20 Years of Ministry at Crossfire

Wow, 20 years ago, this month I arrived in Coburg, Oregon to Start my first Pastorate! I was joining my father and mother, John Sutton, about twenty adults and six children as we worked together to pioneer this church! I was ordained by Leon Willis and the Full Gospel Fellowship. I wanted to youth Pastor but we didn’t have any teens. The closest I had, was one person who was actually a year older than me. I began a Bible study for young adults (Crossfire Youth Ministries was born), did door to door evangelism, and became the Children’s Pastor. I had to work a full time Job but my passion was to preach the gospel and nothing was going to stop me! I developed, grew and changed. I am not sure in the early days if I was doing the teaching or if really the adults, children and everyone around me were simply teaching me. I learned so much. After a couple years of the back side of what at times seemed like the desert, God began an amazing move among the youth. We went from literally none, to one, then three and revival happened. I hit the momentous number of eight! Yes, I said eight, that is eight wonderful students who actually wanted to come together and fellowship around the things of God. Eight might not seem like a lot to you, but they were a God send to me. God left it at eight until I learned to care for each one of them. Until they changed from eight people, to individuals who I cherished the opportunity to love, serve, pray for and care for.

I went to the board and asked if they would help me buy a bus to pick up kids and do youth events and they laughed at me. They said, “what kids”, and I tried to quit! I knew that the board didn’t see my vision, so I resigned. They asked me to stay through the end of the summer. During that summer, God began to work on me! He showed me that I would have to love and take care of the people God had given me, then He would take care of the rest of everything! I asked for my resignation back and apologized. The board said that if I bought a bus, paid the repairs and gas they would pay the insurance. With the help of Morris Corley, we bought what would become the first of many buses (and Vans). It was a bohemia crummy that cost $600.00, We began picking up kids for kid’s church and I took twenty five to my first youth camp that me and a friend Started in Cottage Grove! (Summer Youth Camp was born).

Over the next year, over 100 youth gave their hearts to the Lord for the first time! Breaking the Ice Winter camp - BTI was born that year! Over the years we began to reach street kids, homeless kids, we worked in the schools through Release times for the Middle Schools and help encourage and promote High School Bible Clubs on every campus! I remember organizing the first See You at the Pole meetings, when we were sure we would be arrested, but we weren’t. Our little off-campus bible study at Sheldon High School was how we started on television. I made a call by accident to what I thought was the Community Center and found out that I had called the Sheldon Community Access Television Center. I found out that we could use this large room on the campus of Sheldon High school to have youth church in for free and all we had to do is show it on television. This was great because we were meeting in an actually remodeled chicken coop that was attached to my house! When the 75 to 100 youth would worship the whole place would shake. We moved to Sheldon with little intent to ever really show anything on television. After six months they told us to edit one of our shows for television or we would not be able to meet there anymore. We edited and aired our first television show. We edited the show at the wrong speed and the one hour show was over on twenty minutes. It looked like it was in fast forward and we looked ridicules. We thought no one would be watching, but we were wrong. Over the next three years, we would go from cable access, to Local TBN, to many different Local stations, (KLSR FOX being the most consistent) then to national television through Sky Angel and the Dish Network. The Phone has never stopped ringing with people who would like to ask Jesus into their hearts and would like to get to know Him better.

We had some great moves of God, amazing miracles and fruitful camps and crusades. Many diverse ministries and ministers have gotten their start over the years through Crossfire and Family Christian Fellowship. In 1997, my father came and told me that he would be retiring within the next year! We talked and decided I would continue as Youth Pastor but would also Start a Saturday evening church called Crossfire Church. It would be for all ages! After about a year, my Mother and Father retired from full time ministry, but stayed in the church (still mostly full time) to help and advise. They have been the greatest blessing a son and or Pastor could ever ask for. At that time we combined Family Christian Fellowship and Crossfire Ministries together, as they really were all along and I became the Sr. Pastor. Many years later we moved our ministry to Springfield and Living Stones Church combined together with us to make an amazing connection and force of restoration and compassion. God has expanded our vision from a desire to reach some youth to influence and minister around the World. The most important thing is what God taught us in the beginning. Every person is and individual, every person has extreme value to God and He has given us the responsibility to love, honor and serve one another.

