This is the video we showed on our 1st anniversary Sunday at Crossway Baptist Church. We hope you enjoy seeing the journey we've made so far. God has done some great and we're excited to see what He has in our future.
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I'm sure you can agree, but the last few months have just flown by with all the summer busyness. It has been a good summer and we have seen much spiritual growth in our church in the individuals and families. We shared with you in our previous update about a family who was beginning to get involved and who has a teen boy that did not attend church with them, although he did come out for our first teen event. Well, since that time the family has continued to grow and become more involved with the church. They even VOLUNTEERED to host a Sunday evening family night in their home and have done so for the last few weeks. During our Bible study time, they are beginning to ask questions about different things they have been reading in the Scriptures and have been discussing between each other throughout the week. Lots of questions and seeking Truth. Their teen son has begun to attend church with them as well and we are seeing him beginning to break out of his shell. Please be in prayer for this family and their continued growth in the Lord.
We also want to acquaint you with a precious lady that God brought to our church the very first Sunday. She has faithfully attend the services since week 1 and almost immediately began volunteering in the nursery. Over the past few months, she has stepped up and began filling the role of a nursery director with a sincere love for the children and desire to teach them the Bible. Let me tell you, she takes her "job" serious! As an example, last she week she was teaching on Daniel and the lions den, so she prepared an entire lesson for the kids (18 months - 3 years old) to act out along with the story. She had faces for each character in the story for the kids to see, a signet ring to stamp in playdough, a collapsible tunnel for the kids to crawl inside the "den", paper plate lions faces for the kids to make, and even cupcakes decorated to look like lions! A few weeks back she convinced her daughter and son-in-law to let her bring her 3 year old grandson to church with her. She told us that she is praying that she'll be able to get the whole family in church through the influence of her grandson being in church. Please pray that God would work on the hearts of her family and that they would see their need for Him in the lives. Would you also pray that her husband would be able to attend church with her - he currently is having to work on Sundays, so we are praying with her that his schedule can change. Some of the other summer activities that we have enjoyed at Crossway have been another church picnic at one of our beautiful parks here (on that Sunday we had our 3rd highest attendance with 11 first time visitors in the service - some of our people also had family members who have never attended the church come out for the picnic), and we have recently had another TenxB (teen) activity at our local Walmart that was a photo/video scavenger hunt (again, we had teens bring friends with them who do not attend the church). This coming Sunday we will be having a Summer Graduation Program for our kids during the service. Throughout the summer we have been teaching them the books of the Bible along with different Scripture verses. We wanted the church to have the opportunity to hear how well the kids have learned the Bible book names and different verses, and see the growth that they have experienced over the past several weeks. We are praying that the relatives that the kids have invited to come see them will come. We'll update you later on the turn out. We are looking forward to the coming weeks and months here at Crossway when we hope to have our very first baptismal service, our 1 year anniversary, and our very first missions conference. Exciting days are here, and we are so blessed to be a part of all that God is doing at Crossway Baptist Church in McKinney, TX. Thank you for your faithful support. Only heaven will tell the all ways God has taken what you have given and used it for His glory and purpose. Until next time.... Ten times better, or 10xB as we're calling it, officially began on July 12th. In our most recent prayer letter we mentioned the need to form a teen group would soon be necessary; we are excited to report that the teen ministry is now a part of Crossway Baptist Church. For our kick-off activity we had a total of 16 people in attendance, 8 of them being teens, 4 of whom had never been to any of our church events or even services before. All the teens expressed that they had a good time and they were asking when and where the next activity would be at the conclusion of the evening. The highlight of the activity was learning that one of the girls (she was one of the first time teens) accepted Christ as her Savior during the gospel presentation that was shared to the group. Praise the Lord! We also had a teen guy there whose family has been coming to church, growing and getting involved, but he himself hasn't come with them yet. We found out later that his parents "forced" him to attend, but as he was leaving he told us that he was "really glad we had invited him and he had a fun time." His mom told us that when he got home he thanked her for making him go! We will be announcing this Sunday the next activity coming up in August, and we're praying for our teens to invite their friends to join them and that we will begin to see some more growth numerically, but especially spiritually in this group. Another exciting thing that we are enjoying is our family fun nights. Even before we held the grand opening service for Crossway, we were having a Sunday evening "service" in our home. It usually just consisted of one other couple and our family, although they were faithful to attend and we always had a sweet time of fellowship. We have been trying to figure out how to get some more people to come out on a Sunday evening, so a few weeks back we introuduced the family fun night. Each week we've had a different group show up to enjoy a relaxed time of Bible study together and play some games. Last Sunday night we had two additional families show up for a total of 12 people in our home. After a question and answer time over some challenging Bible verses, we filled our plates with the finger foods that everyone had brought and then broke out the games.
