tarp covering a large hole in the roof. The resident also has been living without indoor heat or hot water.
“We’re not making it brand new, but getting it to the point that it’s livable,” noted Closterman, who also is Baptist Men on Mission director for Tates Creek Association.
He said he expects that the Rose Lane Project will continue far beyond Crossover weekend, and likely will not be completed until next February.
Leaders at all three associations agreed that the central thrust of Crossover is to take the love of Jesus Christ to the community and to get to know residents better.
To that end, all three associations are coordinating community-needs surveys that will be taken to neighborhoods door to door during the weekend.
Plugging in to communities
“What we’re trying to do with the survey is not pressure them into what we want, but rather to ask them what they want,” Van Camp explained. “What kind of prayer concerns they have, what kind of community concerns they have (and) how can a church plug better into the community? It’s pointed to help people to see that the church cares about them.”
Cundiff agreed.
The surveys “are part of the Great Commission,” he emphasized. “As you go, go out into the community. Sitting in a church building having a worship service … is not reaching the community if you don’t know what the needs are.
“You have to get outside the four walls, walk down the sidewalk and knock on doors; get eyeball to eyeball with the people,” he added. “You’ve got to say, ‘Here we are. We’re the church. What can we do for you?’”
Cundiff challenged Kentucky Baptist churches and associations not to wait for an event like Crossover to emphasize community missions and evangelism.
“We shouldn’t have to wait for the KBC to come to our area to have a Crossover event,” he said. “It’s so important that it should be carried on by the churches on an ongoing basis. … We just can’t sit in a building and hope people are going to come to us.”
Western Recorder issue date: October 28, 2008
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