An explanation of why we are losing the terms “leaders” and “kids” at Cross-Eyed:

There are many reasons we are changing our terminology. It’s not merely changing words but, it reflects a change in our roles and how everyone at Cross-Eyed is perceived. Here are the main reasons we are making the change to calling everyone “crew”:

  1. The terms “leaders” and “kids” reinforce many unhelpful and false realities. The first of these is that “leaders” are program deliverers and “kids” are program consumers. That is the “kids” come to Cross-Eyed to consume a nice program that we the “leaders” have provided for them. This is not how we should be or want to be functioning at Cross-Eyed. The term “crew” encapsulates something far more like what we are trying to achieve. The term “crew” describes:
    1. A group of people who are getting together with the same purpose in mind
    2. That purpose is to build relationships and have meaningful conversations about Jesus while we are hanging out on Friday night.
    3. Anyone who loves Jesus should be having these conversations, whether they are in grade 8, grade 12, or 5th Year University.
    4. The program is merely a way of facilitating people getting together to have some fun. It is important that the program is attractive to non-Christians, but we must not be distracted by the program. We must remember that our number one aim is to be modeling what we want other crew members to be doing – hanging out and talking about Jesus.

  1. The second reason we want to move away from the terms “leaders” and “kids” is because they create an expert and student division. That is, we the “leaders” are the God experts and the “kids” are the students who come along to learn from us our many wise teachings. What’s wrong with this?
    1. It is highly patronising – many young people often feel like the world doesn’t pay them enough respect. We can say at Cross-Eyed we value them as fellow Christian brothers and sisters, not inferior ones.
    2. It’s simply untrue that we cannot learn anything from high school/college age young people. Some of these guys have awesome passion for God that is very challenging.
    3. We can support guys through hard times, and rely on some of our experiences because we are older, but that doesn’t mean we will always be right, or always have answers.
    4. If we are all crew then it’s up to each one of us to be having conversations with others about Jesus. Not just the expert “leaders”

  1. If we are all involved in the ministry together then the whole crew can take ownership of the ministry. Not just the “leaders”. This means that they are more likely to invite their friends along.

  1. Finally, it is important that this attitude of “crew” working together permeates through everything we do. That is, not just on a Friday night, but also at church on a Sunday, and whenever we are meeting and hanging out with any other crew members.

  1. Plus a bit of theology from Dave Rietveld

There is idea in regarding trinity called subordinationism – it’s a heresy! It says that God outranks Jesus, who both outrank the spirit. The true or more orthodox (agreed upon, not as in Greek Orthodox) perspective is that they are equal yet different. The same is true for male and female; the same is true for young and old. This concept is called perichoresis. This is mutual indwelling within the Godhead which ought to be reflected in Christian community (and therefore at Cross-Eyed). On this basis the terms “leaders” and “kids” is unhelpful, and crew is to be preferred.

Any questions or comments??