Childrens Ministry Online

Churches who give it back

Posted on 19. May, 2009 by Kenny.

I follow several people I used to work with at Cross Timbers in DFW and it seems my previous church is getting some media attention. Don’t worry, its a good thing. They’ve been giving money back to the community both inside the church and out. This action has caught the eye of the media and they’re getting some national news coverage. Check out the article on CNN.

I know some good things are happening at Cross Timbers. A good friend described it as revival. Last fall they held a baptism service at all their services and a gajillion people were baptized. Looks like they did another baptism service recently and another gajillion were baptized as well. Yes, there are enough people in DFW to sustain these types of baptisms.

So, it’s good to see God is moving and this is a good thing for the Church. If people can run to the church when in need, who are they going to turn to? If all we have to offer is a message, then are we really representing the life of Christ?

Toby, senior pastor summed this up really well. When asked if they were concerned about people taking advange of this generosity, he replied, “I told my church a couple weeks ago, if I’m not being taken advantage of, I’m not being like Jesus.”

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Remember, remember the 5th of November

Posted on 05. Nov, 2008 by Kenny.

It’s a funny little saying from the history of Guy Fawkes, the guy who attempted to blow up parliament. Interestingly this day now has great significance for me and my family. Because it happened on this day (and the catchy little saying), I’m not sure I’ll ever forget this day.

One year ago today was my last day working for Cross Timbers Community Church. You can read about it here. It was an abrupt end as over a dozen people were released due to major financial issues. It was a very difficult day. Actually, I think it was much harder on the Leadership Team there than it was for me. They had to release 15 people in one day and each take significant pay cuts. For me I had been frustrated for several month. Sara and I were trying to see how we could downsize our house and other things. So, although it was unexpected and not something we were seeking, it was actually an answer to prayer (yeah, sometimes God does answer in ways you don’t expect). The hardest part of all of it was saying goodbye to our friends. This goodbye was cut short as we left without notice due to my grandmother passing away.

It’s always interesting to look back and see how things change. Although we’re still trying to get adjusted and make new friends, we’re so happy with how things turned out. We love Austin. We love Gateway. I love what I’m doing (I’ll love it even more when I finally hire these positions I need to fill). I’m just amazed at how God brought us from a place that we thought was pretty good and took us to a place that was even better.

The journey was good, but not necessarily easy. There was some doubt as to what I really wanted to do next. I was out of work for 3 months before I first made my connection with Gateway which was followed by another 3 months of interviews. However, I got a lot of amazing time with my parents and family in Georgia and my mom and dad got to enjoy their new grandson in a way they never expected.

So, God has done an amazing thing. He’s always had a plan for my life. Amazingly, his plan is often bigger than I expected for myself. I truly look forward to what he’s got planned for later. Also, within the journey he packed in all kinds of blessings.

I’m truly thankful. I know that I can trust God. I also know that he’s looking out for my best. Although I experienced everything from frustration, anger, and doubt after being downsized, I’ve been given some amazing perspective. Being let go made me available for something better. Something better for me and my family. Now my perspective is that of thanks and gratitude. It wasn’t fun, but totally worth it now.

Not that I’ve learned my lesson. Things happen that make us mad or frustrated. However, maybe I’ll be a little quicker to put the emotions on pause and see if God is at work. Just my thought for this 5th of November.

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Cross Timbers Revisited

Posted on 19. Aug, 2008 by Kenny.

This past weekend I went back to North Fort Worth for a few days. Josh, my intern that worked (and lived) with me all summer wrapped up his time in Austin last Thursday. When we were planning the internship, I intentionally planned to take him to DFW and see a variety of multi-site churches. We planned to visit both Fellowship Church (the Grapevine and Fort Worth campus) as well as the Fort Worth campus of Life Church. These are some of the leading multi-site churches. However, the multi-site church that I knew best was Cross Timbers. Although I had been to DFW 3 or 4 times since being let go last November, I hadn’t actually visited the church since November.

