When Godly People Do Ungodly Things
Female Small Group
When: Tuesdays, Beginning September 15, 7-8:30 p.m.
Where: Sarah Simmons home
What to bring: When Godly People Do Ungodly Things study guide by Beth Moore & Your Bible
Contact: Carissa Calhoun
Join us for seven weeks as we journey with Beth Moore and 1 Samuel 12:20–25 as our guide, to pursue how we as Christians can arm ourselves against temptation and learn how to help other fallen believers.

A Guide to Purpose and Fulfillment
Single Female Small Group
When: Tuesdays, Beginning September 15, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Where: Panera in Chester
What to Bring: Sacred Singleness: The Set Apart Girl’s Guide to Purpose and Fulfillment by Leslie Ludy & Your Bible
Contact: Holly Paulette
Sometimes it’s hard being a single young woman! Sacred Singleness gives every woman the inspiration to live counter to the culture and find amazing opportunity in this sacred season.

Wild Goose Chase
Guys Small Group
When: Tuesdays, Beginning September 15, 7-8:30 p.m.
Where: Patrick Edmunds’ Home
What to Bring: Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson
Contact: Mike Talley
The early Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit of God the ‘Wild Goose’. Why is that? We will talk about six cages that keep us from roaming free with the Wild Goose and living the spiritual adventure God destined us to.

Dave Ramsey Financial University
Coed Small Group
When: Tuesdays, Beginning September 8, 7-9 p.m.
Where: Ironbridge Baptist Church
How long: 13 weeks
Cost: $99, (some scholarships available)
This 91 day, life-changing program teaches you how to make the right decisions with your money. You’ll be empowered with the practical skills and confidence needed to achieve your financial goals and experience true financial peace! On average, participants pay off $5,300 in debt and save $2,700 in just 13 weeks.

The Dream Team: Married Couples Small Group
Couples Small Group
When: Thursdays, Beginning September 17, 7-8:30 p.m.
Where: John and Rebecca Calhoun’s Home
What to bring: Dream Team: The Power of Two by Tommy Nelson & Your Bible
Contact: Rebecca and John Calhoun
We marry with hopes and dreams and sometimes life gets so busy we forget or lose sight of those dreams. Join us as we look at our “dream team” and pursue not only God honoring relationships but God given dreams together.

Hey Everybody and Happy New Year!

I hope you were able to take some time and reflect where God has taken you over the past year.  2008 was crazy, stressful, and incredible at the same time, as Amy and I stepped out at God’s calling and took over a small business.  Some of us had loved ones go through sickness or pass on; and some welcomed a newborn in 2008!  One thing’s for sure–we’re all in this together, with God in control!  I’m grateful for all of the new friends I have met over the past year, and thank God for the community he is building with CrossRoads.

We’ve planned out some events for early 2009 to get the year going.  Small groups will be starting the first week of March.  More to come on that.  On the left sidebar should be an updated list of upcoming events.

Our next activity will be Friday, January 23 at John and Rebecca’s house.  We’ll be having a Nintendo Wii tournament in the main living room, with other board games going on in the other rooms.  We’ll also be serving chili — bring tortilla chips, and your favorite chili topping (cheese, sour cream, etc., etc) or a soda.  Please find childcare for this event!

We’ll also be holding a Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, January 25, at Ironbridge Church.  The time is 12:30, and the room is to be announced.  We’re hoping that childcare will be available during this time.  The purpose of this meeting is to get everyone’s input on the ministry and set some goals for the new year.  We’ll also be casting a vision for partnering with the Angel Food Ministries as a missions project.

As far as community-building activities, other events include a Superbowl party, Large Group dinner, Snowtubing or iceskating, a mystery dinner playhouse (I am intrigued), karaoke night, kickball cookout, and a CrossRoads Retreat at Pocahontas State Park.  We’re desigining some events to be welcoming for children, and some for adults only.

I’m excited about what lies ahead! 

We are having our 4th annual CrossRoads Christmas Party on Friday, December 19th.  The main event every year is our white elephant gift exchange.  Everybody coming is asked to bring an inexpensive gift (under $5), it can be something silly, a “re-gift”, or something nice.  It usually winds up being an uproarious time of fun.  We’ve had some great gifts over the years.  If you’ve never participated in such an event, here’s a background on the White Elephant Gift Exhcange (also known as Dirty Santa, Yankee Swap, or Chinese gift exchange) from the wonderful Wikipedia:

