Earlier this summer, CCCC’s Junior High Pastor, Ryan Prater, and his family made the move across Houston to plant a church in Katy.  Cross Community Church has now been meeting for the past two months, and God has been working to both grow the numbers of Cross CC’s core group, as well as further equip this new church to reach the people of Katy with the Gospel.  In March, we posted a church profile of the then-unnamed church, and recently we have had the chance to spend some time out in Katy to see the love of Christ in action at Cross CC.

Cross CC currently has two services every Sunday.  The first service, in the mornings, has taken shape based around an important question.  As more and more families came on board with Cross CC, Ryan realized that the vast majority of them had small children, just as he and Kara do.  It is important to Ryan, and the other families involved, that their kids understand what is happening at Cross CC, and understand that they are a real part of it.  So, they began to ask themselves, “How do we bring the kids along with us?”  With this in mind, the Sunday morning service is geared toward involving the kids with learning and spreading the Gospel.  The morning begins with people trickling in, usually with some combination of children and food in tow.  For 15-20 minutes, warm greetings and conversation fill the room as kids race around it, until everyone arrives.  Each Sunday morning of the month is based on a different activity.  The previous weekend, they focused on their “Rescue Lists,” which are similar to the Top 5 at CCCC.  They began this service with both parents and children discussing how each family spent the week praying for and talking about their Rescue List.  After this, it moved into the focus for the third Sunday of the month, which is a game or activity for the kids and adults to play.  This is related to the teaching from the Jesus Storybook Bible that followed; the lesson is geared toward the kids, but is relevant to the adults as well, and it is also tied into the call from Christ to be missional with our lives.  After a few worship songs and a time for giving, the rest of the time spent together is for lunch and fellowship.  The kids eat and play, the adults eat and talk, and then everyone disperses for the afternoon.

The Prater family were not the only people who made the move from CCCC to Katy.  James and Kim Tavernier, along with their three boys, have also followed God’s call to Katy to be a part of the core group of Cross CC. Their story is one of trusting God to live as “Sent“ people, through the excitement and difficulties of uprooting their family to be a part of a church plant.

The Taverniers’ story begins shortly after they got married, when James and Kim were looking for a new church.  They had already checked out a few different ones when their oldest son, Cal, heard Lee McClure (CCCC’s Senior High Pastor) speak at his school, Pine Drive Christian School.  He really enjoyed Lee’s talk, and wanted to go to CCCC so he could check out the Mpact Ministry.  They began attending CCCC, and shortly after this, found out that CCCC was becoming a part of Acts 29.  James had already listened to many of the Acts 29 sermons, and was not only familiar with the church planting network, but had grown to have a heart for church planting.  Needless to say, he was quite excited to find out that their new church was working to be a part of this network.  After they began attending CCCC, they got involved with the Matrix, where their middle son was active, and through this they got to know Ryan.

When Ryan announced at the January C4 training that he would be leaving to plant a church in Katy, the news was met with mixed emotions within the Tavernier household.  James was immediately ready to go; church planting had been on his heart for a while, and here was a close friend heading out to do that very thing.  Kim was somewhat less excited, as their son Cal would be entering his senior year of high school in the fall, and she was reluctant to uproot him at that time.

However, shortly after that time, Cal mentioned, for an entirely different reason, that he would be ok with moving that summer if they needed to.  With that barrier out of the way, the path was beginning to get more clear.  Kim still struggled with focusing on the difficulties the move presented, but she slowly began to be obedient to where she knew the Holy Spirit was leading their family, and ultimately, they made the move out to Katy.

Getting on board with a church plant has not come without difficulties for the Taverniers.  One of the biggest adjustments they have had to make is a change of mindset, for both themselves and for their kids.  Coming from CCCC, they were used to finding a place to serve where they fit well, but in moving to a brand new church plant, you have to be ready to do whatever is needed of you, whether in your comfort zone or not.  They also had to change their kids mindsets, in that church isn’t the building you go to, it is the body of believers; meeting in a living room is just as much of a church as any large auditorium.

The difficulties that arose also became another place for God’s love and grace to shine through.  Kim was apprehensive about leaving many of the great relationships she had made at CCCC, but she found comfort in the words of Paul, who showed great affection for the friends he had made as he wrote to them from far away.  In the end it came down to trusting where God was leading, and they recognized that,

“We weren’t leaving CCCC, we were being sent to Katy.”

 

The second service of the day takes place in the evening, and is a gathering of the adults.  It is a time of prayer, praise, teaching, and discipleship.  The service begins with people sharing stories from the week of Cross CC’s guiding values (relational connection, personal growth, radical giving, engaged attendance) in action.  The floor is open for anyone who wishes to share, and is a wonderfully powerful time to hear how God is working in both individual lives and in the life of Cross CC.  This time allows the group to create the culture, identity, and accountability of missional followers of Christ.  The middle part of the service is spent on teaching and training.  They are currently studying though the Gospel Centered Life, in order to plant their roots firmly in the Gospel of Christ.  The most powerful part of the evening service was the last 15 minutes, which is devoted to prayer.  There are three separate prayer sessions; confession, grace stories, and My 5.  People pray in pairs with a different person each session, and having a time to come together and focus on prayer is an immensely meaningful way to end the day.

Overall, the events of the day were extremely reminiscent of the book of Acts:

 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  –Acts 2:42

Teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer were definitely the themes of the day for this small, but growing, group of people who currently make up Cross CC.  There are still a handful of people at CCCC who were around when it was in the same spot as Cross CC, but for most of us, a church plant in its infancy is a somewhat unknown experience.  However, CCCC is continually working to create a culture of “Sent” people, and the Prater and Tavernier families are a perfect example of how, sometimes, this means following God to somewhere new.  Being “Sent” can mean many things; working in a ministry where your gifts can flourish, walking across the street to talk to your neighbor, joining the Core Team of the Clear Lake Campus (or the next campus that launches), or joining a new church plant.  More than any one of these actions, however, it means submitting yourself to where Christ is leading you, and trusting enough to follow Him there.  Spend some time in prayer discussing this with the Lord.  If you feel him leading you to Katy to get involved with Cross CC, then get in contact with Ryan.  If he is leading you elsewhere, whether within the Bay Area and CCCC or somewhere completely new, then trust in His guidance, as our loving God will lead us where His will can be accomplished:

 “For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”  –Jeremiah 29: 11-13

 

How Your Group Can Help:

-Prayer, Prayer, Prayer

-Give to First Gift to Jesus, which supports church plants like Cross Community Church

-Email Ryan to sign up for the monthly email list

 

If you are interested in learning more about joining up with Cross CC, or if your group would like to help out, you can contact Ryan Prater at rprater36@gmail.com.