CrossLife Church sets sights on discipleship and ‘kingdom mindedness’

LaQuonne Holden thought signing papers for a meeting place for his newly-formed church would be one of the most satisfying times of his life.

Instead, he said it was one of the most discouraging.

Holden said he and a handful of others had been meeting in a home Bible study — the early stages of CrossLife Church of Macon — and believed it was time to meet publicly. Holden believed he’d found the perfect spot.

But as signing drew near, the owners contacted him and said the deal was off.

“CrossLife started with five people in a Bible study,” he said. “We’d come to where people were saying, ‘We believe in what CrossLife stands for and that it’s needed in Macon. Let’s do it.’ We were ready and thought we’d done all the legwork and found the perfect place. It was January 2015, and we were excited — we’d even announced it. I’ll admit getting the news brought a real sense of discouragement. I questioned God, asking, ‘What’s going on? How can we plant this church with nowhere to go? This place was perfect.’ ”

But Holden said he discovered that God was waiting to give them something “much more than perfect.”

“I got an inquiry from the pastor at another church inviting me to his office to share my heart and vision,” Holden said. “Within five minutes, the pastor said God touched his heart and he told me, ‘If you need a place, we want you to have your start right here.’ ”

The church was Christ Chapel Macon and the pastor was John Wood.

“John gave me a tour of the place and it turned into quite a surprise,” Holden said. “Christ Chapel meets in a place that was called Starcadia, now called Sportstowne. We were walking around and when we got to an indoor football area I stopped cold. ‘I used to play here,’ I told John. I hadn’t realized where I was until that point, but suddenly it hit me.”

An Atlanta native, Holden said he first came to Macon as wide receiver for the Macon Knights Arena Football League team. What hit him was where he stood used to be the Knight’s daily practice field.

“If it wasn’t for the Knights, I never would have set foot in Macon,” Holden said. “John and I finished the tour and I was an emotional wreck. Not only had God brought me back to the spot I started out in Macon, but John and Christ Chapel were offering me the use of the space — at no charge — to give our church a start. And God made it clear to me, speaking to my heart, saying, ‘Now do you see why I closed that other door?’ I thought what I had found was perfect but this, I don’t know, it was much more than perfect.”

Holden said the encounter with Wood provided more than a good place to start CrossLife, it also provided confirmation of one of the church’s core values.

“Me and my wife, Jacinta, who also has a pastoral role at CrossLife, sat down many times praying about what kind of church CrossLife was to be,” he said. “We knew it wasn’t to be the kind of church that had to look just like us or was just about our group’s interests. No, it wasn’t supposed to be about one color and wasn’t supposed to be about just one church’s interests. It was about his kingdom. We wanted a core value to look beyond ourselves to the bigger picture of what God is doing. We wanted an open heart to love and serve others beyond boundaries, just as we’d seen in how others blessed us.”

Though Holden said he and Wood had no relationship prior to that meeting, Wood has become one of many mentors in his life as a Christian and as a pastor.

Last summer, Holden said he felt God was leading CrossLife to move to their own place on Eisenhower Parkway. He said it was a sad parting, but all involved agreed it was God’s time for the next step.

If what Holden called “kingdom mindedness” became central to CrossLife, he said a second prominent factor is the call to make disciples.

“CrossLife’s real beginning came out of a conviction and burden I have to personally help God’s people become Christ’s disciples,” he said. “It’s been my observation modern-day Christianity often invites people to a relationship with Jesus Christ — as it should — but then doesn’t always give the guidance or tools to integrate that relationship into every area of life — from relationships to vocation to serving others in the church and in the world. I feel a mandate to develop followers into leaders and empower them to lead in their homes, community and every sphere of influence. We always have to be thankful for our salvation but we need to live out what we were saved for.”

Holden said he’s aware of Christian discipleship’s importance both in the church and in the workplace since he’s a bi-vocational pastor, meaning he still works full-time in addition to pastoring the small but growing congregation.

While still in Atlanta, Holden earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance at Morris Brown College where he played football and was rated a legitimate NFL prospect. Not drafted to the NFL, he joined the Arena Football League playing in Columbus, Macon and Mississippi, then had a stint in a European league in Germany. He returned to the U.S. and began 10-plus years as an accountant-analyst in Ricoh USA’s Macon Accounting Center. He is now office-project manager at Christy Capital Management. He also earned a master’s degree in theology and ministry.

“When we moved back to Macon we spent seven years as part of a local church just happy to serve however the Lord desired,” he said. “I was asked to begin teaching discipleship classes that grew and helped a lot of people in their Christian walk. God used that season to cultivate our ministry and teach us the value of intentional discipleship. I’m grateful for the season we had at Real Life Church.”

Holden said he became familiar and was influenced by the teaching of Ron Carpenter of Redemption Church in Greenville, South Carolina. He said it was through Redemption Ministerial Fellowship International that he was ordained. CrossLife is part of that association of churches though Holden said the association leaves plenty of room for fellowship and work with other churches. He said he counts a number of pastors as fathers and grandfathers in the Lord to him, including Wood.

“Ministry means service,” he said. “It’s simply serving Jesus and others wherever, however he leads. It was the example given to us to look for what God is doing and be willing to obey whatever he directs. It’s not just thinking about me or ours.”

Holden said the 2-year-old CrossLife congregation is well underway as God continues to shape it.

“We’re committed to unity and having strong relationships with a number of churches,” he said. “We meet as a congregation to grow as disciples and exalt Jesus, desiring his presence and keeping it about him and not about us. We look for him to build deep, genuine relationships among us instead of just what we can manufacture. We’re still a small, intimate church but we’re involved in the community through things like delivering meals to first responders and being host to Macon meetings of the Middle Georgia Chapter of Compassionate Friends. We just hope to be a greater and greater blessing as we discover, become equipped and grow in what he calls us to be as individuals and as a church.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2017 at 2:53 PM with the headline "CrossLife Church sets sights on discipleship and ‘kingdom mindedness’."