Distinctives
Crossroads is a Grace-based, Gospel-driven, Christ-Centered Church
By grace-based, we mean that we relate to each other on the basis of God's grace and not on age, sex, race, nationality, culture, career, possessions or achievements (Colossians 3:11).
God accepts us because of Christ's perfect righteousness and not on our own merit. This passive righteousness which comes by faith alone, reminds us that we receive forgiveness not only for our past sins, but also for our present and future sins. This is unique to Christianity and possible only because we have complete acceptance through Christ’s perfect record. Therefore, as we're accepted by God, we can freely relate and accept one another by grace.
By gospel-driven, we mean that everything we do- worship, fellowship, Bible study, etc.- is driven by the good news of Jesus Christ. The underlying motives are the love of God and the desire to bring seekers to experience that same love. When we’re gripped by the gospel, it compels our hearts to glorify God in everything we do. We're not all fully like that, but we all strive to be.
We've come to understand that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. We therefore obey God not out of duty, but delight. Why? While 5,000+ religions in the world extol their adherents to obey in order to be accepted by God, we obey because we have been accepted by God. These truths become the engine of our ministry, and thus we are gospel-driven.
As a grace-based, gospel-driven Christ-centered church, we seek to share the greatest asset that every believer possesses- the gospel of Jesus Christ- which is greater than any achievement and worth more than any portfolio. The gospel is both bad news and good news to all mankind. It is bad news because the Bible teaches that no one is perfect and everyone falls short of God's standard; it is good news because the son of God came to live the perfect life we could not live and pay the penalty that we could not pay (death on the cross).
It is bad news because the gospel teaches that we're more evil and wicked than we dare imagine; it is good news because in Christ Jesus, we can be more loved and accepted than we dare hope. The gospel addresses two inadequacies in every person-pride and insecurity. The bad news destroys pride; the good news destroys insecurity. We cannot hold to pride because the gospel condemns any form of religiosity and self-righteous legalism. And we can let go of insecurity because the gospel teaches that we are fully accepted on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not our own.
Crossroads utilizes the G-12 Cell Church Model to G.R.O.W. in communities of grace. Through the G-12 model, we seek to selflessly serve and love one another within a small community of believers. Every member and visitor has the wonderful privilege of belonging to a small group of 3-12 people, where Bible study, fellowship, accountability, fun and laughter take place. To find out more about it, the best way is to- visit one!
In the mid-1980's, there were over 200 Korean churches in the 5 boroughs of New York City. There was no EM that I knew of then. Also, most of the youth groups, including my church, spoke primarily in English. In the intervening ten years, according to a survey from Dr. Stephen Linton of Columbia University, the Korean church lost 19 out of 20 of their young people to the world. Of the several thousand 2nd generation Korean-Americans that were surveyed and attended church in their teen years, only 5% of them returned to church, ANY church, after their college years. When I learned of this truth about nine years ago, the Lord burdened my heart to reach the 2nd generation KA's. In NJ, the calling widened to all Asian-Americans. And in MD, the call of Revelation 7:9 widened my vision of the church to a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural ministry.