Much of my year in Spiritual Formation operates in rhythms – each season brings a different activity or growth opportunity to lean into. Personally, I love the rhythms of the year. They remind me of what is important and where to focus my time and energy. Our rhythms in Spiritual Formation usually look like this:
Foundations
We offer Foundations twice a year, normally in the fall and spring. This fall we didn’t run our regular course as I instead spent that time creating and training a leadership team to help run Foundations. I am so pleased with and grateful for Katherine Barg, Josiah Hallman, Dennis Ziprick, Doug MacDormand, Stephanie Pearce, and Wally Friesen who have joined this team and stepped up in leadership. Foundations is more vibrant with them there to help set up, host, connect with attendees and keep things running smoothly. Foundations ran in the winter and in the spring, bringing this course into its fourth year. We are grateful to continue to welcome people who want to go deeper in their faith and build a firm foundation on Christ and His truth.
Baptism
This past year we baptized 75 people who wanted to publicly declare that Jesus is their Saviour and Lord! It is an honour to get to do baptism interviews and hear how God has drawn people to Himself. A highlight this past fall was baptizing two elderly ladies from Michener Extended Care. They came in their wheelchairs, and I baptized them in between the two morning services. One of the women passed away just a few weeks after baptism, so it is amazing that one of her last big moments was publicly declaring the Lordship of Christ!
Deep Discipleship
In the fall, I was able to run a Deep Discipleship group with about 15 people. We read the New Testament in eight weeks, read a book on church history, memorized Scripture, and grew in community. This group has continued to meet on their own, and I’m excited to be able to do more in-depth Scripture and discipleship groups starting in the fall!
Advent
This season was busy as always with preaching, foyer displays, and the Compassion Campaign. I loved exploring different biblical characters this season as we waited with great anticipation for the arrival of the King!
Easter
Easter came early this year, so a lot of prep went into the Holy Week activities, which is my busiest week of the year. I hosted two Passover Seders, and we had our second annual God’s Story Worship Night. This has easily become my favorite activity of the year, as we get to tell the whole of God’s story in a beautiful and impactful way. It is so exciting to worship our God who has made all things well!
Women’s Rooted Bible Conference
Rooted 2024 was our best one yet! We heard from Megan Roberts, the Old Testament professor at Prairie College. She spoke about the book of Isaiah and what it means to have our memories formed correctly. The standout line of the conference was; “God says to us, ‘If you will rightly remember your sins, I will forget them!’” The women enjoyed breakout sessions, delicious food from our kitchen team, and awesome times of praise with our worship team. CrossRoads women, we look forward to seeing you at Rooted next year!
The rhythms of the year allow for great variety, growth, depth and joy as we continue to grow in our faith and share the story of what God has done. I am so grateful to get to play a part here at CrossRoads, and I want to thank all of you for your support for the ministry here. Thank you for being a part of our church family and contributing your time and finances – it is good to be on mission together!
We continue to do our work for Him because He was and is and always will be worthy!
Pastor Denise