It is amazing how much life can change in twenty years!Many faces have changed over the years, yet many have been there from the very beginning! My face, weight and hair have changed, but for the last twenty years we have together kept to the vision I had when I came: To do my best to bring Jesus to those who need it so desperately and to lead people in Worship and the Word! Over the years, there has been many ups and some very difficult downs, but God has always remained faithful! Many have said to quit, give up, or asked if it was worth it? More have said, endure, with God’s help we can do all things through Christ and it will be worth it! It has been worth it! I have never been more excited to live life, serve God and pastor the greatest group of people I have ever met. My whole family is blessed. Each one of us feel this way. I know I also speak for all my staff and their families when I say, We are very blessed to have served you over the last twenty years with our love, friendship, passions for Christ and everything God has given us! Thanks for the last twenty and I hope we can labor together for the next twenty plus years if the Lord tarries'.

What could have been?

We too often live in yesterday! This is a deception of the enemy. God has called us to live today, for today. because yesterday cannot be changed except to cut lose from it through repentance, and begin living the life God intends you to live. I often have this statement come crashing into my thoughts and life. “What could have been?” I have learned that I cannot be scared of this accusation. This is truly an accusation, especially if we have things in our past that are not dealt with (Under the blood). This accusation holds us to our failures instead of let us learn from our failures and begin to grow from adversity into the bride of Christ God has called us to be. Rev 19:7 We all have to accept it for what it was and go on. We all have areas of our lives that we wish would have went different. We wish we would had listened to the Lord or maybe to the people around us.
There are so many Christians out there anchored to what could have been. It reminds me of the person who can’t seem to get a life outside of High School/College or the man who relives his life in the sports arena long after he can hardly get up off the couch. What was, means nothing without what is! What could have been may have been great or could have been horrible, but if all you have is what was, all you have is what is behind you. God is a God of today. Make a memorial of your past victories so if you ever pass that way again you can remember them and learn from them. Set up and alter for the same reason. It is a place of sacrifice and repentance that you must remember so you never go that way again, and if you do so you know how to get back. Let your past defeats be a lesson and again, not an anchor.
Last Wednesday night Stacy (she recently gave her life to Christ) made this amazing statement! I am not sure where she got it from or if it just came to her. She said, “I’m keeping my head up and my I am looking forward because I told the enemy to get behind me and I am walking on him, because he is under my feet. “ The enemy of our souls (mind will and emotions) needs to not have our attention. We too often get our eyes on our difficulty and past failures and then we are not able to be led by the Spirit of God like we should.
Heb 3:12-14 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. I love sharing about old times! My kids love old stories. I am not talking about that! I am talking about living. When someone gets older, one of the most important things is that they keep living and being useful. When you retire, it should be a great time, not a dead time! Keep living. When we have those monumental changes in our lives, then we recognize that everyday is a new day. Live every breathe, like God gave it to you because He did. Get the past behind you so you can live. So much boils down to being led by the Spirit. God is a very present (NOW) help! I hope we all come to a place of present time living. God is calling us to live kingdom lives now not someday.
I have to add this last little part about letting people drag you down! It seems that when you finally get past the attack of the enemy concerning your past, there is always someone who is right there to remind you or to slap you in the face with it! Set around you (your inner circle) are people of promise, who think, speak and live promise. People who will give you a chance to live today. That doesn't mean to shut everyone who is not a good influence out, but it does mean that we all need encouragers around us. People who will let you live today. Who give you room and don’t try and drag you down. We need to speak life! We need to speak the Word. Jesus didn’t just live 2000 years ago, He lives today. He wants to live in and through you today. Let there always be a chapter to the book of your amazing life currently being written. Let all that is written bring glory to God!
I have never been more excited to be living than I am today. God is up to some wonderful things and I want to live out the very words that God is currently speaking. There are always people who live in yesterday or are looking at tomorrow and miss today. Lets live today. There is an evil report about today, about the economy. Lies, lies and more lies. Today is the day the Lord has made I CHOOSE to rejoice and be glad in it! This is truly the best time in history to be alive. Don’t live in fear because it’s death not life. Live in God who has made us to be overcomers and more than conquerors in Christ Jesus! The real report about today is that the devil is a liar, God is alive, faith is the victory. Choose to live and live in the now that God has provided for you. If you have a job then rejoice, if you don’t then rejoice. Take full advantage of all that God has given you! -Pastor Aaron & Kristy Taylor

