Our Mission, Values & Vision
Openness to Diversity and Generosity of Heart
For most of the congregation’s forty-year history, it has been racially diverse and practiced gender equality in leadership. The openness to diversity and generosity of heart displayed by these choices has led to a willingness to embrace all who worship with us, no matter their struggles or depth of faith.
At Crosscreek people are valued no matter their age or ability. Children, youth, and adults share worship leadership roles each week. We offer age-appropriate programming for children that includes a special moment in worship just for them and thematic worship activity bags. Youth are offered faith-formative fellowship and Bible study. Adults of all ages find encouragement for faith through worship, Sunday School classes, and mid-week opportunities for faith formation.
Membership
Recognizing the variety of practices among the Christian traditions, Crosscreek receives as members people who profess faith in Jesus as Savior, regardless of the way they were baptized. All who come to faith while at Crosscreek are baptized by immersion during a service of worship.
Worship
“Warm liturgical” best characterizes worship at Crosscreek. With robed clergy, weekly litanies, and attention to the seasons of the church year, Crosscreek seeks to honor God with well-planned and historically rooted worship. Both familiar and new hymns, meaningful children’s moments, and joyful fellowship, along with informal attire, combine with the liturgy to create an inviting and comfortable atmosphere of worship.
Theology
We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is authoritative for our lives and faith. We also cherish the historic Baptist principles of the separation of church and state, local church autonomy, and the priesthood of the believer.
Baptist Identity
Crosscreek is part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. We cherish the historic Baptist principles of the separation of church and state, local church autonomy, and the priesthood of the believer.
Children at Crosscreek participate in reading Scripture aloud to the congregation.
What We Value
We value being inviting.
- We will lavishly welcome those who join us to worship, learn, and serve.
- We will move beyond welcome to a stance of invitation, seeking out those who are without authentic community and lost in the milieu of modern life.
- Each and every contact we have with those who are not yet a part of our fellowship will communicate a warm and embracing community, sharing our belief that all have value in God’s kingdom.
We value acceptance.
- No one falls outside the lines of God’s boundless love. So we include all.
- God has made every person in a unique and beautiful fashion. We celebrate that uniqueness and beauty.
- We admit we don’t have it all figured out. So we keep our minds open, hearing the truth of God through the ideas and experiences of others.
- Every person has worth to God. Therefore, every person has worth to us.
We value authentic community.
- Restoration – We all know the need for wholeness and seek to create an environment in which all can find restoration through relationship with one another and the Divine.
- Affirming the worth of every person – We want to embody a community in which everyone belongs and has equal value. Every voice matters in God’s kingdom.
We value affirmation of women in full ministry participation.
- We recognize that the exclusion of women in spiritual leadership is a modern and sinful construct (For wildly non-exhaustive examples of biblical leadership, please see the following examples: Miriam throughout the Exodus narrative; Deborah as one of the primary judges over Israel in the pre-Monarchy period; Mary as the theotokos – bearer of God; the women being the first proclaimers of the risen Jesus; Phoebe as a respected and trusted deacon in the time of Paul, etc.).
- The full leadership of the church is open to all at Crosscreek, regardless of gender. The gifts of teaching and preaching belong to those whom God calls. We will not stand in the way of the call of God.
- Women have historically been an equal part of the diaconate at Crosscreek, serving for over 30 years in this role.
We value the worth and gifts of children.
- We believe that the future of our faith rests in the hearts and minds of “the little children,” and encourage their active participation in the worship of God and service to the community.
- We structure our worship and events so that children are not only observers of our faith, but participants in the worship of God through music, scripture reading, and an intentional time of worship for children.
- As our children grow and mature in age and faith, we embrace the expansion of their gifts to the community and seek active avenues of their expanding engagement.
We value an examined faith.
- Genuine theology – We seek to embody what we teach and preach. We will have a theology that matches our actions and is informed by scripture, tradition, and being alive to the Spirit moving in one another and the world.
- We will be rooted in hope, but flexible enough to move with one another to the places God is leading us.
- Being challenged to a deeper faith – We will seek to understand that we are not finished in our spiritual walk, regardless of age or time as a follower of Jesus. There are always places where Jesus asks us to grow and challenges us to reexamine the tenets we’ve held. As a congregation we will foster places and space for this challenge to occur.
We value missions.
- We understand that the historic movement of God, since the call of Abraham, has been to bless people so that they can be a blessing.
- We seek to reflect God’s love outside our walls, in our daily interactions with those around us. Every day is a chance to enact God’s love upon the world.
- We understand that we are formed when we move outside our comfort zone. We will use our resources to engage with those outside of our immediate area and around the world.
- ln addition to our resources, we will send our people to make a difference in the larger world, understanding that our entire fellowship is shaped by our exposure to God’s presence in people who do not look, act, or think like us.
- We understand God has blessed us and we will use God’s blessing to meet the needs the larger community around us.
Why We Are Here
To be a people who love the Lord their God with heart and soul and mind;
To be a people who follow His command to love as he has loved.
To be a people who know the Word of God and love to teach the truth;
To be a people who gather in His name, a fellowship of love.
To be a people in partnership with all who bear the name of Christ;
To be a people who gladly share their faith, a witness to the world.
– “To Be a People Who Love the Lord,” Terry Kirkland
Who We Are
Our Team & Leadership
Ministers: All Christians
Crosscreek's History
Our Pastor: Dixie Bearden Ford
Pastor
Dixie Ford, Crosscreek’s sixth pastor, comes from within Crosscreek itself. Beginning in 2011, Dixie served for almost 5 years at Crosscreek, first as the Minister of Children and Youth and then as the Minister of Worship and Families. After some time away, during which she worked as a public school music teacher, a children’s pastor at Grace, a United Methodist congregation in Birmingham, and then as Pastor of Faith Fellowship of York County in Pennsylvania, Dixie returned to Crosscreek in 2021, when she was called to serve as our Associate Pastor.
Witnessing and benefiting from her years of ministry at Crosscreek, we know Dixie to be committed to service and genuine in her love of Christ and of this congregation. We love serving Christ with Dixie and her family (Scott, Allie, Amber, Thomas, and Anna).
Jon Chacko
Associate Pastor for Worship & Families (starting May 2024)
David Suttles
Interim Children & Youth Minister
Cindy Dawson
Interim Minister of Worship
Kaye Slanker
Accompanist