Aaron Cross

Christ’s Fellowship- Day of Prayer here we go: Dec. 10th 2012

aaroncross — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 21:14:09 +0000

Our Day of Prayer is here. Thanks for joining us. It’s not too late to be a part. If it’s full, that’s okay keep signing up. Our ‘DOP’ is where CF spends 24 hours in continuous prayer. We ask everyone to pick 1 (or more) 30 minute slot and keep our prayers going on for the whole day.

You can sign-up or see your time slot HERE.

Here is some prayer focuses to help you along the way.

You can check out a video about how to pray for Venture Christian Church which is launching next year HERE.

Pray hard CF! Let’s seek God and His will for our lives and church. Let’s love God, love people, and impact our world for Christ.

Peace,

Aaron

CF is ’4′ Lovers

aaroncross — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 23:56:25 +0000

CF is ’4′ Lovers

Day of Prayer…round 2.

aaroncross — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:59:07 +0000

Day of Prayer- July 16th.

As a church we are spending 24 hours in prayer. We are asking for you to take a 30 minute time slot to help us fulfill this. Join in the adventure of seeking God. You can sign up Sunday in the Lobby, or you can sign up right here: DOP SIGNUP

Thank you for being a part of our church wide journey of seeking God. You are a piece of the puzzle in keeping our prayers going up continually for a 24 hour period. Here are some prayer focuses to help you if you want them. Pray boldly!

Worship/Adoration

- For who God is and what He’s done

Confession of Sin

- Ask God’s forgiveness for your sin

- Help to forgive others

- Humility

Thanksgiving

- Living in gratitude to God for all He’s done through Jesus

Supplication- submitting yourself and your requests

- Ask God to move in your life

- Boldness and strength to make needed changes in your life

- Those you know that are hurting

- Pray for 3 individuals you want to experience Jesus.

Christ’s Fellowship

- Leaders/staff/volunteers

- That we may be focused on Jesus.

- That we may faithfully point people towards Jesus.

- That we may be a movement of love and grace in our city.

- For CF’s Summer Plunge a children’s program for our children and community children during Aug. 1-3.

- CF’s Community Movie Night on August 24th.

shameless self promotion

aaroncross — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:40:35 +0000

I usually don’t promote myself like this…but I feel it’s necessary at this time to let you know. I’ve allowed Jeremy Renner in the upcoming “The Bourne Legacy” the opportunity to play…me.

Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself.

http://www.thebournelegacy.com/

Aaron

Is There a Reason for Faith?

aaroncross — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:10:32 +0000

At Christ’s Fellowship we just finished up a series called, “Evidences: The Reason for Faith?”

We looked at things like the co-existence of a good God and suffering, we looked at evidences for the Bible being God’s word, the resurrection, and how science and faith are not contradictory.

My goal was two-fold for this series:

1) For those who believe, it was to strengthen, remind, and to equip to share the reason why we believe. 1 Peter 3:15 says “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” This area of study is called “apologetics” which comes from the Greek word in this verse which is translated “answer” (or “defense”). We are not only to know ‘what’ we believe, but ‘why’ we believe.

2) It was to provide open and honest evidences for those among us who have doubts and questions. This is not something we should run from. I believe if we are honest we all have/had questions and doubts including myself. I know there are some at Christ’s Fellowship that have doubts and questions. I pray that we were moved towards Jesus through this series and that any ‘roadblocks’ from accepting him can be overcome.

After, diving back into Apologetics and hearing and reading arguments on both sides of issues, I’m even more confident of my faith that the Bible is God’s Word, and that Jesus is the Son of God who died, was buried, and was resurrected. Do you have honest questions or doubts? I would love to talk with and help in any way I can. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Don’t hide your doubts, follow through with them and seek answers.

Check out our website for some more resources HERE…if you are into reading.

peace,

aaron

Christians, Race, and Trayvon Martin

aaroncross — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:44:37 +0000

I was convicted by an article asked the question “where are all the influential Christian leaders response to the Trayvon Martin case?” While I am not influential outside of my very small sphere I thought I would at least acknowledge this in a few thoughts.

