How did that kingdom work first express itself?
I began to see poverty as a huge issue in our city. I began to ask, “Can we gather other nonprofits together in a centralized place where all of us could work together and relationships could build?” That’s where CityLink came from. We put $10 million into that and we had to take it all the way to the Supreme Court because we were being sued by people who didn’t want us putting it in their backyard. We persevered because we felt it was a kingdom issue.
How does CityLink fight poverty?
CityLink is a one-stop shop for people who want to come out of generational poverty. It provides a centralized place where all those organizations work in tandem with a caseworker who knows your needs and knows your history and offers accountability. Volunteers help build relationships outside of the facility. That’s the vision. We led the fundraising effort and hold key board positions. The guy who runs it now was out of Crossroads. As our church grows, we feel God keeps upping the ante of ministry outside of Crossroads into the social justice sphere.
Can you give me another example?
We are at work in India with girls who are in the rape-for-profit industry. I was in India bouncing around in the back of a taxicab and saw the home where they place those girls. I asked why they weren’t rescuing more girls and was told they had no place to put them. I told God that if he continued to grow Crossroads, we would build more and more homes and that’s what we’ve done.
I’ve read that you never started out with the desire to be big. Now that you are big, what do you think?
I think big is inconsequential to whether you are reaching people or not. I think what’s happening in the church nationwide is that the body of Christ is consolidating and decentralizing at the same time. Twenty years ago, it was rare that a church would attract 10,000 people. Ten years from now, many churches will gather 100,000 people. The church is consolidating. I don’t think that God ever intended hundreds of different churches in the same city. I don’t think that was the model. There was one church in Rome. At the same time, our church, even though it is large, is attempting to decentralize and that doesn’t just mean having multisites. We have been intentional about equipping each person to do the thing God has called each to do.
How important are one-on-one relationships?
We don’t believe as much in one-on-one as one-on-five or -six. One-on-one is OK, but we see most of the time Jesus building relationships in a group context. That’s critical. Every leader in our church has an identified group that they huddle in. People they disciple. I meet with a group of guys at my house every Thursday morning at 7 a.m., developing them and challenging them. I’ve been doing that since Crossroads started and it is expected of all our leaders.
What is a Huddle Group?
The Huddle or Go Group is critical at our church. Let me give you an example: We had a guy in our church, an entrepreneur, who had a strong conviction to start a ministry to break spiritual strongholds. It involves demonic oppression, confession in a small group and prayer. Now that might seem to be some weird stuff and many pastors don’t want that kind of thing happening. I might not even agree with everything that is happening there but, at the same time, I need to bless the entrepreneurial spiritual activity that’s happening under my leadership. Even though it doesn’t come under a line item or staff member, we have thousands of people who’ve been through the training at this point who are the better off for it. That’s just one example of the beauty of Go Groups. It’s organic ministry people can do outside of a budget.