Territories
Money committed in the 10X Push will be used to follow the call of God to expand the territories he gives us. We have identified four specific territories for investment that have the potential to spark an awakening over the next 10 years.
- 10 Cities in 10 Years
- Next Level, World-Class Experiences for Everyone (Kids, Students, & Adults)
- 0-18 Space Advancement:
- Crossroads en Español
- 1824 Expansion to All Crossroads Cities
Immersive Sites:
IMMERSIVE SITES
Crossroads started in a tiny rented room in Cincinnati in 1996. From the start, we adopted a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of starting churches within 20 minutes of each other. God grew the community. Soon, we had a large site that was near capacity every weekend. So we added another site about 20 minutes north of the first campus. And then we added more sites all around the city. The BHAG just seemed crazy. Until it happened.
And not too long after, God took us beyond Cincinnati, into Lexington, Dayton, and Columbus.
Our physical sites in those four cities are powerhouses for life change. In the past 10 years we baptized over 13,000 people, most of them because of what happens at our physical sites. The sites are launch pads for world changing work, ground zero for people to deeply connect with others, the best environment for all ages to hear about God in a language they can understand, and an escape from the grind of the world where thousands of people every weekend experience the presence of God and are inspired that he has more for them.
10 Cities in 10 Years
Crossroads isn’t for everyone, and there are plenty of amazing churches around our country doing amazing work. But our voice is unique, and God repeatedly uses it to reach a type of person who has otherwise completely given up on church in Cincinnati, Lexington, Dayton, and Columbus. So expand to more cities? Heck yeah. The vision and prayer is to have growing, creatively immersive sites in 10 cities over the next 10 years. And we want every Crossroads site to be a place where adults, students, and kids are excited to come hear the life-changing message of Jesus in a language they can understand.
To get there, the next steps are:
Finish the Dayton Building
One hundred years ago, a couple of brothers in Dayton changed the entire world by inventing flight from their humble bike shop. What if God wants to use an old Sears in Dayton to change the world again? The Crossroads Dayton team has faithfully set up and torn down their rented space for nearly eight years. Over that time, we’ve grown from 60 people meeting in a cafetorium around lunch tables, to more than 500 people on an average weekend (and 1,000+ during Christmas/Easter). But a rented room can only take us so far. A permanent site sends a message: “We love this city, and we’re committed to the people.”
Crossroads purchased an old Sears at the Dayton Mall. Then, in 2022, 146 faithful members of our Dayton community and Crossroads’ leadership went before us by making almost $3 million in commitments above and beyond their regular giving to get things moving. As a result, construction is now underway to create our first new permanent site since 2018.
DAYTON BUILDING SPECS
- 97,000 sq ft of space for our friends & neighbors.
- 1,550 seat state-of-the-art auditorium.
- 19 rooms dedicated to Kids’ Club.
- Open Hours for community coworking with free coffee, soda, and WiFi.
- Specifically designed for hosting touring musicians, speakers, & conferences.
Go to the Next Level in Columbus
Columbus is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Giant tech companies are betting that Columbus can be a new hub for world change, and we couldn’t agree more. That’s why we’ve had a team in Columbus grinding it out over the past eight years.
Every Sunday, the passionate core team at Crossroads Columbus sets up and tears down in a CoHatch co-working space. (Not sure what you’re doing at 5 am on Sunday, but these volunteers are moving furniture and unloading a trailer of supplies.) The team is creating a good experience; now it’s time to do more.
The next step is to purchase a larger space and enlist a larger team. Crossroads is at its best in a large, dark, creatively immersive room. God has used Crossroads Columbus to impact the 100s; now it’s time to reach 1,000s.
We think Columbus has the potential to be as large (or larger?) than our greater Cincinnati community. The first building won’t be massive, but it gets us to the next level.. This is just the start of what could be huge, with multiple sites in and around Columbus. O-H!
COLUMBUS NUMBERS
- Purchase and renovate a 45,000 sq. ft building with a 500 seat auditorium to give Crossroads Columbus their first permanent building so they can exponentially grow their community.
- Expand Kids’ Club and launch Students with new rooms and spaces.
- Fully staff the expanded Columbus site to support a full range of ministry opportunities for kids, students, and adults, at a scale similar to our Cincinnati sites.
Establish a Beachhead in a New City
The vision is to plant a seed in one new midwestern city (our fifth city total) soon, with land purchased, and local staff and resources on the ground doing the hard work to establish and grow a community that can eventually sustain and grow into a permanent site that can impact 30,000+ people. This startup plan includes running big, creatively immersive events (like worship nights and prayer experiences) and eventually weekend services. And when the time and community is right, we will be able to build an anchor site on the land we purchase, with a future goal of planting 2-4 medium-size satellite sites around the anchor (just as we have in Cincinnati).
Questions?Next Level, World-Class Experiences for Everyone (Kids, Students, & Adults)
Odds are if you grew up going to church or Sunday school in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s, the furniture was crappy and the carpet smelled weird. And the art on the walls of the Fellowship Hall...terrible. At what point did society start associating “church” with “poor quality”? Did Michelangelo phone it in on the Sistine Chapel? No. He fricking gave it his best, and we’re called to do the same.
