Cross and Crown began as a mission expansion effort of Holy Word Lutheran Church in Austin, TX. With a number of individuals driving from Georgetown to worship in Austin, a decision was made to explore the possibility of starting a congregation in Georgetown. The plan included requesting a vicar (third year Seminary student) to join the Holy Word staff with a focus on reaching out into the Georgetown community. In summer of 1995, Vicar Mike Geiger joined Pastor Don Patterson and the Holy Word congregation to work at this mission effort.
September of 1995 was an exciting time. After months, maybe years, of discussions and planning a new mission was started in Georgetown, TX in the living room of Alice and John Pennington (just a couple blocks off the Georgetown square). Optimism was high. Dreams abounded. This dedicated group of 15-20 individuals invested themselves to bring Jesus to people in Georgetown. In February of 1996, a regular Sunday morning service started.
Later that year the WELS Home Mission board approved funding so the mission could call its own Pastor. In July of 1996, Pastor Eric Hartzell was installed as Cross and Crown’s first resident pastor. He led the congregation for 20 years, developing a ministry focused on visitation, caring for the home-bound, and growing members in the Word of God. Shortly after he arrived, the congregation moved to rented facilities off of Rock Street. This served as the meeting spot until the group secured 10 acres of land in the north part of Georgetown off of Shell Road. With the help of volunteers from Builders for Christ (a volunteer organization with Kingdom Workers), the congregation built their current facility at 3800 Shell Road in 2002.
In June of 2016, Pastor Hartzell left the congregation to serve the parish in Globe, AZ. In January of 2017, Pastor Mike Geiger, the vicar who helped start the congregation in 1995, returned to guide the congregation in to the years ahead.
From 2017-2021, the group went through several evolutions to add a contemporary service, kids church and start new community outreach efforts. Covid and other challenges continued to stretch the group shrinking the membership and core group. In a desire to reach the growing community around the church the group in Jan 2021, a group of about 25 Cross and Crown members gathered to explore how to
better reach and connect with our community. The group began a process with a group call Unstuck (book). The book had us take anassessment to assess our church “stage and health” from start up to a dying church. Different attributes are signs of where a church is at in its life cycle. Depending where a church is, there are tough decisions and actions that ben be taken to move back to a relaunch stage of ministry that supported a mission discipleship mindset. The process helped us to solidify a better vision for “church of the future” while there were many things we all valued about “the church of the past”. We determined there were 3 unchanging constants for us: God’s Inherit Word found in the Bible, Lutheran Confessions, and WELS partnership. We want to be intentional about being a place where people of all ages can ask questions and find God’s grace, love and truth in a relevant way. We know this shift requires physical and cultural changes.
In the summer of 2021 the group started updating our facility to help support and match this mission. Summer/Fall 2021 focused on the kids space. Winter 2021/2022 is focusing on the rest of the facility. Jan-March 2022 the kingdom workers retired volunteer team came to help transformation the worship space, entry and begin to develop the BACKYARD outdoor community space. This project was called Unstuck and then R3.
R3 Project: Revive, Renew, and Relaunch
R3 Purpose: Create a Sustainable Church for the Future.
R3 Approach: Update the current ministry approach, setting and culture to share God’s life changing message in a real, relevant, and rejuvenating way. Sharing hope and encouragement for the challenges of today and tomorrow.
In Feb of 2022, the group voted and adopted a subsidiary ministry name, Crosspoint church. The Kingdom Work project wrapped up March 2022 and the group shifted to stage 2 of the project which was
- identity shift (Cross and Crown to Crosspoint)
- internal processes and culture development
- ongoing physical changes of the space: developing the outdoor spaces