- First off: it is sad that a teen was killed. That’s the bottom line. People are hurting right now because they are missing a son, a friend, a nephew. They need answers, they need healing, they need support.

- I’m not the juror or the judge and I don’t know enough of the ‘real’ details (not just what the media spouts) to know exactly what happened. Was it racially motivated? It seems there was at least racial profiling.

- I’ve seen STUPID THINGS on the news and online that are just out of line…on both sides. (By both sides I’m not even sure what I mean because George Zimmerman is Hispanic…therefore not the clean cut case of “white vss. black”). Racism breeds… more racism! I pray that people cut the crap out and realize that even if this tragedy was racially motivated…that more racism does not help. It brings more division, not justice.

- Speaking of justice: That’s what I pray happens. That God will lead and convict Judge and jurors to the truth.

You should spend 3 minutes of your life reading this article by John Piper (who is a influential Christian leader) http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/trayvon-martin-race-and-the-gospel

Peace,

Day of Prayer is over- What now?

aaroncross — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:53:31 +0000

Christ’s Fellowship is taking prayer serious this year. We are kicking into this so-called “Year of Prayer” with a “Day of Prayer”. We did this January 30th. We divided this day into 48, thirty minute shifts, and they were all filled. For a small church with many previously “unchurched people” it is exciting to see. I had a great time in prayer EARLY that morning, and our people are excited about this. I’m getting text messages, and I see Facebook posts. This is something bigger than ourselves, it’s bigger than our church, we are seeking out God more, intentionally, and boldly. A revolution.

There was exciting to be a part of something bigger than yourself. But we came together AS the church.

This is an overflow from a four week message series we did on prayer. You can check those out HERE (look for January 2012). The series is over, in 12 hours our day of prayer will be over… so what now?

Pray. We’ve been studying why we should pray, why we often don’t pray, how to pray, how to instill the habit of prayer, and today we are praying. This is not the end, it’s the beginning. Let’s seek God, let’s draw closer, let’s experience Him, let’s SEE HIM MOVE in and through our lives and through CF as we seek to impact our world for Jesus. Who knows what kind of impact we will have in our families, in our church, in our community, in our world, and in eternity because we were people that stepped up and prayed regularly, intentionally, and boldly. We are STILL the church, let’s join together in seeking out God, His will for our lives, for our church and for our world.

Here are some more resources for you to continue to grow in this spiritual discipline, but NOTHING takes the place of praying. So… PRAY.

praybig

RESTORE- part 2

aaroncross — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:22:42 +0000

Christ’s Fellowship now owns a building. We are currently remodeling/rehabbing the place before we “move in” and I thought I would share some thoughts on the process here:

An interesting side to the story to Christ’s Fellowship receiving this building is this is where I grew up going to church until I was about 8. It’s where my parents met and were married. On our first big workday, we were cleaning out tons of stuff. We filled up a 12 yd dumpster in about 1 1/2 hours and filled up almost the whole fellowship hall with old stuff…60 years of stuff. Among the books was this Bible:

that someone opened up…to find this:

Crazy.

A lot of the things were artifacts, old books, old equipment, stuff. Some of the things would be useful to us, but much of it had to go. While we knew that people resist change, hold value in places and buildings that it would upset some. However, that was part of our decision to receive the building, it’s got to change. Check this post to see what it was like. So here is an architectural video Mark G. made up of some of our plans for the main room. Everything is not exact, but it ‘s the vibe we are going for.

I pray that we use this building as a tool to impact our city and our world for Christ. I don’t want us/me to become so attached to this space that one day we resist change. I don’t want us to plant our feet, call this home, and become content ‘playing church’. I don’t want CF to think this is it for us. Rather we are launching on a new leg of our journey together, and this building is a tool. I’m truly excited about some of the possibilities that this brings:

- we get a break from being ‘roadies’ every week

- we can enhance the quality and atmosphere of our services and children’s programs

- we will have office space… outside of my home

- we have room to grow

- we have room for classes and other events and meetings etc.

