Come to Jesus Christmas Production

[Patrick]

The Come to Jesus Christmas Program will ocur Dec. 12th, 2004, at 4 and 6:30 PM
at Crossings Community Church, 14600 N. Portland....this is just north of Memorial Rd. on Lake Hefner Parkway. If you've never been to a Christmas Production at Crossings, you're definitely missing something. By the way, our very own mayor goes to Crossings! You're definitely in for a treat.

[Midtowner]

I work in a law practice that includes a great deal of matrimonial law (aka divorce). Crossings offers some excellent counseling programs for people going through divorce (especially with children). We have a counseling center downtown that offers classes, however, I think the fact that Crossings offers these from a Christian perspective is very helpful to some people.

As for Christmas 'productions', as a musician, I need to take a few years off of playing Christmas music The stuff gets very old, very fast. Now, if someone wants to hire me for an orchestra doing holiday music like Handel's Messiah, I'm game

Not too many churches hire full orchestras these days though.

[Patrick]

Crossings actually doesn't have to hire a full orchestra! LOL! As large as they are, they have such talent within their own congregation, that they already have a full orchestra.

Actually my parents have gone to Crossings for years...since it was Westridge Hills Church of God, and then Belle Isle Community Church after that! I grew up in that church. It's amazing the growth. When I was a child in the old Westridge Hills/Belle Isle facility we had about 150 people. Now Crossings has close to 4,000.

Anyways, yeah I've heard good things about Crossings Counseling Ministries. I've actually taken a few classes through their Counseling Ministries Care Series on Monday Nights! They have a complete counseling staff, providing counseling to people within the church for various issues. They have a psychologist (Ph.D) that heads it up, and several LPC's that join him. In fact, the Pastor of the Counseling Ministries, Jeff Stewart, has his LPC.

It seems like Crossings offers so many ministries.

[Midtowner]

Actually, I believe I know at least one trumpet player that is payed to play there. He played in the UCO orchesta with me when I was there ('97-'03). He recently graduated with his Master's in Music (I think performance). As I recall, he also has a decent sining voice and can be found singing Karaoke Monday nights at the Hudson's in Edmond.

Yeah, I can believe the violinists volunteer though. There are lots of us out there just looking for someplace to play our expensive instruments to justify what we spent on them...

I know about the superchurch thing though -- attended both Catholic Churches in Edmond for a long time. St. Joe's is a nicer size IMHO.

[Patrick]

You know, I wondered if Crossings still payed some of their players for special performances....of course for Sunday morning services, they're all volunteer, but for special performances, George Skramstad seems to bring in a few more faces. At the old church building, I remember him saying he brought in a few extra players and payed them. But, I wasn't sure he did that anymore since the church was so large and had so much talent. I'm not surprised though. Some of those players are hard to come by!

[Midtowner]

Well, at any rate, Crossings is a pretty respectable place that does some really good work. The Catholic Church ain't too shabby in that regard, but you have to really respect Crossings for putting that together themselves.

Maybe they should franchise like other non-denominational churches have.

-- maybe franchise isn't a good choice of words, but you get the meaning.

[Patrick]

I suppose Crossings could follow Life Church's example...open up campuses all over the state! I'm amazed with what Life Church has done over the past few years.

[Midtowner]

I have objections to the way some of those churches get their message across. Maybe because I was raised a Catholic? Never thought that being entertained was something important to worship. 'Rock 'n Roll Jesus' is alive and well in some of these churches. I had a friend in college who worked for Life Church as a fulltime video editor. Now, there are probably far more families attending Edmond's two Catholic Churches than the two Life Church centers. For some reason, we got by without anyone editing videos 35+ hours/week.

It sometimes feels like the message, especially the intellectual part of the religion gets lost in the charismatic, entertainment-oriented presentation that some of these churches give. I will say though, I still think Crossings does a hell of a good job in its counseling programs. I've heard nothing but glowing remarks about those. I know the Catholic Church offers similar programs, but I don't think they're nearly as popular -- of course, growing up in Edmond, knowing the people I did, I'd assume if they needed marital counseling or divorce counseling, they'd have the financial means to pay for the counselor themselves.

[Patrick]

Midtowner, I know exactly what you mean! I don't like to question people's salvation, but I tend to whether wonder many of these "new Christians" truly gave their life to Christ, or whether they're just going to be entertained. Unfortunately, society is just so entertainment oriented today! I guess churches are changing with the times. Personally, it's still hard for me to get used to going to a "Baptism Bash" instead of a baptismal service. I have a friend that runs the light board. Everytime I speak with him it sounds like they're having a rock concert over there, not a worship service. They're so wrapped up with how the light system functions, and how the audiovisual system ties in with the celebration, and how loud the speakers will go.

Nothing personal against this type of worship service, but it's not for me. Is it changing people? Well, I suppose it's changing some that otherwise wouldn't step foot in a traditional church service.