The Blog

I am a people watcher. I like to go to places where I am surrounded by people and observe them just to see the way they behave and the way they interact with one another. One of my favorite places to do this is on the bus. There are times when I will just ride the bus and observe people.

The other day I was riding the bus with a friend of mine and we started talking about people. We were at the Eugene bus station and he said something to the effect that the place was a psychiatrists dream. This got me to thinking about why I care about the way people behave. Am I like a psychiatrist who lumps people into statistics, no offense to any psychiatrists out there? The answer I came up with is ‘No,’ When I look at those people I don’t see statistics or numbers. I don’t sit there and make a list, (I got 3 homeless people, 4 single moms, 6 drug addicts, 4 students, etc.) when I look at these people I see individuals.

Each person has their own unique story of how they got to where they are today. I find myself caring about their story and who they are. I begin to care about where their future is going to take them. I start to wonder about their family and what their relationship is with their family. The funny thing is, the more I find myself caring about who they are the more I start to care about whether they know Jesus as their savior or not. Then I start to find ways to share God’s love with them.

I really think that this is the attitude that we need if we are going to be effective messengers of Christ. We have to begin to care more about the individual than about getting another notch on our belt. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I don’t know about you but when I am in pain I do everything in my power to stop the pain. Yet we see a random person wandering through life in constant pain and we walk on by or we’ll give them one of the patented Christian answers, “Jesus loves you” or, “it will all be O.K.” or my personal favorite “God has a plan”. All of these statements are true but if we just throw them out there then they don’t really mean anything. We have to care about people, otherwise our words mean nothing and we won’t make an impact in their life.

Jesus understood people. He cared about people. He showed love to each individual. That is how he affected their lives. He knew each individual persons story. He knew their heart. We don’t have the luxury of knowing each person’s past or their heart but we do have the ability to care about their past and their heart. I want to care about people more, and I hope that what God has been speaking to me through this has spoken to you as well. Lets go make an impact.

Michael Crofford

Crossfire Masters Commission has the honor of being very involved with Crossfire Youth Church, and this last weekend had an amazing time helping put on the Breaking The Ice (BTI) 2010 Winter Camp. The entire weekend was incredible, from the pre-camp prayer meeting all the way through Ice skating the last day, God was moving in an incredible way.

Our camp speaker was Pastor Justin Cox from Passion 4 Christ Movement in Los Angeles, California. He brought a challenging and inspiring message to the youth of our community, as well as some really practical direction for them about how to reach their schools with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The ministry from the pulpit isn't all that happens at camp however. The Crossfire Youth Worship team ushered us into amazing times of worship at each service, and the Masters Commission worship team had the opportunity to minister during the saturday morning service. Beyond all that happens on stage, and probably the most important part of camp, the discipleship that happens during cabin time helped each of the councilors to build personal relationships with each of youth church members.

We got to see God do incredible things in the lives of the campers throughout the weekend, as always it was an amazing experience for everyone.

Have you ever had a mask on, like during Halloween or something, and people couldn’t see your face and see who you really are? Or, have you ever had one of those kinds of masks where everything is ok on the outside and you don’t want anyone to notice the stuff that is going on the inside like when you go to school or work and you’re just another smiling face in the crowd. I have worn that mask most of my life, where I would be on edge, trying to make everyone happy, telling them what they want to hear. I would do this with everyone from girls I dated to my parents and, a lot of the time God.

I’ve been here at Crossfire Masters Commission for a while now and starting to finally know who I am in Christ. I am a child of God, but more than that, I want to be a man of God. Not long ago, I found out that, like I said, I was wearing a mask. So I was given a special assignment I was given a Donald Trump mask to wear for about ten hours so I could look in the mirror and see my “mask” so to speak, and that I wasn’t being myself but somebody else.

All I could think about for the beginning of the day was, “I can’t wait to get this mask off,” because when we started working it got sweaty in that thing really really fast, it was going down my face, down my shirt, just everywhere, it was nasty. Then God really started talking to me in this mask about how I should want my spiritual mask off and about how the real me should be seen not “Donald Trump”.

Not only that though, when I was working the eye holes in the mask were going everywhere. I would have to move my mask to see straight. Now that I’ve said that, let me tell you that I’ve really missed home and want to be home in the worst way. The mask moving around really showed me that I need to stay focused on here and being here in Oregon, it’s alright to miss my family and friends but I need to focus on what God is doing here in my life. Changing me, using me, the real me not some fake, ‘hi how ya doin’ person, but a real person, the man of God that I know that I am called to be.

I just want to encourage you, that if you are wearing a mask, or many masks, that God loves, and that he has a calling and a purpose for you. You may not feel worthy, or like you can do anything incredible for God. But God made you for a specific purpose, forget about pleasing other people and focus on doing what God has for you to do.

-Josh DeLauder