Katy, TX–Pr. Bill Woolsey, favoring suits styled like those of Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, expressed his contempt for the stagnation of his own church body, the LC-MS:
“The mainline, historical, sacramental church – a small slice of which I belong [sic.] – has been stumbling to the bottom since the 1960s,” wrote Woolsey.
The problem is clear. Woolsey says, “most of the mainline churches in my denomination spoke a language long gone.” Not wanting to be out-of-date, he embraced a New terminology of “sacramental entrepreneurship:” a term that was already in use in the 90s with regard to Franscois Michelin; and was shaped by “theological entrepreneurs” among the Emergents like Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, John Franke, Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. Their terminology was in turn leveraged from Bill Drayton‘s use of “social entrepreneurs” back the 1980s.
In order to keep things fresh with a sense of newness Woolsey founded a community with an utterly new and original name of “CrossPoint Community Church” in the late 1990s. It should not be confused with any of the following, which just by coincidence, happen to share the same name (without the “e” at the end):
- Cross Point Church – Nashville www.crosspoint.tv/
- Nashville Campus / Cross Point Church www.crosspoint.tv/nashville
- Crosspoint Church: Home www.thecrosspoint.com/
- Welcome to CrossPoint Church – Trussville www.crosspointchurch.info/
- Crosspoint Church www.crosspointclemson.org/
- crosspointchurch.tv: Welcome www.crosspointchurch.tv/
- Crosspoint Church: Start www.crosspointnow.net/
- Crosspoint Church: Home – Bellaire www.cpointchurch.org/
- CrossPointe Church Lake Nona: Orlando, FL www.xpointe.com/
- Crosspoint Church – McKinney crosspoint-church.org/
- Cross Pointe Church | Love God, Serve Others … – Duluth www.crosspointechurch.com/
- CrossPointe Church :: Home – Valdosta crosspointechurch.cc/
- CrossPoint Church Chino, CA | Following in His Steps www.crosspointcrcweb.org/
- CrossPoint Church | Welcome To CrossPoint Church www.cross-point.org/
- Home // CrossPoint Church :: East Peoria, Illinois www.visitcrosspoint.com/
- CrossPointe Church – Norman www.crosspointe.tv/
- CrossPoint Community Church www.crosspt.org/
- CrossPointe Church / Welcome / Welcome www.cpcfamily.org/
- et lots of al., especially if the “e” is added.
Woolsey stated: “My desire in starting CrossPoint was to create a congregation that not only spoke the language of the local lost person but also loved that person so much we could not help but speak their language and love their music and adopt as many of their values as possible.”
In order to be as original as possible in adopting values of the lost persons, Woolsey has imitated Perry Noble’s use of secular rock music with idolatrous themes to open his community church services. The following list from Woolsey’s church was collected by a reader named Randy (thanks) showing the focus on the 80s era.
- Highway to Hell by AC/DC https://vimeo.com/47128920
- Counting Stars by One Republic https://vimeo.com/106845494
- Fix You by Cold Play https://vimeo.com/64667868
- They Call Me the Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd https://vimeo.com/64339780
- Nothing Else Matters by Metallica https://vimeo.com/63694603
- Hold On, from the TV Show “The Walking Dead.” https://vimeo.com/62698712
- All You Zombies by Hooters https://vimeo.com/62167236
- RE: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton https://vimeo.com/61645547
- Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi https://vimeo.com/60578085
- I would do anything for Love by Meatloaf https://vimeo.com/60019178
- Love Hurts By Nazareth https://vimeo.com/58656358
- Crazy Train by Ozzy https://vimeo.com/57488081
- Don’t Come Around Here No More b y Tom Petty https://vimeo.com/49258163
- Sympathy For The Devil by Rolling Stones https://vimeo.com/48900588
- Waiting On The World To Change by John Mayer https://vimeo.com/47609730
Originality and Newness is the greatest good, but was impaired by doctrine in the past. Woolsey wrote: “We have become so focused on doing doctrine right that we shirk doing new.”
So Woolsey’s worship services are innovative and original, even Contemporvant:
Compare:
[vimeo 103740420 w=500 h=281]
Imperfect People Wk 7 (Bill Woolsey) from crosspt media on Vimeo.
At least keeping focused on doctrine won’t be an issue keeping Woolsey from moving into the 1980s Emergent movement. We’re glad someone is trying to keep up with the times.