Crossroads ministry connects WU students with community
It’s 5:45 p.m. on a Sunday night. The streets are dark and silent, and walking into the side doors of First Presbyterian Church, all is silent there too. For a few more minutes, at least.
Josh Sumpter is downstairs in the youth room, discussing the upcoming night’s activities with a group of young adults. As the director of the youth ministry, he is preparing to lead the evening’s youth group. However, the responsibility of that leadership is shared with 13 others: the individuals, currently parked in bean bags and plush chairs, who live on campus just up the hill.
Crossroads, the youth ministry at First Presbyterian Church, currently has 13 Waynesburg University students serving as youth leaders to middle school and high school students. For the last 10 years, Crossroads has partnered with university students as they seek to impact a younger generation of students in their faith.
According to Sumpter, the student leaders can understand middle school and high school life because they have been there and can provide a great example for the younger students.
”The teens look up to the university students,” Sumpter said. “Sometimes our kids think that parents and adults are a little out of touch, and so having university-level students that come in to build relationships with them is very inspiring, not only to me, but to our kids as well.”
However, the Crossroads youth aren’t the only ones being taught to grow in their faith. In this case, the teachers are learning just as much as the students – if not more.
Jennifer Miller, a junior pre-med/biology major at the university, joined Crossroads as a student leader during her freshman year. Her interest was sparked at a meeting during orientation week, and she was hooked from then on.
”I really enjoy the company of junior high kids. So I got connected.”
She currently leads a small group of eighth-grade girls – a group she has been with for three years now and will continue to lead through the girls’ high school careers.
”I really like the feel of connecting with someone on many different levels,” she says, returning a wave that a younger girl offers from where she is waiting across the room. “So, not just [being] here with them once a week talking about God and my faith and our religion, but I also like to see them outside of this atmosphere too. This Sunday night atmosphere isn’t what our lives are like every day.”
Miller enjoys hearing the stories and experiences from the younger girls she connects with. From Miller’s perspective, everyone has different things they can relate to and different reactions to certain situations – and she finds the differences in perspective refreshing for her own faith.
”The messages that Josh gives here are deep for the kids, and they’re just like nice little reminders sometimes [for me],” she said. “And then, working here with these kids makes me want to be the best in my faith that I can be, for them … I know that I need to be at the top of my game so I can help them and not lead them astray.”
Miller also draws on the support system created by the student leader.
”We’re all really caring for one another. We’re just willing to help each other out.” She smiles at a few other passing girls, then nods. “It’s been pretty cool.”
Sumpter wraps up his talk with the youth leaders and asks for a volunteer to pray. One of the girls does so, and the preparation meeting concludes just as a wave of middle school students floods into the open basement.
The kids and youth leaders all scatter around the large room as Sumpter starts up the sound system. A few start up a game of ping-pong; a few start forming clusters to talk together about their weeks of university or middle school classes; a few are imitating the thumping bass and singing along to the music – it’s a song, fittingly, by Jesus Culture – that is blasting through the loudspeakers.
It’s just past 6 p.m. now as Sumpter rallies a few of the student leaders in the center of the large room. “4-Square! 4-Square going on, right here!”
4-Square – an interesting game that is a staple at Crossroads. There is even a poster dedicated to the game taped to the wall: ‘Official Crossroads 4-Square Rules’.
Three of the student leaders immediately jump into the square with Sumpter and start a game. It isn’t competitive by any stretch – it’s just a fun game, loose and easy and natural.
After a few passes, Sumpter steps out and the leaders take over from there, beginning to play the popular game amongst themselves.
As the clock ticks past six, more middle school kids start trickling through the doors. The music is still blasting, and a growing chatter joins the noise as the younger students seamlessly join the leaders in rotating positions for 4-Square.
There are over 50 people in the basement of the church by the time everyone is accounted for, but the atmosphere is one of familiarity. Everyone is on a first name basis, and no one is left out.
Some of the kids continue playing ping-pong while the game of 4-Square continues in the center of the open room.
It gets intense. A few of the boys seem determined to take each other’s heads off with wild passes – they are told to relax – while the girls standing outside the square squeal and duck at any loose bounces.
