The Crossing Triples Children’s Space with Expansion

BY MELANIE BUCK –

The Crossing Church in Mena is getting close to completing their new 5,100 sq. ft. expansion that will house children’s classrooms and offices for personnel. The new addition will provide more than three times the space for children than they currently have, and will allow for more kids, more volunteers, and more fun.

Pastor Victor Rowell explained, with a laugh, there are so many children in services at The Crossing right now that, “they are stacked on top of each other back there.” The Crossing is housed in what was the old Mena Middle School basketball gym, and the old locker room areas were converted into children’s classrooms. With over 600 members, the church holds two services each Sunday morning, one at 9 a.m. and another at 11 a.m. With those members, comes many young families and an average of 120 children attend each Sunday morning. Sometimes there are more than 70 children between the ages of birth to 5^th grade in each service, and it takes around 18 volunteers each Sunday to make sure all the kids are cared for. “There are so many kids here that we felt we needed to invest in them,” said Rowell.

The project of expanding the church, specifically with children in mind, has been ongoing for more than a year. Once the decision to build was made, the next venture was finding a way to pay for it. With much faith, the church started with what money they had and have been collecting donations since, to make sure the church is debt free when the project is over. They have worked on a pay-as-you-go philosophy and are around $40,000 away from having the inside finished. “We haven’t had a huge campaign, we just have a church that loves kids and they have supported every step so far,” Rowell said. Why was it so important to be debt free throughout the project? Jennifer McPherson, Youth Lead and Worship Leader said, “It’s a way to show faith to our people because we are trusting in the Lord to take care of us. And, we want to back up what we teach with what we do. It’s a better way, to be debt free.” “We didn’t want the weight or pressure. The Bible says, ‘you’re a slave to the lender,’ and we didn’t want that. We felt that God would pay for it in His time, not force it. God will provide for things that are important to Him,” Rowell said.

The expansion, which will cost more than $200,000 when complete, will allow classes such as The Zoo, which is currently ages birth to Kindergarten, to be split into five smaller groups, and each classroom will be targeted to meet those ages. There will be horizontal climbing walls in three rooms and an indoor playground. “There are children who are here for both services because their parents volunteer to work during one service and worship during the other. It’s hard for the little ones to maintain. For those kids, the indoor playground will create a break in those five hours,” explained Jessica Anderson, Children’s Lead.

There will also be a classroom for 1^st and 2^nd grade and also for 3^rd thru 5^th grades. All of the rooms will also have carpeted walls to help with sound barriers. “Don has gone above and beyond to make sure sound doesn’t interfere between classrooms,” said Rowell of Don Kelley, Associate Pastor at The Crossing. “We tried to make all the rooms where they are very active and durable,” said Rowell.

Kelley serves as one of many volunteers who have poured many hours into the project. In fact, all of the framing of the new building and all of the finish work, when the time comes, will have been completed by volunteers. Only portions of the project that require licensed personnel will be completed by professionals, saving the church quite a bit in labor costs.

Rowell explained why reaching children is so important to their church, and the local community. “Healthy families are the life of a community. If you can invest in them when they are young, it sticks. You can make a lifelong impact in a family if you invest in the kids early on. We live in a community where parents love their kids and they will be involved in whatever their kids are involved in. Our goal in that ministry is to have a lot of fun, to be safe, and I want them to walk away with a nugget to take back home with them. We are raising little missionaries.”

“We are building that family from the kids up,” said Kelley. As to their success of reaching children and families within the community, Becky Hooper, Administrative Pastor at The Crossing said, “People feel like they belong here. It feels like home, even if they’ve never been here before.”

Continuing to provide that ‘homey’ feel, The Crossing will continue to work with the philosophy of, “It’s ok to be messed up, it’s just not ok to stay that way.” “They’re going to belong and they’re going to believe. This church loves our community and we want to invest in it,” said Buddy Hooper, Circles Pastor at the church. “The heart and soul of this church is to shine the light and love of Jesus into our community,” Hooper continued.

And investing in the next generation is the best way to show how much The Crossing cares about their community. To learn more about The Crossing, visit them on Sunday mornings, or watch their live broadcasts online at, http://www.crossingmena.com.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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