Beginnings
Cross Culture Ministries was founded in January 1997 by “yours truly.” While ministering as a young Rap Evangelist, I learned that God had given me a love for itinerant ministry. I found great joy in seeing people drawn into a life-changing encounter with the living God throughout the course of a worship event. While serving as a full-time youth minister, I began to sense that God was leading me to begin an itinerant ministry of preaching and music. After much prayer and waiting on the Lord, my wife (Brantlee), 5 month old son (Caleb), and I took a step of faith, leaving the previous ministry position to focus completely on beginning Cross Culture Ministries. With no savings and no previous experience in promoting a ministry or raising financial support, we started this journey with confidence in God’s calling and God’s church to meet the needs.
The name, “Cross Culture” was originally prompted several years earlier as I stood in the foyer of my home church (First Baptist, Hinton, WV). Looking out the front door window at the houses across the street, I realized I had grown up going in and out of those doors and never really paid attention to the people watching from their front porches just across the street. It dawned on me that the window I was looking through was in the shape of a cross. I thought, “I need to see the CULTURE through the lens of the CROSS.” In doing so, I would be poised to serve as a member of God’s culture (the church) in making an impact on this world’s culture for His glory. This not only prompted the name, “Cross Culture” but also our first mission slogan, “Impacting world culture with Cross Culture!”
Igniting the Next Generation
After a few years of ministering in concerts, conferences, youth-camps, and revival meetings, we decided to re-vision and choose a very specific niche where we felt God was currently getting the most glory. This led to a stream-lined focus on reaching teenagers with the gospel and helping local churches equip them to live out their faith as on mission Christians. Under a new slogan, “Igniting the Next Generation for Christ,” we spent the next several years providing preaching & music at Youth Conferences, D-Now weekends, and Youth Camps
Moving Forward
Beginning in 2009, the ministry experienced a slowing down of activity and opportunities. So much that the Board of Directors and staff got together several times to ask the Lord if He was finished with this ministry. In clear and powerful ways, the Holy Spirit communicated to every member that He was not through. No matter how low the funds become and no matter how lean the opportunities might be, we are to stay the course, serving individually in local church ministries, and preparing corporately for the future of CCM. Recently God has begun clarifying our focus for the next wave of ministry. Now, with over 22 years of experience, Cross Culture Ministries is honored to provide powerfully-gifted speakers and musicians to encourage local churches everywhere in ”Proclaiming the Gospel to All Generations!”
Bro. Dale Elwell
Founder-Administrator