We've been excited to see the growth in the lives of the people that God has brought to Crossway. We have one family in particular that we are seeing some great growth in. Please be in prayer for them (this is the same family whose son came to the teen activity, but who does not attend church with them). They have expressed a desire to become members of the church and want to get involved. Prior to attending Crossway they have little church experience especially in a church like this, so everything is essentially brand new and they are just soaking it in. As always we want to express our sincerest gratitude for your faithful giving to get Crossway Baptist Church established. We are truly humbled every month as we see the support funds coming in and think of each church that is represented and dear people who give so we can share Jesus with the precious people of McKinney, Texas and the north Dallas area. May God bless each of you for your faithfulness. Until next time.... Greetings friends! We are excited to share some of the recent happenings here in McKinney, TX with you. As with most of you, we are very happy to have made it through the winter slump. The warmth of spring has encouraged more people to venture out of hibernation and come visit Crossway over the past several weeks.
A few weeks back we had a mom and her two teen daughters come from Frisco on the recommendation of a pastor friend from the San Antonio area. They have been in attendance at every service since except one when they were out of town. Isn't it great when other pastor are sending people to your church? Since our last post we also have a new family of 5 that have been coming on Sunday mornings and have even attended some of the "extras" that we have (ladies get together & Bible study). We've also had others who have visited who say they are looking for a church home. In our follow up visits with them they have expressed that they enjoyed our church and that they will visit again in the future. Several of our visitors have mentioned to us that they decided to stop in because they saw one of our many signs that we have posted around the area directing people to our location. Obviously God is bringing people to His church. Sometimes, He uses people hundreds of miles away, sometimes He uses us with a personal invitation at the door, and sometimes He simply uses a plastic board with an arrow. Right now we are in the midst of our spring program which is themed, "Progress - You were made to grow". In the preaching we are focusing on growth in several different areas of our lives: relationship with God, marriages, finances, family dynamics, Christian service, etc. Each week we also have a special emphasis to do something. Everyone who completes the assigned task that week is able to put their name in a drawing for a prize. The first week we encouraged everyone to pass out 10 brochures in the community. The person who won that week is a lady who is blind and nearly confined to a wheelchair. All us able-bodied folks should be put to shame for any excuse we come up with why we aren't able to spread the Gospel! The following week the task was to do to a good deed for someone and leave a card letting them know that the act of kindness was done for nothing in return, only to let them know that they are loved by Crossway Baptist Church. That week one of the girls who recently began coming with her mom and other sister (mentioned in the previous paragraph) completed the task and won the prize. The close of the program will end on Easter Sunday as our big day. We have several extras planned for that day following the morning service, and we are trying to push our people to get involved in getting as many other people there as possible. We are praying for an attendance that exceeds our grand opening service total of 50 people. Please be in prayer that God will bless the efforts of our people and prove His mighty power that day. We are seeing God do some great things here in McKinney. Each week is a new adventure, and it is exciting to see how God provides and uses us beyond our own ability. A few weeks back on Sunday morning during the invitation time we had 3 young people raise their hand for salvation. I felt it necessary to have them dealt with personally instead of explaining the plan of salvation from the pulpit. I was able to pull a couple of our adults from the congregation to speak with each of them individually, and praise the Lord all 3 of the them made a profession of faith. Of course, it was exciting to witness the salvation of these precious young people, but it was also a huge blessing to have people in the service who I knew had the knowledge and ability to present the Gospel. God has assembled here thus far a balanced mix of mature and baby Christians as well as those who are still in need of salvation. Right now we are praying for His leading on a more permanent building situation. We are able to continue leasing the school we are currently meeting in, but we are only able to use the facilities on Sunday morning, so it is limiting us in adding more. Availability in this area is our biggest challenge, next to price. Would you please pray for God's will in this area? We are so very grateful for your continued prayers and support. It is such a blessing knowing that there is an army of people across this country lifting our names up to our heavenly Father on a regular basis, and in addition to that financially investing in the ministry God has given us here. May God continue to bless you all and we look forward to updating you again soon. Another year is in the books. Now is a great time to look back at what has been accomplished last year and look ahead to new goals for 2014.
