The Christian Reformed Church’s only church in South Carolina has an unusual setting and an unusual pastor.
CrossRoads Church, a ministry started in December 2006, is located in a strip mall’s coffee shop called Desserts and More, in Columbia, S.C. And its pastor, Rev. Cary Holbert, already has a full-time job as a supervisor for Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina.
Holbert and his wife, Sharon, opened the coffee shop in order to publicize the church, which meets Sundays at the shop with about a dozen people. The shop also hosts and provides live broadcasts of Christian musicians.
Holbert, whose ministerial credentials are being transferred from the Presbyterian Church, contacted the CRC through Rev. Stan Workman of Classis Southeast U.S. Workman said the new church plant fits with the CRC’s desire to increase Reformed exposure in the South.
“This is a God-given opportunity to do a church plant at much less the cost than normal,” Workman said of the tent-maker approach. After The River, a Christian Reformed church in Durham, N.C., closed last year, about $10,000 of equipment was transferred to CrossRoads.
Holbert entered his second career as an employee and business owner and church planter because of strong conviction, although he acknowledges it’s hard. But, he said, making Jesus Christ known to the world requires a new approach.
“Time management is always a struggle,” he said. “You have to believe you are called to tent-making.”
