Crossers' Update: Important Announcement

To the friends, family and ministry partners of Matt and Angie Crosser, Team Expansion Missionaries…

For 13 ½ years Angie and I have been working for Team Expansion, a mission agency that seeks to reach the least reached people and plant biblical churches in those places. With Team Expansion, Angie and I have travelled to three cities in Italy and back to the states again, pouring our lives into missions and creating missions resources along the journey. That journey is coming to a close.

Yesterday, I was confirmed to become the new Youth Minister of Highland Park Christian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Highland Park has a love for the surrounding community and heart for missions. In fact, for the past decade, Highland Park has been our largest supporting church and we have been they’re largest supported mission.

We’ve been with Team Expansion since leaving college, so it will be sad to close this chapter of our lives, but exciting because I intend to remain partners with Team Expansion as a volunteer. This will allow me to continue working on several of the long term projects of which I’ve been involved in the past few years.

Art always has been and will continue to be one of my passions, but another passion for the past 20+ years has been youth ministry. That is why I actually went to Ozark Christian College, so that I could receive training to do youth ministry. After two part-time youth ministries in college, I started my post college phase doing international youth ministry with Team Expansion in Ancona, Italy. So, I will continue pursuing both of these passions, art and youth ministry, as I seek God and His desire for my life.

I will remain full-time with Team Expansion through the end of 2012 and tie up loose ends in January 2013. If you are a supporter or supporting church, we ask that you continue supporting this ministry through the end of December. In January, we will finish up the 2012 annual finances, create our final newsletter and mail out year-end reports to all supporters along with IRS receipts.

I have been volunteering as a youth sponsor at Highland Park in various capacities for the past year or so. I will start with some part-time hours in December and begin full-time hours in January 2013, as Highland Park Christian Church’s new Youth Minister.

Angie and I request your prayers as we navigate this transition over the next couple months into the beginning of the New Year. Thank you to all of you who have partnered with us in prayer, financial support and encouragement. We have made life long bonds with many of you and are humbled to have been partners with you during the past 13 years of this adventure.

We will continue to dialogue with you throughout this transition and really do hope you will join with us in our excitement to start the next chapter of our lives.

In Christ and for His Kingdom,

Matt and Angie Crosser

How to Plan and Rebrand a Book

You can see the strung up planning cord above my desk. It has the major sections of a missions book I am working on. The book for Team Expansion is actually a rebranding of another book, for which we have permission to use. I am using the headings and terms from our organization to redesign the book into one that our churches can use to partner with us (Team Expansion) and missionaries to reach the least parts of the world and plant biblical church planting movements.

Team Expansion Meeting

So, we spent the day helping facilitate a special Team Expansion meeting in downtown Tulsa. It took place at the Centennial Park Community Center around 6th & Peoria. That is a really nice facility! It was a great day seeing some familiar faces and meeting some new people. It was a good start to lead into the National Missionary Convention that starts tomorrow.