March 2011

In March of 2011, Crosswind Church sent Jacqueline and me to Church of the Highlands, in Birmingham, Alabama. They were no longer meeting in Mountain Brook High School, but instead, were meeting in a state-of-the-art, $20-million-dollar complex that had seating for over 3,000. They were running multiple services each weekend, and as a way to continue growing, they had implemented the multiple-campus approach. This was one of the main things that attracted us to go, to see how they did extension campuses (6) as portable church setups.

As a staff, the Crosswind Team had decided that with all of the new growth the previous fall, Easter might be a bigger day than we were equipped to handle at our campus. We opted to consider an off-site location for meeting that day. We figured that we would have plenty of room if we met at Westminster High School. Excitement was generated from the anticipation of seeing all of the Crosswind family in one service; it would be worth all of the extra work it would take to make the day possible.

As we began to dream about the endeavor, I suggested that Pastor Dave send Jacqueline and me down to Alabama. She had been talking about going to shadow their assimilation pastor, who was already helping us implement the newly re-visioned volunteer central. I had also been talking to their small groups’ pastor, since I was taking over that role for Crosswind. I told Pastor that we could make the trip down a 3-in-one trip, which we did — only it actually became a 4-in-one trip! We were able to see how to prepare and set up a portable church experience at a school. We also set up meetings for both Jacqueline and myself to shadow respective ministry leaders in the areas we were being tasked to lead for Crosswind.

On the last night that we were at Highlands, we had a dinner appointment with the campus pastor of the Greystone portable campus. His name is Joshua Canizaro. Josh graciously sat with us for a couple of hours and answered every question we had about how to do mobile church, when to possibly launch a second Crosswind campus and what steps were involved, and who would be needed for such endeavors. As our time with Pastor Josh was drawing to a close, he asked a similar question to the one my brother-in-law had asked a couple of months earlier… “What about you; when are you starting a church?”  Me: “I’m not sure; besides, I’m not here to talk about me… I’m here to talk about Crosswind.” Josh: “That’s nice, and we have… Now I want to talk about you; what’s holding you back?”

Before I could answer, Jacqueline chimed in… “Well, my husband has Crohn’s disease, so we need group insurance. We need a job, because we have several large monthly bills…” As I heard her saying those things, my heart sank. Pastor Josh put his hands up, and with his eyes, asked me… “ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Not only had my excuses taken a toll on my faith, but now I was being made aware that I had poisoned my wife’s heart. I mean, Jacqueline is “Mrs. Faith”… she is always seeing the bright side and believing for the impossible!

I bowed my head and prayed a prayer of repentance right at the table. I asked God and my wife to forgive me for allowing lies and excuses to stop me from pursuing God’s plan for our lives. For the next 30 minutes or so, Pastor Josh encouraged us and once again hinted that God might have something bigger in mind than even we were thinking. He asked, “How do you feel preaching in front of large audiences?”  Me: “I don’t know… How large? I’ve probably preached to a few hundred at one time.” Josh: “No, I’m talking thousands… you might want to practice.” Me: speechless. JZ: “He’ll be fine.” Why was this kind of size being brought up again? I wasn’t asking for it, and honestly felt and still feel overwhelmed by the very notion. All I know is that I felt the very real presence of God during our conversation.

As we moved outside in preparation to leave, Pastor Josh said that he wanted to pray for us. Just before he began to pray, he looked at both of us and said, “This whole process is going to be more painful than you want it to be, but it will be worth it.” As he began to pray, he asked God for my healing; he prayed for our future and asked that God would surround us with support and confirmations. One of the last things that Pastor Josh prayed for was that Pastor Dave would push us out of the nest as soon as we got back. I was less than thrilled with those words as they came out of his mouth.

Brian