I N S A N E LY P R AC T I C A L | E V E R Y M O N T H

H O W C R O S S P O I N TC R E A T E SA W E L C O M I N GE N V I R O N M E N TF O R E V E R Y O N E

What would you do if Westboro

Church threatened to picket your

church because you refused to hurl

hateful speech at sinners in your

community?

That’s the threat Pete Wilson, the

Senior Pastor of Cross Point Church

in Nashville, Teneessee received in

2013. When Pete learned the news,

he recorded a short video for the

church and posted it on all their

social media channels.

Pete’s message?

Pray for them.

Respond to hate with love.

Answer the protest with grace.

Ironically the same kind of grace

that prompted the protest in the first

place.

If you hate the haters, you become

one,” Pete says.

Even though this video message was

sent to the congregation to help

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How Cross Point Creates a Welcoming Environemnt for Everyone

them prepare for a potential protest,

it could have easily been the sermon

on any given Sunday.

Grace to the grace killers isn’t a

slogan but a way of life at Cross

Point. The church’s response was

simply a reflection of their DNA.

When you can just be yourself, you

don’t need a PR plan.

One Sunday at Cross Point

Cross Point is one church with many

locations. But on a beautiful fall

Sunday in Nashville, I visited the

downtown campus, located just a

mile and a half from where the

Tennessee Titans play professional

football.

The neighborhood is somewhat

gritty, full of manufacturing plants

and warehouses. And Cross Point

fits right in.

In 2012, the church moved into the

former Rexel Electric building, turning

the space into a house of worship

yet somehow maintaining the

industrial feel. To the left, there’s a

warehouse that looks abandoned.

To the right, a few scattered shipping

containers dot the landscape.

When you exit the Interstate, the first

thing you notice is the huge sign in

the parking lot. It turns out, the city

wouldn’t allow the church to tear

down the sign or alter the structure.

So a fresh coat of paint and a

website address covers the old

electric company logo. A nod to the

area and a tip of the hat to the

history of the neighborhood.

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There’s one lone tree soaring into

the parking lot, the only green

against a backdrop of grey, a sign

that there’s something alive,

something growing. Down on the

ground, volunteers in bright orange

vests direct traffic.

There are signs of

life in a lot of

churches –

passionate worship,

exciting teaching,

and a welcoming

environment. But at

Cross Point, the

signs of life begin

outside the building.

The smiles on the faces of the

volunteers get bigger as you walk

toward the front doors. And Instead

of handshakes, there are high-fives. I

notice a few kids playing giant Jenga

blocks and something that looks like

a keg.

The games and the keg full of root

beer were there to create the mood

for a series called House Party. The

Cross Point team thinks of things like

this to create a welcoming

environment for everyone, and show

guests they aren’t afraid to have a

little fun. It might be

church, but here,

there’s a greater

chance for a belly

laugh than a guilty

punch to the gut.

I stepped inside the

lobby, an inviting

space that matches

the neighborhood.

To my right, there’s a picture-taking

station built out of pallets where you

can snap a picture and share on

social media. I bet Nashville is full of

pallet repurposing experts.

“We’re industrial chic with duct tape

and zip ties. Lots of wood, concrete

and a ton of intentionality,” says

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“We’re industrial chic with duct tape and zip ties. Lots of wood, concrete and a ton of intentionality.”

Stephen Brewster, the Creative Arts Pastor. This might describe the facility,

but it also describes the church.

Straight ahead is a welcome center, staffed by a volunteer wearing a t-shirt

that says “everyone’s welcome” and standing in front of dozens of Cross Point

gift bags ready to give to first time guests. This church is prepared for people.

To my left is a coffee station, where I can grab a Starbucks before heading

into the service. The Starbucks was actually a surprise, not that the church

would provide coffee, but that it would be something so corporate and

seemingly anti-hipster.

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H OW C R O S S P O I N T C H U R C H C R E AT E S A W E LCO M I N G E N V I R O N M E N T

If I had to give a grade to my guest experience so far, it would be an A+.

Friendly volunteers in the parking lot, fun music playing in the lobby where I

could grab a cup of coffee, and intentionality everywhere I look. It looks like

Cross Point was prepared for my visit.

The Startup Story

Cross Point church launched in September of 2002, when about 150 people

showed up for the first service.

“I was scared to come out,” Pete said in a video about the church’s history. “I

was like, ‘I don’t know if I can preach this message. I don’t know if anyone will

show up.’”

People have been showing up for the better part of 15 years now. But why? In

a city full of churches, why are so many people gravitating to Cross Point?

Their website provides a glimpse into the startup story. “We knew Nashville

didn’t need just another church. So we spent some time dreaming about the

kind of church we would want to be a part

of.”

Cross Point set out to be “a community of

believers that is radically devoted to Christ,

irrevocably committed to one another,

and relentlessly dedicated to reaching those

outside God's family with the Gospel of

Christ.” That’s the official vision statement

of the church, something they talk about

collectively every year.

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Their desire is to be a community

where everyone's welcome, because

nobody's perfect, and anything's

possible.

Over the years, that slogan has

become a way of life at Cross Point.

It wasn’t created during a strategic

planning meeting and it’s not the

work of a church growth consultant.

It was more organic than that.

