The Crossing aims to bring next generation to church
By Ben Cox
Photos/Ben Cox
Crossing Church opened in Jacksonville in 2019. It’s part of a larger group of nondenominational churches that fall under the umbrella of the original Crossing Church that opened in Quincy in 1970.
The founding of Crossing Church in Quincy was based on an offshoot of Madison Park Christian Church in Quincy. A small group of members from that church branched out and formed the Payson Road Christian Church. After several decades of stagnation, church leadership decided to take on more contemporary methods of reaching people who had either stopped attending church (dechurched) or who had never been to church before (unchurched).
In an attempt to make church less intimidating, the church’s elders decided to take “faith-filled risks” by incorporating contemporary worship bands, popular culture and more modern lessons into their approach to Jesus Christ’s teachings. In 2002, when the Payson Road Christian Church moved to a building on John Wood Community College’s campus in Quincy, the Crossing name was born. Since then, their churches have been added across Central Illinois, Iowa and Northern Missouri. In 2021, Outreach Magazine named The Crossing as one of the 100 fastest growing churches in the United States and the fastest growing congregation in Illinois.
Crossing Church in Jacksonville welcomed Pastor Andrew Barlow in November 2022 after he pastored a church in Hannibal, Missouri for seven years. Barlow says he got to know one of Crossing’s senior pastors and expressed a desire to be a full-time pastor, something he wasn’t currently doing at the Hannibal church. “We came over and visited and within the first 10 minutes, it was like, okay, it makes sense. This is definitely where we should be,” Barlow says of his first time in Jacksonville.
Barlow says The Crossing is different from traditional church services that one would experience. Barlow’s father pastors in a traditional church and he says he appreciates its traditions and structure, but he says The Crossing aims to cut through some of those things in order to make church more accessible and less intimidating to those who are dechurched or unchurched.
“I think sometimes maybe the traditional church doesn’t quite take the big swings of trying out new things,” Barlow explains, “For instance, we have a Hollywood movie series we’re doing right now. It’s pretty unconventional and you don’t necessarily know how it’s going to turn out, if it’s going to work, you know what I mean? It is one of those you don’t really know until you try. One of our core values here at The Crossing is to innovate.”
Besides that style of innovation, the Crossings’ sermons aren’t given individually in each location. They are broadcast live via the internet into each of the church’s twelve branches. Barlow says that may unnerve people at first but after a couple of visits, he says people ultimately get used to it. “The buildings are all different from church-and-steeple type places, too. It’s kind of like a warehouse almost. This [The Crossing in Jacksonville’s location] used to be a former Farm & Home store,” Barlow says about other differences, “Each of our locations offers a unique flavor, almost a unique flare based on what that location was before. I will say that since I’ve been here in Jacksonville, there’ve been a lot of people that didn’t even realize we were a church. Now, we have our sign on the back of the building that was just put up a few months ago, so that helps obviously. I can’t tell you how many people still just know this is the old Midland’s Farm & Home building, so there is a little bit of the unknown, but then with that, there’s also a little bit of intrigue.”
In all, Barlow says some people come through the door just to see how the inside of the building has transformed and to see what the church service is like. Barlow says everyone is invited, even if they decide not to return. “Studies show that 51% of Jacksonville, and that might extend all the way to Morgan County, but I definitely know Jacksonville 51% is either unchurched or dechurched,” Barlow says. In the end, he says the core mission of the church is to not only get people in the door or back involved but to have an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Barlow says the key is not only to be innovative and relevant with their messaging.
Beyond their message is actions. Barlow says their community service initiatives are expanding as they continue to grow at the Jacksonville location. “We have a strong relationship with both Illinois College and the Gateway Foundation. We are about to reignite our Gateway ministry,” Barlow says of two past community links, “We go over to Gateway on Thursday evenings. Many of our locations have a Thursday service as well. We’ll go into their inpatient part of their facility and we will actually show the live service to them and then, be able to have some conversation afterwards. We’ve been able to get into the community that way. We also feed a couple of the sports teams at Illinois College. Here in about a month we will be getting ready to do that again, which also helps develop some connection.”
Beyond that, The Crossing congregation hopes to be involved with more youth initiatives through a connection with the local Kiwanis. They recently have had booths at the Be Aware Wellness Fair this summer, were ticket takers and volunteers with the Festival of Lights and are coming up on an ‘Education Weekend.’
“We do something called Education Weekend where teachers have an opportunity, teachers not just in Jacksonville, but in the immediate area, can submit to us their Amazon wishlist,” Barlow says, “Parishioners here in the church will claim at least one, sometimes more than one teacher, and they will purchase $25 to $50 worth of supplies off of that wishlist. Then, we invite all the teachers that have signed up to come to a service this year, it’s on August 10th where they come.” The service recognizes the teachers, they are prayed over for a good school year and given a small gift from the church. Barlow says they will also be doing a ‘Blue Christmas’ service again this year to help those who have lost a loved one in the past year to have a place to come and reflect and be loved during the holidays.
Barlow says Crossing churches added 1,000 people through baptisms last year across all 12 locations. Jacksonville’s attendance runs between 120-130. He says the network is already on pace to surpass last year’s numbers.
If you are interested in attending a service, visit Crossing Church, located at 803 South Diamond St. in Jacksonville, on Sundays at 10 a.m. For more information, call 217-203-6443 or visit thecrossing.net.
