Serve with Gladness

A part of my responsibility as a Generation Link staffer is serving with the student ministry of Crosspoint Church.  I am now in my second year as a G-linker, and it is rewarding to look back on the past year and a half working with these teenagers.  However, I did not always have this perspective.  When I applied for Generation Link, I communicated my preference to work in several roles but student ministry was not at the top of the list.  Don’t get me wrong, I love teenagers and am very grateful for the time I have been able to spend with them.  Initially though, I must confess, I did not appreciate the role I had been given.  I desired a role that would send me on the fast track towards becoming a pastor.  However, God began to work in me and correct my selfish thinking. Generation Link, and the Christian life for that matter, is about serving God through the local church.  I was approaching it from the standpoint of “how does this benefit me?”  Thankfully God showed me the sin of my heart and allowed me to enter my time with Generation Link with a heart of gladness for the ministry opportunities He had given.

For lack of a better phrase, whatever cards God has dealt you….how are you responding?  Are you struggling with bitterness and resentment because your hopes and dreams are not playing out as desired?  Don’t fall victim to the same lie as me.  Wherever you are, whatever role you are in… disciple making is your calling and command.  Pray and fight for a heart of willingness to serve your God and your church through whatever means are presented.  I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to have worked with these teenagers during my time on staff with Generation Link and I truly would not trade this experience for anything.  Trust in God’s promise that He is “working all things for the good of those who are called according to His purpose.” (Paraphrase of Romans 8:28)

Written by Will Jackson.

The Gospel Goes Forth

For those who attend Crosspoint it is pretty easy to notice the many college students that come into Crosspoint each week.  In fact, college students make up close to half of the attendance each week.  As Crosspoint looks at Clemson’s campus we see a huge need for the Gospel to spread throughout all of the campus!  That seems like such a huge task, and it is, but the only way it is possible is if we depend on the Spirit of God to penetrate hearts and open people’s eyes to their need for a Savior.  So here are some things that Crosspoint is doing to strike Clemson’s campus with the Gospel:

Connecting Point Groups:  This is, in part, an “easy” way to reach the campus with the Gospel.  If we dive into Scripture and see how Jesus made disciples there is a very beautiful dichotomy going on.  First, He called people to follow Him and they did.  And with those two that He called, He literally lived with them for three years.  So there is this aspect of “life on life” with one another that we see in Scripture.  Essentially what Jesus was doing was equipping these guys to reproduce Himself (as He already reproduced Himself in them…well 11 of them) after He ascended.  I do believe that this aspect of disciple-making is what we predominately see in the midst of CP Groups.  Fellow college students live “life on life” with freshman, sophomores, and upperclassman while washing them in the word so that these students can then reproduce themselves…make more disciples!  There are some freshman guys that are already ready to lead!  How awesome is that!?  And this is only done by the work of the Holy Spirit.

We also have many students meeting one on one with international students, sharing the Gospel with them, and discipling them to send them out.  Think about it, we ourselves might not go the China, Iran, or India, but if we equip students from those countries to take the Gospel back, oh how the Gospel with spread throughout the Nations!  Crosspoint doesn’t have to go too far to “go to India” for there are so many students from there right outside our doors!  Pray that we will stay bold to the preaching of this word and depending on the Spirit of God to penetrate the hearts of man.

Evangelism Night:  This could be the other side to that dichotomy I mentioned earlier.  In Scripture we also see Jesus speaking to crowds and other individuals about who He is and calling them to repent.  Making disciples is going out and sharing the Gospel in the every day context AND living life on life to send out others to make more disciples.  These are not mutually exclusive!  Because by making disciples you make disciples who will then go out to make disciples who make disciples, etc…You see where I’m going with this?  It’s multiplication to the extreme! 

Needless to say, a big group of college students meets on the first Wednesday of every month to go out and share the Gospel.  We have freshman coming out and striking people with the Gospel.  There are beautiful examples of mentors showing mentees how to share the Gospel and then allowing them to do it.  It’s amazing how good the Lord is! 

One thing I do want to mention here is that this is a structure event and therefore quite possibly harder to find some person to share the Gospel with.  We STRONGLY encourage sharing the Gospel in the everyday context.  We are just ordinary people, doing ordinary things, with Gospel intentionality!  Crosspoint wants not only the students at Crosspoint but the adults in different contexts to share the Gospel with those who they interact with on a daily basis.  Because then it’s not the unbeliever going to the church, it’s the church going to the unbeliever!  Further displaying the Church as the body of Christ!  Oh how I pray that we would do this as a family of faith at Crosspoint! 

