Spiritual Gifts

This week we discussed 1 Corinthians 12-13 in class. Next week we'll be talking about 1 Corinthians 14. These three chapters deal with the issue of spiritual gifts in the life of the church...yes, even 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter"! Here is a quick rundown of what we talked about last week: Spiritual gifts are given by God to use for the benefit of the body of Christ and the motivation for the use of spiritual gifts should always be love.

However, we also talked quite a bit about how to determine the spiritual gifts God has given us. We admitted that spiritual gift inventories, while helpful in some ways, are not the best way of figuring out how God wants to use us in the church. Instead, a better way might be to simply start serving the church in whatever ways that we can and God will show us what our gifting is.

So what do you think about that? Is going and doing a good way of determining your gift(s)? What are yours, at least as you see them now, and how did you determine that?

See you guys Sunday!

Grace and peace

For Your Pondering...

This past week we talked about 1 Cor 10-11.16. We focused primarily on two things: 1) We need to be wary of how we are entangled with the world because being improperly connected to the "idols" out there can make us look bad in non-Christians' eyes and can hurt the unity that we share with one another; and 2) When we worship we should do so in ways which are appropriate (especially when leading) because we don't want to hinder the Gospel.

So what do you think?

Are there still idols in our world and are they empowered by evil forces as Paul says the ones in his world were? So what are some of these idols and how can we avoid them?

And (this one can just be rhetorical if you'd like!) are there ways in which you have distracted attention away from the Gospel? I'm sure that we all have at some point. So the question remains: what can we do as a faith community to help one another ensure that the Gospel is unhindered?

Don't forget that this Sunday Andrew will be leading us in a fun review of what we have talked about so far. So if you'd like read (or skim!) 1 Corinthians 1-11.16.

Grace and peace.

Crossroads Halloween Party!

We here at Crossroads had a great Halloween party on the 31st and so we thought that we should share some of the pics from the party. So, here are the pictures!



Alyssa (as a substitute teacher), Ginger (as a Hershey's kiss), and Alida (as a crayon) pretending to be scared of Amy W. (as a devil)!









Matt (as a crayon), Andrew (as an 80's tennis player...nice legs!), and Joe D. (as Babe Ruth) striking a pose!







Joe S. and Sarah (as boxers) getting ready to settle things like men!











And the real star or the party, the Sarah Palin pumpkin, carved in tag-team fashion by Joe D. and Ginger! Great job guys!























Aren't we a great looking group?!?

Thanks to everyone for coming to this event! Thanks to everyone for dressing up and making it a blast for all of us! Thanks to you for checking out this post! And a very special thanks to our beloved Cereal Killer, Hai, for hosting!

Amy's first post

Hi~ Happy Monday.
This is my first post...kind of intimidating because I feel like it should be something extra special. BUT rather than wait for something extra special to pop into my head (at the risk of having that never happen), I figured I'd just pop in and at least write something!!
If you are wondering what we do at Crossroads, its quite simple. We meet every Sunday (like Matt below said) and usually go through part of a series. Its great because its like a sermon, except you can have input and ask questions! Currently we are studying 1 Corinthians. Can I just say how great it is to have a PhD student going through that with us because it is one tough book!
Another one of the Crossroad's favorites is snack/social time. After worship, prayer, and announcements...we all run over to the back where there are snacks (usually some delectable high calorie dish), coffee, tea, and lemonade. We try to briefly catch up on each others' work week.

Overall its a good group...you should come try! (oh and if you already go to Crossroads, this may have been a boring post...so now its your turn to write something more interesting!! ).
What did you all think about the sermon on Sunday? Any lifestyle changes you are going to be trying to make?

OH I thought also, if someone has a prayer request that you feel comfortable writing on the blog, this could be a good place to share it and if we check it midweek we can all be praying for you during the week.

Welcome to the Crossroads Blog!

Hi and welcome!

This is the "official" blog for the Crossroads class at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, CA. Crossroads is community of young adults who focus on personal spiritual growth - through social and service events, small groups, and in-depth Bible study. One way that we hope to live into that description of our class is by remaining in contact with one another throughout our hectic weeks. Our hope is that by building community -- even online community -- we can better live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ with one another and with those outside our community.

So here on this blog we hope to post follow-up questions from the previous Sunday's lesson in Crossroads (which just so happens to meet at 11:00 AM on Sundays in Ortland Hall, room 205), pictures from our events, announcements of things that are coming up on the calendar, and whatever else comes to mind.  We also have mid-week Bible studies as well.

So if you are a member of Crossroads, thanks for stopping by! Let us know you were here by leaving a comment! But if you are not a member of Crossroads, thanks for checking us out! We'd be happy to dialogue with you too!

Grace and peace.