About Us
:: THE START OF SOMETHING NEW ::
Theme parks. Tourists. Hotels. Sunshine. Bad drivers. For some this is all that comes to mind when they hear the word Orlando. The signs around town declare Orlando THE CITY BEAUTIFUL. For those of us who call this area home, we know our city to be beautiful in many ways. Yet we also know, deep down, that not all is right in our city. There are still lonely and isolated people. Brokenness abounds behind the veneer of well kept yards, nice cars and smiling faces. People are longing for direction. People want something to give their life to. People want to be connected. Many are feeling the pain of wrecked families. Many are enslaved to various addictions. Some are skating through life, unaware that they are lost.
WE BELIEVE JESUS INTENDS FOR SOMETHING MORE.
When we take an honest look, we also know that numerous neighborhoods are under-resourced. Scores of kids are growing up without the benefits many take for granted. We know that patterns of poverty and injustice still abound. Many feel like they have no means of escape. They are marginalized. They have no voice. A low grade apathy and despair has taken root.
WE BELIEVE JESUS INTENDS FOR SOMETHING MORE.
Many want to express their thoughts and emotions in ways that go beyond the perceived “plastic-ness” of our city. Aspiring artists who want to cultivate and create a vibrant culture in this young and growing area. Yet they feel unsure if this area is really where they belong. What to do with these longings? They fear their dreams should just be squelched or maybe they should find a new place to live.
WE BELIEVE JESUS INTENDS FOR SOMETHING MORE.
So what does this have to do with a church plant? The answer is EVERYTHING. There is needed a new community in the Winter Park/Orlando area that will seek to expand the Kingdom of God. Only Jesus and His Kingdom can bring the wholeness, healing and delight we all long for. Whether it be on a personal level or on a systemic, social level, we need a fresh in-breaking of God’s Kingdom in our area. We need a church that will intentionally seek to repair and renovate what is broken, while also cultivating and creating a new culture. We believe this is what Jesus and His Gospel accomplishes. We simply get the privilege of aligning our lives with His purposes. Intrigued? Want to know more? Want to know how you can join up? Read on.
:: MISGUIDED HOPE ::
New York Times best selling author, David Brooks, penned these words describing much of American culture...
Born in abundance, inspired by opportunity, nurtured in imagination, spiritualized by a sense of God's blessing and call, and realized in ordinary life day by day, this Paradise Spell is the controlling ideology of American life. Just out of reach, just beyond the next ridge, just with the next home or entrepreneurial scheme or diet plan; just with the next political hero, the next credit-card purchase, or the next true love; just with the right all-terrain vehicle, the right summer home, the right meditation technique, or the right motivational seminar; just with the right schools, the right community values, and the proper morality; just with the right beer and a good set of buddies; just with the next technology or after the next shopping spree, there is this spot you can get to where all tensions melt, all time pressures are relieved, and all contentment can be realized...thereby producing a new Eden.
Though Brooks was not writing about a particular city, he might as well been writing about the Winter Park/Orlando area. All around are people who are achievers. They are successful. They are striving. They are involved. They are driven. They have big dreams. Dreams that are just out of reach, but believing they might be achieved in the very near future. Moving just fast enough to avoid the tough questions of life. Claiming a belief in God, but if truth be told, they function without Him. A community of people, striving to be free, but who are increasingly enslaved. The hope is fading because the meaning just isn’t there.
It is within this context that CrossPointe Church Winter Park is being birthed. A church that would seek to build upon the future-orientedness of this culture by infusing it with the hope and meaning that is only found through the Gospel. The desire for the new Eden is deep within all of us. We long for things to be as God intended them to be, but we know that not all is right in our lives or our city. What is needed is a fresh outpouring of the Gospel. Our city needs a church that would seek to be the answer to Jesus’ prayer Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We need a community of mobilized missionaries who seek to live in light of God’s redemptive story.