Three Sunday Mornings on Leggett Street

Crossroads Evangelical Church meets at 845 East Leggett Street in Wauseon, Ohio, and offers three Sunday morning services designed to give families a flexible rhythm for the week. The earliest gathering is at 8:30 a.m. in the chapel and is later rebroadcast on 96.1 WMTR at 10:30 a.m. Two larger services follow in the auditorium at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m., with the 11:00 a.m. service livestreamed. Visitors walking in the main entrance are greeted by a hospitality team member and shown to their service, classroom, or community, with TV monitors around the building offering additional wayfinding help. The church describes its people as a diverse group where any style of clothing fits in.

The same building houses both worship and classroom space, so children can be dropped at Sunday school, parents can sit under the sermon, and adults can step into a Bible community without ever leaving the campus. A monthly Spanish-language service takes the 9:30 a.m. hour on the first Sunday of each month, and Spanish translation is provided during the 9:30 a.m. service on the other Sundays.

Crossroads Kids and the Sensory Room

Children's ministry is built around the idea of partnering with parents from the earliest ages. The nursery is staffed during both the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services for infants and toddlers, with a separate quiet room inside the nursery available for nursing mothers. Sunday school for ages two through fifth grade runs during both services, with check-in opening fifteen minutes before each one at kiosks just inside the northwest entrance. At the 9:30 a.m. hour, Sunday school is offered through tenth grade. For younger worshipers who stay in the auditorium with their parents, busy bags with coloring pages, small toys, and treats are stocked at the back of the room.

On Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., September through May, children from age three through fifth grade gather for a program that includes Bible teaching, scripture memory, games, worship songs, and crafts, all built around the HyFi curriculum from Lifeway. A nursery is available on Wednesday nights for children of volunteers. Crossroads also runs a Sensory Room for children with special needs, open during the 9:30 a.m. Sunday service and Wednesday evenings. The modified curriculum focuses on a short Bible story and coloring activities, and caregivers are required to remain in the building. Parents who would like their child to use the Sensory Room first meet with the coordinator, Brenda Stickley, to discuss the child's needs and complete enrollment.

Students: Junior High and Senior High

Crossroads Students describes its mission as reaching students with the gospel through environments that are irresistibly fun and extremely engaging. Both the junior high (grades six through eight) and senior high (grades nine through twelve) ministries meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. during the school year. Junior high also meets for Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. in the Junior High Room, where grades nine and ten join them. Eleventh and twelfth graders are encouraged to begin connecting with adults in the regular worship services at 8:30, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m. A separate parents' page offers newsletters, text alerts, and resources to help families navigate the teen years.

Summer camp is treated as an important part of the discipleship pipeline. Crossroads partners with Miracle Camp and Retreat Center in Lawton, Michigan, offering a $30 promo code through the youth pastor, an automatic $100 off for bringing a first-time camper, and a scholarship fund for families who need additional help. Transportation to camp is also organized through the church.

Growing Up: Adults at Crossroads

Adults at Crossroads are organized around what the church calls Adult Bible Communities, or ABCs. These groups meet at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. on Sundays and again at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, and they are open for anyone to jump in at any time. The communities gather in the Dining Room and Rooms 9 and 10 on Sundays and in the Chapel on Wednesday nights. The Well is the women's ministry, designed to help women know Jesus more deeply and walk faithfully together, regardless of life stage. Men of the Church offers men a place to build friendships, dig into Scripture, and grow in their walk with Jesus. A young adults gathering meets in the Crossing on the first and third Sundays of the month at 4:30 p.m., and a 60+ Meet & Eat group keeps older adults connected.

The church offers several classes for those who want to grow in specific areas. The Way of Life class walks through the church's covenant of personal growth, relational connection, and missional engagement, and is the on-ramp to formal membership. Crown Financial teaches biblical stewardship through the Bible's many teachings on money. A free RightNow Media subscription, which the church calls the Netflix of Bible studies, is available to anyone in the congregation who requests access through the office administrator.

In-Step Counseling and Better Together Mentoring

For those who need more personal care, In-Step Counseling provides gospel-centered counseling to individuals and families in the region. Two coordinators, Beth Holman and Ashley Zimmerman, handle intake and referrals. Better Together Mentoring is a separate ministry focused on children ages eight through twelve in the wider Wauseon community, matching them with adult mentors who walk with them over time. The mentoring team supports the mentor, mentee, and family throughout the relationship.