But those are just a few things that are going on in the College Ministry side of things.  Please pray that all our students and all of those who aren’t students to live a lifestyle of Gospel Intentionality.  Also, that we would have opportunities to share the Gospel, wisdom to see those opportunities, and boldness to speak in those opportunities.      

Women's Retreat 2012

The following quotes are not verbatim:

“It’s been a nice weekend where I have met a lot of different women of a variety of ages.”

“I’ve really been trying to get to know many of the other women.  It’s not necessarily in my comfort zone to be extroverted.  This has provided a great way to get to know more women.”

“Well, I can’t spend all my time talking to you, Mary Emily; I need to meet some other people.”

“Man! There are so many women here!  I want to meet them all!”

To each of these quotes but the first (and, maybe the third one), I was very encouraging and very encouraged.  The first one came from my roommate.  To her, I promptly replied, “Duh, that’s the point.”

And it is the point. Pastor Jason and the women of the Women’s Ministry team desire to see Mathew 28: 18-20 and Titus 2 carried out among the women of Crosspoint Church.  The Women’s Fall Retreat was an attempt to begin and further develop both of these foundational verses.

Matthew 28: 18-20 begins with the Gospel.  If we don’t know it, we can’t go proclaim it.  Friday, Robin Lewis, gave a beautiful presentation of the Gospel starting with creation, moving through the fall to our redemption through Christ and finally ending with a new life of repentance and faith.  There was not a heart untouched in the room.  Unfortunately, because of the conversations—in small groups, with my roommate and with one of the most Godly women I have ever met—inspired by the night’s talk, I broke the only rule Pastor Ken gave me for the weekend:  “Don’t stay up late talking. Get some rest!”  Oops. Sorry Pastor Ken!

The second passage, Titus 2, sets a high standard for those women who are called out by God.  The passage doesn’t leave much room for interpretation and demands a certain behavior from Godly women.  As Cayce Finley and Liz Chasteen emphasized in their talks Saturday, reality often looks different from what is expected by our perfect God.  But thankfully, “God never tires in his desire/effort to sanctify us.”  He ever works at making us like Him.  One way He accomplishes this goal is in community.  We, as women, need each other to learn more about and go deeper with our God.  “Sanctification can only be worked out in the context of Christian community because the Christian life is inescapably corporate.”  This is a call to join small groups but it is also a call to have Godly women lead a younger generation in the ways of Biblical womanhood.

Krystal Brummitt and Mary Beth Oxendine did a wonderful job of describing how powerful the Gospel is.  Both women shared their testimonies inspiring women to look at the evidences of grace in their own lives as well as producing the desire for more of the one, true God; to draw near to him; to put off the old self; and to live a life worthy of His calling.

Many lessons were learned and new relationships developed all to the glory of God.  Keep a look out for future Women’s Ministry events but until then think of the women around you who you can encourage, speak truth to or humbly learn something from.  We are blessed to have so many Godly women in our church.  Seek them out.  Then prayerfully and humbly grow closer to God.

Posted by Mary Emily

Life in the GLINK Guys House

What is life like in the Glink guy's house???

Well, let me tell you about it.  First off, we've got a sweet crib which is a huge blessing.  Not only is our house getting it done, but we have a gigantic plot of land (back yard) that gives us space for activities, frolecking, etc.  In fact, this spacious backyard is home to a wood pile which is especially handy when it comes to needing a place for bonfires, which we intend to have soon. 

In order to really convey life in the house... I must first explain each of it's inhabitants.  Our house consists of myself AKA Jared Armfield, Will Jackson, Josh Dorrity, Phillip Lee, Jesse Winchester, and Ryan Heard.  Let's break down who these gentlemen are, what they are like, and so on...

Me- perfect roommate, enjoys writing poetry while drinking hot tea, really sympathetic and compassionate, I cook all the meals for everyone, make their beds, lay out their clothes and such (kidding of course), you'll have to ask my roomies what I'm like as a house-mate, hopefully not too bad.

Will Jackson - solid guy, likes to play on his IPAD, but when he's not doing that he's usually preparing for youth, speaking truth, or GLEANING truths from others.  Will has been a joy to be around, definitely and encouragement day-in and day-out, wise beyond his years and will make a great hubby for a lucky gal.

Josh Dorrity - not only a house mate, but my roommie.  When he is not serving the youth in some form or fashion, Josh can often be found watching a Madea movie with a cup of red-berry juice.  Josh is a fun-guy, very relational and people oriented.  He really does a great job spending time with younger guys from the church whether it be watching a football game, catching a movie, or having a meal.

