|
Sherry and Tom Goins had taken a long detour from
the community of faith. They, like many others, were part of the growing population known
as the dechurchedthose who at one time or other belonged to church, but then left
it. Now "rechurched", both they and their new best friends Kevin and Jennifer
Chobot serve together as deeply committed members of CrossRoads Church at Westfield. Like
other CrossRoads attenders and members, most of whom were also dechurched at one point,
they are not like your average churchgoer. What they are, says Amy Fowler, Associate Executive Presbyter for Congregational Development and Services of
Whitewater Valley Presbytery, are "exciting and passionate disciples who also happen
to be great fun to be around."

Fun is the operative word at CrossRoads, a 100+ member church that's housed in Westfield
Elementary School. Come in on any given Sunday morning and you might easily see mothers
dancing with their children to music that is contemporary but worshipful, as well as folks
moving about freely, hugging one another as they move around the tables where they sit.
Sitting around tables rather than partitioned off by pews or rows of chairs arose out of a
practical needtaking down and setting up the tables that were already there from the
school had become too labor intensive. Now those tables have tablecloths and
candlesmaking newcomers feel like they've just walked into someone's house rather
than a church.
"MUST LOVE GOD AND BASKETBALL." That's how the classified ad read. It was enough
to pique the interest of the young North Carolina minister, who after years serving as
Associate Pastor of a large Presbyterian church in Wilmington, had become restless. Months
later Rev. Eric Lohe found himself in Indiana where, after answering the call to move his
family to the small town of Westfield, he would begin his
pastorate of the fledging CrossRoads Church. CrossRoads was conceived after Percept's
demographics identified the community of Westfield as a fast-growing suburban area
comprised largely of younger families, half Catholic and half either Protestant or the
unchurched.
Since the Presbytery already had a number of really good traditional churches, they were
looking for an alternative that might attract people who wouldn't go to a
"normal" church. Lohe, who had already been doing work on how to attract the
unchurched to a body of faith in his North Carolina church, felt drawn to this new church
start for that very reason. As it turned out, it was not the unchurched, but the dechurched
that Lohe's ministry would end up attracting. Today over 85% of his church are made up of
these folkswith the other 15% being either the formerly unchurched or transplanted
from another church.
It's a brave undertaking. And not one that most ministers are willing to take on. In her
book, The Church and the Dechurched, Mending a Damaged Faith, pastor/author Mary
Tuomi Hammond talks candidly about the difficulty in ministering to the dechurched.
"Ministry to 'the one' [dechurched] is time intensive, profound and filled
with contradictions," says Hammond using the analogy of Jesus leaving the 99 to go
after the one. "'The one' often has more questions than the ninety-nine combined.
'The one' has buried sorrows that require patience and gentleness to unearth and heal.
'The one' may be bent on going his or her own direction...off the beaten trail, perhaps
too unorthodox for the ninety-nine, too needy, too confused, or even too cynical. Jesus is
clear. "The one" will not be found without the dogged pursuit of the determined
shepherd, the faithful pastor, the helpful neighbor, the loving friend, or the persevering
spouse...but the joy of finding the one lost sheep belonged to the gathered community, not
just the single shepherd. When the lost was found, the whole people of God appropriately
threw a party."Perhaps that explains the party atmosphere you so
often feel at CrossRoads. Undeniably, there's great joy in having worked through the angst
of questioned faith and come out on the other side. That kind of passion unleashes
creativity which is the reason, perhaps, that CrossRoads feels so unchurchy, so free. Much
of that creativity comes from their vision and from tapping into an incredible wealth of
gifts that are represented in the body.

Lohe believes it is his job to help release those gifts. And that can only be done, he
believes, by dispensing of the pastor-centric model and instead training up and releasing
leadersmature disciples who are actively engaged in the Great Commission.
"The people who have had church experience, but have largely had a bad experience in
some waythese are who were attracted to our ministry and who we are now seeking to
serve, " says Lohe. "Our members come from across all denominational
linesBaptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheranwe get them all," says Lohe.
"And what our mission has been is to help those people understand whythe
experience they had, why they had it and how God can help them heal and help them move on
from that." And moving on is just what dechurched members like Kevin Chobot and Tom
and Sherry Goins have donein some amazing ways.
When 34-year old Kevin Chobot left home to go to college, he also left behind the church
of his childhood. Raised the very model of a modern Presbyterian, Kevin did not abandon
his belief in God, he just didn't see any reason to go anymore. For him, church was little
more than a place where he was always told to behavesomething he admits he had
a hard time doing. After all, churchlike the libraryseemed made for misbehavin'. During his long absence from the
community of faith he studied hard, partied a little, then began his climb up the
corporate ladder. "My religion was me," says Kevin, "and it seemed pretty
satisfying." He made a few obligatory attempts at reconnecting with a church over the
years, but it took decades and a series of "coincidences" that ended with them
moving to Westfield and then Kevin's wife, Jennifer, starting to attend CrossRoads, until
Kevin found himself back in the fold. Today Kevin is not only one of CrossRoad's most
passionate people, he is also one of their most active Missions recruiters. Committed to
taking a new church that isn't currently doing Missions with them on their annual Mexico
missions trips, Kevin has singlehandedly recruited dozens of people from several
surrounding Presbyterian churches to join them in building houses.

