What's Up with Crossroads

So as most of you know, Steph and I are very involved in the church we attend.  I work at the church as the Youth Pastor as well as the Children's Ministry Director and I preach on occasion.  Steph helps out in a number of support roles including the Pre-K/Kindergarten primary teacher and helping with the Youth Group, and we are both a part of a Small Group.  Since a lot has been happening with the church lately, Steph thought it would be a good idea to write a post about the status so that we can discuss it more freely without assuming people know what's going on.  

Crossroads Christian Church is a small church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.  We don't have a huge budget and we don't have our own building.  If you want more info about the church check out the website here.  In New York City, space is a premium and when you don't have several million dollars to buy a church building you have to rent space.  Unfortunately there are not many spaces available for rent that are good for a church to use on Sunday mornings.  So our church meets at a local public high school on Sunday mornings.  Every Sunday we bring stuff into the high school that we use for worship, children's classes, and other ministries and at the end of the service we tear everything down and pack it up in our church van. It is a lot of work every week to set-up and tear-down but we are grateful to have an affordable space to rent.

We use the school gymnasium for the youth class, the auditorium is where the congregation gathers for worship and teaching, the entry hall is where we have the welcome table and kids sign-in and the hospitality table for coffee and treats.  Sometimes we use the cafeteria for community outreach events, like our Christmas Party.  We use three of the classrooms for our kids classes: Nursery, Pre-k/Kindergarten, and Elementary.  The teachers have to move all the desks around to set-up for the class and move everything back in the end, leaving no evidence behind that a Sunday School class met there.  It's not exactly an ideal situation but it works for our church and we've figured out ways of making it a positive experience. 

There has been a long legal battle in New York over the last several years about whether churches can rent space at public schools or not.  The Department of Education allows school spaces to be rented by community groups for activities during non-school hours.   A few years ago, the then Mayor of NYC and the Department of Education in his administration decided to refuse to rent to churches on the basis that it violated separation of church and state.  Our position is that churches or any other religious or community organization should be able to rent space from the school as long as they don't interfere with regular school activity and that by refusing to rent to one group but allowing others was discrimination.   Crossroads was effectively evicted from the high school where we met, along with other congregations across the city in similar situations.

The legal battle began and in the meantime our congregation switched to a "house church" model which we called Community Groups.  The congregation was divided among several homes and met together in those groups to watch the sermon through a live feed over the internet.  This was a difficult transition for the church and required a lot of training, coordination, patience, faith, and commitment from everyone involved.  It ended up being a good experience overall but proved not to be sustainable over time in terms of growth.  Fortunately, since the legal battle was in limbo, we were permitted to return to the school in November of 2013 until the legal proceedings were resolved.  

This is what Steph's Community Group looked like at one point

In 2014, the United States Appellate Court ruled that the New York City Department of Education can choose not to rent to religious groups, upholding the Mayor's decision.  The lawyer that represented the churches appealed that decision to the United States Supreme Court.  This week we found out that the United States Supreme Court decided to not hear the case and therefore the Appellate Court decision will stand.  So, NYC Department of Education can refuse to rent space to our church, and other congregations like ours.  This was a major disappointment for us and if you want more information check out this website of the lawyer for the churches.

This was hard news to hear not only because it meant we would be losing our ability to use the school but also because Crossroads has been in the process of finding a new head pastor and things are in a delicate transition as it is.  Fortunately, God blessed us with great candidates and our new head pastor will be starting this summer (that's all we can say about that here).  But the court's decision this week meant we were facing another uphill battle about where and how to meet.  It felt like one step forward and two steps back.  

But God did not forget about Crossroads or the other churches left in the wake of this legal decision (just as He promised). We found out that the current Mayor (elected last year) decided that he and his administration was going to choose to allow churches and religious groups to rent space at public schools even though the ruling allows them not to. 

"The Administration remains committed to ensuring that religious organizations are able to use space in City schools on the same terms provided to other groups. Now that litigation has concluded, the City will develop rules of the road that respect the rights of both religious groups and non-participants. While we review and revise the rules, groups currently permitted to use schools for worship will continue to be able to worship on school premises under DOE guidelines." Wiley Norvell, Deputy Press Secretary, Office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

We are overjoyed and praising God for His provision.  Hopefully, the Mayor will continue be positive towards churches.  If you want, we would appreciate your prayers for our church and for other churches across this city.  Even if you are not religious there is a benefit in having churches or other religious organizations active in your community.  These groups provide services from counseling, child care, volunteer support, and commitment to the people in the community - regardless of religious affiliation.  

We are relieved and grateful but continue to put our trust in God that He will continue to take care of us and Crossroads.