By Dave Cover
We’re not big on celebrating anniversaries at The Crossing. It’s just not our style. Add a pandemic and you get why nobody has bothered to mention that this summer marks The Crossing’s twenty-year anniversary. But we should stop, take a breath, and remember all that God has done in and through our story together. Here’s an abridged version of the history of The Crossing.
The Crossing’s Beginning
It was 1997 when a pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis asked me if I wanted to start a new church in Columbia. We were having lunch in St. Louis while I was getting my Master of Divinity degree from Covenant Seminary. I was commuting while also directing the ministry of CRU (a campus ministry) here at Mizzou.
By 1999, some people from Central had started a new church in Kirkwood called Greentree Community Church. Their new pastor and I began to have regular meetings to discuss how Greentree and Central could partner together to start a Columbia church after I graduated from seminary that year.
I was excited because a long-time friend of mine graduating from seminary with me agreed to start this new church with me as pastors. But a couple months out from launching The Crossing, he took another position at another church. I didn’t really blame him. A bird in the hand kind of thing. Who knew whether this new church would really get off the ground?
But I was bummed.
That weekend Keith Simon called me from his home in Chicago. I first met Keith in January of 1987. A friend of his brought him to a Bible study I was leading with CRU. Keith became a student leader in CRU, then eventually joined our staff for a few years before leaving for seminary in Chicago. But now he had become an assistant pastor at Naperville Presbyterian Church near Chicago, having graduated from seminary a year earlier.
I told him of my disappointment that my friend had changed his mind. Then I asked, “Do you know of anybody that would want to start this church with me?” He quickly said, “Yeah, me!”
By the summer of 2000 the funding had come together and so had our full-time staff team of me, Keith, Scott Johnson (a worship leader Keith worked with in Naperville), and Rachel Tiemeyer (a student I knew in CRU just graduating from Mizzou).
We had our team. Now we just needed a congregation.
So we spread word around town that we were starting a new church. We had lunches and dinners with anyone willing to meet with us. Coming to a church that didn’t exist yet was kind of hard to sell.
We figured the best way to start was just to start. One small thing we needed was a place to have church. We found a room in the Memorial Union at Mizzou. There, we wheeled our big plastic tubs filled with a little church, set up our sound system, laptop and projector, our little table for free donuts and coffee, and somehow people came. We grew about 10% every week. Within two months we were needing a bigger place to meet.
It just so happened that the principal at Rock Bridge High School started attending. He set up a lunch with the teacher in charge of the large auditorium at Rock Bridge, with its roughly 460 seats. A lot was riding on her Yes or No. She politely shook our hands and we all sat down for lunch. As she later recounted to us, she came to the lunch already decided she was NOT going to approve our request, but by the end of our lunch she heard herself saying Yes to us. Strange.
We met at Rock Bridge on the first Sunday of August 2000, just two months after starting the church. We had 70 people and 390 empty seats. It was a little embarrassing, but then our growth exploded. Eventually we needed three services on Sunday mornings, but by 2004 we would come to need still more space.
Looking for a Place to Build
We had found a great piece of land off Green Meadows, but it was really expensive. We waited a day too long to put an offer on it, and we lost it to another buyer (it’s now a subdivision). I remember saying to Keith in our disappointment, “I know God is sovereign, but I also know we’re idiots. And the idiots lost out.” I was wrong, of course. Not about our being idiots. But about why we lost out. The “God is sovereign” part caused us to lose out because something better was coming.
It just so happened that Shay’s cousin was a realtor who happened to know of a new parcel of land just up for sale along a new road being built to be called Grindstone Parkway. The new option was more acreage for a third of the price! The idiots found their land!
Phase one of our building was completed the summer of 2006, then phase two between 2012-2014. Each phase was a huge financial stretch for a congregation always a lot smaller than what we were building for. But people joined together in generosity at each phase because they wanted us to have room for anyone and everyone God wanted to bring.
Even during this current, unprecedented time in our church’s (and world’s) history, we have continued to witness God’s sovereignty and grace.
And the story continues. Now what will we do together?
Whether you’re new to The Crossing or you’ve been attending since the very beginning, your story is an important piece of both our church’s history and future.
We want to hear those stories! Leave a reply below and share your own story of how you came to attend The Crossing and how your life has since been impacted.
I’m not a CoMo resident, but my in-laws have been an integral part of the Crossing since its inception, and I’m blessed by the impact the Crossing has had on their son — my husband — over the years.
Thanks for sharing this Sarah. It’s so cool to see how God is working through The Crossing to impact people beyond Columbia!
Coming from the Crossing in St Louis, the Crossing in Columbia is different, but great in many ways! I serve in video production and Gerik and his team are amazing & Christ Followers! God is truly in the Crossing in Columbia & His Presence is felt throughout; from the worship services, the Boomers class & the ministry for the kiddos.
