Recent News

Leaders from Xenos' urban ministry will be sharing their vision for their work in an upcoming 2 night class, "Urban Ministry 101." Patty Young, Michael Larson and Brandon Grant will take you through the history of Xenos' urban work, and share how they hope to bring young people of all ages to a faithful walk with Christ.

If you've served in urban ministry before, this will be an encouraging refresher. And if it's new to you, you can learn more about this exciting work, and how you might get involved.

Urban Ministry 101 will be at Harambee Christian School (1000 Bonham Ave., 43211) on Wednesday, April 18th and 25th. It'll run from 7:00-8:30 pm and it's free to attend!

To register, email your name, address and cell phone number to Kim Phillips (PhillipsK@Xenos.org) with "Urban Ministry 101" in the subject line.

From time-to-time we profile leaders in Xenos, and this time we highlight elder candidate Brian Runk.

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For the last seven years Brian has served as the director of the Junior High ministry, but also works as an adult home church coach and is also moving into the role of an adult sphere leader. He says his time working with middle-schoolers has been both a huge challenge but also a great joy. Brian says, “God has proven his greatness to me by seeing students I never thought would change, become completely transformed and others-centered.”

Brian himself came to Christ as a young person. “As a kid I was always fascinated with understanding how the world worked, and wondered about the Creator.” He didn’t grow up going to church, but had a God-fearing mother. Brian says he was a troubled and rebellious teen but says, looking back, it was mostly because he didn’t know why his life mattered and what his purpose was. “I was at rock bottom when I came to my first Bible study in high school. I had a lot of baggage, and I felt that church culture wouldn't be able to change me, so I was really cynical.  I was amazed at the depth of teaching and people’s authenticity.” He says he quickly surrendered to the cross and was amazed that Christ's death was sufficient to bring him into security with God forever.

Since then, Brian says he quickly became a convinced Christian and wanted to let everyone know about Jesus. In fact he says God has blessed him with a gift of evangelism, and he loves sharing the good news with others. He says he’s seen many people come to Christ (including Xenos elders James Rochford and Chris Hearty), but really enjoys that 20 years later God is still teaching him. “Even though I have lots of answers to give people I still make mistakes, and realize I need God's love to be in me and moving through each and every time, and without that nothing can be accomplished.”

As for his involvement at Xenos he says he sees the emphasis on lay leadership as a two-edged sword: “It's so amazing that we equip and mobilize everyday believers to become teachers and pastors in their own right, but it can also be a weakness because people make mistakes. We need to be a church that is humble and will admit mistakes but at the same time continue to have high standards and improved equipping for volunteer leaders.”

Xenos offers a support group called Good Grief, serving young adults who've lost a parent, helping them deal with the special challenges they face. It meets every other month, and has a meeting coming up Tuesday, April 10th at 3062 Woodbine Place, 43202.

If you have any questions about the group contact John at xenosgriefgroups@gmail.com.

Last year, thanks to many faithful and generous givers, Xenos received $300,000 more than what was budgeted for spending. Now, with the input of the Fiscal Support Team (FST), Xenos elders have made plans for how to use these “black ink” funds.

As in past years when this has happened, the surplus will not put into the General Fund budget. Instead the elders have allocated $217,300 of it for one-time projects such as equipment upgrades, facility enhancements, projects in our mission fields, and staff training. That spending will happen over the next year or so.

The remaining surplus is going to the church's cash reserves, allowing for future fiscal flexibility.

Last week all FST members received an on-line survey seeking input on what projects to cover with these black-ink funds. We tabulated the survey responses and have funded the highest priority areas accordingly. The elders reviewed the results given the go-ahead for the top seven categories of one-time work.

Here are the areas that will be funded, in order of the survey results:

• Providing enhanced counseling resources, with in-depth counselor training
• Funding international missions, with indigenous church support, short-term missions materials and health training programs
• Enhancing ministry and fellowship areas at our venues, with more cameras for public spaces, repairs and replacements for seating, added lighting and some food options for post-CT fellowship
• Funding domestic missions, with help for our Youth for Christ/Gracehaven partnership
• Addressing some Student Ministry needs, with research into an urban high school, Epic camp assistance, College Connection support, and service ministry help
• Adding capabilities for ministry and fellowship areas at 4th St. and the Warehouse, with outside seating spaces
• Enhancing meeting projection systems at 4th Street and Building X, with wide screen 16:9 systems, along with simulcast capability from multiple venues and more digital cameras

For now the elders have opted to not fund the options that received the least survey support—adding further fellowship areas for Main Campus and enhancing study center functions.