- many opportunities to help those in need

- we want the atmosphere of the building to be comfortable and practical enough that it can be used for many purposes: small concerts, comedy, community meetings, we want to serve our city with this building.

- most important we have many new opportunities to reach people for Christ. THAT is what it is about.

I will post some updates on the process soon, it’s looking good!

Peace,

Josiah is 1

aaroncross — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:46:20 +0000

My son Josiah turned 1 Friday the 13th. He is such a cool guy. Since my birthday is on the 12th Beth had taken me out on a hot date. We were at Carabba’s in Va. Beach and were eating an appetizer when she went into labor. We told the waiter “we’ll take our meals in a box and our bill, or she might have this baby in this booth.” We ended up missing my birthday by 3 hrs 16 mins.

Stats: Excels in awesome. He loves to eat. He wants to be right up in the mix. Don’t try to leave him out, he will make himself known. Is a rock star…he loves music/instruments/singing…not just rock. He is 50th percentile for his height, 25th percentile for his weight, and 99th% for the dome piece… that’s how we roll.

- I never thought I would talk like this but both Isaac and Josiah have brought so much joy to my life. Joy.

- Like his brother, my first words to Him were “daddy loves you, so does Jesus and we are going to do our best to show you that”

- I pray for his health, safety etc. but most for Him to follow Jesus and have an impact for His kingdom greater than I ever will.

Peace,

Keeping Jesus a Secret?

aaroncross — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:07:59 +0000

Christ’s Fellowship is doing a 90 day Bible reading plan, if you’d like to join you can find our Bible reading plan HERE.

Today’s reading: Luke 8:22-9:6. At this point in Jesus the story we are just trying to keep up with Jesus. He’s everywhere. While in a boat His disciples were on the verge of peeing their tunics because of a bad storm…Jesus calms the storm. He restores a demon-possessed man. and to conclude todays passage He raises a dead girl back to life. We see Jesus having power over nature, over the spiritual realm, and over life itself. There are tons of implications, but something that has always jumped out to me is what Jesus says after he raises this girl from the dead. He told her and her parents to “not tell anyone what had happened.” (Luke 8:56).

As a parent of a 2 1/2 year old and a 364 day old, I would be completely devastated if one was died. AND, if one of them died and was raised back to life moments later it would be the most joyful moment ever. We would be telling everyone what this guy Jesus did.

Jesus says “don’t tell anyone”. This is called the “Messianic Secret”. Often in the gospels we see Jesus healing someone and saying “don’t tell anyone who did this”. In other instances we see a demon-posesed person acknowledging Jesus’ true identity…the Son of God. And Jesus rebukes them to quiet them. One of the reasons for this Messianic Secret is because these are the reasons that took Jesus to the cross. He knew it, accepted it, lived it…but it wasn’t time yet. He had people to touch, teach, heal, and He had His disciples to train. We will read in a few chapters in Luke 19 when Jesus will come into Jerusalem as a triumphant king and he says that “even the rocks will cry out”.

I wonder if that 12 year old girl, her father Jairus and her mother listened to Jesus. The story says that there were people there (outside the house) mourning. They laughed at Jesus when He said she was asleep. I bet they didn’t listen to Jesus. They probably told EVERYONE. In fact there are stories where Jesus told people not to tell anyone and they did the opposite (Mark 7:36).

The truth is: they were impacted in a HUGE way, of course they would talk about it. On our side of things we are commanded the opposite. We ARE told to tell EVERYONE what happened (Matthew 28:18-20)…but so often we don’t tell anyone. As if something great has not happened. We are apprehensive, fearful, lazy, busy or just don’t care. People need life and people need Jesus, and we have the answer. Not that we are better than anyone else, not that we have ALL the answers, but we have found THE answer.

What are some ways that you can boldly, creatively, passionately, point someone towards Jesus today?

Peace,