Gifts are wrapped, but are not labeled to reflect a specific sender or recipient. Gifts are typically inexpensive, humorous items or used items from home; the term white elephant refers to a gift whose cost exceeds its usefulness.  All participants draw a number (from a hat, perhaps) to determine their order.  The participant with #1 unwraps any gift from the pile and then shows it to everyone. Each successive participant, in the order determined from the drawing, can either 1) “steal” an already opened gift (if there’s one they really like) or 2) be adventurous and go for a wrapped gift from the pile. If the participant chooses to steal, the person whose gift is stolen now repeats their turn and either 1) steals another person’s gift (they cannot immediately steal back the gift that was just stolen from them) or 2) unwraps a new gift.  This cycle of stealing can sometimes continue for a long time, until a new gift is chosen, at which point the turn is passed to the participant with the next number from the drawing. (An alternative to the drawing is to sit in a circle and take turns in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.) 

Since items can be stolen, the item in your possession is not yours until the game is over. However, this is often amended with a rule declaring a gift “dead” or “safe” after it has been stolen a certain number of times (usually two or three). This helps the process go more smoothly (avoiding, for example, the hypothetical scenario of the same gift being stolen by every successive participant) and limits the disadvantage of being among the first to choose gifts.  The person who picked first also has the option of picking last or keeping the gift already in hand. After they exchange or decide to keep their gift, the turn ends and there is no additional swapping.

So come, and bring a friend.  We’ll have live music, some goodies to eat, and other fun activities.  See you there!

We’ll be having our annual Thanksgiving Dinner Tuesday, November 25th.  The location is Aaron and Bonnie Wells’ house.  Arrive at 6:30.  Bring a side dish or dessert–we’ll be passing around sign up sheets in small group and on Sunday morning.  This is always a great event:  Invite a friend and let’s fill the house!

Our Scavenger Hunt is Friday, November 7th, at 7pm.

We’ll be meeting at Rick and Tammy Walters’ home in Chester.  E-mail me for directions - crossroads616@gmail.com.

• Scavenger hunt starts at 7:00 sharp!  You need to be there at least by 7:15 if you want to participate and you WON’T WANT TO MISS THIS!
• We need to find out who has a video camera that we can use.  Each team will videotape as they go get the items off of the list.  Contact me by replying to this email if you can bring a video camera.
• Parents will need to find childcare!
• We need a good turn out if we want this to work!
• Please bring a snack to share
• BRING A FRIEND!  This a great and fun outreach event.
• Dress warm because we will be outside some of the night

Rick and Tammy are planning the items on the list.  The examples they gave were:

1. “Get a bag of marshmallows”
2. “Go through a drive-thru window and order in pig-latin”

…you get the idea.  When we reconvene at Rick and Tammy’s, we’ll watch the videotapes of each team’s conquest.  SEE YOU THERE!  Any questions, please let me know.

Ironbridge is hosting a “lock-in” this New Year’s Eve for the Youth. The organizers are in need of volunteers willing to chaperone shifts during the night. Jennifer Moore is our contact. Here’s more details:

I wanted to give you all some details of the lock-in. It will start at 8pm on Dec. 31 and go to 8am on Jan. 1. We have a band coming to ring in the New Year which is a guy out of Virginia Beach whose name is Trey Rigdon. You can listen to some of his songs on myspace.com/treyrigdon. We also have Dustin Rolfe(Kristen Darden’s husband) coming to speak. We are still working on the main game/fun activity for the night. We also will have pizza that evening and snacks throughout the evening. Paul May is going to cook a breakfast that morning before we leave.

We can use any help we can get. It would be nice to have a few young couples to commit to chaperone for shifts throughout the night. We have to secure the building and walk outside the perimeter of the building throughout the evening for security and to make sure no youth tries to leave. The rule will be if they drive to the church their keys will be turned over to us until the next morning. If they are outside the building unsupervised they will have to go home. We are really excited about this event but it is going to take a lot of people to pull it off.

I would appreciate it if you could talk it up amongst your group and let me know of anyone who is interested in serving for this event. They can call me at 778-7402 or email me at Jenmoore98@aol.com to let me know they want to serve or if they have any questions. Once again thanks so much for your help.

Blake and Ryan have started a Small Group that meets on Saturday mornings.  If Tuesday evenings are not convenient for you, this may be an option.  Here’s the description from Ryan:

Bible study Small Group
Young Adult Men or Women, Single and Married
When: Saturday, 8:00 - 10:00 am
Where: Ryan and Sherilyn Evans’ House
Contact: Ryan Evans at revans05@gmail.com
What to bring: Bring Your Bible and a Journal that you have been taking notes in.

We will be going through Romans-Jude at a fast pace and this group will be for people who want to understand who Christ is and how to live in accordance with Him. We expect a lot in terms of commitment and desire to dig in deep into how deep and how wide and how great His love is for us.

