OUR STORY
December 1991
Crossover Church was formed by a small group of people that were burned out with religion and wanted to reach people in the city that the traditional churches weren’t connecting with. They wanted to take the Cross over to the streets. Pastor Joe McCutchen started Crossover with a handful of people that met at a few different locations before they landed at an old church building on North Orleans Ave. They began to breath new life into that space and reach new people.
January 1996
Crossover’s youth ministry was launched by Pastor Tommy and Lucy. Through basketball leagues, hip-hop concerts, and talent development classes the Thursday Night youth service quickly grew larger than the adult attendance on Sunday. Over the next few years the youth ministry grew to hundreds of unchurched teens and young adults attending each week. Parents usually drag their teenagers to church, but none of these teens had parents that went to church… so soon the opposite began to happen as teens were bringing their parents to church.
November 2000
The Flavor Fest Leadership Conference was birthed as our youth ministry became a national model. The conference included general sessions, workshops, outreaches and concerts featuring some of the top names in Christian Hip-Hop. Eventually the conference covered multiple areas of urban church ministry as Crossover grew. Flavor Fest has trained over 5,000 leaders from all over the world. Check out more information at www.flavorfest.org
January 2002
In January of 2002, Tommy Kyllonen became the lead pastor of Crossover. God has called Crossover to be a pioneer church to reach the urban community in new ways. The once run down old church campus on North Orleans was completely transformed and remodeled into a unique thriving church that grew to reach over 500 people weekly at the 3 Sunday services.
January 2010
In January of 2010 the North Orleans Campus was sold to another church and Crossover began temporarily meeting in the ballrooms at a local hotel on Busch Blvd. The church actually grew during this 9 month transition period.
November 2010
In November of 2010 they moved into their new completely remodeled 43,000 square foot facility on Fowler Ave. (Former Toys R' Us). With the new location and amount of space, Crossover has now doubled the size of its congregation and has been able to serve tens of thousands of people in the community with groceries, backpacks, clothes, shoes, toys, mentoring and the love of Christ. It's been an amazing journey and we believe the best is yet to come as we LOVE OUR CITY - join the movement!
March 2017
Love Our City was launched. This is an entire week of community service projects in the neighborhoods around Crossover Church. This has grown to hundreds of projects with thousands of volunteers over the past few years. It brought hundreds of new people to our church. It caught so much attention that churches and conferences from around the country were asking for training. In 2018 Pastor Tommy wrote a 30 Day Devotional book with a Leader’s Box Kit with all the nuts and bolts of how to create Love Our City for other churches in their communities. He also created a small group video curriculum to go along with it that is now available on Right Now Media and Youtube.. Love Our City has grown into a national movement with over 260 churches that have participated. In 2018 Crossover also launched its own Love Our City non-profit organization that empowers us to gain even more sponsors. For details: www.loveourcitybook.com / www.loveourcity.info
september 2019
In September of 2019, under Pastor Tommy Kyllonen, Crossover Church Tampa launched CrossoverATL under the direction of Pastors Scott & Tami Free. They are located right in the heart of Atlanta, GA where they are reaching the city with extraordinary outreaches and events.
OUR mission
“To Empower people to Discover, Develop, & Display Jesus Christ in every area of their life.”
DISCOVER -
the gospel
a relationship with Christ
gifts and talents
the calling that God has on their lives
DEVELOP -
their relationship with Christ (Discipleship)
their gifts, talents and calling
practical life skills
DISPLAY -
Christ in their everyday lives
Christ through their unique gifts & talents
Christ through serving others
OUR ESSENTIALS
THE ESSENTIALS WE BELIEVE
In the essential beliefs, we have unity. "There is one body and one spirit...there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and father of us all..." Ephesians 4:4-6
In the non-essential beliefs, we have liberty. "Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgement on disputable matters. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls... so then each of us will give an account of himself to God.... so whatever you think about these things, keep them between yourself and God." Romans 14:1,4,12,22.
ABOUT GOD.
God is the creator and ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are co-equal and are one God. // Genesis 1:1, 26-27, 3:22 / Psalm 90:2 / Matthew 28:19 / 2 Corinthians 13:14
ABOUT THE BIBLE.
The Bible is God's Word to us. It was written by human authors, under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of all truth for Christian beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is the truth without any mixture of error. // 2 Timothy 1:13, 3:16 / 2 Peter 1:20,21 / Psalm 119:105
ABOUT JESUS CHRIST.
