September 21, 2008 - CrossPoint Community Church

Church: Cross Point Community Church www.crosspt.org

Date Visited: September 21, 2008

Campus Pastor: Matt Popovits

Debbie's First Impression: Lots of kids and young families!

Butch's First Impression: WOW!!! I got a great parking place right in front. Actually, I was really impressed with the large number of young families.

Were you greeted? Yes!

Were the people friendly? Yes

Did you feel comfortable and welcome? Yes. We didn’t feel comfortable taking communion today but otherwise we felt welcome.

Was the facility easy to find? Yes.

Parking: Lots of parking. We didn’t see a “visitors” parking area but we got the best parking place anyway. They had specified parking for “elderly”, “special needs” and we think parents with small children (but we aren’t sure about the last one).

Dress Code: Very casual. Shorts and flip flops are totally fine.
Was it easy to find your way around? Yes, they had GREAT signage all over the campus.

Was there easy access to information? Yes there was a huge information desk at the front. We stopped there after the service to talk with someone about the service etc. In the worship bulletin they recommend for visitors to stop by the information desk to pick up a gift and a “loaf of bread.” We were really excited about the bread but didn’t ask about it. I guess we thought the woman would have offered it if she had any. We didn’t get the “gift” either. The lady was very nice though.

Flow/Time of Service: Great flow. They did an introduction song. Then the Executive Pastor introduced the video announcements and communion. We thought that was really cool that they took communion as seriously as they did to put it basically first in the service. The communion was cool too because people came as a family. The children all received an individual blessing and the parents took part in the elements. Then the entire family received a blessing from the Pastor or communion steward (they had about 8 communion stations). Then the band played another song and the Campus Pastor delivered the sermon. The offertory was after the sermon and then a final blessing and prayer where the congregation was asked to hold hands all the way across the rows. That was neat! The band played an outro which was an original song written by the worship leader.

Prayer time: Not much prayer time, but what time was spent in prayer was very special.

Bible Teachings: The ‘Life Lesson”/sermon portion of the service was biblically based and Matt had lots of different scriptures to support his lesson. He preached and read directly from the Bible during his sermon.

Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit was certainly there. The candles gave a very calming feeling to us as worshippers when we arrived.

Band: The band was made up of a keyboard player (also sang), bass player, electric guitar and drummer. The worship leader played the electric guitar and sang and then another vocalist (woman) was also singing. The band was very good and did some original music.

Music: We hadn’t heard of many of the songs but they were all great! Very upbeat and easy to learn and very meaningful for the service that day. They also did “Teach the Children” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It was INCREDIBLE and perfect right before the message from the pastor. Great music and very talented group of musicians.

Vocalists: Good vocalists and led worship well.

Coffee and Food: They provided juice and breakfast pastries for anyone that wanted them – FREE!

Bookstore: They had a sign that said “Bookstore” but it was a booth where you could order T-shirts etc. We didn’t see any books.

Different: There were these really cool candelabras (probably 10 of them) all over the worship space with 6-8 white pillar candles in each candelabra. It made for a beautiful worship space when entering and certainly a WOW moment when you first saw them.

Bathrooms: Honestly, we didn’t see them. I’m sure they were there but they weren’t on the main hallway.

Exit Greeting: A few people were holding the doors open telling folks to have a great week.

Debbie's Opinion: I enjoyed watching the families take communion and receive a blessing. Matt Popovits is very gifted and I liked his real life way of teaching/preaching. The music was wonderful and the people were genuine. It was again interesting to me that every church we have visited so far has made it a point to be sure that visitors understand they do not need to participate in the offering – “just enjoy the service” is what we are always told. Cross Point was no exception! Overall, a good experience today.

Butch's Opinion: I was very impressed with the way communion was conducted for the members of the church. Although I felt like I would be “intruding” if I took communion, the sight of families taking part in Our Lord’s Supper was very special and inspirational. I thought it was awesome that communion was the very first part of the worship service. I also liked the simplicity of the order of worship and the straightforward way that everything was presented. Matt Popovits is a very relaxed but dynamic preacher/teacher. You can tell he “lives” what he teaches and preaches in his messages. I found his “Life Lesson” teachings very provocative and really appreciated his very direct style. This church is filled with families and there is a very dynamic yet relaxed energy that can be felt. I don’t think I could be a member here, but I would certainly return to hear Matt.

Follow Up: Someone at Cross Point called us this week to thank us for visitng and invited us to come again!