BY DOUG HUGHEY PHOTOS SUBMITTED Over the past twenty years, Crossroads United Methodist Church in Oakdale has been growing in popularity, <strong>to</strong> the point that last Christmas Eve it had <strong>to</strong> turn away churchgoers after its 300-seat sanctuary filled <strong>to</strong> capacity. That’s despite offering eight services. Crossroads shouldn’t have that same problem this year, however, as it just finished a $4.5 million construction project that includes an additional, 600-seat sanctuary <strong>to</strong> accommodate worshipers seeking out its contemporary brand of service. With high-tech video, lighting, and sound recording equipment rivaling that of a concert venue, plans this Christmas Eve are <strong>to</strong> broadcast services down the hall <strong>to</strong> its old sanctuary, thereby raising its capacity <strong>to</strong> 900. On any given weekend, the church attracts about 1,300 people between three different services. So that might just be enough space; assuming, of course, that members don’t decide <strong>to</strong> show up from any of the church’s other three branches in Cranberry, Bridgeville, and East Liberty. Combined, those campuses account for an additional four or five hundred attendees. It wasn’t always that way for Crossroads, however, which now features a café, two youth wings, a gymnasium, and state-of-theart sound mixing equipment at its main campus in Oakdale. Twenty-one years ago, the church consisted of a core group of 10 <strong>to</strong> 12 launch-team members meeting in the Heritage Room at the Tonidale, where a small praise band donating their time and equipment set up and <strong>to</strong>re down each Sunday. Crossroads founder Steve Cordle, then a 33-year-old with a master’s in divinity and bachelor’s in music, drove <strong>to</strong> the hotel each week with the only four people he could be sure would attend: his wife, Linda, and three boys, Josh, Jonathan, and Daniel. “Every Sunday morning we used <strong>to</strong> drive <strong>to</strong> the Tonidale and wonder if people would show up,” says Steve, who at the time was earning his doc<strong>to</strong>rate in ministry from the United Theological Seminary. Previously, he’d served at churches in Somerset and Fayette counties from 1983 until 1991, when he gained approval from the United Methodist Church <strong>to</strong> open a new church in the airport area. It was a decision that came with no small amount of excitement or trepidation, and, he says, was preempted by a good year and a half of soul searching. After assembling a small contingency of about a dozen congregation members, Steve says TOP: In the early 1990s, the small congregation met at The Tonidale ballroom; BOTTOM: Pas<strong>to</strong>r Cordle, left, with church members during the land purchase and dedication. the church reached out <strong>to</strong> the community by cold calling 5,000 households. “We’d call and ask them if they already went <strong>to</strong> a church, and if they said they did then we’d thank them and hang up,” says Steve. “If not, we <strong>to</strong>ld them that we were starting a church and asked if they were interested in finding out more about us.” Eventually, their membership grew <strong>to</strong> about 80 and they were holding small group sessions in each other’s homes; a tenet that the church still operates on <strong>to</strong>day. “Now matter how large the church gets, others in those groups will still know your family and even your dog’s name,” says Steve, who’s written one book and contributed <strong>to</strong> another on what’s often referred <strong>to</strong> as cell group congregations. In 1995, the church built its first, 300- person sanctuary completely with volunteer help. They didn’t even have a construction loan. “Middle school girls even helped,” says Steve about the original sanctuary, which is now used largely as a chapel for weddings and a couple of youth services each Sunday. In 2005, the church began expanding <strong>to</strong> additional campuses, first when interest surfaced in Bridgeville, and then when Crossroads was contacted by two failing churches in Cranberry and East Liberty. Recently, the church went international when a French, father-son team sought Steve out through his Joel Comiskey Group blog, asking him <strong>to</strong> coach them <strong>to</strong> become ministers. In high school, Steve had studied in Brussels. Despite the secular culture, the two have since opened branches in Versailles and the south of France. Going from church member <strong>to</strong> minister or full time employee isn’t all that unusual at Crossroads, which caters with its small groups <strong>to</strong> anyone from the recently initiated <strong>to</strong> the longtime adherent. Such was the case with Dale Roddy, who began as a church volunteer and now heads up the Bridgeville campus out of a converted warehouse. Children’s direc<strong>to</strong>r Ginny Melhorn and treasurer Judy Hironimus have been around since the beginning. So has Steve’s son Jonathan, who is now the worship direc<strong>to</strong>r at the East Liberty location, and Al Gyergyo, who coaches small groups. Crossroads’ very first service in its new sanctuary <strong>to</strong>ok place a couple of months ago on September 29. It was the anniversary of the very first service the church ever held at the Tonidale in 1991. “We didn’t plan it that way,” says Steve. “It just happened.”
RETIRED OAKDALE RESIDENT PLANNING HAWAII TRIP FOR VETS Former Oakdale resident, Don “Bud” McLean, a U.S. Navy Retired (now living in Hernando, Florida) will organize a group of veterans, their families and friends for the next annual trip <strong>to</strong> Hawaii. They will hold services on the USS Arizona and The National Cemetery of the Pacific, with the U.S. Navy providing a bugler and launch for the services. If interested in attending the next trip on September 17-Oc<strong>to</strong>ber 4, 2013, contact Bud at dmclean8@tampabay.rr.com or (352) 637-5131. LUPUS CENTER CO-FOUNDER HONORED Susan Manzi, MD, MPH, co-founder of the Lupus Center of Excellence at <strong>West</strong> Penn <strong>Allegheny</strong> Health System, joins the Lupus Foundation of America in unveiling a new national initiative <strong>to</strong> spread lupus awareness. The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) revealed new survey findings about the public's perception of lupus and provided details about a national initiative dedicated <strong>to</strong> bolster lupus awareness. Dr. Manzi, a member of the LFA’s board of direc<strong>to</strong>rs and medical advisory committee, was a featured panelist in the presentation along with Shannon Boxx, a member of the US women's Olympic soccer team who won gold in London and is living with lupus.
Change language