In the spring of 2014, a dying church in Richmond, Indiana made the difficult decision to close. With the help of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana and several local pastors, the 12 members who remained continued meeting and praying. They believed that God still wanted to use their facilities and property for gospel ministry. Leaders within the state Baptist convention of Indiana agreed and began leading this small group through months of preparation and prayer for a church Replanter.
In the spring of 2015, two couples in Charlestown, Indiana began sensing God leading them into a new adventure. Dan and Chris Conrades together with Brandon and Stephanie Doyle started researching church planting in 2014 and by the spring of 2015 they were convinced God had not only called them to church planting together but that God was leading them into replanting. Dan was approached about a legacy church plant in Richmond, Indiana. They believed this was the opportunity about which the four of them had been praying.
Momentum began to build as the team began preparing to move from Charlestown to Richmond grew to ten even before the launch! This core group officially moved to Richmond in the fall of 2015 and joined together with the twelve members of Central Baptist to begin something brand new.
The core numbered Twenty-two people and they praying for God to continue the story He had been writing in Richmond.
The core team came to a decision to name the new church Crosspoint Church. The vision of Crosspoint Church is based on Psalm 96:3 to “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.”
The following November and December, the core team continued to meet together, fellowship, reach out to the community, redeem the empty rooms for God’s glory and look forward to an exciting year ahead. By January 2016, it was decided that May 1st would be their official launch day. The founding Central Baptist Church members and the team from Charlestown merged together and welcomed new families to be a part of the replant.
On May 1, 2016, the newly replanted Crosspoint Baptist Church opened their doors for their first public worship service and prayed that God would bring people to a saving understanding of the gospel story and their lives are transformed by the power of the cross.
Since the launch, three new people placed their faith in Jesus as Savior and followed in believer’s baptism. We are working to disciple each of these three and praying for God to bring more to us. We have begun building relationships with our local schools by delivering coffee and muffins to the teachers once a month. Crosspoint is developing ministries for college students and we has seen a growing number of college students attend weekly Bible study, come to coffee houses, and the members are developing laundry ministry.
Church membership is increasing and the nursery is overflowing for the first time in over ten years.
You can find more information about Crosspoint at crosspointrichmond.com
Published January 31, 2017