Quick Event update: God has allowed us to begin a full remodel of our building. We began by saying we were going to do all we could with what we had. We quickly came up against some things we could not afford. The great thing is we were not alone. Well, Friday we had a sewer backup due to a root that grew through our sewer line and now we are getting the remodel we could not afford through our insurance company. Praise the Lord for the crises because he turned it into victory. Everyplace we turn there is opposition but God keeps making a way through the opposition into the promises He has for us.
The church is growing and people are being added every week. I am amazed how God is working in the lives of so many and they are not only being saved but they are getting in and growing. We are seeing God adding to the church daily those who should be saved. All the ministries that make up Crossfire World Outreach Ministries seem to be growing and developing at an astonishing rate. Sure, the finances are difficult and the economy might be a obstacle, but God is being faithful. Through adversity people are seeking answers, they are seeking God. Praise the Lord in all things. Let us come together and praise the Lord because He is worthy of our praise.
We have had to postpone our Philippines missions trip until March 2010. Money is a huge factor and yet I know that God has a reason for it. I choose to rejoice in this. I am very disappointed because I really want to go and be an encouragement and strengthen our brothers and sisters in our Filipino churches but I am excited to see how God will turn this around for His glory. We are not allowing this to be a defeat but a victory. For this reason we are immediately sending $3500.00 that has been raised for the trip to the Philippines for their conference and construction of the church in Escalante. We also will be turning much of our attention to one of our Spanish churches that was burnt down by gang members less than one year ago. I believe we can finish the second floor and put a roof on that church by this summers end. Please keep this in your prayers and put faith to your prayers by sending a gift marked Mexico Church rebuilding project.

If you want to get involved, I want to encourage you to let your life make a difference. If you are wondering how you can get involved please call us and simply ask us how can I get involved. There is a place for you in ministry. God has made a place for everyone in His body. Let us work together in unity to make a difference in the lives of the people around us. Don’t let anything hold you back and start while it is still called today.


Extra Update: Work on the Church is going great. This week we finished our deal on our copier and it will save us a great deal of money and let us continue to do our monthly Updates much cheaper than ever before. We also had a lot of dealings with our insurance company (due to our sewer flooding). It looks like if we are careful and do most of the work ourselves (with Volunteers) we may be able to do all that we had desired to do the sanctuary, foyer, café and kitchen. It will be a wonderful transformation. What an exciting time. As we do all we can, God is taking care of the rest! We have a great God!
We also had a great opportunity come up! As many of you know Circuit City is closing down. They were selling everything! We was able to make some unbelievable deals that will greatly benefit the remodel and our fireworks fundraising. We were able to buy what we were going to need, In addition we should have enough extra racking so that when it sells we should be able to get all that we got for free and make a few thousand dollars! For example we invested in some huge pallet shelving on Thursday. We bought thirty-eight sections for $3000 dollars, they threw in ten thousand dollars in glass doors for our sanctuary, Materials for extending our staging, wiring for our sound booth and stage, two buffers worth $1500 and about $1000 in cleaning supplies, paper towels, and bathroom hand soap. We spent the last two days moving this. One truck after another. Dave and Gail Thacker donated the storage facility and a huge truck to move it all. We have already sold five sections for $1750 and we have another $1000 spoken for. Praise the Lord! If you understood all that, we still have 28 sections of this very valuable pallet shelving and we only have a balance of $250. God has provided all these things we were needing for the church remodel. We still have many more racks we can sell and we are only $250 dollars from breaking even. That is a God kind of thing. I do have to say a very grateful thank-you to all of the faithful staff members, Masters Commissions Students and Crossfire volunteers who rallied together to make this miracle happen!


The real miracle is the miracle of God given life! We had that on Friday this week when we had two babies born in our church this week! One to Pastor Rod and Melanie Campbell—Sarah Rhyan Campbel a girl,7lbs 7oz, 20inches long and as sweet and her sisters and her momma. On the same day, but just a little later. Delivered in the same hospital and by the same doctor. Joe and Cara Capener had a big and wonderful baby boy. Kevin Silveria Capener, 10lbs 3oz (really), 21 inches long, and he is a great little/big guy! Pray God’s blessing on these families and also on these little lives! PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE THE LORD!