Stephen Brewster said the statement

already had momentum when they

decided to print it on a bulletin. The

words were core and the church

embraced the heart behind them.

When it was printed for the first time,

the unofficial slogan became the

official mantra.

“When you find something that has

momentum, just chase it”, says

Steven. “Find out where God is

working and just go there.”

“I have no real proof, but I think

growth really took off when we

made that statement our slogan. It

just sums up who we are and what

we are about, and people noticed,”

says Eve Annunizo, the director of

Volunteers. Eve says the statement

sums up the vision of the church, but

in a statement short enough for

Twitter or something you can print

on a t-shirt.

Today, greeters wear shirts that say

“everyone’s welcome.” When you get

baptized, you get a shirt that says,

“anything possible.” And “nobody’s

perfect” – that describes the

message you’ll hear at Cross Point –

a message of grace and hope.

The Service

Cross Point is a big church. The

auditorium seats about 1,600 people

and there are multiple services. But

even though the church is big, it feels

friendly. They say Nashville is a small

town dressed up like a big city.

Maybe Cross Point is a small church

wearing mega-church clothes.

There are a lot of people available to

help me find a seat, but it’s not too

difficult. I choose a seat upstairs,

with a great view of the large-screen

and the large stage. There’s a five-

minute countdown that looks like it

was custom created for today’s

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series. It’s professional, like

everything else I’ve witnessed so far.

As the countdown hits zero, the band

takes the stage - six musicians and

three singers, a mash up of high-

energy beats and. Later in the

service, the band returns to lead

worship again. This time, it’s a

backdrop for dozens of baptisms.

One by one, people are immersed in

water as the entire church worships

and celebrates. It’s refreshingly

unscripted, you don’t even know the

names of the people being baptized.

But you’re somehow a participant,

not just a spectator.

The service is simple. A few songs. A

welcome from a staff member with

an announcement or two. And a

message from Pete.

The Message

When Pete takes the stage, the first

thing you notice is he’s cool. Not

regular cool, but Nashville cool, which

is an entirely different level. If the

building reflects downtown Nashville,

with the repurposed wood and

Industrial chic décor, Pete reflects the

people of Nashville, with a wardrobe

straight out of Nashville’s hipster

east side.

But when Pete starts talking, you

quickly realize he’s not pretentious

or arrogant. He’s a regular person

speaking to regular people. In many

ways, he comes across as the anti-

mega-church pastor. Or at least, he

beats back the image of what many

people think of when they think of a

mega-church pastor.

Pete delivers the sermon with an

approachable attitude. The

message is truthful and thoughtful,

but not hard or shallow. He’s real.

He’s funny. He’s got the heart of a

pastor.

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“I know that every Sunday there are

people looking at me and saying,

‘bogus, bogus, bogus,’” Pete says.

”They don’t believe a word of it.”

So Pete crafts his messages with

these doubters, seekers or whatever

you want to call them in mind. Life-

long Christians will find something to

chew on, but people not yet a part of

the faith are not pushed away. Pete

explains:

“We really believe that life is messy.

It is messy for Christians, it’s messy

for non-Christians. Whether it is a

relational aspect of life that is falling

apart, whether our kids that have

gone haywire, whether it is a health

issue, a financial issue, career issue,

life is just messy. We wanted to

create environments where people

could bring that mess with them and

they didn’t have to pretend to be

somebody that they weren’t. One of

our taglines that we say a lot is that

everybody is welcome because

nobody is perfect, but anything is

possible. It is possible for there to be

transformation in their life. We

choose to believe the best and that

God can work in their life.”

A Welcoming Environment for

Everyone

It’s one thing for a church to say

they are welcoming to all people. It’s

something altogether different to

follow through on that promise.

It might sound overly simple, but one

of the things that sets Cross Point

apart is their ability to make

everyone feel welcome. It’s

embedded in their DNA, comes from

their heart, extends to their facility

and permeates their service.

Whether you’ve been a Christian for

a decade or you’re looking for a

place to explore faith, Cross Point

wants you know to know you’re

welcome. As an outsider you won’t

simply feel welcome, you will be

welcome. Cross Point is an authentic

environment, a church full of real

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people who are not pretending to be

perfect.

One striking feature of the church

service, and the entire church at a

deeper level, is the balance they

strike between authenticity and

professionalism. The service was

well-done,

technologically

sound, and well-

produced.

But it was not so

polished that it

came across as

slick. The quality

was there, but it

wasn’t a

performance. For example, the

campus pastor who made the

announcements stumbled through a

few sentences as he welcomed

everyone to church. He

communicated well, but he wasn’t

overly-scripted or overly-rehearsed.

He was a real person, genuinely

welcoming everyone to church.

Honestly, this tension is tough to

maintain. Many churches avoid

planning and polish, saying they

want to be led by the spirit. The

result is a disorganized and

decidedly unwelcoming environment.

Other churches produce and polish

everything, stripping the life out of

the service in the name of

professionalism.

I asked Stephen Brewster

about this.

“We give our campus

pastors permission to be

who they are. We want

them to communicate

effectively, but not be

robotic. They might have bullet

points, but not necessarily a script.

We also want them to be

themselves, so Chris is a jokester and

Zach is high energy. They take the

information and make it who they

are.”

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