My wife grew up in the church, and faith was a big part of her life. I (Judd) hadn’t grown up around church, but I knew it was integral to her life, so we spent the first 11 years of our marriage looking for a church home.
Then, her sister invited us to attend Crossroads when we moved to a home near Oakley. It immediately felt different from any other church we had attended. There were so many different people in the atrium. It felt diverse and inclusive. Some were in dress clothes and others in sweatpants. It didn’t have the cardboard Christian feel of the other churches we had tried out. The worship felt authentic rather than a way for the folks on stage to have the limelight. The room was dark, so there wasn’t the sense that people were making note of who was or wasn’t there, who was new, etc. It just felt like everyone was there for getting closer to God, not judging each other. It became our home and where we began to grow spiritually, which led to Judd getting baptized on a GO Trip to New Orleans in 2009.
Prior to that we were not tithing. We would give randomly at service but we hadn’t built a discipline around tithing. Judd’s company was struggling and on the brink of collapse due to the economic downturn of 2008-10. We were making ends meet by draining our meager savings. After returning from NOLA, he was having lunch with a then-unemployed friend who strongly challenged him to tithe despite his current financial struggles. We ended up setting up a monthly automatic tithe and committed to Game Change in 2010 and have never looked back.
Since then Crossroads has given us mission, purpose, and incredible community all centered on Jesus and the Gospel. It has allowed us to live a life of true faith and walk that out alongside others. It has led to Boob Group and Dude Group (Women’s and Men’s Bible Study) that have both been meeting for over a decade and built relationships that are deep and significant. It ignited my passion for adventure, sparked MAN CAMP (and lots of others). It allowed Dani to get to be a part of starting and working for CityLink. It has influenced how I run my business and care for the folks I work with. The faith and community it has fostered and grown is the foundation of our lives.
Now, we’re looking to the future impact of Crossroads. We have watched tens of thousands of folks experience Camps over the last nearly 10 years, and we are both very passionate about seeing more of that. We want to see Camps become a national event drawing tens of thousands of people a year from across the country (and abroad) to experience Jesus in a unique, authentic, and powerful way plus Crossroads reaching more people than ever through sites, small groups, the app, podcasts, and other electronic means. We’re expectant that God is going to move. - Judd and Dani W.