We believe the Church has the most life-giving and life-critical story to share. A story this good deserves the best storytellers, using the best tools, to reach as many people as possible.
When Crossroads started in 1996, we drained our bank account to buy a video projector nearly the size of an oven, because people who didn’t know Jesus weren’t into overhead transparencies. That philosophy is still in our DNA. The next iteration of technology at Crossroads isn’t an upgrade, it’s a step-change. “Good enough” is not good enough.
Leading edge LED and video technology will ensure our rooms are some of the most fully immersive and creative experiences around. We look to overwhelm the senses with creativity that helps people connect with God. Our friends and neighbors who don’t yet know Jesus are worth the absolute best. And they shouldn’t think “church” is less important than what the world offers because it looks so much crappier. So, yeah, you can feel confident inviting someone to church and won’t have to apologize about that carpet smell.
Questions?
0-18 Space Advancement
Did you know that over 1,800 students experienced a Crossroads Summer Camp in 2024, with 300 of them getting baptized? In fact, there isn’t a camp facility large enough in Ohio to hold us, so we take over a college campus. And it’s not just a bunch of parents trying to farm out their kids for a week; it’s a group of passionate students who are RUNNING towards a stage with hands up in worship. They are ON FIRE.
Seeds of awakening are growing in both our Kids’ Club and Crossroads Students ministries, but some of our sites are completely out of space to host them, and other sites haven’t been redone in many years (20 years in Oakley!). Innovation is needed to attract and advance even more kids and families. First-time student visitors make a decision whether they will come back the next week in the first five minutes, so we need to put our best foot forward. We believe God is going to change a generation, and then use that generation to change the world. And we think He wants to use Crossroads to help make it happen. New parents and young families are the MOST likely to explore faith. So let’s give them our best.
0-18 NUMBERS
- Kids and students make up more than 30% of our church.
- Over 900 kids and students were baptized last year, accounting for nearly half of all baptisms at Crossroads.
- For perspective of the movement that’s happening in our student ministry, our research indicates only two other churches in the US took more students to summer camp in 2024 than Crossroads.
- Mason’s Student Ministry has grown 101% over the past three years, outgrowing their Student Section. Push funding will be used to expand this space.
Crossroads en Español Expansion to All Sites
Hundreds of thousands of people who live near our sites speak English as a second language. We’ve always understood our call from God to be to reach people with the message of Jesus in a language they can understand. For many, that means innovatively translating our unique voice into Spanish so they can, quite literally, understand the message and be part of our community. A team of volunteers has already started this work at our Oakley campus with growing success. The next step is to expand this work across all of our sites and beyond. What would it look like to reach Hispanic families across the USA, who account for 25% of all new births in the country? We believe they are wired to respond to the unique voice that God gave us. We will build an official team and dedicate specific resources to continue the hard work of reaching an entirely new demographic. ¡Vamos!
EN ESPAÑOL NUMBERS
- By 2050, Latinos will be 30% of the US population, representing over 127M people. Currently, millions of Latinos in the US have left the church. They have given up on church but not God. We can be there for them.
- Our Crossroads community is connected to thousands of Spanish speakers across Latin America and Puerto Rico through Compassion International, Amigos for Christ, CoEd, HungerCorp, and others.
- Money is needed to fuel the growth of Español communities across cities in which Crossroads has a presence, focusing on building leaders, increasing attendance, and expanding local ReachOut efforts.
- We can also reach Spanish speakers digitally by translating key Crossroads content into Spanish, and by developing culturally relevant content specific for this community.
1824 Expansion to All Crossroads Cities
You don’t need a postgraduate degree to realize it’s harder for young adults to express their faith today than ever before – that is, if they even get to the point of saying “yes” to Jesus. One in two 18-24 year olds today didn’t grow up in the church and are in desperate need of the hope and freedom of Jesus. It’s a dangerous cultural shift that’s leaving this demographic even more confused, anxious, and hopeless. We know, however, that Jesus has something better for them, and we want them to hear it in a language they can understand.
God has already established a vibrant 1824 community at The George near the University of Cincinnati’s campus. 250+ young adults are currently meeting weekly to grow in life-changing discipleship, while even more meet monthly for social experiences and worship. They are passionate about sharing Jesus with their friends and families – they just need a little help from us.
In addition to reaching thousands more 18-24 year olds through The George, we intend to establish an 1824 presence in every city where there is a Crossroads site, to provide belonging, teaching, and care designed for this unique age group. We also know that 18-24 year olds are adventure seekers and music lovers who are primed to experience Jesus in a camp setting – so we are working on giving them that.
Finally, we are exploring ways to better provide the #1 REQUESTED FORM OF HELP from these young adults—mental health support. The future of the Church and our church depends on it.
18-24 STATS AND NUMBERS
- Our young adult discipleship program at The George (CORE) had a 95% retention rate year over year: people love it and keep coming back.
- Our 800 seat auditorium and beautiful open space on the corner of the largest college campus in Cincinnati is primed to house thousands of 18-24 year olds.
- We piloted a camp for 18-24 year olds in the fall of 2023 with 10% of attenders getting baptized. We saw physical and spiritual healings happen through prayer. And we think it’s just the beginning.