Vision for 2025
Dear Friends and Partners in the Lord,
It is nearing the end of 2024, and we wanted to give you an update for Peniel CrossRoads and thank you for your prayers, encouraging notes, and support. We also want to share the direction the Lord has given us. With your help, 2025 will truly be a year of significant expansion in our vision, reach, and impact.
In 2024, we partnered with the Central Chicago District, Church of the Nazarene to provide mission revitalization coaching for churches in the Chicago area. In May and August, we held training days for two zones on the district for engaging with the larger community. After these basic training days, we followed up with churches who wanted monthly coaching for going on mission to their communities. It has been exciting to watch churches catch a vision for how to engage their cities for Christ!
Providentially, God opened the door for Julie to begin pastoring one of these churches—Salvage Yard Bikers Church. She was installed four weeks ago to rousing applause and cheering! That first Sunday, Julie challenged them to become a church of healing, and they wholeheartedly embraced that identity.
It was a JOY to see the Lord bring emotional healing and steps to forgiveness to believers in Michigan, Indiana, and Northern Arkansas through TWO Wholeness Weekend retreats and ONE district Ladies’ Retreat. We hope to book more Wholeness Weekends in 2025.
Vision for 2025:
This next year will be a year for Unity in Mission to our Cities. This is the heartbeat of Peniel CrossRoads. Having trained and coached several churches at different levels, it is time to come together for unified prayer and transformation. Simply, there are greater works the Lord wants to do through his Church, but we can see this accomplished only when come together and seek Him in unified prayer, repentance, and faith. We will reach our cities when we work together.
Last week I (Chris) had a meeting with Kankakee County’s State’s Attorney. He is a godly man whose heart is not just to prosecute crime, but to prevent it. He started multiple programs for youth and overdose prevention, and he has asked me to consider ways to engage the churches of the city for holistic transformation.
Presently I am speaking with leaders in the Kankakee area who also have a heart for deep, holistic impact. In January, we hope to sit down together with these leaders and the State’s Attorney to discuss ways to mobilize Christians in the area. It is our vision to see the church do what only she can do—offer love, forgiveness, healing, true community, and economic lift. Please PRAY for this initiative: that the Lord of the Harvest would send out workers into the harvest field. (Luke 10:2) Truly, the fields are ready—Lord, send us more harvesters!
The State’s Attorney is planning to set up an audio and video podcast studio. I was so excited to hear this because, in the last month, God was speaking to me about increasing the reach of our message through high-quality video production!
I love writing and plan to author at least one book next year on mission revitalization. (Look for The Great Connection to be available in 2025!) The best way to communicate in the 21st century is through video production. The younger generations are far more engaged in learning through multimedia, which is why we have a heart and vision to engage youth as well.
To this end, I have filmed and edited my first series on “The Great Connection.” It is training for small groups in the mission methods of Jesus. These are high-quality videos, filmed in a professional studio. (Below is a link to the first video in the series).
https://www.penielcrossroads.org/resources
(After you click on this link, click on the black rectangle that says “Week One – Pray”)
Obviously, videos of this quality require funding. We are asking you to consider prayerfully an end-of-the-year gift to our ministry. It is our hope to raise between $10,000-15,000 in 2025 to produce 40-50 high-quality training videos.
Which brings us to our last good news—Peniel CrossRoads is now officially a 501(c)3 non-profit organization! From now on, we will be able to offer receipts for tax purposes for those who want it! We are thankful to the Lord for the speedy work of the IRS to get the paperwork approved much faster than expected!
If you are led to give, you may write a check to “Peniel CrossRoads” and mail to: 222 E. Charles Street, Bourbonnais, IL 60914.
More than ever before, we need your prayers! We need God’s help to fulfill HIS vision. Unfortunately, Christ’s bride still resists working together in many ways. But in His only recorded prayer for future disciples—for us—Jesus prayed, “Father, I have given them the glory you gave Me, in order that they may be one as we are one… in order that the world may know.” (John 17:22-23) Jesus’s own method for reaching the world is there in red letters for His bride to obey. Please PRAY that the Lord will give us the right method to make His most important prayer our first priority. Make us one, Lord; make us one!
Gratefully,
Chris & Julie Branstetter