Crossbridge Church | Sugar Land, TX

• Chuck Land
• Oct 15, 2009
• Series: Church Profiles

Crossbridge Church
Location: Sugar Land Church
Launch Date: September, 2002

Mission, Vision, Values of Crossbridge Church:

Mission - To Honor God by Making Growing Followers of Jesus Christ

Vision - To be a Gospel-Renewed Church for the good of the city.

Values - Truth, Worship, Community, Service, Mission

What is your philosophy of community in your church and what does that look like practically?

We believe that community is sharing our lives with each other. We encourage people to live this out in our Community Groups. Our people though are told that community is not small group attendance. So we are constantly encouraging our leaders to make sure their group is more than a Bible study, social group and activitist club. We want them to share life together as a true gospel community by opening God's word, comforting and challenging each other with the gospel and serving our city.

What is your philosophy of evangelism in your church and what does that look like practically?

We believe that every christian is a missionary. So we train and preach to our people this. We give them tools to help them explain the gospel to their friends. We encourage them to invest in relationships with nonbelievers in their world. Investing in them looks like having them over for dinner, serving them and getting to know them. We encourage and teach our people to continually pray for their non-christian friends and family for them to believe and to have an open door to share the gospel.

Church Planter Profile:

Chuck & Kathleen Land

The Call:

My eyes were open to Christ when I was a teenager and by age 18, I knew the Lord was calling me to be a pastor one day. I have worked on staff at a local church since I was 20. At 22, I was driving home from my church, listening to a worship cassette tape (it was the early 90's people!) and heard the Lord say to me that I would start a church one day.

The Lord graced me with wisdom to put that on the shelf and keep serving faithfully, learn all I could and pray for an open door and right time. Nine years later I was working at a large church in Southwest Houston that allowed me to gather a core group and launch a new church in the Sugar Land area in September of 2002.

How did you build up your core?

We were able to meet every other Sunday AM from Jan to May and then from May to Aug we met every Sunday AM. We would spend time praying, studying the books of Acts, planning for the plant and visiting other churches that were portable.

How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network?

I have many friends in A29. It was through these friends I was encouraged to join the network to be apart of what God is doing in planting Gospel-centered missional churches.

The benefits of being in the network are...

1. Friends: It was very lonely for me in the early days of planting. I found that other guys were planting were either not really focusing on theology or they had no theology. As I met A29 guys I thought, these are my people! A commitment to wrestle with scripture and submit to it, and a passion to reach people with the gospel.

2. The Gospel: It is an honor to be in a network that is all about the gospel. There are other good networks out there but I love that A29's training is usually centered around unpacking the depth and applying the power of the gospel to your congregation.

3. Men to plant churches: Our church has helped plant 5 churches in 7 years. We want to plant more, at least 2 a year in the next five years. I hope to find some good men through A29 that Crossbridge can bless.

What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant?

Get alone and get quiet and wrestle with Him. Make sure your wife is on board. Deal with your internal issues (i.e. go see a counselor!)

What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and currently facing)?

When we planted our biggest challenge was keeping people on mission. We needed a big volunteer base to set up and tear down every week at the school we were meeting at. So we were always casting vision for people to invite their friends and serve faithfully.

Our biggest challenge now is systems. We moved into our first facility in March 2009. We are growing and working very hard to move people from Sunday crowd to being partners in a Community Group.

How do you personally disciple your family?

My wife and I will read books together. This will range from a marriage book to a John Piper book. Almost everyday we are talking about what we are reading in the scripture. I am always giving her books to read that I think she will like and be beneficial to her.

My kids and I have Bible breakfast every morning. While they eat breakfast I read the scriptures to them and then we discuss what we read. I usually pray over them for the day. I do separate things with each one, too. With the younger ones I read Bible storybooks and with the older ones we will study a book of the Bible.

What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church?

We have seen people who believed the Bible was a myth come when I was preaching through Jonah and then two weeks later come to Christ.

We raised 1.5 million dollars to retro-fit 15,000 sqft to be our worship space. We have supported 5 churches in 7 years.

How can we pray for you?

Pray that the gospel will drop deeper into my soul and that my leadership capacity will grow.