CrossPoint Newsletter

Thirty Second Edition 12/1/2025

You know, I don’t remember every gift my grandpa ever gave me–but I do remember that he gave great gifts. It’s one of the many reasons I love and miss him.

This is the season of giving, and while it’s easy to get caught up in gifts and lists, the true reason we give isn’t to be remembered, it’s because we were remembered by Jesus. Our opportunity, privilege, and even sacrifice to give is a response to the fact that we’ve already been given so much.

You may remember this verse from our recent reading plan:

“Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

– 3 John 8 (ESV)

That verse always fills me with anticipation! Through generosity, I get to go where I can’t go, be what I can’t be, and do what I can’t do–all through partnership with those God has called.

Each year, our Christmas Mission Offering is a special time when we intentionally give beyond ourselves. These gifts don’t pay bills, advance our own projects, or meet our internal needs. Instead, they strengthen the work of the Gospel close to home, far from home, and around the world.

Many of the ministries we support through this offering are partners we walk with all year long, but like many others, they depend on year-end generosity as part of their ministry plan. Your giving ensures they can stay strong and effective in the mission God has given them.

This Christmas, as you think about gifts for those closest to you, I encourage you to also think about the work of God through His church and our mission partners. I know it’s been a challenging year for many, economically and personally, but don’t underestimate what God can do through even the smallest act of obedience. Remember Jesus’ words about the widow’s two coins: she gave more than anyone else that day because her gift came from a heart of gratitude and faith. God can do more with a willing heart than we can with the biggest numbers.

This year’s Christmas Mission Offering will support four key partners:

1. The International Mission Board (IMB) — equipping thousands of missionaries to serve in difficult and even dangerous parts of the world.
2. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) — planting new churches and strengthening existing ones across our continent.
3. Church Forward — partnering with Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists to encourage and equip churches in challenging mission fields.
4. The Harvester Foundation — helping us plant CrossPoint Churches and invest in the growth and health of rural communities right here at home.

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year–not only because of family, traditions, and a little pause in the pace of life–but because we get to celebrate the first and best gift ever given to a broken world: Jesus.

I pray this season finds you well and blessed. And if that’s true, may it also inspire you to join in giving, so that together we can be part of what God is doing, across the street, across the state, and across the world.

Andy Addis

Lead Pastor

Have you ever attended a church and thought to yourself, “it would be nice if they did this…?”

Perhaps the reason God has brought that thought to your mind is because you are the one who God has called to step up and fill that need inside the church. We talk about this often at CrossPoint Russell. Instead of leaving for another church because we are lacking something, let’s be the change inside the church where we currently are.

From those conversations and challenges to our church, an idea was born and recently put into action from one of our Grow Groups. A blessing box. A blessing box is a box that blesses our community with non-perishable food items that hang on the outside of our building. In the two months it has been available, the box has been filled and refilled numerous times. Not only does it offer food items, but there is also material explaining the gospel and offering Connect Cards for prayer requests. It has become a blessing to those in our church and to those in our community who do not attend our church. That is praiseworthy!

Three Prayer Requests:

1. We pray for successful applications of grant funding for our proposed daycare.
2. We pray for the lost souls in our community who need a church home.
3. We pray for people to repent and surrender their life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Shawn Powell

Location Pastor

I hope your stockings are hung, your tree is lit, and you’re reading this with hot cocoa or coffee in your favorite Christmas mug. Like anyone, I can grow weary of the commercialism and the endless obligations, but I truly love almost everything about this season. I love pulling into the driveway after work only to load up the family and go look at lights. I love the wonder and anticipation on my kids’ faces. And I love settling in for classic Christmas movies–Elf is the best and you can’t convince me otherwise.

But I’m also aware that the sweetness of Christmas is often tinged with bitterness. Joy and grief can mingle together. In 2017, my family tragically lost my sister. She was 30, and her love for Christmas rivaled mine. I’ll never forget that phone call. Even now, my eyes fill with tears as I think about another Christmas without her.

Add to that some complicated family dynamics--some relatives I long to see, others I may or may not see depending on whether they show up–and I’m reminded that each of you have your own unique blends of joys and sorrows that meet you at Christmastime.

I don’t share any of this to be a downer. I share it because it’s real. And in a way, isn’t this mixture of happiness and longing what Christmas is actually about? At Christmas we remember with joy the promise fulfilled in Christ’s first coming, and we long with anticipation for the day He will come again to make everything that’s horribly wrong become irreversibly and gloriously right again. Living in this tension–the “already, not yet”–is at the heart of our faith.

Here are three ways to live in light of Christ’s first and second coming this Christmas:

1. Remember with joy.

Consider adding a simple Advent reading to your daily time in God’s Word. Come, Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp has been helpful for me. Go look at lights with your kids and talk about how Jesus is the Light of the World who stepped into our darkness to save us and to dazzle us with His glory (see Isaiah 9:2, 6-7). Slow down. Remember with joy the grace that has come to you through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

2. Long with anticipation.

If tears come this year, let them come. The Psalms are filled with both high highs and low lows. Bring your longings to God in honest prayer. Cast your anxieties upon Him–He cares for you (see 1 Peter 5:7). One day Jesus will wipe away every tear from the eyes of His people (see Revelation 21:1-5). Until that day, bring your frustrations, doubts, aches, and hopes to Him.

3. Live as an Everyday Missionary.

Jesus left the comfort of heaven to dwell among us in our sin and mess (see John 1:14). As His followers, we are called to step out of comfort and into the lives of those God has placed around us. Open your eyes to see those for whom Christ died. Open your home to the family member who’s difficult to love. Open your wallet in sacrificial generosity. Open your mouth to share the good news of great joy for all people (see Luke 2:10–14).

Christ has come.

Christ is with you.

Christ will come again.

Merry Christmas.

Jason Waller

Lead Pastor