The Crossing stands behind the following doctrinal essentials of our faith:
1. God
We believe in one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things. God is infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus
Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to Mary, a virgin, thus fulfilling what Scripture promises. Jesus is fully God and fully human. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin. On the third day, he arose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven. Now, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and he intercedes for us as our High Priest and Mediator.
3. The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Jesus Christ and to apply the saving work of Jesus to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior. Indwelling our hearts, he gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service. He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.
4. Humanity
Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace. God credits his righteousness to those who put their faith in Jesus alone for their salvation, thereby justifies them in his sight. Only such as are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
5. The Bible
All Scripture is self-attesting and, as Truth, requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life. The infallible Word of God, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is a complete and unified witness to God’s redemptive acts culminating in the incarnation of the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks. It is also the Holy Spirit’s primary means of transforming lives.
6. The Church
The true Church is composed of all persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit are united together in the body of Christ. The Church finds her visible, yet imperfect, expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered in their integrity, where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. For her perfecting, she awaits the return of her Lord.
7. The Christian Life
Jesus Christ will come again to the earth—personally, visibly, and bodily—to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20).
The Lord Jesus Christ commands all believers to proclaim the gospel throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations. Obedience to the Great Commission requires total commitment to “him who loved us and gave himself for us.” He calls us to a life of self-denying love and service. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10)
Ministry at The Crossing is guided by these core values.
1. The Transforming Power of Scripture
We want the truths of the Bible to guide all of our teaching and worship. We value the faithful preaching of the Bible as one of the primary responsibilities of our pastoral leadership and the main way a pastor spiritually feeds believers in the church. For this reason, each pastor at The Crossing holds a Master of Divinity degree from a theological graduate school that upholds the authority of the Bible and belief in the gospel.
In a spiritually healthy and growing church, God’s word must be taught fully, accurately, and with conviction. This includes relevant and realistic application that encourages genuine faith. And that confronts the unbelief that undermines trust in God. In this way, those in the church will be led to greater maturity in their faith.
2. God-Centered Worship
True worship is the right response to who God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has revealed himself to be in the Bible. Because worship is a response to God, our passion is to help people delight in his holiness and grace, trust in his unfailing promises, and rely on his incomparable power.
In this way, our worship will be both an acceptable offering before God and a witness of his glory, so that “many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3).
3. Cultural Engagement
Our approach to ministry reflects our commitment to bridging the gap that often seems to separate the church from the culture of our day in unnecessary and damaging ways. This means that our language, forms, and style of ministry must resonate with our culture, while at the same time never compromising the timeless truth of the biblical message.
In doing this, the ministries of our church will not be “culturally driven” but rather “culturally sensitive,” enabling people to hear and understand God’s word in a fresh and relevant way. This is a biblical mandate for us as a church in our community, in our culture, in our time.
Our commitment to cultural engagement also means that our standards must meet the level of quality and excellence expected by those outside the church. In this way, we hope not only to win the respect of others but also to honor the Lord.
As a result of this approach, we hope to be a redemptive presence in our culture, encouraging the transformation of every area of life—both of the individual and the larger community—toward greater conformity with God’s will.
4. Winsome Outreach
We recognize that effective biblical outreach certainly includes the verbal presentation of the gospel. However, we also value the scripturally mandated process of sowing the relevancy of the gospel into the culture through acts of love and words of wisdom, touching people’s lives in significant ways.
We seek to reach out in a manner that is relational in approach, intellectually informed, and willing to engage in genuine discussion.
We’re passionate about treating all people with respect, tearing down stereotypes, and building bridges. In this way, the truth and attractiveness of authentic Christianity will be displayed to those outside the church. This is the church’s role in biblical outreach.
5. Faith that Serves
The Bible tells us that the only kind of faith that counts with God is a “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6), and “faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26). This means that saving faith necessarily expresses itself in deeds of service and love. In turn, such deeds actually feed our faith. That’s why we believe that every member should, in some way, be involved in service opportunities in and through the church—serving Christ by serving the body of Christ.
Jesus knew that it's difficult for us to look to the needs of others instead of merely our own. Therefore, in order to move our hearts to serve, Jesus made many promises. He said that the last will be first (Matthew 19:30; Mark 9:35), that the Father will honor those who serve his Son (Matthew 20:26; 23:11-12), that everyone who sacrifices in service for Christ will be rewarded greatly in heaven (Luke 18:29), and that it is far more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
We value helping each person at The Crossing find an appropriate place to serve Christ by serving others—matching service opportunities with interests and skills.
6. Transformational Community
God created us to live in relationship with one another. That’s why our passion is to be a loving, magnetic, and transformational community. This means much more than just being a church of friendly people. It means being an interdependent community in which we enjoy deep, authentic friendships.
Many important things happen when we commit ourselves to a genuine, loving church community. This kind of environment provides the context in which we grow spiritually, minister most effectively, and become truly attractive to outsiders. It allows us to experience a blending of giftedness that we cannot achieve merely as a collection of individuals.
Genuine, loving community always requires real commitment. While we are a church that eagerly welcomes newcomers—without asking for any commitments on their part until they are comfortable—we also believe that growing in a church body is a process of growing in commitment, both of the individual to the church and the church to the individual.
7. The Continuing Grace of the Gospel
The gospel message—that God has completely accepted us in Christ—is something we must never move past as individual believers or as a church body. We believe that the path to lasting and deeper spiritual renewal is the continual embracing of the gospel.
Our passion is to apply the sufficiency of the grace of God to every aspect of our lives and church community. As a result, we become properly motivated and equipped for true obedience and maturity. And as a result, we avoid the common pitfalls of moralism, performance spirituality, and guilt motivation.
Believing the gospel is a community project. People grow in their faith when they experience truth and grace in the context of safe, non-threatening relationships where people are allowed to be “in process.”
We need each other to help us believe the gospel and apply it to our lives. When we’re not in relationships where our unbelief is being challenged, it is nearly impossible to experience significant spiritual growth.
As people grow in believing the all-encompassing truth of the gospel, treasuring all that God is for us in Jesus, they begin to see life in a new way. While it may come gradually, a radical reorientation takes place. This reorientation changes our values and motivations, our view of work and education, our relationships with friends and family, and even how we view ourselves.
In fact, there isn’t any part of a person’s life that isn’t transformed by a deeper, more genuine belief in the gospel. We are excited about being the kind of church that encourages this reorientation through the gospel in people of all ages.