A few of the male leaders are shooting hoops in a basketball arcade game, while younger boys desperately try to block their shots.
It’s no use. Height difference is too much of an obstacle in a basketball battle of middle school versus college.
Jennifer Miller talks with a few of the girls in her small group, while Joshua Hennigh, another leader, plays no-holds-barred foosball with a younger boy.
It is impossible to tell who won, but neither seemed to care. They were laughing.
This is the scene every Sunday night at Crossroads. The first half hour or so of the two-hour block of time the middle school group meets is dedicated as an “open time” of games and talking between the kids and leaders.
A larger group activity follows that everyone participates in – including the student leaders.
”It’s about building connections,” says Sumpter as the kids prepare to play the night’s game: Ga-Ga Ball.
Upon its execution, Ga-Ga Ball can be viewed as mini-dodgeball in an “awesome arena of awesomeness” – dubbed so by Sumpter and created by turning nine rectangular tables onto their sides and boxing in the 4-Square court.
The kids and student leaders who want to play all pile into the arena and find a place along the edges. The game begins, and soon everyone is doing their best to strike the dodgeball on a bounce and hit the lower legs of another player to eliminate them.
The field is quickly thinned in the first game, and soon only three student leaders remain in play. The watching crowd of kids start cheering for Hennigh. A few moments later, he wins the game.
The second game finds everyone once again cheering for Hennigh.
”If you get Josh Hennigh out, you get free pizza!” calls Sumpter, trying to encourage the younger kids as Hennigh continues to dominate the game. Everyone is laughing, encouraging their friends or banging out a drumroll on the walls of the makeshift arena, but Hennigh is in the zone. He wins again.
The third game finds another bounty placed on Hennigh’s head.
”If you are the person who knocks Josh Hennigh out of this game, we will pause the game for a moment of silence. And then, you will also gets first dibs in line for snacks,” offers Sumpter over the rising chatter and cheering.
The offer is quickly accepted and the moment of silence does come, as Hennigh is eventually taken out by members of his own fan club.
In the fourth game, a strategy emerges. For the boys – hit the ball as hard as possible and hope it hits someone. For the girls – lay low and hope the boys take each other out.
The final game is smeared by an in-arena argument between Hennigh and one of his small group members. As the ball flies around them, the two decide the only way to solve their argument is with a heated game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Both are promptly eliminated. Both just laugh.
At around 7 p.m., high school students begin to arrive while the middle school students head toward the back of the room for snacks – ice cream, mozzarella sticks and mini-pizzas – prepared for them by three of the youth’s moms.
The middle school and high school programs overlap during this period of “open time,” where the kids and student leaders can mingle together to eat, play games or just chat. The middle school students meet at Crossroads from 6-8 p.m., while the high school group arrives at 7 p.m. and stay until 9 p.m..
Sumpter wanders the room with a bowl of ice cream, stopping and sitting with several kids to ask “What’s up?” or “How are you guys?”
It’s a simple action that speaks volumes, and it demonstrates what Sumpter believes the ministry is all about: building connections and building one another up.
It’s 7:15 p.m. now. Everyone gathers around the small, elevated stage on one side of the room. Their chairs form a half circle around the stage as Sumpter tests the microphone.
”Welcome to Crossroads Post-Thanksgiving Special,” begins Sumpter. He quickly reels off a few announcements – an invitation for a ministry-wide trip to a trampoline park and several service opportunities within the community – before beginning the prepared slideshow for the night’s message.
The first slide holds a picture of a single word: ‘pray’.
”It’s a reminder to me that we need to get focused a little bit,” said Sumpter. “What we want to do now is just pray and settle ourselves down so we can focus on what God might say to us tonight.”
After the prayer, Sumpter moves to another slide, this one holding a picture of a young boy imitating an older man – a son imitating his father.
”I sort of imitate [my dad] in the way I look, the way I act, the way I think, and sometimes that’s a little creepy,” says Sumpter as he walks the small stage in front of the now-quiet audience of youths. “But really it comes naturally. We see people do things, and we want to imitate them.”
Another slide appeared on the projector screen. This time, the slide held a scripture verse – Ephesians 5:1-2.
’Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to the Lord.'