I would like to start off by saying thank you to so many of you who continually pray forus on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. God has allowed us to receive about about90% of our support goal for Crossway Baptist Church, most of which started coming in 2013. We do not have exact numbers, but my wife and I were able to see approximately 70 souls come to Christ during our travels and church foundation this past year. We were able to get Crossway Baptist Church started with 88 different people walking through our doors in its three month history. God has blessed and I believe a large part of that blessing has been your continued prayers. I also want to give you some goals that you can partner with us in prayer over. At the end of the month we are starting our first midweek Bible study. Because of our school rental situation, we will have to start in our home. Please pray that we will have a good turnout and see this new church grow in our understanding and application to the scriptures. We are almost finished planning our first Spring campaign called "Progress - Just Keep Growing." We firmly believe this will be a great time of getting new people out witnessing and new people getting involved in the church. We have also scheduled our first missions conference in September of 2014. Please pray that we will see those "great and mighty things which we know not" in 2014. Also would you pray that we find a more permanent building to meet in. We are striving to find a building that is even reasonably affordable and it has been taxing. We as a church are already asking God to give us a building, but we are asking if you too would partner in prayer over this. God is good and He is able. Lastly, our family is doing great. Jordan is officially talking. Just this morning he asked me to go play baxkeball (his pronunciation) with him. He is definitely a daddy's boy. Jadyn is continuing to do well in school. She is done with all her letters and is now trying to read everything. She is also making all kinds of friends in the neighborhood who are constantly knocking on my door wanting Jadyn to play with them. As I write, I am once again thanking God for the wife He gave me. Amber's birthday is today (January 10), so we are about to go celebrate it. I can't thank God enough for all the in- dividuals who have invested in Amber's life to make her what she is today. My ministry success is so tied into her help and encouragement. We are in every sense of the word a team and she's the star. We pray for y'all often and hope you have a blessed year as well. Justin and Amber Elwell Jadyn and Jordan It has been a few weeks since our last update and I thought I would fill you in on our progress thus far. Crossway Baptist Church is going well. We have seen threats of ice storms, Ice storms, holiday traveling, and sickness all invade over the last several weeks and yet God has seen fit to continue to bring together a good solid nucleus of people, about 20. We have a busy month for our new church with a Ladies Christmas party going on as I write this, an activity Saturday to go see a live-animal nativity hayride, a visit to a nursing home to give gifts and cards, and a Christmas party next Saturday. Please continue to pray that God will see fit to send us more people to be a part of this church plant. Over the last several weeks, we have seen about 12 pastors & 1 missionary take us on for support. This could not have come at a better time, since we have come down to almost the last of our savings thus far. This additional support almost completes our support goal for this new work. We are so excited that God is bringing this all together and it won’t be too long now before He will complete it. Selah We had our first missionary come through. Michael and Ruth Douglas are preparing to go to Brazil to plant churches. Our people were very quickly endeared themselves to these fine people and are very excited about helping them in their work. We took our first missions offering the following week and almost every person present gave something for missions. How exciting it is to have this church already getting a burden for what God is going to do with us in reaching the world with the gospel. We are starting to make plans for our very first spring campaign starting in March. This will be a great time to get the church beginning to get focused on getting all their friends and neighbors to come and be a part. I also believe it will strengthen and solidify those who have come. We have had 2 more saved since our last update and are seeing more and more growth in our people. Thank you for your continued prayers for my family and I. We hope you have a very merry Christmas. Hello prayer warriors, Let me start off by saying thank you for being one of the faithful prayer partners for the Elwell family and this work. There