I made arrangements to visit a few churches, have lunch with the Children’s Pastors at Cross Timbers and actually visit all the Cross Timbers campuses. We drove into town and had about 90 minutes to kill before our dinner appointment. Since the restaurant was in Southlake, we visited the Keller Campus of Cross Timbers. I expected the building to be locked down for the weekend, but I was surprised to find it open. I took Josh on an extended tour of the building that was once Anchor Church (the church that brought me to Texas) and then merged into Cross Timbers. Sara and I had a many happy memories in that church building. After taking out little tour, we let Titus go and hobble around the lobby (I say hobble only because he walks like a drunk man right now). I turned to Sara and said, “Isn’t it a little surreal to see our little boy walking around in this lobby?” It was while we were at this facility that we were childless for over a year and then went through the journey of two miscarriages. Sara began to tear up. I know this may sound bad, but there are some churches that I’ve worked at that I don’t totally “miss.” I was grateful for the experience and there are people we totally love, but we don’t completely miss the church. We do miss Anchor though, there is certainly still a pain in our hearts over that loss. So much has gotten muddied with mergers, new campus pastors, staff turnover, but many of those who were a part of Anchor are still around (actually, that’s who we were having dinner with a few minutes later).

On Saturday Josh and I took tours of both the Argyle Campus and Denton Campus. It was certainly refreshing to see some huge improvements that had been made over the past 9 months. The preschool hallway no longer looked like a dark and nasty pit. Ha! It looked bright and friendly. Good job Argyle. Afterward we went on up to the Denton campus. I had not seen the final product yet. Cross Timbers had just purchased the facility a few weeks before the layoff (one of the key reasons for the layoffs) and I never got to see what they did with the building. It looked fantastic. Miguel (the CP at Denton) has been doing a fantastic job with his new facilities.

It was fun visiting Cross Timbers this weekend. It was great to reminisce. There were a lot of memories formed there. It was also great to see improvements that had been made. It always feels great to see things done that you had either planned or hoped for. I can’t say it was also a little frustrating to see things that still hadn’t been done. Things that were promised initially, but never followed through. I did get to see a few people I hadn’t seen since November. For some of these people, it was so good to see them. For others I only have one word… awkward. Awkward only because of the nature of my departure. If my leaving had been under other circumstances, coming back for a visit would feel very different. There were a few people I really would have loved to have seen that I didn’t get a chance too. Maybe on my next visit. There were a few people that I didn’t see that I’m kinda glad I didn’t. Still a little awkward and still some things to continue to process in my heart… if you know what I mean.

Closing thoughts: Sara and I both felt it on Saturday. We love Keller and North Fort Worth. We could totally live there again some day.We had so much fun being there, eating at our old joints and hanging out with close friends. However, by the end of the day on Saturday, we were really ready to get home. Ha! That sounds kind of funny. We were anxious to get back to Austin… our home.

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My Multi-Site Journey

Posted on 16. May, 2007 by Kenny.

My new friend Dawn shot me an email asking me about what my church (being multi-site) is like. If you are closely involved in the multi-site movement, you would know that every one is different… kind of like snowflakes. My snowflake is Cross Timbers Community Church and it’s been a very cool ride for me, not without a few bumps along the way. I can say with complete confidence is that we are different from a lot of other multi-sites, but even more so, we’ve been evolving since this trip started. Let me explain my journey… [...]

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When it rains, it floods!

Posted on 28. Apr, 2007 by Kenny.

(where I’m officing now… the church lobby)

This week was pretty unusual. We had some April storms come through on Tuesday, nothing unusual for North Texas this time of year. At about 1:45 (during staff meeting with my team) the fire alarms started going off, but amazingly the power stayed on (in Argyle the power has been known to go off with a steady drizzle).

Because the weekly preschool was still in session, all the staff went to help them evacuate. The rain was coming down so hard, we had a major leak down our children’s hallway (water was pouring in) so we evacuated our kids from their classrooms to the auditorium. It was a little bit of chaos (something to work on at next year’s training). We got all the kids situated, put on some Looney Toons (my favorite) and made sure everyone was accounted for. Thankfully the day was almost over. [...]

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