Your church is known for being entrepreneurial. Why is that so important at Crossroads?
Our churches have to be modeled after the character of God and, for some reason, we’ve missed that God is entrepreneurial. We believe God is traditional, stable, and that he doesn’t change. But we also have to understand the entrepreneurial nature of God. He’s created the Earth as an entrepreneurial endeavor in an ever-expanding universe. It is his nature to be constantly creating —new nations through Abraham, new messages through the prophets and new structures through the temple. We can go on and on—new heaven, new earth, new wine skins and new songs. We have to value that God is not up for simply preserving our ministry. He’s about taking our church from where it is right now and doing new things to it. That’s been a really critical understanding.
How prevalent is entrepreneurial kingdom work in your church?
More than 30 percent of all tech funding in Cincinnati can be traced back to businesses owned by members of Crossroads. So we have a crazy startup community and I really hadn’t noticed at first. One guy told me that you couldn’t swing a dead calf in the atrium without hitting an entrepreneur using the free Wi-Fi and drinking coffee. I said to him, “Why don’t we pull some people together and reach out to them?” He created a network and we had 300 to 400 entrepreneurs show up the very first week. This has been a way to reach into the entrepreneurial community and bring people to Christ.
Give me an example of entrepreneurial kingdom work.
We are in the middle of a major season of discernment about what our initial presence will be. We created an app last spring based on our journey called Brave, which has stimulated small groups all over the country, Mexico and Canada. That was our first foray of digital ministry on a Web page or a podcast. We are asking, “How can we reach communities and gather people together?” The thing I do best is mobilizing people. I bring people together. In the Brave experience we’ve already seen the possibilities. At some point there’s going to be an Amazon expression of the church that’s going to make the Wal-Mart expression irrelevant. Our entrepreneurs are creating ideas we can’t even talk about yet. It’s prerevolutionary. That’s all come out of reaching out into the entrepreneurial space and adding to our macrochurch.
How do you engage creative people in kingdom work?
I think as creative types, we do our best work when we are in community. So you have to develop a community where they can bump into one another and grow. That’s part of why we do our service run-through. That’s why I have several meetings with others throughout the week talking about my message because I’m not good enough to have quality preaching every week. I’ve got to be part of a team. I think in our individualistic society people are drawn to a place where there is team. They are drawn to a place where a leader has a sense of security enough to speak into their life and steer them. So I think that’s been spreading throughout our whole church and allows people to lead and be creative.
Is collaboration synonymous with the idea of the body of Christ?
In Acts 21:19 and Romans 11:13 Paul says I magnify my ministry. Can you imagine someone saying that today? Someone would have accused him of idolatry. But that’s exactly what Paul says. His ministry was different than Peter’s ministry so what I’ve tried to do is see what is the unique ministry I have and magnify that ministry and allow other people to have unique ministries. If you can get yourself slotted into your unique ministry that God has called you to—all of us senior pastors have unique ministries—then get ready for huge stuff. I’ll give you an example. Last night we had a major shooting here in Cincinnati and 5,000 people showed up for a prayer service. I didn’t speak. The person who spoke was Chuck Mingo, who is our campus pastor and his ministry is one of reconciliation. That’s not my ministry; it is his.
What is the central goal of kingdom work?
It’s calling people into freedom. The New Testament says where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Freedom. Not religion. Not rules. Not bigger numbers. Not cooler services. The church needs to be all about leading people into freedom—freedom from strongholds and religious obligation and freedom to take risks to stumble and fail on the path to becoming the new creatures God intends.
CROSSROADS
Cincinati, Ohio
Senior Pastor: Brian Tome
Twitter: @BrianTome
Website: Crossroads.net
Founded: 1995
Affiliation: Nondenominational
Locations: 5
A 2015 OUTREACH 100 CHURCH
Attendance: 22,748
Growth in 2014: +5,674 (33%)
Fastest-Growing: 1
Largest: 9