Blake and I were going to stay home with the kids on Tuesday’s and do a study throughout the week and then talk about it on Tuesday. Apparently, Tuesday doesn’t work for some people so John asked Blake and I to lead a study on some different day. After talking it over, we decided that Saturday morning would be the best and we were going to really get into the bible. We will be going from Romans-Jude in 10 weeks, so you can imagine there will be work involved. Many people have never read all the way through the bible, or even the New Testament for that matter. We think that should change. The plan is to follow the outline below and keep a journal where you write down any “aha” moments or questions about things that might not make sense and then we will share, encourage, and exhort each other while holding each other accountable so we don’t have any “I didn’t have time to do the study this week” type excuses.

Please, if you are free Tuesdays, I encourage you to join one of the pre-existing groups which are led by people much smarter than Blake and I. If, for some crazy reason, you choose to do even more bible studying than what you’re doing for your Tuesday study, meet with us also. It is for anyone who is serious about making a committment to God and the group to sharpen your sword and understand the mysteries of God.

Week 1: Romans
Week 2: 1 Corinthians
Week 3: 2 Corinthians
Week 4: Galatians/Ephesians
Week 5: Phillipians/Colossians
Week 6: 1,2 Thessalonians
Week 7: 1,2 Timothy/Titus/Philemon
Week 8: Hebrews
Week 9: James/ 1 Peter
Week 10: 2 Peter/1,2,3 John/

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, 10/7), is our Young Adult Small Groups Kickoff night!  Come out to the 2nd Floor Youth Room at Ironbridge Church at 7pm.  Each small group leader will be sharing more information and talking about the goals of his or her small group.  We will also have a time of worship!  Childcare will be provided.

Please check out our new discussion forum for more details about Small Groups forming this fall.  If you feel called lead a small group, I would encourage you to join a small group forming this Fall and share your desire with the group leader.  He or she will support and equip you in starting your own small group in the Spring.

Blake has set up a discussion forum for CrossRoads where you can read/post information with other young adults in our group!  The link is www.crossroads616.freeforums.org.  You can view many of the forums as a guest, but to post, you must sign up for an account.  The various forums include:

• General Chit-Chat
• Prayer Requests
• Detailed Information on Upcoming Events
• Stories and Testimonies
• Questions about God/Christianity/Bible
• Fun Stuff

And more.  I’m working on getting a permanent link on the top row of this web page.  Please check the forum often and contribute!  It is a great communication tool.

Kickoff night:  Tuesday, October 7th, Ironbridge Church 2nd Floor Youth Room, at 7pm.
Come for a time of worship and discover the small groups for young adults forming this fall.  Meet the small group leaders and get more information about the groups that are forming.  Childcare will be provided for parents at the kickoff meeting.
 
Here is a list of some of the groups already forming:
 
Coed Bible Study
Young Adult Men and Women, Singles and Couples
When: Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Where: Aaron and Bonnie Wells’ House
Contact: Aaron Wells
 
Coed Bible Study on 1st Corinthians.
 
 
Women’s Small Group
Young Adult Women, Single and Married
When: Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Where: To Be Announced
What to Bring: Captivating by Staci Eldredge, Bible, and notebook
Contact: Carissa Calhoun
 
You are beautiful in a way God so intricately planned for this world: to inspire and to live out His legacy in His image with a feminine heart. You are part of the greatest love story of all time; take your position of the sought after bride, not just of any man, but Christ himself. Life Abundant awaits with this invitation. Each week, prepare your heart to dig deep into your life and reveal the woman you already are- Captivating. Come join us as we embark on this grand adventure together.
 
 
Girls’ Bible Study
Young Adult Women, Single and Married
When: Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Where: Amy Talley’s House
Contact: Amy Talley
 
We will be going through a book entitled Authentic Woman by Jena Forehand.  Through this study, you will peel back lies to discover who you really are and who God made you to be.  My prayer for this study is simply, “God, I just want to be all that you created me to be.”  It is time you discovered the truths that will transform your life into an authentic woman for the glory of God!  Come join us for the investigation that will change your life forever!
 
 
Guys’ Small Group
Young Adult Men, Single or Married
When: Tuesdays, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Where: Panera Bread, Chester
What to Bring: Yourself, a Bible or Devotional Book, an Appetite
Contact: Mike Talley
 
We’ll be gathering together over coffee to share what we’ve been reading in our devotion time.  We will motivate and encourage each other to spend time in the Bible regularly and share what God is teaching us.  Whether you’re new to reading the Bible, haven’t read in a while, or you devote time daily, crack open the spine and join us.