SPRINGDALE, Ark. – Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas announced some exciting things over the last several weeks including their 10-year vision for all four of their campuses, as well as increasing their amount of giving through the Cooperative Program.
Out of 50,000 churches across the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Cross Church is the 2nd highest CP giving church in the SBC. The announced increase of $50,000 brings their total CP giving to $1.4 million.
“Like many other churches, we were uncertain what the Covid crisis was going to mean for our church in many ways, including financially,” Nick Floyd, Senior Pastor of Cross Church Northwest Arkansas, said. “God has blessed and taken care of us in great ways. Ever since we got aggressive several years ago in our CP giving, we have seen the blessing of God in our church. We kept our budget as a church flat for this next year with all the uncertainty but found ways to cut back at home so we could give more away through the Cooperative Program.”
The Cooperative Program is the unified plan of giving through which cooperating Arkansas Baptist churches give in support of Arkansas Baptist and Southern Baptist missions and ministries. The Cooperative Program is the primary funding mechanism for the Southern Baptist Convention’s purpose of combining and directing resources for the advance of the Gospel at home and around the world. Cooperation helps fuel the fire of Southern Baptist missions and ministries.
“We really do believe our church can change the world. But we equally believe we can’t reach the world alone,” Floyd said. “We’re able to do way more when we combine our efforts and resources with thousands of other SBC churches than we could do alone.”
This announcement coincides with their vision, titled ‘Decade of Love’, that will help guide the church in their next decade of ministry. Floyd said the initial plan was to roll out their vision the same month the church would celebrate its 150-year anniversary in May, but due to COVID-19, they delayed it until September. The church will celebrate its anniversary at the end of October.
The word ‘Love’ in the title means more than you think. ‘L’ stands for Legacy, ‘O’ stands for Obedience to Christ’s Commission, ‘V’ stands for Vulnerable, and ‘E’ stands for Equipping pastors and missionaries.
“What we are doing as a church is simply emphasizing who we have been and what we have done for the last 150 years. We are a church that is dead set on reaching people,” Floyd said.
One of the goals they’ve set to reach by 2030 under these categories includes more church plants and missionaries. Their plan is “to plant 10 churches in strategic cities around the country and world who have a global, reproducing heartbeat.” They also have a goal of sending 200 people a year on short term mission trips with hopes of sending 50 people into full-time missions by 2030.
Floyd made the comment during the vision sermon that he hopes people leave their church, which may seem like an odd statement for a pastor to make. But what he means is he hopes God calls on and uses people and families in their congregation to go where the Gospel needs to be heard – whether that’s at a church plant somewhere in America or a missionary overseas.
“We simply have a desire to reach the next generation, plant churches, love the vulnerable among us, and help equip and encourage as many pastors, churches, and missionaries as we can,” Floyd said.
To learn more about Cross Church and their 10-year vision, click here.