”We come to this crossroads in our life where we have to choose what we want to imitate or reflect, right? And we can choose God, or we can choose the world,” says Sumpter, holding the rapt attention of the listening students. “So I see this [verse], it says ‘be an imitator of God,’ and I think of Jesus. What does it look like for my life to imitate Jesus?”
”Then it says ‘hey, you are dearly loved children, and because of that, you should life a life of love,'” he continues, pausing for a moment. The room remains silent. “Live a life of love, because Christ loved us.”
He indicates to the students that this is not a suggestion from scripture, but a command.
A command to be imitators of Jesus Christ; to live a life of love; to offer oneself in willing service and sacrifice.
After a closing prayer, the student leaders begin to disperse with their small groups. Each of the 13 Waynesburg students has a small pocket of kids that they connect with in these groups each week.
Several groups retreat into the youth room. A few groups venture elsewhere. Six eighth-grade girls follow Miller, their student leader, up three flights of stairs to their small group meeting place: the Green Room.
Aptly named, the Green Room has green walls, green tables and green(ish) carpeting. A huge clock hangs on the wall, but it is silent. The entire floor is silent until the girls arrive.
Despite the two sofas and three lounge chairs in the room, the girls all pile onto the floor in a tight circle, eagerly chatting with each other. Miller lets them share stories of being locked out and getting paper cuts before bringing her girls partially back on topic with a light question – to get the giggles out before the review of Sumpter’s message.
“If you could describe your personality as a Thanksgiving food, what would you be?”
Half of the girls immediately yell out “Yams!” The other half do not know what yams are, prompting a five-minute discussion that ends only when one of the girls shouts “Who cares?” and sends the group off in laughter again.
The path of conversation grows serious then, as Miller’s next question has the group rereading the scripture Sumpter presented earlier and picking out what stuck out to them.
”Fragrant offering,” says one of the girls when it is her turn, and the others all nod in agreement. “I don’t understand.”
Miller slowly translates the verses, explaining why an offering might be described as ‘fragrant’ based on Old Testament practices.
”So, ‘fragrant offering’ as in, like … a good sacrifice?” The girl who originally asks the question now clarifies it.
”Yeah,” agrees Miller.
”Gotcha.” The girl makes an ‘ok’ gesture as Miller nods, looking down at the open Bible in her lap – looking at the passage in Ephesians. There is a moment of comfortable silence before she continues.
”Do you guys think it’s hard to live a life of love?” she asks.
The girls exchange shrugs and glances. “Sometimes,” says one.
”All the time,” claims another, mentioning the difficulties they are presented with at school in the form of sixth graders – also known as “the sea of munchkins.”
After laughingly reminding the girls that they “used to be those munchkins,” Miller shares with the group how encouragement is a huge part of living a life of love.
”You may not realize it yet, but you have a lot of power with your words and how you speak to other people,” says Miller. “That’s my challenge for you guys this week. Think about what things you can do in your lives to show people love and be more encouraging.”
One of the girls makes a heart with her hands toward the other girls in the group, and everyone laughs – but the action is representative of the entire night, and even representative of what the university leaders do for the students they work with every week: live a life of love.
As the middle school students leave for the night, and the high school students have their turn with 4-Square and other games, several student leaders linger in the hallway together.
At the end of the night they will return up the hill to another week of homework and exams, but for now – they stay.
They stay between the college and the church, not fully in either place and yet completely in both of them. The connection between Crossroads and Waynesburg University is built in the students’ demonstration of the university mission: faith, learning and service.
Faith – by spreading the message of Jesus Christ through lives of love and reverent imitation of God, knowing that younger students are also imitating them.
Learning – by teaching their young peers in a relatable way, while also creating lasting relationships and learning from their own students.
Service – by stepping outside of the campus ‘walls’ and taking on a role of responsibility and leadership in the community while also encouraging their younger students to be involved in service.
All of these aspects are there. But for Sumpter, the Crossroads ministry truly centers on building relationships and helping the kids and student leaders alike grow in their faith as they impact – and imitate – one another.
”Part of it is proximity, because we’re close to the college, and part of it is just that vision that we have for our ministry to our youth: to see college students impact the lives of the next generation that’s right behind them.”