This new-found passion for helping othersespecially the poorer, homeless people in
Mexicowas nothing short of miraculous, to hear Kevin tell about it. He credits his
transformation to both the Holy Spirit and to Eric. While Kevin may not have wrestled with
the deep issues that many dechurched people have, he still needed to feel the
unconditional acceptance of where he was on his spiritual journey, while at the same time
allow himself to be challenged at intervals to give of himself to help others.
"The way that Eric engages people and the way that CrossRoads engages people, is to
give them something to do and trust them with itwhether it be leading a missions
trip, whether it be taking care of any aspect of the church," says Kevin. "And
one of the key things that I've noticed about him is that he makes sure that he does it in
the right order."
"Dechurched people are often very spiritually astute and searching people," says
Lohe. "Yes, it could be easy to judge them and say, 'Oh, they left the church what
could they be like!' Yet, what I have found is that often there is a lot going on there
and the reason they are here is because they are seeking to be faithful to God, and that
is of great value. And to try and pull them back into the community of faith where they
can share and use those gifts and help explain that journey and connect with other people
who are also on that journey, is I think, what our task is as a church."

Tom and Sherry Goins are another example of the CrossRoads success in both attracting and
then developing disciples from the dechurched. For the most part, Tom who grew up
Methodist, had been out of the community of faith for decades. A manufacturers rep, he
traveled extensively and looked forward to Sundays as a day when he could completely veg
out. Due to his being placed in a ministry that did not suit his spiritual gifts, his one
attempt to reconnect with a church was dismal. Sherry also had a dissapointing and
painful experience which left her traumatized. She was the first to reconnect. Visiting
CrossRoads at the invitation of a friend, Sherry fell instantly in love with the church,
especially the contemporary band and Eric's message. Curious to know why his wife was
spending so much time in this new church, her husband decided to check it out. "Well,
it's a little different" was his initial response. But before long he was hooked, so
hooked that within just a few months he volunteered to co-lead a bible study along with
his wife.
That wasn't the first surprise that Tom gave his wife. Or the pastor. Just recently he
gave the church that had become his second home an amazing gift10 acres of his
150-acre family farm. It is on these 10 acres where The Barn now sitsa landmark that
has become a gathering place for members of the community. Tom's step out of the Lazy Boy
Chair and back into church had taken him further down the road than either of them could
imagine. And for that, Sherry is immensely grateful to God.
"In a relatively short time my husband had gone from never going to church to leading
a 34-week bible study, to suddenly giving away part of the family farm for the Lord,"
says Sherry. It blew me away because this is
a man who is a family farm person and I just didn't think he would ever do anything like
that. So it has been so awesome for me to sit back and see how God has workedin both
of our lives."
"I think part of the reason that it's so easy for people to open up to us is because
most of us have been where they are," says Kevin. "And speaking for myself I
guess, it's also because I really am the same personinside church and outside. I
don't change who I am for where I am." And I think when you are working with the
dechurched and the unchurched you have to be sincere and genuine. Which means that you are
going to have to find out who you are and be that person."
This is perhaps a key factor in the success of dechurched people who have reconnected to
being so relatable to those still outside the faith communitywhether they be
dechurched or unchurched. Long-time church-goers, on the other hand, tend to forget what
it feels like to be outside the faith. That sometimes makes them un-relatable.

"If you're uncomfortable with people swearing and drinking, then maybe you haven't
hung around enough swearing and drinking people," says Kevin.
Kevin knows about swearing. During his first sermon at church, in which he was
understandably nervous, he inadvertently punctuated his message with an unplanned
expletive. No one gasped or walked out. Instead, after a long silence, they broke out in
uncontrollable laughter. Kevin knew then, if he didn't know it before, that he had truly
found his home.
For Kevin, his wife Jennifer and Sherry and Tom, CrossRoads has become just that, another
home. They have discovered something that many Christians have yet to discovernot
only the joy of being connected to a faith community but the inherent power within.
The results of such labor-intensive recovery work on the part of Lohe is nothing short of
phenomenal, that is, if one can go by the changed lives of formerly dechurched people like
Tom and Sherry Goins and Kevin Chobot. |
|