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Thanks for joining us for the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re talking with Greg Holder. He is Lead Pastor at The Crossing in the St. Louis, Missouri area.

The Crossing was originally planted in the early 1990s. In 1997 Greg was called out of the marketplace to pastor The Crossing, bringing the ancient truth of Scripture to light in fresh ways and calling those from an unlikely mix of spiritual backgrounds to consider what it means to follow Jesus in today’s world.

Greg is with us today to talk about building a healthy culture and way of interacting with others for the purpose of having unity and oneness in Christ across the global Church.

• Start within your own community. // When Greg came on as Lead Pastor at The Crossing he began to observe the trend of church leaders networking with others across the country while being hesitant to partner with church leaders in their own backyard. He noted that while there are enough people in the St. Louis metropolitan area for every church in the area to stay busy from now until Jesus returns, instead churches get competitive with each other resulting in a zero sum game in which one church “loses” if another “wins”. Greg and the staff at The Crossing wanted to see that change and began to examine the health of their church’s culture to start.
• The body of Christ. // Paul uses the metaphor of all believers being a part of the body of Christ. Each part is different and valuable; what we bring to the table is important. The same holds true for churches. Each church has a unique place in God’s kingdom which should be celebrated. Furthermore, since we are all part of the body of Christ, churches have to understand and value each other because it’s God’s sovereign plan that we do the work of the gospel together.
• Pay attention to culture. // As Greg and the leadership at The Crossing began to pay attention to their culture they realized that how they do things is just as important as what they choose to do. If we only pay attention to getting the important things done and don’t care about how it happens we can leave horrible messes in our wake, and that does not honor God. The Crossing became very intentional about demonstrating and teaching healthy values to their staff and attendees, helping them understand why these things matter to Jesus and why they should matter to us as well.
• Be intentional about unity. // In the book of John it’s recorded that prior to His crucifixion, Jesus prayed that we as His followers would be one as Jesus was the Father are one. Greg believes this intentional prayer for unity is an incredibly important moment for us to pay attention to. This conviction led to developing a series of practical tools which the staff use to equip the people at The Crossing. Through them they show their community building blocks for how a person fosters collaboration, pushes against division, deals with things like gossip and conflict, and how they can practically work through things like forgiveness. These things are important enough that they have ultimately become mission-central at The Crossing.
• God’s Answer. // In his book The Genius of One: God’s Answer for Our Fractured World Greg reminds us of the high value Jesus and his early followers placed on community and offers guidance for how to see and relate to one another in emotionally and spiritually healthy ways. In turn we, the church, can fulfill Jesus’ prayer for us and model a better way of loving one another in a fractured world.

You can learn more about Greg and his book at www.gregholder.com. and learn more about The Crossing at thecrossing.church.

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