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By Rev. Mike Brose,
Crosswalk Community Church
2723 E Gordon Ave.
509.280.3544
On January 3, 2005 Crosswalk Community Church opened its
doors in Hillyard. We opened with the goal of actually being a
“community” church, that is, involved in and improving the community we
lived in. Our sense of this vision came from the book of Jeremiah when
the Israelites found themselves in a new city and a new community. In
the twenty-ninth chapter they receive three distinct instructions that
we at Crosswalk have taken to heart and adopted as our own. The people
are told to 1) settle down permanently and plant gardens 2) Increase in
number and 3) seek the peace and prosperity of the place where you are.
It is our visions to live these instructions out in our new home in
Hillyard. Crosswalk didn’t begin in Hillyard but we do believe this is
where we were intended to settle. The following is our story of how we
arrived home.
Like most things God does, Crosswalk began incredibly small and
insignificant. It began as a name. Crosswalks are about safety and
getting from one place to another. We knew that a church is about
helping people safely negotiate their journey of faith, as their lives
take them from one place (or way of living) to another. Before we had a
church, we had a name.
Starting the church wasn’t easy. We were going to meet, just a few of
us, in our living room. The night of our first meeting a couple we were
really hoping for and counting on called us to say they didn’t feel like
they were supposed to be a part of Crosswalk. We had meetings that first
few months where literally not one person showed up. I’d prepared a
study of some kind and I’d look over at my wife and say, “Well, let’s go
get some ice-cream.” We had a lot of ice-cream in the early days.
But we prayed, and people we knew stuck with us. College kids I knew
from when they were in high school came on board. Some of them are
sitting in chairs here at Crosswalk in Hillyard today. We lost our only
two families just weeks before we were scheduled to launch our first
public service. So there we were with a pastor and handful of college
students, thinking we could just pray a little and people would come to
church. And they did. We handed out doorhangers and had a little free
advertising on the radio and on October 10, 2001 we had our first
service in the gym at Evergreen Elementary School in North Spokane. We
had 55 people at our first service, most of whom were people we knew
from other churches who felt bad for us and thought they’d show up for
just one Sunday. But we had others who came that were actually looking
for a church home, and some of those people are still sitting in chairs
here in Hillyard every week.
Those first months were rough. We averaged anywhere from the high teens
to the low thirties in attendance - and that was counting pregnant women
as two! At some point, our financial situation drove us to find a
cheaper place to meet. We settled at the Ramada Inn on the Newport
Highway. We had a conference room there – in fact, there’s a new church
meeting there today so it couldn’t have been all that bad. On our first
Sunday there, I stressed that this was a temporary home and that if we
were still there a year from then we’d have somewhat failed. A year
later I realized that maybe pastors aren’t so good at judging what’s a
failure and what’s a success. We were still there, but it didn’t feel
like a failure. It felt like there was something more out there, and if
we were patient, God would provide.
 I
had been meeting for a while with a group of pastors for prayer and
fellowship. One of those pastors was at the former Terrace Heights
Baptist up on the South Hill. Our church was just barely making it and
our resources were about to run out. Their church had a hundred year
history that had just about run its course – about a dozen or so
faithful people remained. We were two pastors thinking separately that
between us we had the makings of a pretty good start on a church. We
were right and God brought the two congregations together. I still
remember the first meeting with the dozen or so people remaining at
Terrace Heights. They looked me over, and asked me questions saying to
themselves, “So this guy thinks he can be our pastor, huh?” Most of the
people at that meeting drive down from the South Hill to Hillyard every
single Sunday.
When the merger was complete we turned our attention to our location
again. The Ramada just wasn’t cutting it. We almost tied ourselves to a
lease in an old dance studio on Market. When it fell through, we were
devastated. When we remember how disappointed we were then, we just
laugh. Thank God that he protects us from ourselves sometimes. Because a
short time later I read in the paper than an old Catholic School on
Gordon Street was having a yard sale. I thought, maybe they’ll have some
good books. So my wife and I came down on a Saturday just for a drive. I
bought three books. A few months later Crosswalk bought the building.
And a year or so after that, here we are. That’s our story in a
nutshell. It’s important to tell, I think. At different times and at
different tellings we emphasize different details, not unlike the
gospels telling the same story of Jesus in different ways but however
it’s told we end at the conclusion that we were supposed to end up in
Hillyard.
In Jeremiah’s vision, the people were to settle in and plant gardens in
their new community. Gardens do two things: they speak of
self-sufficiency and they create spaces of beauty. Crosswalk hopes to
become self-sufficient in Hillyard so that we can have an abundance and
give back to the community. Already we have had food drives, free
community movie nights, school supply drives, and have sponsored
neighborhood families for Christmas. Also, we have planted literal
gardens on our property, turning bark into grass, rocks into flowers,
and forgotten dirt patches into shrubs and plants. We intend to make our
little patch of ground in Hillyard into a place of beauty that the whole
community can take pride in.
Jeremiah tells the people to grow in their new community. On January
22nd of 2006, just over a year after moving here, we had our largest
attendance ever for a Sunday service – 87 people! Our goal is to provide
another place of worship where the people of Hillyard can feel at home
to learn and grow at their own pace.
Lastly, Jeremiah says that the people are to seek the peace and
prosperity of their new community. Crosswalk is committed to making this
a reality. Jeremiah tells the people to pray for their community and
Crosswalk regularly prays for the people and businesses of Hillyard.
Jeremiah concludes his section on the community with these words, “Pray
to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
That’s our story and that’s our goal and we’re thrilled to be in
Hillyard to live it out.
Click to link to the Crosswalk Website |