Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB)

Church sees value of ‘sticking together’

Venue 302, at 302 W. 30th St. in Hutchinson, Kan., is one of the campuses of CrossPoint Church, the former Westbrook Baptist Church. Services are held here on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. Venue 302 also is the site of other ministries, such as Celebrate Recovery.

Good-natured chatter fills the air as worshippers file into Venue 302 in Hutchinson, Kan., on a late Saturday afternoon.

When the lights dim, worshippers take their seats, and a testimony about Celebrate Recovery flashes on the screen. Another 5 p.m. Saturday service is underway at Venue 302, which is a campus of Westbrook Baptist Church, now called CrossPoint Church.

After the praise service ends, Pastor Andy Addis strides to the platform and greets the crowd, “What’s up, church? How ya feeling?”

Later in the service as Addis launches into his sermon, he asks the crowd to recite the CrossPoint mission statement: “Love God. Grow Up. Serve All.”

In mid-summer 2010 Addis was preaching a sermon series called “Road Trip—A Journey through the CrossPoint Community.” Along with the two sites in Hutchinson, CrossPoint has congregations in Sterling, Hays, Great Bend and Salina. The Salina church meets on Saturday nights at Webster Conference Center. Each site is “its own church,” Addis says.

Addis had traveled to Sterling the previous Sunday. The next morning he was heading to Great Bend. A video about the Great Bend congregation flashed on the screen.

Pastor Rick Taylor said, “We have just finished our first VBS.”

CrossPoint in Great Bend meets in the former Roosevelt junior high building. The facility also houses a soup kitchen and a domestic abuse shelter. The church now has about 130 people attending. Taylor asked for prayer about starting a second service, possibly on Saturday night.

When the video finished, Addis says, “That’s your church in Great Bend—an extension of who we are.”

Launching into the main part of his sermon, Addis reminds the crowd: “Our strategy is we want to be a church for the unchurched.”

Using 1 Corinthians 9: 19-23 as his text, Addis told how:

• Being a church for the unchurched is a choice.
 
• A church for the unchurched does whatever it takes.
 
• A church for the unchurched has priorities: to win some!
 
• A church for the unchurched shares the blessings.

The next morning Addis was at the Westbrook building on Hendricks Street on the west edge of Hutchinson. Worshippers in the 8:30 service had a little surprise as Addis began the service with his sermon so he could leave quickly and head to Great Bend.

The Westbrook building earlier played a role in shaping Addis’s ministry career. He grew up in Great Bend and earned two degrees at Fort Hays State University in Hays. While in Hays, he served as youth pastor at Agape Southern Baptist Church under the leadership of pastors Wally Smith and Tommy Hinson.

Addis preached in small churches in the area and was youth leader for Central Baptist Association. During the associational annual meetings at Westbrook, Addis led youth rallies in the church basement.

A turning point in his life came when he and his wife, Kathy, headed off to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

“You see all these big churches,” Addis recalls of Texas. While in seminary, he pastored Handley Baptist Church, an inner-city congregation in Fort Worth. The church was “David in the land of Goliath.”

The Addis family came to Hutchinson in November 2002. Westbrook Baptist Church saw an explosion of growth that eventually led to multiple campuses.

“It just has been amazing what God has done,” Addis tells a class for prospective church members on a Wednesday night at the Westbrook building. He compared the process to “riding a bull. You don’t steer—you just hang on.”

Addis juggles a busy ministry career while placing priority on his family. But he remains determined to help smaller churches.

CrossPoint Church is a strong supporter of Central Baptist Association and KNCSB.

“We see the value of sticking together in this,” Addis says.