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| Cross, Yorkville, members put their faith in action through many avenues of service. |
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Some steps in Cross’s “guest to discipleship” process:
- All About Cross – “a 3 hour overview of what our mission and vision is; plus what it means to be a disciple here at Cross.”
- One on One session -- Individually meeting with people, Mary Pat connects them to small groups, to further classes, and/or to service opportunities, depending on where they’re at in their faith walk.
- New Disciple Orientation (previously called “Faith Foundations”) is a required course now for all who want to commit as disciples of Jesus Christ at Cross, including transfers. This 8 week community group experience includes the basics of the Christian faith, but intentionally leaves the people wanting more. Completion of this course is not the final requirement for membership, but a model for what it means to live as Christ's disciples in the world, everyday. The goal is to have the participants experience authentic community and be a safe place to address the hard questions with the truth of scripture and the support of one another. It is our hope that this experience will serve as a formative step in the life long journey of love, service, faith, sharing, knowledge and growth.
- Cross Connect Event- connects people to Community Groups for fellowship, prayer, support, service.
- In addition to the Network class, people are invited into ministry through a spiritual gift inventory available on the church website as well as Service Opportunities – from ‘first serves’ in which people can try things out for size - to what they call “seasonal” or “consistent” ways one can get involved.
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“We don’t focus on membership here; we focus on discipleship. It’s faith in action. It’s getting involved. It’s not about us. It’s about bringing people to Christ.” What many churches describe as volunteering, Mary Pat Bretthauer, Director of Connect Ministries at Cross Lutheran Church, Yorkville, Illinois, describes as “faith in action”—a key part of the church’s vision and mission.
Chalyce Deterding, a Cross member, describes the result from her own perspective. She’s a volunteer worker and board member for Community Bridges, a group that, as she puts it, “bridges people between a rough time in their life and hopefully gets them over the hump to where it’s not so rough.” In describing her first experience with the group, a distribution of food and gifts at Christmas, Chalyce was surprised by the impact on the recipients. “The people were brought to tears by something that seems to me so simple. It’s an unbelievable blessing to see the look in people’s eyes. I’ve never in my life had to worry about not having Christmas. But these people worry all the time about feeding their kids.”
Chalyce got connected to Community Bridges through Network, Cross’s 6-hour class that helps people serve. “The class was not about ‘this is what we need you to do’ but it’s always about where does God want you to be,” Chalyce says. “It’s backward from most experiences I’ve had in churches where they’re just looking for someone to fill a spot.”
In addition to doing a spiritual gifts inventory, participants were to “ask three people close to us to answer what they thought about certain aspects of our life,” Chalyce recalls. “Not only did we get our own personal view, but I got feedback from my mom and two brothers and husband. It’s hard to be objective about ourselves.”
Finally, participants meet individually for an hour session with a Network Consultant who suggests Cross ministries that match their gifts, interests and schedule. In Chalyce’s case, she and the consultant “met twice. The first time, nothing fit my schedule. I prayed about some things but it didn’t seem right. The second time we met, she said, ‘Maybe this [Community Bridges] is something you’d enjoy being connected with.’ It’s been perfect.”
Mary Pat has had several roles in Cross’s continual focus on and implementation of its vision and purpose. Three years ago, when she was Director of Operations, “I felt a nudge from God to move in this “connect” direction,” she recalls. She began working with other staff on crafting the “Connect” (assimilation) program. The church’s strategies for mission were continually honed through several senior staff changes and the explosive growth of their area in Kendall County, the fastest-growing county in Illinois and the second-fastest in the United States.
Her current title of Director of Connect Ministries well describes both her passion and her job. “Connect is not just the assimilation of people once they’re in the door, but it includes an outreach piece, to get them to become visitors or guests of Cross as well. So it goes from outreach to guest to friend to disciple. What that will look like when complete, we’re designing as we go and grow.”
Mary Pat sees serving as a key component to spiritual growth. “Once you can get a person to serve, to put their faith into action, that’s when the light bulb finally goes off. Sometimes it’s hard to get them to that point. Often we have head knowledge, but we don’t have that heart connection yet. I personally feel that the heart connection is only gotten through putting faith into action. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, that enables this heart connection to take place.”
Member Joyce Kolbe would agree. “The rewards of serving are immeasurable, both on the spiritual side and the personal side. I have found that I have many very active Christians in my life now who have inspired me and who encourage my faith.”
She didn’t start out feeling that way about serving. “All my life, I had never really personally served beyond church attending. I never really got involved.” When told that to join Cross she had to take several classes, “I kinda stamped my feet and had a bad attitude. Why did I have to go to classes? I was LCMS.” When it was time for the Network class, “My impression was that they brought me here so I can’t say no to serving.”
But the class content, and the people in the class, changed her mind. She began serving and now is a co-leader of the funeral luncheon team and a mentor mom for MOPS, a program for mothers of preschoolers. With her husband she leads a small group and they are looking at forming a second group.
Serving has brought her closer to her Savior. “I’m in early stages of Alzheimer’s. I think God brought me to Cross at this time. I have learned to pray, really pray, through people I’ve met. I can’t tell you in full what that has done for me.”
“This is what Cross is about.”
