First Impressions Experience

Ray Moore

Lead Pastor

As I was reading the blog post from our first impressions coordinator, it made me think of my experience as a  guest at a church last weekend. I was out of town and I visited a large church where I expected them to have quite an impressive first impressions team to help make me and my family feel welcomed. To my surprise it seemed that everyone was so busy fighting for a place in line to get some free coffee that we all went unnoticed. I did not really expect people in a church that size to know immediately that I was a visitor but I did think that they would at the least be a bit friendly towards me. It got me thinking the same way I see church members rely on a pastor to do Christian stuff that church members also rely on a "First Impressions Team" to do first impressions stuff. While first impressions are important everywhere, I think that they are super important when it comes to a guest at a church service. I obviously was not nervous about attending this church as a visitor, but it did help me imagine that if I was a little nervous about visiting the way I am treated would have a large bearing on whether I ever come back again. I had to work through the crowd and read signs and basically just help myself, and If I had been in this town looking for a church to be a part of I would have absolutely tried another one. The music was really good and of course the preaching was a lot better than I am used to hearing every Sunday, but for some reason I felt as if I was intruding on "their" church. I know that isn't true but because every member there decided that there was probably some team to help welcome people and therefore that was not their job I felt that way. I firmly believe just as every member of a church is also a preacher, I also believe that on Sunday mornings that every person in church that is not a visitor should see themselves as being on the church's first impressions team; even if they aren't wearing the special can I help you shirt. It helped me to see through a guests eyes and people were not trying to be rude but they were much too involved talking to "their" friends to notice people that they didn't know. It is a hard habit to break while we are at church to spend our time talking to the people that we feel comfortable around but that doesn't help out our mission as much as if we would step away from the people we know well and all of us work on making everyone feel welcomed. People that don't know Jesus are making the decision about church not based on facilities, children's programs, music quality or even if the preaching is good; they are making decisions about church based on how they felt as soon as they walk in. We all have the same human need in church as everywhere else, from the second we arrive we hope to feel welcomed and they we can fit in. I hope that all of us at CrossPointe "me included" can see Sunday's through the eyes of a guest and we can step away from out norm to help people feel and understand that they are welcomed here. 

The Art of Complaining

Ray Moore

Lead Pastor


The longer I live and meet with people the more I believe that we all tend to be pros when it comes to complaining. Never mind the fact that most of us have better lives than the majority of people all over the world; yet we still feel an overwhelming urge to complain about our troubles. Romans 8:18 basically tells us that our eternity in Heaven will be so great that the most horrific of things we go through on this earth will seem insignificant because of the greatness of Heaven. I don’t know about you but knowing that still doesn't always keep me from complaining about things. Most of us have very small bubbles that we live in only focusing on what ‘we’ are dealing with. The only time we really ever look beyond the walls of our bubble is if we are looking at people that we believe have it better than we do. We rarely if ever take time to look around at people’s lives that have it worse than us and make our lives look like we have it made. As followers of Jesus that have a passion for others to know Him; we know how hard it can be to help people realize just how great our God is. However if I was an unbeliever I can’t help but think that I would not be attracted to a “religion” where people were always complaining about their life. I would think that maybe this Jesus isn't as good as these Christians say He is. As Christians we should do less complaining than anyone no matter if we really feel that we deserve to be able to complain. I really deserve a life infinitely worse than the one God has blessed me with and so do you. I meet people that I believe have awesome lives. They have health, good relationships and plenty of money and are going to Heaven with they die; yet if you listen to them talk you would think that no one on the planet has it worse than they do. I also encounter people that live with problems and troubles that I pray I never have to deal with personally and yet when they talk it is as if no one has it better than them. I also wonder if God gets as upset with us when we complain as we do when our kids complain to us? Whether you complain in person or via social media looking for sympathy lets try to be Christlike and always be looking outside of our bubbles. While He was being brutally  crucified He didn’t complain; He prayed for others. I want to be the type of person that no matter what Im going through I want to pray and help others without complaining. Jesus set that perfect goal, so may we continue to strive for it.