What a Wonderful Week!(Read to the end)

I was just wanting to write you concerning one crazy week I have had. We have been spend all of our extra time in Sweet Home visiting my wife's uncle, Mike Reagh who has lung cancer. He was sent home with oxygen, and a hospital bed and told he had no more than ten days to live. That was lat Thursday. He has been up and down and his family has been able to come and see him. Yesterday we were told he had been feeling so well that he was up and riding a stationary bike so he could keep his strength up!
On Tuesday, I was trying to renegotiate our copier lease to save us the maximum amount of money when three different companies began to fight for our business. The owner of National Photo copy came in to make the bid because we were very (VERY) competitive on our bid so he wanted to come in and see if there was anything he could do. As he sat in my office with the flurry of stuff happening (like it does most everyday) he said I want to do something I never do. That sound like another salesmen except by this time I knew what the bottom of the barrel was, because the other two companies had dropped off and said that no one could go that low. The owner said , I am going to help you. I am going to pay off your existing lease, give you the maintenance and toner lower than I have ever given it to anyone, then he found an upgrade on a used machine and gave it to us at cost. I have to tell you, that we were already getting such a great deal on color copies that it was ridicules. Now we are paying much less and our 11x17 copies are costing us one third what they use to cost us! PRAISE THE LORD! I would love to tell you the exact price we got but I had to sight an agreement that I would not reveal the price because it is so low other customers might get upset! Praise the Lord!
Wednesday was a very busy day and most of the office and Pastors were getting ready for B.T.I. Youth Camp I had a good day and was able to talk with a company who is wanting to help us with an economic relief center. Which I will explain in greater detail once things come more together. We had a great Wednesday Night Bible study!
Thursday, John Sutton and myself had the opportunity to travel with some area Pastors to Portland for a meeting with some Portland Pastors about community outreaches. It was a great time to fellowship and to share ideas. I had a wonderful conversation with City Bible’s Pastor Frank Damazio. It was also great to hear the vision that Luis Palau has for Portland and the sounding cities. We then picked up our B.T.I. camp speaker who flew in from Dallas TX for our youth camp. He is a wonderful young man and I know that the youth will be blessed as well as everyone who comes Sunday morning as the Camp joins with us this Sunday. Thursday We had a very difficult news. Joyce Curly called and told us that Bill Curly, her husband, had died. Because of illness they had not been in meeting with us for a while but they always wanted me to know that they were with us in spirit! Please keep them in prayer. Thursday evening I arrived home just in time for a very exciting and special meeting with our children's Pastors Mike and Kia. There we lined out some changes and exciting plans for the future. Please keep our children's ministry in your prayers. I am excited about our ministry to the children but we have to have more people who have a vision of reaching out to the children of our community and church. This is a ministry I believe is very special to God’s heart.
Friday, (The day of Youth Camp) I got to work at 8:30 and found Jon Fargher in the main building with one third of our building flooded. This was devastating . We quickly began to get out the shop vac’s and start cleaning. I went to rent a water extractor and they gave me the name of a company they thought would loan us the equipment. When I called to talk with them, I happened to know one of the managers. He said I will head right over and take a look. When he got there he told me to stop cleaning. He said this was much more extensive that we might have thought. What had happened was a root from a tree had busted and blocked our main sewage line. One of our toilets got stuck and backed up the sewer all the way through the locker room floor drains. He said you can’t use this until we cut the carpet out and all contaminated areas. I asked how long would it take and he said he would get right on it, so we could have church this weekend. Now let me give you a quick history lesson. A few weeks ago I was complaining to God about how I wished I could completely remodel the church. You see God has supplied most of what we needed to remodel the building but I wanted to do it all at once. God reprimand me when I heard him say “I can’t bless you until you use what I have already given you.” I then told the church I needed everyone who could volunteer, to come help as much and as often as possible because we were going to start putting everything to use that we have. One huge area we seem to have no answers in was replacing the Carpet. So we determined we would just do all we can. Well, it you haven't put two and two, together. I will help you. Our insurance company said we don’t want to risk the possible health risk so tear out the carpet and we will pay to replace it all. The damage is pretty extensive so they will pay for some of the painting also. PRAISE THE LORD! We had absolutely no money and yet God has provided. If you are wondering why we needed to remodel. Well one example is we have some carpet in the building that has been in the building for over thirty years. We have replacement value insurance so they will replace it with updated commercial grade carpet. It might seem hard for some to see this as a blessing fro God, for you I say open your eyes because God has been and still is blessing the people at Crossfire! After a very busy day for me and the start of registration for Youth Camp we finally ended up the river at the camp site. We have some very fired up young people. The Friday evening meeting was really amazing. God touched and changed lives. My wife and I drove home that night because we have puppies we had to take care of.
Saturday Morning I received a Phone call from May Floyd letting me know that during the night Barbra Classen had passed away. Some of you might know Barbra and some might not. She attended our church for many years. She also kept me out of jail a few times when I was a kid. She worked in the Juvenile Dept and pulled a few string s for me. She kept saying I think he will come around. I hope I have. I do know that Barbra will be missed. I also know that she had a close relationship with the Lord. Please pray for the family as they deal with this loss! Kristy and I then went to the church to clean, replace some light bulbs put some stuff back in place that the flood had displaced. We (our building) might look a little rough for awhile but we are excited about what God is doing. Kristy and I finally made it back to the camp and we had w great meeting with the youth. God moved and we didn’t get done with prayer until late. God spoke to, anointed, and called young people on Saturday.
This morning I followed Jon, Casy and Michael back to the church so we could get the instruments, sound and chairs ready for tomorrow! I wanted to writ you this PRASE THE LORD before I went sleep. It has been a great week! God is just faithful like that. I only hit a few of the high lights of this wonderful week. Take the good, the bad and the ugly and no matter what, you can see God at work like he always is. Pastor Aaron

