Whether the person was a motorcycle rider in leather, a cowboy in boots and jeans, a Native American in Indian headdress or a kid in shorts and tennis shoes, the message of Crossover Triad 2006 was clear: Jesus Christ.
A common love for the thrill of NASCAR racing gives Rich Shipley of Archdale, N.C., left, and Al Roberson of Greensboro, N.C., an opportunity to get acquainted June 10 during a Crossover Triad block party in Archdale. The race car belongs to Elliott Sadler.A motorcycle rally and ride, a cowboy rodeo, an international fair, sports clinics and a series of evangelistic block parties took place at the same time as more than a thousand other Southern Baptists made door-to-door visits and prayerwalked in the tri-city area of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point, N.C.
Crossover, which preceded the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting June 13-14 at the Greensboro Coliseum, was sponsored jointly by the North American Mission Board, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and the 200 SBC churches of the Piedmont, Pilot Mountain and Central Triad Baptist associations. Ninety-eight churches took an active part in hosting events.
Early reports indicate at least 500 decisions for Christ were reported by Intentional Community Evangelism (ICE) teams who have been sharing their faith on the streets of Greensboro during the week prior to the SBC.
Nearly 300 salvation decisions were reported at 30 or so Crossover events in the Triad area, with additional numbers still coming in.
“When you’re ministering to bikers, it’s different from other segments of the population,” said Mike Young, coordinator for the Carolina Faith Riders, a group of 350 Christian motorcyclists. “If you’re a Christian, they want to make sure your walk matches your talk, or they won’t have anything to do with you.”
More than 200 bikers – some Christians but most not – drove into a parking lot near Greensboro’s Koury Convention Center to sign up for the ride benefiting Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina, to hear live Christian music and testimonies, and to enjoy some good food.
A stunt rider from Wheelz-North of Bolivar, Ohio, entertains during a June 10 demonstration in Greensboro, N.C. Triad Biker Day and Charity Ride for the Children June 10 was part of Crossover Triad.“The idea of the day was to let people know that Jesus can make a difference, and I think that has come through loud and clear,” Young said. “Nobody can walk away from here and say, ‘I’ve never heard anything about Jesus.'”
About 15 miles south of Greensboro, it was horses – not Harleys – that were the feature attraction.
“Cowboy Stampede” was the brainchild of cowboy preacher Jeff Smith, a North American Mission Board national missionary who used a rodeo as a Crossover event to spread God’s word to about 750 people in a livestock arena in Archdale, N.C.
Despite the heat in the arena, it was hard to tell which rodeo feature the crowd liked more – the bull riding, the barrel racing, the pole bending, the mounted shooters, or the “Harvest Cowboy Band” bluegrass group who performed between events.
In all, it took two dozen rodeo performers and 50 volunteers to put on the rodeo, sponsored by NAMB, the North Carolina convention, and the Cowboy Church Network of North America.
“It was a block party for cowboys,” said Smith, who, after the rodeo’s dust and gun smoke had cleared, preached a 20-minute sermon from the middle of the arena. After his message – describing Jesus as the ultimate “trail boss” – Smith asked the crowd to make decisions for Christ. Dozens of hands went up, Smith later reported.
“Red Hot” takes Triad-area bull rider Terry Owens for a wild ride during a June 10 rodeo in Archdale, N.C., sponsored by Triad Cowboy Church. Owens was the only one of 10 riders who stayed on his bull for the required eight seconds.Carrying on the “cowboy” theme, Bobby Truitt drove two hours from Vale, N.C., to bring his new “horseshoe” ministry to Crossover in Archdale. Truitt and his team stamped John 3:16 on horseshoes – along with the person’s name – and gave them out free. They handed out some 1,400 of the horseshoes.
Smith, who said he personally has planted 25 cowboy churches, described his congregations as 25 percent cowboys, 50 percent “country” people and 25 percent “city slickers.”
In Greensboro, in an effort to make personal contact with residents of neighborhoods surrounding churches, many Crossover participants went door-to-door to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Spencer Clemons, a 15-year-old from Lake Talquin Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Fla., traveled 12 hours by van with his father Steve, pastor Milton Harrington and two other men from the church – Rusty Gibbs and Bill Ludlow – to participate in Crossover with dozens of volunteers from Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greensboro.
The group said they spoke with many who said they are Christians but also two Muslim women and a man who claimed to be an agnostic. “We were really able to get some good contacts for (Cornerstone) to follow up on,” Harrington said.
The Tallahassee group also assisted Life Community Church in Greensboro with a block party later that afternoon. Nearly 1,000 people attended the party, which included a rock-climbing wall, hot-air balloon ride and several inflatables. Children of all ages ran around the grounds as people shared the gospel on a stage and inner-city evangelism teams mingled in the crowd.
Crossover Triad 2006’s most outlying event was a massive block party planned and executed by seven smaller Southern Baptist churches in a public park in Seagrove, N.C., a 45-minute drive south from Greensboro.
Crossover Seagrove included an antique car show, a moon walk, puppet show, face-painting and pony rides for kids, live music from a stage on the baseball field, and barbecue, hot dogs, soft drinks, bottled water and snow cones. Because of the generosity of the sponsoring churches – some with fewer than 100 members – everything was free.
The largest Crossover event was the International Fair at Greensboro’s Ben L. Smith High School. By mid-Saturday afternoon, a few thousand people had come to sample the cuisine of 14 different countries, including China, Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, India, Mexico, Laos, Cambodia, as well as Native Americans.
Each ethnic group had a booth highlighting its culture and colorful dress. As the aroma of the ethnic food filled the gym, children of the participating countries sung familiar Christian hymns in their native languages. And 200 Crossover volunteers – many from Greensboro’s local ethnic churches – shared the gospel with all who would listen.
North Carolina’s “Piedmont Triad” area includes about 1.5 million people in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point and surrounding areas. A Crossover 2006 goal is to plant 19 new churches in the region.