CrossWalk - Cross Culture Church RDU

What kind of life do you have? Most people would probably answer that question with one word, "ordinary." Most of us think of ourselves as ordinary people who live ordinary lives, but the truth is, as far as God is concerned, there's no such thing as, "ordinary." We're in the middle of a Christmas series entitled, “Close Encounters of the Most Important Kind,” walking through a biblical accounts of close encounters with angels at the time of the birth of Christ. Today looking at Mary's close encounter with the angel Gabriel as he brought to Mary the news that she would give birth to the Savior of the world.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Steven Spielberg's classic film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," a movie about humans making direct contact with a non-human life form. So today as we kick off the Christmas season, we're starting a new series entitled "Close Encounters of the Most Important Kind." Over the next four weeks Pastor Clay is going to take us through some "close encounters" with angels that took place at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. As we look at these encounters we might just find some important truths for our own lives. Today we're in Luke chapter 1 to take a closer look at a close encounter between a priest named Zacharias and the angel Gabriel.

DNA, most of us can remember from our high school biology class that DNA is sort of a blueprint for the human body that determines much of the characteristics of a person. The body of Christ here on earth is the church. So, shouldn't the church have DNA that causes it to have the characteristics of Christ? Today we're wrapping up our series entitled, Cross Culture Re-Connect. Each of the subjects that we've covered over the last six weeks are "connected" and together, form the foundation of everything we do as a church.

DNA, in the human body it carries the genetic code responsible for who we are as individuals. In the Bible the church is referred to as a body, so does a church have DNA? We're nearing the end the "Cross Culture Re-Connect" series, exploring what makes Cross Culture Church who we are. We've looked at things like our name, our strategy, our passion, our vision and our purpose. Today, and next week, we look at Cross Culture's DNA, our Defining Non-negotiable Absolutes. The seven statement that Pastor Clay is going to share with us over the next two weeks form the foundation for all of the other things we've talked about. In fact, our DNA is the foundation for everything we do here at Cross Culture Church.

In the culture in which we live today there is an increasing number of people who have little to no church background. Most people know that a church has something to do with religion. They might even connect the church to Jesus, but they may have no idea what the purpose of the church actually is. Today Pastor Clay is picking up where he left off last week, discussing the purpose of Cross Culture Church and looking at who we are as a local body of believers.

What is the purpose of a church? As we continue our series called, Cross Culture ReConnect, today we're looking at the purpose of Cross Culture Church. A church's purpose is glorify God, to teach people about God and to lead people to Christ. There are general ideas about the purpose of the church but how each church carries those out may vary. Today, Pastor Clay is going to walk us through what is needed to realize Cross Culture's purpose.

We're continuing our series entitled, 'Cross Culture Re-Connect,' and today Pastor Clay is going walk us through the vision for Cross Culture Church. As you'll hear today, Cross Culture Church's vision for the future may sound bold, but we believe nothing is too difficult for our God. We also believe God wants to see people come into a relationship with Him, and Cross Culture Church wants to be used by God to change the eternal destinies of as many as possible.

Passion and worship, it's easy to see a correlation between those two subjects and the common ground where they meet is the cross. We're continuing our series entitled, "Cross Culture ReConnect," talking a few weeks to talk about who we are as a church. Today Pastor Clay is going to talk about our passion as a church and why it's important that we understand that we have something to be very passionate about. He's also going to introduce the second half of our strategy, our large group gatherings, also known as worship. Our worship pastor, Jon Spallino, is going to share his heart about the importance of worship in our lives as fully-devoted followers of Jesus.

Today we're beginning a new series entitled, 'Cross Culture Re-Connect,' that focuses on exactly who we are as a church here at Cross Culture Church. As people come to Cross Culture, we want to make sure they understand just exactly who we are as a church, and what we see as God's mission for us. That's why over the next several weeks, we're going to be hearing Pastor Clay talk some about our passion, purpose, and plans as we see God leading us. We're also going to highlight some of our ministries here at Cross Culture and hear from some of the folks that have leadership roles in those ministries. Today, we're going to reconnect with the origins and reasons for our name as a church. Some church names are based on a community where they are located. Some are based on biblical names. Some names are selected because they're catchy. But for Cross Culture Church our name means so much more!

We've come to the last message in our four month series in the book of Philippians entitled, "Heartbeat" and today, Pastor Clay is going to walk us through the last part of chapter 4 where the Apostle Paul makes what seems to many to be an absolutely astounding statement. Paul claims to have found the secret to being contentment. We all have experienced contentment in some area of our life before, but as we'll see today, God promises us a contentment that is far better than what most people have experienced in their lives.