September 2022
By Jenny Scott
With celebration and thankfulness to God, Crosspoint Lutheran Church in the Village of Lakewood, Illinois, was welcomed as an official and independent congregation of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod on August 28, 2022.
In 2009, members of Prince of Peace Church in Palatine, Illinois, envisioned planting a church farther out in the suburbs where so many people were moving. That’s when Pastor John Scott was called to the church. The church body rented and custom-designed a third of a retail center in Lakewood, and had their first service on Mother’s Day, May 8, 2011. However, the church remained constitutionally part of Prince of Peace until the recent charter.
Crosspoint has 220 congregants. The church offers praise and worship with both traditional and contemporary hymns. Congregants can engage in volunteering and community service, children’s ministry, book clubs, adult education, and missions. As they are still renting the retail location, they plan to move the church to a permanent location within a couple years.
“Our mission, our tagline is, ‘Life is Best Connected with God,’ said Scott, who has a wife, Erin, and two sons, Ethan and Miles. “I love what our church does—connects people who thought church wasn’t for them to a loving, accepting congregation. Our church is a little unique in that 50 percent of our members had never been to church before. We baptize many adults, and in fact baptized an adult on the Sunday we were chartered.”
In addition to the baptism, the new charter was celebrated with charter signing, Kona ice, and prayer block designing. The prayer blocks are wood blocks on which congregants paint prayers, memories, etc. The blocks are then hung on the wall in the worship space.
“It’s a way for everyone to be part of our community, marking historical points and looking to the future,” said Scott.
The chartering of Crosspoint Lutheran Church is truly an example of how God has blessed the LCMS Northern Illinois District in its mission of Advancing His Kingdom, faithfully serving the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sharing it in our community and the world.
WITNESS: Encouraging personal witnessing, congregational engagement with their community, support of our NID partnerships and missions and sharing in a world mission field together.