CrossRoads
Navigating the Second Half of Life
Three Year Vision
Overview
With over 5,000 people ages 50+ in our church family, CrossRoads represents an enormous opportunity to reach and build relationship with this important age group. Developed and presented correctly, it is realistic to anticipate that CrossRoads could engage 500 to 1,000 people or more in its first year. That would be people with whom we have drawn into greater church involvement, led to greater opportunities to know, love and serve God and realize greater relevancy in their lives. This is about changing lives.
In Year One, we will begin to build community through fellowship events, perhaps on a quarterly basis. We will also begin to provide our target group with opportunities to engage in the life of the church by collaborating with our ministries and programs to identify existing opportunities to serve and learn.
In Year Two, the number of participants should continue to grow as those who become involved in CrossRoads bring their friends into the ministry – friends who are both members of our church family and others in the outside community. In Year Two, we will also build on Year One successes by expanding our service, learning and community opportunities.
Year Three will see CrossRoads capitalize on the completion of additional adult space and a fellowship hall in Building B to develop a weekly 50+University that includes a time for worship, classes and groups and fellowship time over lunch.
The above is ambitious because the opportunity is great. We anticipate on-going growth in what CrossRoads offers and in the participation of our 50+ target group. Consistent with Resurrection's vision, CrossRoads is about changing lives and we have the potential to impact many people by helping them navigate the second half of life in ways that make those years more relevant and faith-based.
Year One Details
Three CrossRoads programs are already scheduled for this fall that will directly address expressed needs of our 50+ target group.
- In September, CrossRoads will provide a Pre-Retirement Seminar designed to address a number of issues that people 50+ frequently wrestle with including faith and life opportunities, being good stewards of time and money and keeping healthy.
- In October, CrossRoads will launch on-going “Explore Your Future” workshops designed to provide a unique opportunity for people 50+ to consider "what's next?" and create a plan for their future which is personally satisfying and rewarding.
- Also in October, CrossRoadswill also launch its first Legacy Journey, a seven-week course designed to help people plan for the financial needs of the second half of life. The course will show those attending how to live a legacy now while preparing to leave a legacy for their families -- and future generations.
This fall will also be a time of significant planning for a major CrossRoads launch in January, 2015. This will include a major fellowship event and using this event to begin presenting a broad range of learning and serving opportunities tailored for people 50+.
Fellowship events will be important to creating awareness and a sense of vitality for CrossRoads.
These events will likely involve lunch or dinner and a program of interest to the 50+ target group. Thought starters for event presentations could include the following.
Adam or Jeff Kirby on the Holy LandsWWIMuseum Topic of Interest
Truman Library Topic of Interest
Art Institute Topic of Interest / Steamboat Arabia
JazzMuseum
NegroLeaguesBaseballMuseum
KaffmanCenter for the Performing Arts
Importantly, the planning of such events will begin by establishing a steering committee that will be charged with recommending dates, venue, meals and program. This committee should begin meeting in September to plan for a first event in January.
During the fall, we also need to begin collaborating with Resurrection ministries and programs to identify and tailor opportunities for 50+ Resurrection members to engage in the life of the church. In some cases, these opportunities will simply be existing church needs, yet others will be programs that are designed specifically for people 50+.
Designed for 50+Small Groups
Bible Studies
Spiritual Gifts Classes
Weekday Faithwork
Habitat for Humanity
Men’s Ministry
Women’s Ministry / Church Needs
Children’s Ministry Needs
Student Ministry Needs
Volunteers for Leadership Institute
Volunteers for Other Events
Ushers and Greeters
Parking Ministry
By the first of the year, we should also begin to explore with Missions how we can establish significant Bless the Schools opportunities such as summer work teams, tutoring, classroom support and mentoring programs. Perhaps CrossRoadsadopts its own inner city school.
Before January, we will also establish a communications plan for communicating opportunities, celebrating successes and building community (newsletters, email blasts, Facebook).
During the first quarter of 2015, we will also begin to explore learning opportunities with Saint Paul School of Theology. This could involve simply creating awareness for existing Saint Paul classes or perhaps creating courses specifically for CrossRoads members.
Lastly in January, we plan to launch a number of CrossRoads Sunday morning classes. Planning for these will need to take place during the fourth quarter of 2014.
There may be other programs and opportunities that surface during Year One and we must be open to suggestions and a sense for where this ministry is leading us.
Year Two Details
In its second year, CrossRoads will continue to build on its Year One successes by expanding what it offers our 50+ target group. We will also reach new potential participants through an “invite your friends” effort that encourages our CrossRoads members to bring their friends from within the church and also the outside community to see what CrossRoads has to offer.
In Year Two, we will develop a taskforce to work with outside non-profits to identify “expertise opportunities” that meet unfilled needs (accounting, marketing, fundraising, managing volunteers, legal assistance, project management) and other general serving opportunities. We believe that our CrossRoads members represent a large resource of volunteers including a significant number with expertise and experience that they would like to put to use. The taskforce will be charged with identifying those opportunities as well as seeing how else our members can help the many non-profit organizations in the community.
Among the additional opportunities we’d like to develop for Year Two are the following.
- Identify needs and opportunities (like landscaping projects) for all four campuses.
- Establish a “move-ins” support team for neighboring apartment complexes in which we would help new neighbors on their moving-in day. This would also serve to reach out to these new neighbors and build relationship with them.
- Establish a system for identifying and creating affinity groups for the many interests of 50+ people. This could include quilting, cooking, bridge, astronomy, fantasy sports leagues, knitting, book clubs, or travel to name a few. We’ll need to let our members tell us where their interests and passions lie.
- We also plan to develop a series of “exploring Kansas City” day trips that could range from museums to cultural events, the Arboretum or even a trip to Lawrence.
- Make available a series of international trips of interest such as the Holy Land, Paul’s Journeys or Wesley locations in London as well as international mission trips.
- Organize dinner groups for those interested.
Year Three Details
Year Three will be important to CrossRoads because it will mark the completion of our new building project including new adult meeting space and a fellowship hall in Building B. We plan to take advantage of this new space to establish a 50+University one morning a week. While plans are yet to be developed, we envision that the morning could begin with a short morning worship service followed by classes on a variety of subjects of interest to people 50+ (caring for parents/children, social security workshops, Medicare workshops) as well as small group meetings and Bible studies. Then the morning could conclude with fellowship time over lunch in the fellowship hall.