My daughter & her family attend the Crossing, Columbia as well. As soon as I walked it seemed like “home”! Thank you very much!
I really like to hear stories of history, so thanks for sharing The Crossing’s story!
We moved to Columbia the summer of 2006 and visited four different churches over the course of about 3-4 months and actually liked The Crossing the least (because we were used-to a different style of worship) but we let our teenage kids pick which of those 4 churches would be our “home”. Much to our surprise, our kids picked The Crossing! 🙂 We decided that we would go where they wanted to and would then leave The Crossing when they were out of the home. Ha! Well, the short story is that God did a new work in our hearts because of the ministry at The Crossing; we have grown to love our church very much over the past 14 years (including the worship time), and have no intention of EVER leaving! 🙂 Thank you to all who have loved us through this faith journey!
Came to the crossing in 2001 (I think), I was in 5th grade and I remember not liking it at first because I was the only girl my age there. The first day I remember going to bethel park as part of the student ministries. Through middle school I remember playing games with the college leaders like Andy, Luke, Austin, Libby, etc. like throwing and catching cheese balls in your mouth, 4 on a couch, eating baby food, bending over and trying to pick up a brown paper bag with your mouth as it gets cut shorter and shorter…so many random fun student ministry games and ways to connect with new friends who started coming more and more over the years. Now I can say most of my best friends have gone to the crossing over the years and it is a huge part of my life. I volunteered with high school ministry for 10yrs now have 2 kiddos who are in the kids ministry here. I’ve loved seeing some more ministries popping up like the agape ministry and recently have loved the music ministry doing worship nights online during the pandemic. Thankful for the biblical education through Women’s ministry and sermons. It helps me to remember the Crossing is not a building but a group of imperfect people, I’m thankful for the family of believers who have come in and out of my life over the past 19yrs through this church.
Nice to hear about how you were blessed in founding this church.
I learned of The Crossing from an advertisement before a movie – I don’t remember the movie, but still attend The Crossing. We still met at Rockbridge High School at the time.
I began to assist with Sunday School with Tom May and other volunteers. We started with the Kindergarden class and followed them through fifth grade. Even though I was the “adult” and was supposed to be teaching the kids, I learned many things through the large group time and the fabulous lessons.
I’m thankful for The Crossing, the women’s ministry, my small group, and the worship services.
My friends Mark and Jacki Langworthy told me about The Crossing. Before I retired and moved to CoMo, I told them I was looking for a Bible-based, Holy Spirit led church with contemporary worship. They invited me to join them for worship the next time I was in town, which I did. After attending a few times, I sensed the Holy Spirit telling me this was my new church home. I moved to CoMo in April 2019 and joined that summer. This is the largest church I have ever attended and I appreciate the effort to make a large church feel small with the Bible studies, different ministry opportunities and small groups. God has enriched my life through the ministry of The Crossing. I’m now in a small group and have participated in two Bible studies. I’m thankful God led me to The Crossing.
The first service I attended was Christmas Eve 2014. The crossing was on my drive to a nursing home where I visited my mother every evening to feed her dinner.
I loved the bible-based message and the spirit even though it was a packed house.
I was encouraged by a friend to attend the discovery classes which I did and joined a few years ago.
What a beautiful and uplifting story about how it all began!! All a great part of God’s plan for Columbia! I live in Colorado Springs and starting making trips to Columbia in 2000 to see my daughter who at the time was a freshman at Stephens College. We went to church at Red Bridge High School in the theater and remember it well! Well guess what? Another part of God’s plan. In 2004, Rachel Page was married in Columbia and became Mrs. Rachel Johnson, Scott’s wife!
I have been coming to the Crossing since Red Bridge High School as a visitor from Colorado a few times every year for about 19 years. I always enjoy seeing the growth each time I come and how God is working. Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”
My husband and I were invited to a Sunday Christmas service in 2007 by his brother and wife. At the time, they were searching for another church home and had gone to The Crossing a few times. The idea to go to church was their mom and dad’s as they were visiting from out-of-town for the holidays. I was in the habit of rejecting all churches that my husband and I had previously visited, so I expected a pleasant but forgettable time. I grew up in a staunch atheist home, and while God had already begun my Christian journey, it felt fleeting and elusive at that time. To my astonishment, I was physically moved by the sermon. Near the end, I whispered to my husband, “I want to come back”. His face expressed shock and delight. In those early years, my favorite catch phase was, “The Crossing – it’s one hell of a church.” God has matured us both since then. He has used The Crossing in significant ways to help us love and glorify God more and more in our lives and in the community.
“One hell of a church” might be one of the best compliments I’ve ever heard of our church. Ha, ha…I love it, Erin! Thanks for sharing your story of how God has worked in your lives through The Crossing.