are some of you who have been regularly praying for our family for over a year and a half, and boy have we felt loved on. I sincerely believe God has heard your prayers and is answering them in amazing ways. So far every week, we have had first-time visitors walk through our doors. They have come from a knock on their door, a recommendation from another pastor, or just because they were walking by. We have seen two saved in the services over the last two weeks and 1 saved in their home. We are also seeing people starting to talk about Crossway being their home church after only 4 weeks. Thank you for your prayers. We are looking forward to our very first ladies meeting this Thursday evening. We are expecting between 6 to 9 ladies to come. Amber has planned a craft for them to work on that will eventually be used in our building once we’re in a more permanent location. We’re praying that this will be not only an enjoyable time for several different ladies to get to know each other, but also a time of encouragement and realization of the blessings of having a church family to be a part of. Now that we are here, my wife and I decided that because of the extreme complexity of our schedules and the monotony (albeit exciting monotony) of the daily grind we are in, we will be updating a little less frequently. We plan on updating about once every two or three weeks. This will allow both of us to be a little more productive with our time throughout our week.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to keep in contact with us as much. If you ever want to know what is going on with us or the church in between the updates just ask! You can always reach us on the phone, by email or text, through our website, and even Facebook. We appreciate so much your continued prayers and support, and as always if there is anything we can partner with you in prayer about please let us know. God bless! It’s a rainy, dreary day here in north Texas – you know the kind of day that seems perfect for just being lazy. But alas there is no rest for the weary and no laziness for the busy. So I’m sitting here trying to design a bulletin for Sunday, pay bills, balance the checkbook, prepare the musician songbooks for the service, and type this update. The semblance of a routine is starting to form, but I know just about the time I think I finally have it all together we’ll be making an adjustment somewhere. Oh, the joys of being involved in something new. In all honesty though there are days that can seem a little overwhelming as we’re trying to plan for the upcoming Sunday or the next month of Sundays, but we try to remind ourselves to just take one day at a time (that sounds like it should be a song). Just to give you a brief update from this past week - we have been continuing to knock doors and pass out brochures in addition to following up with all the visitors from the past two Sundays. We have had some really good visits and we’re encouraged about all the folks who genuinely seem interested in being a part of Crossway. This past Sunday we again didn’t know what to expect even though we had promises from several people that they would come. Although the attendance was down from the previous Sunday with 19 people showing up, we were very excited to see two different families bring other family members with them this week. That’s the kind of growth that is so great to see; individual growth not just an increase in numbers. One of the new visitors was a teenage girl. At the end of the service she approached Justin and said that she would like to be involved in a youth group, and since she is already involved in several different clubs and activities she has lots of friends that she could invite to be a part also. So all that to say, we are beginning to work towards having at least a youth activity within the next month. One of the greatest things about getting these updates to you is being able to share specific prayer requests that we have. As you think about it this week would you please pray for the following things: 1. For wisdom in our planning and decision making 2. For increased financial support 3. For God to send more laborers 4. For an unspoken need in our family Thank you for your faithful prayers and encouraging words. Until next week… We didn't know how many would show up. We didn't know if everything would run smoothly. We didn't know what the response would be. But despite the uncertainties, we did know that God was going to do something wonderful – and He did! Last Sunday the Crossway Baptist Church was officially birthed. She was born at 10:30 a.m., weighing in at 50 (people in attendance), and measuring perfectly to what God had allowed. There was a balanced blend of families, single folks, senior saints, young adults, and children. During our Kidz Takeover time we had 12 kids not including