Ministry Spotlight: Crossroads Church

By CHRIS DRIVER
Baptist Progress Editor

A nasty ditch full of trash and debris from a tornado. A daycare flooded by a massive sewage leak and the 50 kids who have nowhere to go for the summer. Elderly couples who have no way to take care of their overgrown yards. School support staff who are not budgeted to get Christmas bonuses because of the nature of their work. A shelter for women and families coming out of abuse and addiction. A refugee shelter in the middle of downtown Dallas. A house in India for kids being rescued out of sex trafficking.

What do all these things have in common? They are all things nobody wanted to do or could not do…until Crossroads Church, Rowlett said “We’ll take it.”

Crossroads Church, like most churches who love Jesus and His mission, has a passion for its community. But the people of Crossroads have not stopped at just being passionate about it. They have pushed all in on reaching their community for Christ by becoming the church that says, “We’ll take it.”

“If you’re looking for a church to just sit in, we’re probably a bad church for you.” This may sound harsh but lead pastor Jason Collins believes it is the kindest thing he can tell people when they visit Crossroads. Why? Because the heart of Crossroads is that you cannot empassion people by just writing checks. To empassion people to the mission of Christ requires being passionately committed to living it out in front of people. And that is exactly what Jason and the people of Crossroads are doing. They are currently missionally engaged with the city of Rowlett, the schools in their community, and multiple other non-profits in their community, across the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex, and around the world in places like India and Germany. But their hearts are definitely committed to being Jesus to their community.

Crossroads began as a BMA of Texas church plant back in 1993. During the last 30+ years, Crossroads has been blessed to have had only three pastors, including Jason. But when Jason arrived 10 years ago, the church was running around 60 people and bleeding financially.

“Back then, we had that common view that ‘missional’ meant we were going to go on mission trips,” remembers Jason. “No! We actually need to be known in our community.”

“I’d say the biggest change we made was to be open to ask the question, ‘What’s going on around us that we can say yes to with what we have?’” emphasized Jason.

By learning to look around and say “yes,” Crossroads has become the go-to for the city, the schools, and non-profits across Rowlett when needs arise. Just about anything and everything has come to Crossroads because the city and the schools have gotten used to them saying “We’ll take it”.

Pastor Jason mobilizing an army of Crossroads volunteer to go and serve

Aftermath of a tornado that hit Rowlett

So, what makes Crossroads so different? Why have they been able to find ways to be such a blessing to their community when so many churches have not? Jason believes there were two keys that helped them move from just having a passion for missions to being passionately missional and becoming a “We’ll take it” kind of church.

“First of all,” says Jason, “We had to find something we loved that we were willing to sacrifice for something we loved more. For us it was donuts.” Jason goes on to tell the story of a struggling church of 60 people that had no budget for things like kids and youth ministry but were spending money every week to buy donuts before the service.“Who loves donuts?” Jason remembers asking the congregation. Of course, every hand went up. “How many of you love donuts more than our kids and youth?” Perspective is a powerful thing. Immediately they were able to see that they actually had resources to use, they just needed to use them in the right places.

“Our ability to be missional, like most churches, was dying in planning not in a lack of passion,” says Jason. “What I mean is, you can have all the passion in the world (for being missional) but if you don’t budget for it and don’t assign leadership to it, you’re not going to do it.”

That is where the change for Crossroads really began to happen. Their passion for the mission of Christ began to be reflected in their budget and in their personnel. And something interesting happened. Their offerings began to track with their missional giving and efforts. The more they gave away, the more they received. It was truly a “you can’t out give God” moment for Crossroads. And the more they began to say “We’ll take it”, the more the peoples’ passion for the mission grew. And the more their passion for the mission grew, the more their desire and willingness to give to it grew.

Crossroads mission team headed to Germany

​At the same time, there was a second key hurdle Jason and Crossroads had to overcome. During that season of change in priorities at Crossroads, Jason says, “We had to be willing to abandon the lie Satan tells people that a small church cannot have a big missional impact.”

“That came by accident for us in the middle of being at the worst financial place we were ever at,” recalls Jason. It was during that time that the original pastor of Crossroads, Kelby Mullins, came to Jason with a big ask. Mullins had done ministry in India with some people that had a house for kids being rescued out of sex trafficking and they had lost their funding. Kelby came to Jason and asked if there was anything the church could do to help with the rent which was $2,000 to help get them caught up. So, Jason got up in front of the church and shared their story and made the challenge that anything over the amount of the Crossroads’ bills would be given to this need. That day they received the largest one day offering in the history of the church to that point. A total of $14,000 came in and they stayed true to their word and every penny over the amount of the church’s expenses went to the house. They paid the rent for that house in India for the whole year!

“That was one of the biggest catalysts that launched us into a life of missions because at first we were like, ‘we cant help. We’re just a church of 60 people. How are we going to bail out this need in India?’ But we put it before the church and we trusted God with it. And our little church launched on mission. That mindset was a gamechanger,” explains Jason.

Ten years later and more than 700 baptisms later, that little church of 60 now runs 1,200. But their DNA is set and their passion for missions continues to grow with them. The result? Crossroads is more committed than ever to being a church that never stops saying “We’ll take it.”
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Want to hear more from pastor Jason about Crossroads’ journey to becoming a faithful witness to their Rowlett? Tune into a special episode of “Making Progress: Deep Dive” to hear pastor Jason go deeper into the Crossroads story as he shares more of his wisdom and experience on how to have a big presence in your community.

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