Essentials

Baptism is an outward expression of a change that has happened on the inside of us.  It is important because Jesus commands that we be baptized.
 He says in Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (ESV)”  We believe that baptism is a choice that cannot be made for someone else.  It has to be made by each person.  When we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior, baptism should be one of our first steps. You can learn more about the necessity of Baptism and sign up in the Baptism tab.  
We typically hold baptisms once every other month in the 11am service.

Dedicating our children is an important step in the life of every parent.  We find an account in the Bible where Hannah dedicated her son Samuel.  
1 Samuel 1:26 She said, “Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD. 27 “For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him. 28  â€œSo I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD.(NASB)” And he worshiped the LORD there." When you dedicate your children, this does not save them, but it is a declaration that as the parent or guardian, you will raise them in Biblical instruction.  We are acknowledging that our children belong to God, and that we are going to teach and train them how to follow Him.You can learn more about the necessity of Child Dedications and sign up by clicking the Child Dedication tab.  We typically hold dedications every other Sunday in the 11am service.

Giving is also a practice of every healthy believer.  There are three ways that we give: Time, Talents, and Treasure.  At Cross Church, we believe that according to the Word of God, you should always give with a cheerful heart, never under compulsion but always in obedience to Christ.  Giving is the only topic in the Bible where God asks us to test him.  In Malachi 3:10, He says “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts…”If you are looking to learn more about giving, we start this conversation in our Crosswalk Essentials 201 class.  You can also check out the second message in our “Free Indeed” series.  We encourage our church to take the challenge, and see what God does in their lives.
 

From the beginning of creation, God said that it is not good for us to be alone.  So many people try to do life by themselves yet we were never designed to live that way.  Hebrews 10:25 says,  â€œAnd let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” (NLT)  There are more than 50 commands in the New Testament that we cannot be fulfilled without being a part of a local church.  With everything in us, we believe that the local church is the hope of the world. A very crucial step for you as a believer is to jump into community with other believers where you can be discipled, learn, grow and serve with each other.  This starts by attending Sunday Service, but that’s just the beginning.  We believe that your relationship with God will thrive when you jump into a Small Group and join the Reach Team! Check out the Small Group tab and the Reach Team tab for more information and to sign up.  If you are having trouble deciding which group to attend, a good one to start with is our LIFE(Living in Freedom Everyday) group.

Studying and knowing God’s word is a crucial step and discipline in the life of every believer.  Psalms 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (ESV).  We share some great tools to get you started in our Crosswalk Essentials 201 class.  In addition, start reading your Bible today by clicking on the Bible tab below. The key to remember is that the Bible was written in Greek and Hebrew and translated multiple times into English.  So find a translation that is easy to read, like the English Standard Version (ESV).  We feel that a great place to start if you’ve never read the Bible is in the New Testament, one of the first four books which we refer to as the Gospels.  Pastor Brandon delivered some great messages about how to get more from our Bible study in our Grow Summer Series entitled, “A Balanced Diet.”  Some other great tools would be the Youversion app that can be found in your app store  or websites like Biblehub.com or Biblegateway.com.

Fasting is a practice according to Matthew 6 that Jesus believed would be a part of every believer’s life.  We start off each year with 21 days of prayer and fasting.  If you would like more information on fasting, listen tot  he first message from the Series entitled “Free Indeed.”  Some other resources we suggest are: “Fasting” by Jentezen Franklin, “The 21 Day Fast” by Bob Rodgers, and a website CRU.ORG

Prayer is another key discipline for every believer.  Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (NIV)  We are instructed that our lives should be devoted to prayer.  But that’s not difficult when we realize that prayer is talking to the person that loves us more than anyone else!  We share some great resources about prayer in our Crosswalk Essentials 201 class as well as some message series that are all about our prayer lives.  We also have some prayer teams at the church available to pray with you each Sunday.  They will continue to lift you up all week!  We encourage you to start this process and deepen your relationship with God today.