Samaritan Ministries is the church's internal benevolence arm, broken into Gifts (direct financial help or service with no obligation to the recipient) and Matches (where a Crossroads donor's giving is doubled to meet a specific local need). The ministry is overseen by a team of leaders and is designed to maintain the dignity of recipients while pointing them toward the gospel. Recipients who have a church home other than Crossroads are connected back to that church first.

On Mission Beyond Wauseon

Crossroads takes seriously the call to multiply itself through church planting. The church is part of Synergy Ohio, a co-op of like-minded congregations that train and deploy church planters together. Locally, Crossroads has helped plant Crossroads Napoleon in Napoleon, Ohio, Emmanuel Church in Columbus Grove, Kings Cross Church in Defiance, Southside Community Church in Wooster, The Remedy in Reading, Michigan, and The Way Community Church in Deshler. A Leadership Development Residency and a Summer Internship program feed that pipeline, with residents like Bailey Sonnenberg, Malachi Schumacher, and Bella Strauss learning ministry on the ground.

Internationally, Crossroads supports four named mission efforts. The African Church Planting Initiative, or ACPI, empowers indigenous leaders to plant sustainable churches and businesses in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Madagascar. Since 2016, Crossroads has invested in ZEC Ministries in India, sending teams to equip and train local pastors and assist with construction projects. Solid Rock International has been a partner since the 1970s, with adult and student teams serving in the Dominican Republic. New Life, known in Arabic as Hayat Jadida, is a bilingual Arabic and English congregation being planted in Toledo, Ohio, led by Mark Clausing and Nashwan Saadoon, with one-third of its financial support coming from outside partners.

What Crossroads Believes

The church's doctrinal statement covers Scripture, God, man, salvation, the church, and final things. Crossroads affirms that the original text of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments is God-breathed and is the divine authority in all matters it addresses. There is one true God who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perfect in holiness, righteousness, love, and justice, and the creator and sustainer of all things. Man was created in God's image, fell into sin through disobedience, and is in need of a savior. Salvation comes through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, who offered himself on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin. The church's mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and the church looks for the personal, visible, and premillennial return of Christ.

Crossroads describes its core values as a daily relationship with Jesus Christ, obedience to the Bible as the primary instrument of growth, the centrality of family in God's design, investment in the next generation, intentional discipleship, Christ-centered community, open-armed welcome to all people, and the stewardship of everything God has given for his glory and the good of others.

The church is an affiliate of the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches, a national body that exists to help the local church fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Detailed doctrinal papers on baptism, the Lord's Supper, end times, the role of women, marriage, and other topics are available through the church office.

Sharing a Building with the Community

The Crossroads building is more than a Sunday venue. During the week, the playland and gym are open to the public Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with the cafe, library, and walking space also available. Individuals and families can pack a lunch, play basketball, walk the hallways for exercise, or simply sit and read. The facility is also rented out for weddings, baby showers, and birthdays, with the chapel and auditorium serving as wedding venues and the playland available for children's parties.

Rentals are scheduled on Fridays from 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with the playland additionally open on Sundays from 2:00 to 10:00 p.m. Rates are kept at the minimum necessary to cover costs, and a $50 deposit holds a date. The church's approach to its building is pastoral rather than commercial: it sees rentals and open spaces as a ministry to the wider community of Wauseon.

Daily Life and Practical Notes

Office hours at Crossroads run Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; the office is closed on Fridays. A monthly newsletter called The Link, daily devotionals written by Communications Coordinator Jodi Figgins, and a Church Center app keep the congregation connected throughout the week. Past messages from Sunday services are organized into series on YouTube and available anytime after they air. Giving can be done online through the church's giving platform, and prayer requests can be submitted online or by phone.

Senior Pastor Matt Strader leads a pastoral team that includes Executive Pastor of Discipleship Dan Allen, Pastor of Leadership Development Matt Boyers, Associate Pastor of Family Ministries Darren VanMeekeren, and Associate Pastor of Care & Missions Matt Sauder. A board of elders - Luke Boyers, Austin Dunlap, Chris King, Jaret McDermott, Revie Stevens, Tony Uribes, and Zac Zimmerman - shepherds the congregation, while a management team supports the operational side of ministry. Worship Ministries is led by Matthew Smith, and the creative team handles communications, technology, and the sensory room.