Upcoming Theme for 2009

Last year God gave me a theme for the upcoming year! FORWARD. God had told me that no matter what we do, we need to keep moving forward. The word forward began popping up everywhere. It seemed like every time I turned around I would hear the word FORWARD. This was a valuable theme for the year and one I believe God wanted to engrain into our lives. He did just that. Last year was a year of change and some huge obstacles and we had to keep moving forward. The question was answered as to what are we to move forward to? Into the Kingdom of God. There is a dimension of life that we often miss. Even as Christians we are missing the “kingdom living” element. Where we are moving in the Spirit and the Will of God is being done daily. We often live in the flicker of light and call it God’s best, but we much continue to pursue (move forward into) the brightness of God’s best for our lives. I believe the theme is not over, but it is ingrained in our lives so we can continue to move forward, being led by the Spirit into the perfect Will of God (The Kingdom of God).
After nineteen years of ministry here at Crossfire I had only declared a yearly theme one time and it was last year. In the last three months God has began to impress on me to search the heart of God for a theme. I have felt this very strong about the elements of the theme but just this week God has given me a very strong wording to the theme. Making a difference! On the surface you may feel like you understand the theme but as this year begins you will see that there is a lot to this theme that may not have been evident to you at first. I knew God was wanting us to have a theme that was central around the moving of the Holy Spirit, but there were other key factors that God had laid on my heart. This theme is amazing for the day we live in. It has much to do with the moving of the Holy Spirit, the gifts He gives, how we are to relate to our World, how we are to reach out with the truth and how we are to discriminate, yes discrimination (not by color or race) but there is a very urgent need for us to begin to be discriminate in how we live our lives and relate Christ to others. You may understand a little better if you read the text from which we begin this journey. The main scripture reference is from Jude 22 (KJV). Please read all of Jude! Over the next two Sundays, I will be closing out the Forward theme and I will be unveiling the theme for the coming year. Please be in prayer for this because I know God is up to something huge this year. Thank you all for your support because we are making a difference. Pastor Aaron Taylor

Christmas Tree Fundraisers!

We have had a great month and a lot of hard work! My wife, my inlaws, myself and some wonderful people from the church spent most of the month of December working down in Long Beach, California selling Christmas trees as a fundraiser for the ministry. During difficult times, you do whatever God puts before you so you can continue to do the ministry God has provided. It went well. I did not like having to be gone, but I do appreciate the opportunity God has given us to help build the kingdom and be a witness wherever we are. The economical impact was evident and we didn’t make as much money as we had hoped. When all the costs are accounted for we are hoping to have made eight to ten thousand dollars.
Masters Commission do the Christmas tree fundraising here locally and I believe they did well. They didn’t set any records but God was faithful as they did their best God always shows himself faithful! Thanks to everyone who purchased their trees from one of our Masters Commission Christmas Tree lots!
Ministry costs money and I appreciate all of you who faithfully support this ministry! We are making a difference. I am willing to do whatever it takes to win souls and see people discipled. Thanks again, Pastor Aaron Taylor

A Time To Cling To God

A Time to Cling to our God!

