Restoring our community by making disciples while loving and serving our neighbors.
Crossover Bible Church by Caleb Long
N
orth Tulsa is big. Spanning some 50 square miles, more than 40,000 people call the north side home. Even as Crossover expands its efforts to “restore our community,” we realize it will take a network of like-minded organizations, individuals, and churches to realize this dream. Imagine a web of community-focused, gospel-centered churches celebrating the assets of the community and responding to the needs of every north Tulsa neighborhood. But why more churches, you may ask, when there are already so many around? Not to mention the fact that Crossover is only about 200 members strong; why would we plant another church? The stark reality is that only 16% of my particular neighborhood believe it’s important to attend religious services. That means at least 84% of my neighbors aren’t connected to a community of faith week-to-week. We believe that the local church is God’s instrument for kingdom extension and discipleship (or helping people become more like Christ). If we desire to restore our community, we must plant churches that make disciples. In 2018, a core group of friends and neighbors from Crossover and partner churches will launch New City Fellowship. Our mission is to glorify God as a community of reconciliation that loves and serves our neighbors and makes disciples of Jesus.
Even as we have begun building the vision and core group, God has provided opportunities to love and serve our neighbors. In the northeast corner of our focus area sits an apartment complex of some three hundred units. Surrounded by high fences and security cameras, folks living here deal with an intricate web of economic challenges. Through a series of circumstances, I had a chance to sit down with ShaRita Yabrough who runs the complex community center. In a few short meetings, she has thrown open the gates to New City Fellowship! She’s invited me to come lead a Bible study with residents, opened up the center for our core group meetings, and extended opportunities to serve the children through tutoring, outdoor activities, and music. In short, she’s invited us into the life of the neighborhood. We’ve also seen unique opportunities to make disciples. A few weeks ago, I got a text from a friend who lives around the corner from me. Early on in our friendship, he let me know that he was sympathetic to Christianity but was agnostic about the existence of God. I’ve been praying for him for about a year and a half, and then my phone starts buzzing with text messages from him stating: “I realize the reason my life hasn’t been going my way is because of my separation from God, so I really want to fix that.”
Crossover Community Impact
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