Phillip Lee - most likely to represent the house in the olympics.  If you don't know Phillip, let me inform you, the joker can run.  Phillip is a great guy, really driven.  He studies hard and is faithful to do a lot of the behind the scenes work for many of the international ministry events.  I look forward to living with him in India for 6 months.

Jesse Winchester - our very own Emeril.  My man can cook up a storm... BAM.  Not only can he cook, he also serves as our interior designer.  The only reason that our house has any "flare" is because Jesse put in the elbow grease.  This fact can be best appreciated by entering his room, the "GQ", which unlike the rest of the rooms in the house, looks like a page ripped out of a magazine.  Jesse is a joy.  He puts in so much work splitting time between Starbucks and First Impressions for the Church, I appreciate him.

Ryan Heard - our 'little drummer boy.'  Ryan is the 2nd member of the "GQ" and he goes hard in the paint... in fact, I'm not sure when he sleeps or that he actually does sleep.  Ryan puts in a lot of time at the church, wether it be serving in the band or making our website look tasty.  He is a rare servant and a beat factory.

So, I've laid out everyone in the house... the best way to think about life in the house would be to imagine all of these personalities under one roof... however, if you don't feel like doing that, you can just watch this short video as it describes life in the GLINK house quite well:

Let your imagination run wild!

Student Ministry Update

A lot has happened since I joined Generation LINK staff at Crosspoint in August, and it's been great to see God working even in these past 2 months. I am one of 3 G-Linkers working specifically with 6th - 12th grade students under our Student Minister, Josh Jones. I've had the privilege of serving with this ministry for the past 2 years as a small group leader and a SummerLINKer for 2 summers, and now, I am in this new position of leading these students, specifically middle schoolers, in a greater capacity than when I was only a small group leader for some of the middle school guys, and God is continually sanctifying me and helping me grow as a teacher, mentor, and leader.

We kicked off the school year with our weekly Sunday night meeting that we call "Awaken." This is more of a large-group teaching time in which we worship together, and then usually split into middle school and high school to have our lesson in order to tailor the message to the students' age. I am one of the teachers for middle school, along with a few other leaders, and I've seen a lot of these students really get involved in the discussion questions and dive deeper than I thought was possible for that age group. We're going through a new curriculum called "The Gospel Project" which is basically going over the Bible as a whole and showing how it all points towards Christ and the Gospel. We want the students to see God's Word as a meta-narrative - 1 book instead of 66 separate books, and how it all fits together, has authority, meaning, and purpose. Please pray that the students would continue to be more and more receptive to the teaching and that they would continue growing spiritually.

We've also been meeting on Wednesday nights which we call "Equip." We meet in host homes - high school at one house and middle school at another, and the format is based more on small groups and Bible study in a more casual atmosphere. The high schoolers are going through the sermons that we hear on Sundays and dissecting the Scripture further and discussing application of it to their lives. The middle schoolers are studying "The Life" which is a study of who God is. It's been good to give them this basic foundation of our faith and to help them learn more about topics such as the Trinity, why Jesus had to die, how we have the Holy Spirit, etc. Discussion has been great, and I pray that it will continue to get even better.

We also took a trip on Labor Day this year to go tubing down a river in Helen, GA. This was a great time of fellowship for our whole youth group, and also was great for our 6th graders to get to know other students in the group since this was one of their first opportunities to go on a trip with the student ministry, and they had not been with us very long.

Also, we are about to go on our annual Student Ministry Fall Retreat to Camp McCall in Sunset, SC. We have more than 50 students and leaders going, and it will be a great time of worship and teaching under our guest speaker, Tracy Turner. He is teaching off of the theme of the weekend, "SIMPLE."

The theme is designed to show that the command God gives us to make disciples is simple; it's just a matter of obedience. Other topics will also be discussed and the Gospel will be preached. We put a lot of finishing touches on the planning of the weekend today, and we are all pumped for this weekend and praying that our students take this weekend seriously and seek after God. 

Please pray for this weekend and our students - that God would take hold of their hearts and that they would truly be His disciples and find their identity in Him alone.

Posted by: Josh Dorrity

Fall Getaway 2012

Four years ago I was a freshman at Clemson and an attendee at Crosspoint. Shortly after arriving in Clemson I heard about Fall Getaway. I did not know too many people yet, so I hesitantly signed up. I remember being nervous climbing into my assigned car with girls I barely knew, not really sure if I was ready to embark on what was to come in the next couple of days.

By Sunday, however, I was not ready to leave.

Every year since then Fall Getaway has been a priority. I have not missed one since that fateful day in 2008!

It is a weekend no one should miss. The retreat at Camp McCall provides many great benefits to the students including a great time of refreshment through solid teaching of God’s Word and guarded time with the Lord; abundant opportunities to meet and spend quality time with friends; and a setting among the newly changing leaves of fall in the mountains.