He is the Son of God. He is co-equal with the father. Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for all people by dying on the cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate his power over sin and death. He ascended to heaven's glory and will return again someday to reign as King of King and Lord of Lords. // Matthew 1:22-23 / Isaiah 9:6 / John 1:1-5, 14:10-30 / Hebrews 4:14-15 / 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 / Acts 1:9-11 / 1 Timothy 6:14-15 / Titus 2:13
ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS.
People are made in the spiritual image of God, to be like him in character. People are the supreme object of God's creation. Although every person has a great potential for good, all of us are infected with an attitude of disobedience toward God called "Sin". This sin nature (attitude) separates people from God and is the root cause of many problems of life. // Genesis 1:27 / Psalm 8:3-6 / Isaiah 53:6 / Romans 3:23
ABOUT ETERNITY.
The soul of every human being was created to live forever. We will either exist eternally separated from God by sin, or eternally with God through salvation and forgiveness. Hell is eternal separation from God. Heaven is eternal union with God. Heaven and Hell are real places of eternal existence. // John 3:16, 2:25, 5:11-13 / Romans 6:23 / Revelation 20:15 / Matthew 1:8, 2:44-46
ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit is co-equal with the Father and Son. He is present in the world to make men aware of their need for Jesus Christ. He also lives in every Christian from the moment of salvation. He provides the Christian with power for living, understanding of spiritual truth, and guidance in doing what is right. He gives every believer a spiritual gift when they are saved. As Christians, we seek to live under his control daily. // 2 Corinthians 3:17 / John 16:7-13, 14:16-17 / Acts 1:8 / 1 Corinthians 2:12, 3:16 / Ephesians 1;13 / Acts 2:4
ABOUT SALVATION.
"Salvation" is God's free gift to us, but we must accept it. We can never make up for our sins through self-improvement or good works. Only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God's offer for forgiveness can any one be saved from sin's penalty. When we turn from our self-willed lives and turn to Christ in faith, we are saved. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into their life by faith. // Romans 6:23 / Ephesians 3:8,9 / John 14:6, 1:12 / Titus 3:5 / Galatians 3:26 / Romans 5:1
OUR CORE VALUES
SE7EN CORE VALUES
1. We Crossover and Change The Game! We've crossed over from DEATH to LIFE and we go hard for Christ. We embrace innovation and creativity. We love change. We think big, take risks and hold a healthy disregard for the impossible! - Isaiah 43:19
2. We Download The Apps! We value biblical teaching and the application of scripture. We believe when God's word is applied and downloaded it will radically transform lives. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
3. We are Culturally Relevant, Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Generational and Multi-Class. We value everyone! No matter what their skin-color, age or financial status. This is what the New Testament church looked like and this is what Heaven will look like. We are real. We don't put on masks. We don't use spiritual jargon or Christianese. Our music is loud, we love God and we communicate in today's context. - Acts 13:1, 1 Corinthians 9:19-22
4. We Grow and Celebrate! We value growth. Healthy Christians grow and healthy churches grow. We offer multiple ways to grow and get discipled. We will not take this move of God for granted. We regularly celebrate people coming to Christ, getting baptized, becoming members, serving our city and growing deeper in Christ. We are grateful for God's hand of favor on our church. - Ephesians 4:15-16, 1 Chronicles 16:8
5. We don't all Rap! We value everyone playing their part. It's not all about what happens on the stage. We want every individual to use their unique gifts, talents and abilities to connect others to God. We create multiple platforms for different gifts to be used. - Romans 12:6-8
6. We are Givers that Love Our City! We value giving and generosity. We give to our local church, our community, other churches and missionaries around the world. We realize everything we have is God's and we just get to manage it temporarily. We are here to Rebuild our city as we meet tangible needs, bring empowerment and live out the Gospel. - Isaiah 32:18
7. We do things in excellence as we lead a Movement! Good is not good enough, we strive for excellence as we represent God's kingdom. We are a teaching church that has become a model. There are now dozens of other churches around the world like ours and hundreds that are learning from us. We provide training, resources and coaching (Through our Flavor Fest Conference and Network - www.flavorfest.org) - Colossians 3:17, John 13:35
“Crossover Church is the best place to worship and praise God. i recommend you and your family to visit when you are around the area in Tampa.”
— Taino Ortiz