Not long ago our now president elect talked condescending about those who would cling to their religion and their guns. I believe that this is a time in which we as a nation need to find and cling to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt 4:4). We must cling to what we believe in and cling to the God we love so much.
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." Deut 30:19-20 NKJV
During times of great change we need to lean not on our own understanding but instead trust and acknowledge the Lord to direct our world into these last days (Proverbs 3:4-6 & 2 Timothy 3:1-16). I am writing this following the historic election of our new President of the United States. I find myself in opposition to the ideals and beliefs of the majority of the House of Congress, the U.S. Senate and my very president. I must admit that while I disagree with most everything they stand for, I am proud of our country in one progressive area. The history of our nation has had many great days yet one of the lowest and most regretful has been the many years of black slavery, abuse and of segregation placed upon the African Americans of this nation. I am thankful to see that this nation has come to a place in its history where we can begin to see men and women without seeing color. To vote for Obama because he was a black man is just as wrong as not voting for him for the same reason. I am so very thankful that we have moved forward and in many ways proven we have moved forward. While nothing can repay for the wrongs of the past, this is a proud day.
My reason for personally not supporting Obama had absolutely nothing to do with the color of his skin and everything to do with his voting record, and his ultra-liberal agenda. One in which he is very proud of. There was not one moment in the last two years in which I could have even considered supporting Barack Obama. This morning that has changed. We must unite together and pray for our nation, its leadership and our President elect (1 Tim 2:2-6). While I cannot support his stance on not protecting the unborn babies (who we must choose to protect) (Jeremiah 1:5 & Ex 21:22-25), the economy, the importance of the definition of marriage, and just about everything he stands for, I do believe that this is a time for change. I am not sure that this will be the change that will bring this nation closer to God. We can hope that in the coming months and years, the great moral divide in our nation will strengthen what we truly believe in. The Supreme Court Justices appointed by this coming administration will be very liberal in their thinking (except for a miracle). It is time to pray and cling to our God. I am most concerned about our American young people who have been indoctrinated into such a humanistic philosophy. It is time for the church to stand up just as long as we can. It is time for the church to be the church. To stand up for what is right and what is true. We must proclaim, teach and instruct with our example and unite that God is God and without Him we can do nothing. We are not a people without hope. God has not forsaken us. We must hear from our God and cling to His every Word.
Many will say, “Oh well, God sets up leaders and He takes them down.” I do understand that this is a true and scriptural way to look at this. I also know that in doing so, God is not always looking for our comfort but our repentance. I am ready for this county to see its evil ways and have a true change. It is time this county has a change from a nation that has a form of godliness and become once again, a nation who is truly under (ruled by) Almighty God. We as Christians must be dedicated to cling to the principles of God’s Word! God can bring about change, Godly change.
There is another way to see this outcome of such an ultra-liberal anti-bible/God election. We must have a basic understanding of the dominion God gave to man. The free choice God has given us. What I am speaking about is probably best understood by examining Israel's desire to have an earthly king. God did not want Israel to have an earthly king, but they insisted so God allowed it. It brought much heartache to Israel throughout their history. I believe this could be the case for this county. I find it hard to believe this president is God’s best for our nation. This historical lesson explains what was behind it when God told Samuel: “1 Sam 8:7 And the Lord said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me.” I cannot help but wonder if in the election of such a man, we as a county have show God Himself and the world that America has rejected God. You may feel that I am overstating this, but when you look at what he supports, openly believes and who he stands with among the ultra-liberal Democratic Party, the conclusion seems obvious to me. It is impossible for me to believe we have a Christ-like president elect by looking at his beliefs and the fruit of his voting record. What I do believe is that God can use this for His glory. But it is time for us, as Christians in this nation, to pray and to cling to our God and His every Word (Please read—1 Sam 8).
This is a great day of hope, not because of the election, but because God is not dead. He is very much alive and well and He is working about good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. NKJV
In this day, let us humble ourselves, seek God’s face and pray! 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14-15 NKJV
Let us now, more than ever, cling to our God and live the great commission everyday. People need to know about Jesus. Politics will not bring about real change, but Jesus can. He will bring about the change we need, one life at a time. Please join me in doing all we can, to bring about the change only God can bring. How will they know? Who will send them? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher (proclaimer)? 15 And how shall they preach (proclaim), except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! Rom 10:13 KJV Let us take the message of change, the message of truth, to those who must hear the gospel. Pastor Aaron Taylor

Pastor Aaron's Weight Loss Challenge

He may increase, but I must decrease! This has been taken out of the original context of John 3:30 to get the point across. I am humbly asking for your help in a few different ways. I hope these few paragraphs will help to explain. It is better to be involved and sacrifice in a project than to simply ask others to sacrifice. For this reason, I want you to know that I am all in on this one. In fact, I have never done or asked anything like this in twenty years of ministry!