Values in action

ray moore

February 27, 2017

At CrossPointe the last several weeks we have been focusing in on our core values. We have been giving every value an entire message, which will give us seven separate messages. As with everything I speak about I don't just want these nice little values and statements to simply be memorized or hanging on the fridge; I truly want them to be a representation of what kind of people we are becoming. I am almost done with the last message on our core value of prayer, but the two before that was service and generosity. Those two values are pretty closely related. They are also two that many times come the hardest for us. We don’t naturally want to give away to others what is ours and we don't naturally want to put the  needs of others in front of our own. One small way that we have started this year at CrossPointe to serve and be generous is our participation in the Backpack Buddies program. We have truly had the blessing of being able to help roughly 50 children have enough food to eat every week. This is no small task. We all even went a “little” overboard with the Christmas Presents. Two weeks ago one of our 4th grade Backpack Buddies tragically passed away from the flu. At the end of the service I gave CrossPointe another opportunity to serve and be generous, so I told them the story and we set up some money baskets in the back. I was extremely excited to tell the Church how big of a check we were able to write to the funeral home to help with the cost, but in the grand scheme of how large needs really are its still a small drop in the bucket. However it is a drop, and a start of what God is trying to do with us. He is slowly changing us from people that go to Church to people who act like the Church all week long. While two CrossPointers delivered the check to the funeral home they also took some food to the family and spoke with them. I really pray that the church can become more generous and more serving; however my prayer is not only for CrossPointe Church but for me as well. CrossPointe is continually changing into more of what God wants us to be, and it is truly a beautiful sight to behold. 

Professional christian

Ray Moore

February 9, 2017

There is something that I think about more and more as the weeks fly by. I think about the idea of every single Christian as a minister. I believe that one of the biggest reasons the Church has not fully impacted the world for Christ is the idea that the "average" Christian is simply to sit in the church pew and watch the professional Christians; "Preachers" do Christian stuff. It is a model that worked decades ago but it doesn't work as well now. Maybe it's because America is a post Christian nation or because people just don't trust churches and the clergy anymore but whatever the reason it's just not as easy as inviting your friends to church to hear the professional Christian tell them about Jesus as it used to be. At CrossPointe our mission is to point people to the life changing love of Jesus. There are far too many people just in my county for me to tell about Jesus even if CrossPointe does all they can to invite people. So, many more people could be pointed to that love if everyone saw themselves as preachers every day all day. My praying and leading and much of my teaching is to try to steer us away from that old way of thinking. People are not pouring into churches every Sunday like they used to because they are trying to find out about God. Therefore we all have to take on the role of a minister every chance we get. We might be at the office, or the softball field, or dropping the kids off at play practice but we have to be always aware that we are to be pointing people to that life changing love every chance we get; not simply hoping that one day they will walk into a Church and listen to a "professional" preacher. 

To be a father

Ray Moore, Lead PAstor

June 15, 2017

Many men never get the opportunity to experience the joys that come with being a father. I remember the night my oldest was born. Me and my wife Mindy were up until about 12:45am watching a world series game. The Cardinals won by the way.  So roughly 40 minutes of sleep later it was time to head to the hospital. 20 plus hours of labor and no sleep later Kaylee Rae Moore was born. The first time I saw her I got real hot and started crying for no reason. Most parents love the newborn stage because of the great snuggles they get from their little baby, I however was not one of those parents. Both of my newborns, the first worst than the second, were absolute demons, or so it seemed. I like the older stage better. Anywhere between not screaming all day and not a teenager yet is the stage I like. However at ten my oldest has moments where for a second she tries to act like one. No matter how the day has gone with my daughters, I love them and think they are pretty decent humans. Im not like many parents that believe some ridiculous idea that their children are always telling the truth and are never deserving of punishment. Many parents I know just can’t bring themselves to punish, “spank” their children. I was always told that as a parent it would hurt me more than it hurts the child but thats a lie. It doesn't hurt me at all. Call me heartless. I do want whats best for my children. There is a part of me that wants them to never feel pain, rejection, heartache but we live in the real world and all those things will happen. Maybe they will be rich, maybe not. They might go to college, maybe not. They might always live close to me, but in my prayers I pray that they will love Jesus more than they love me. I pray that if God wants them to move to another country to do his work that I would never stand in the way. I pray that they would be bold and strong and would change the world with their love of Jesus and their love of people. I will love them and train them but one day I have to let go. I pray that whenever that it is, that they would be incredible young ladies that would succeed at whatever they attempt. However my biggest goal for my daughters is not they they get a great education, or make a lot of money, or give their dad grandchildren, I really just want them to love and follow Jesus and to be able to hang out with them in Heaven for eternity. While I want to set my daughters up for success in this world, I want to spend more of my time with them on whats really important, setting them up for Eternity.