This year Fall Getaway was held September 21-23. The second day we were there was the first day of fall!

Crosspoint Church is apart of the NACPF network and we were glad to have Zach Nelson, the Director of Public Relations and a Church Planting Mobilizer of the NACPF (North American Church Planting Foundation) lead us. “Zach graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2001 with a degree in Communication Studies, and later received his Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is in the process of completing his Doctor of Ministry degree in Counseling from SEBTS. Zach did outside sales for a period in time before he served on staff with two separate churches since 2001. Zach's passion for church planting grew as he served on staff at Open Door Baptist Church as the Minister to Students and their Families from 2006-2011.”

Zach Nelson guided us through Acts 1 and 2. The themes of the sessions were: the restoring power of the Gospel, the transforming power of the Gospel, and the saving power of the Gospel. Many of the students I talked to after the weekend said what struck them the most was when Zach read the hymn “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” aloud. He wanted to emphasize the point that our God brings salvation to lawless people who recognize they have crucified Jesus.

I have included Stuart Townend’s hymn below. Read it for your soul’s understanding and delight. May our boasting be in Christ alone.

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Dustin Raley led the students in worship, something he has done at Fall Getaway for the past few years. He was a member of Crosspoint Church until recently when he moved to Myrtle Beach, SC where he is now the Minister of Worship at Cornerstone Church. He married Avery Latham two weeks before Fall Getaway.  We are so grateful that they were able to travel to Camp McCall and play a big role in the weekend.

Fall Getaway is a truly unique weekend. The students and leaders are surrounded by God’s beautiful creation and are among many brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a sweet time together with new and old friends.

Posted by Anna-Grace Watkins

Our Trip to Raleigh: The 9Marks Conference

Posted by Gray Gardner

Last weekend Crosspoint treated its Generation LINK interns to a two-day conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. The conference, sponsored by pastor and author Mark Dever's ministry, 9Marks, focused on conversion and happened on Friday and Saturday. In the span of 24 hours, we were able to sit under six sermons and 5 panel discussions from David Platt, Danny Akin, Tony Merida, Mark Dever, Thabiti Anyabwile, and Matt Chandler.

David Platt, famous for his book Radical and the Secret Church movement, kicked things off with an incredible message entitled "The Glory of God-Centered Conversion: How God saves people for the sake of His name." Platt focused on Ezekiel 36:22-32, discussing four truths from the text which connect personal conversion to global mission. I haven't heard such a powerful sermon in a long time. It was a great way to kick off the conference!

David Platt from 9Marks



Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), and Tony Merida, pastor of Imago Dei church in Raleigh and preaching professor at SEBTS, spoke in succession after Platt. Then, to conclude the first day, Mark Dever preached a sermon out of Acts 9-12. (If you've never heard Mark Dever read the Scriptures, you need to listen to one of his messages!)

One of my favorite sermons was preached first thing Saturday morning by pastor and author Thabiti Anyabwile of First Baptist Church of the Cayman Islands. Thabiti is by far the most encouraging person I've ever been around. He spoke so graciously with the other speakers during panel discussions, always using his words to edify others. His sermon was no different, giving encouragement and grace to all of us in the congregation.

The biggest takeaway from Thabiti's sermon was his statement that all Christians - all disciple-makers - are shepherds, and that all "shepherds should smell like their sheep." His point was that shepherds should be spending time with their sheep. They should be close to them, living among them, walking beside them through both the muck and the pastures. This challenge has encouraged me to get close to the "sheep" I am shepherding as a small group leader and staff member at Crosspoint Church.

Thabiti Anyabwile from 9Marks



After Thabiti, Matt Chandler, one of my favorite pastors to listen to from the Village Church in Dallas, Texas, closed out the conference with a sermon from Romans 8:28-32. Chandler nailed the theological significance that God works for the good of those who love him in light of the fact that He has foreknown them, predestined them, called them, and justified them, in order that he might glorify them. The depth of these realities lead Paul in Romans 8 to conclude, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

While the plenary sessions provided ample opportunity for us to learn, I think I can speak for the rest of our team when I say that the best part of the conference was having the opportunity to talk to the speakers. I was personally able to talk with Mark Dever, Matt Chandler, and Thabiti Anyabwile. All three conversations revealed men who were - despite their near celebrity status - very much shepherds and lovers of people. They encouraged and challenged me in our conversations and displayed pastoral care in taking the time to talk. Although they likely will not remember me, I was greatly impacted by the humility and grace with which they carried themselves.

After last weekend, I hope to make reoccurring trips to the 9Marks Conference every year!