Cross Point Podcast

 
Young moms have their hands full! Finding time to invest in their families, raise their little ones, work on their marriages, work inside or outside the home, serve in the church and grow spiritually, and make time for themselves and their relationships with friends is a lot to take on. It’s hard to do it all and even harder to do it all well. But, relying on God, family, and friends will get you through. Listen in and enjoy the conversation between Courtney Hargett, Meredith Nicholson, Brandi Malone, and Tara Harper!

Recent statistics from the Barna Group tell us that 70% of Millennials don’t believe that attending church is very important. When asked to rank their top priorities in life, Gen Z ranked “becoming more spiritually mature” 9th and Millennials 6th out of 12 possible choices. Those statistics are eye-popping! The reasons Millennials and Gen Z tell us that they feel the way they do about church are clear. Are we willing to listen and pivot to embrace and connect with future generations of the Christian faith? We dive into the statistics, responses of Millennials and Gen Z, and how churches can go about meeting younger generations where they are right now in this episode. Listen in and give us some feedback!

Join a few of our guys from the CREW Class (young married’s) for a brand new episode.

So many churches ask the questions: How do we reach Millennials and young people? How do we connect with the next generations of Christians? Well, who better to ask than the younger generations that we’re trying to reach? The podcast team focuses on these questions and gives some practical advice for sharing Jesus in today’s culture.

Join Jordan Byrd, Hunter Nicholson, Derrick Sumerel, and Douglas Hargett and dive in with them as they talk through this topic.

“I am a cotton-headed ninny muggins!” Who says that? Buddy the elf, that’s who! In 2003, Will Ferrell introduced the world to the 6’3” grown man, Buddy, who was one of Santa’s elves in the movie Elf. It’s a light-hearted, funny movie with plenty of one-liners, but it also provides us with lessons that we can apply to our lives as Christians, especially around the holiday season. Join in as the podcast team shares their favorite parts of the movie and what we can learn from it.

Christmas can bring chaos, and no Christmas movie shows that more than the 1990 classic, Home Alone. A young boy left behind while his family flies to Paris for vacation, Kevin learns the joys and sadness of being by himself. After overcoming obstacle after obstacle and fending off would be robbers, Harry and Marc a/k/a “The Wet Bandits”, with a master battle plan to protect his house, Kevin reunites with his family that just a few days before annoyed him and he wanted to disappear. And, along the way, he helps an older neighbor reconcile with his estranged son. Join in for this fun-filled episode as the team talks about how Home Alone teaches us many lessons about faith and the importance of family around the holidays.

Christmas movies help make the holiday season special and, for the next few weeks, we’re going to embrace that on our podcast. We’ll be talking about the Christmas season and the things that make it so special. And, we’ll talk through some ways to make it even better as we look at some of our favorite, on-screen Christmas families. In this first episode, we’ll see what we can learn from the Griswold family in the hilarious movie, Christmas Vacation.

Whether you keep church traditions or choose to change some of the “human rules” Jesus refers to in Mark 7, we must expect questions and be prepared to address them. Listen in to this final episode of the Traditions Podcast as we talk through some hurdles churches face and how to overcome.

Traditions are in most cases generational… they are handed down from past generations, held to in the present, and expected to be carried on in the future. For our churches, that means 5 or more generations of Christians with huge age gaps between the youngest and oldest have to find common ground when some traditions are continued and others are let go. That can be tricky. So, how do we make sure that every generation of Christians in our church families are seen and heard as we evaluate and change our methods to fulfill our God-given mission? Listen in as Mark, Mary Jane, and Douglas try to answer this question.

Episode 3 - Our Methods vs. Our Mission 

How do we continue to share the unchanging (Jesus) in a constantly changing world? Our culture never stops evolving, shifting, and moving. There is a new way to communicate and interact with friends and strangers alike developed every day in our fast-paced world. But, our God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit DO NOT CHANGE. We create a problem, as Christians, when we weld together an unchanging God with an always changing world. As everything around us changes, we must be willing to revisit our methods and — HOW we do things — and then take action and use all means available and necessary to fulfill our God-given mission — to reach the current and next generations of the Christian faith. Join Mary Jane, Mark, and Douglas as they spend time digging into this topic.

Traditions in the church are nothing new. Jesus talked about them. The apostles dealt with them. Some were good. Others had to go. We have to be able to distinguish between commands of God and traditions started by Christians that are not explicit commands. Once we do that, it is easier for us to make decisions about continuing or changing how we do things in our churches. Join in the discussion and comment after you have a chance to listen!