By Joyce Estes, Regional Representative, Crossfield United Church
OUR STORY: We at Crossfield United Church began our journey toward 2035 four years ago. Four of us from the congregation and our minister, Rev. David Crawford, took a Zoom seminar from Vicki Nelson, Community of Faith Stewardship Support. This exercise caused us to look at who we are as a congregation, where we want to go and by what means. The first step was identifying who we were as a congregation. It was decided that we were an aging congregation, and our focus would no longer be on bringing in young people. (Read on, there’s a twist!)
Our strength was our seniors and the community. Vicki got us thinking outside the box, so we struck a stewardship committee. We hadn’t had one in over 20 years. There are now six members on it. The focus of that stewardship committee was on outreach to the community where we live and hope to serve.
How to do that? was the next question. We looked at who we are, what resources we have, and then what was needed in our community of Crossfield. It was decided to do outreach into the community. We would target those in Crossfield and area with food insecurity. Many of our members serve on the board of the local food bank, so we knew there was a need. We focused on the people using the food bank by inviting them to a community soup dinner. We advertised at the food bank and around town. We started with 12 non-congregational people coming to dinner. We also had a Saturday afternoon cooking demonstration on how to make soup to stretch your dollars. We had three people attend, none from the congregation! Our committee deemed it a success, so we organized a second soup meal! 60 people came that evening. We were now filled with hope; this was the right way to reach out into our community. We also resurrected Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers and added a Nativi-Tea to kick off the Advent season. The Nativi-Tea has had music, tea and cake, a raffle for a quilt made by one of our members, a cookie walk for those people that don’t bake, and Nativity Sets and quilts. Last year, we had 50 Nativity scenes and 20 Quilts featuring the Nativity.
Our Stewardship Committee voted to perform more outreach by having 4 community dinners each year. We are now organizing our second dinner in 2026, targeting those with food insecurity by having a lasagna meal. We advertise at the food bank, on social media and with posters around the community. We also organized a concert in April for the community and surrounding areas. We now have an annual Garage Sale in June, and planning has started for the Nativi-Tea this November.
With Vicki’s direction, we looked at our strengths, identified them, and decided how to use them! As a result of looking inward and then outward, we now have 4-5 more families (with children!) coming to church on a regular basis. We are now in the process of changing the configuration of our sanctuary to be more welcoming to children and upgrading their space. All because of soup!
Vicki Nelson is currently on leave, but if you are interested in Stewardship for your community of faith, contact Sarah Giles, acting Community of Faith Stewardship Support for Western Canada.