those in the nursery come down to the front to sing songs and listen to a Bible story. We had people who had a strong church background as well as those who would say their church history has been minimal. Of the 50 people there we only knew 10 of them prior to us arriving in Texas 2 months ago and none of them were from this area. The goodness of God was very evident and we felt very privileged to have a part in what took place. Since Monday we have been making visits to the ones who came to the service, taking by a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread and getting to know them. It is such a wonderful thing getting to know people beyond just the formalities. Every person has such a unique story and it is amazing to hear how God worked in their life and led them to Crossway. Several of the folks who we have talked with have shared how that they have been searching for a church and in many cases for quite awhile. It is more obvious than ever that God wanted this church planted here and at this exact time. I can’t get over how awesome it is to watch His plan for all this come together and unfold. We serve a great God! Over the next few weeks we’ll be compiling some more pictures of our baby church to share with you and hopefully even some video. In the mean time, please keep us in your prayers. Until next week…
Another week of preparation for the first service of Crossway has passed. Throughout this past week we were able to purchase our PA equipment along with a keyboard, we received the signage for the church, we packed up the trailer that we’re using to transport all the church stuff to and from the school, and we received our bulletins, letterhead, visitor cards, and items for our visitor gift packets. Visually everything is coming together.
On Saturday we held an open house at the school to allow people to come by to meet us and ask any questions they might have. We also took advantage of the two hours we had there to run through our set up and tear down of all the different components. The school will already have the chairs and tables that we’ll be using arranged how and where we need them, which will be a huge blessing and will make our set up a little easier. The open house itself went well. We shared last week about the man who had called after receiving a brochure on his door to say he was interested in our church and that he had been searching for something like this. He was the first person to walk through the door on Saturday. Justin talked with him for quite a while explaining what Crossway would be like and answering his questions. He shared with Justin that he had a Mormon background and that he felt like something was missing in his life. Justin had the privilege of sharing the Gospel story with him which he intently listened to and then bowed his head and asked Christ to be his personal Saviour. Before leaving he assured us that he would see us on October 20th for the grand opening. We also had a lady stop by that I had met while knocking doors several weeks back. She told me then that she was a little hesitant about coming to church by herself because her husband has to work on the weekends and she is still a little new to the area and doesn’t know a whole lot of people. I encouraged her that one of the great things about a new church is that everyone is new, so there was no need to feel out of place. When she showed up at the school I was a little surprised to see her, but she explained that what I had said made sense, so she thought she would give it a try. We are expecting to see her on Sunday also. It almost doesn’t seem real that it’s finally here! The grand opening of Crossway Baptist Church is this coming Sunday!!! When we met together again on Sunday night in our home, Justin preached how that we have been working so hard for such a long time to get to this point, doing all the things necessary to start a church – passing out brochures, acquiring all the stuff we need, meeting people, etc. It would easy for us to get in our minds that the success of this first service would be dependent on us and the work that we’ve done and our performance on Sunday. When in truth Crossway is God’s church. He has allowed us to do and do and do, but the outcome is all up to Him. Would you please partner with us in prayer for Crossway Baptist Church that God’s will would be done in the hearts and lives of everyone that He brings through the doors? It is such a wonderful privilege to be able to see this church get started. We have enjoyed being able to share this journey with you so far, and we are very excited to share with you next week what great things God did. Until then…. |
AuthorAs we try to keep you up to date on what's happening in our progress, we ask for your prayers in return. Archives
December 2014
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