I HAVE STRUGGLED WITH BEING OVER A HEALTHY WEIGHT FOR YEARS:
As most of you have known, I have struggled with my weight for many years. I am finding that as I get older, it keeps getting harder. This could drastically limit, not only my ability to live, but my ability to be the husband, father and minister that God has called me to be. I have tried to lose weight many times and I have often failed, occasionally succeeded and then I gained it back. This always seems to be a thorn in my flesh. While trying to deal with the weight, I also am constantly dealing with the financial deficit the church has been struggling with as well as the call and request for missions and outreach. Last year, my wife and I went without pay all year and cancelled all missions trips. The church was able to make a little headway on the deficit. We made a huge sacrifice, yet we watched the church increase in numbers and the financial giving decrease. This was discouraging but my courage doesn’t come from circumstances, but instead it comes from the one who is above all of those circumstances.

I NEED HELP, GOD’S HELP AND YOURS!:
I have spent much time in prayer about this and through that prayer, I have come to this conclusion and request: For me to deal with my weight, I need accountability and encouragement. I am humbly asking for you to sponsor me in my attempt to decrease that He may increase. I really want to be a better example and I need to be healthier. I am not planning any special diet or anything gimmicky. My plan for losing the weight is encouragement from you, accountability from you, eating very sensible meals and exercising. I am planning on losing 75lbs to 100lbs over the next six months with my doctors oversight. My goal is to do so before I leave on our 2009 Philippines trip in March. I then am asking for you to help me keep it off, as well as even lose some more over the remainder of 2009.

WHY SPONSORSHIP AND WHY DOES MONEY HAVE TO BE INVOLVED?:
Why should money be involved? Stress is one of the contributing factors to weight gain, as well as lack of sleep and bad eating habits. I have been working years off my life for the last three years just trying to make ends meet for my family, juggling to keep up on the basic expenses for the Church, as well as continue to do missions and outreach. Most of this is simply due to the fact that less than twenty percent of people tithe or give some kind of substantial, faithful, financial gift within the body of Christ. This puts a large burden on a very small portion of people. I feel that I need to step back from doing so much outside fund raising and put my time into ministry but you have to take care of your family and ministry costs money. I believe that if we can deal with this deficit of over one hundred thousand dollars we could make the month to month budget work. I was asking God, “what more can I give? This is the answer to that question: If I can view the Sponsorships as a way to provide for the ministry then I believe I will be able to devote the time necessary to successfully lose the weight, have more time for ministry and together be more productive as a church.
Where does my sponsorship go?
We at Crossfire have made a very diligent attempt to make sure that 100% of all financial gifts go right to where they are designated. Let me make it clear that absolutely no, (as in none), of this money goes to me. Below you can make three choices to where the money goes for this event.
First Choice available is: for debt reduction/elimination. So that we can get our ministry out from under the financial strain we are in right now. We really need to make some headway this year.
Second Choice available: Is to support the outreach in foreign countries as well as support our missions outreach scheduled in march 2009.
Third Choice available: Is to support both. 50% of your contribution will go to both the debt reduction and the other 50% would go towards Missions.

What can You expect to receive from this:
Supernaturally, I know for a fact that God blesses those who give to see the expansion of the Kingdom of God. You will receive a monthly letter describing how things are going, how much weight I have lost and how many inches I have lost as well. The letter will also give the names of the ones who are supporting me in this attempt to get the church caught up on its bills and continue do missions and outreach around the world. This will be an eligible donation for tax deduction. You can also expect a Pastor who is healthier, and able to live longer and be more productive with much less stress in his life.

If you would like to sponsor me in my weightloss per pound, please contact us at 541-870-7203 and we will send you all of the necessary information for you to sponsor. Thank-you for doing what you can. This means so very much to us and I am excited to be able to turn my attention towards ministry and less of my thoughts and energy towards fundraising.
Pastor Aaron Taylor