1956 - Humble Beginnings
Cross Church was an offshoot or "church plant" of Calvary Temple Winnipeg. Originally known as Weston Gospel Church, Arlo Johnson served as our first lead pastor. Our first building was located in the heart of the Weston community in NW Winnipeg on Elgin Avenue -- right across the street from Cecil Rhodes School. Right from our inception, we've been proud and active supporters of our community. We've built playgrounds, cleaned up our community through Love:Winnipeg initiatives, held community events, and cared personally for our neighbours through acts of kindness. At Cross Church, we are all about all of our relationships!
1994 - New Leadership
In 1994, Pastor Alan and Gloria Duncalfe accepted a position with Weston Gospel Church. Though the church back then was smaller in numbers, the vision for our community was larger than ever. As a Church, we worked together to "Know God and to Make God Known" in our community. Over the next five years, through careful discipleship, a strong emphasis on global missions, and reaching out to individuals in the community, our numbers grew to an uncontainable size; it was time to move to a bigger facility.
1997 - Safeway For Sale
We purchased our current building from Safeway of Canada and spent several years renovating it to suit our needs. God performed many financial miracles during that renovation. One favorite story of Pastor Alan's was the time an old friend asked him to come and unclog her toilet - and then wrote a cheque for $25,000 to help with the renovations! Our inaugural service happened Christmas Eve, 1999.
2003 - Our Missions Heart
In 2003, we were introduced to a man named Sergio Bersaglio. Sergio serves as the Executive Director for Villages of Hope Africa Society. Back in 2003, he had just begun serving in Kitwe, Zambia with the poorest and most vulnerable children. That year, we started raising funds to build classrooms and group homes for orphans in need. One tradition that has continued since 2003 has been our Annual Missions Banquet. In the years since then, we have raised over one million dollars for missions all over the world!
2007 - Name Change
With our vision expanding beyond the Weston community and spilling over into new neighbourhoods, we decided to change our name in 2007 to Cross Church. We also updated our church's mission: Targeting the next generation, we are leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.
2011 - Sending Missionaries
With an amazing kickoff, we began sending missionaries on short-term assignments every year in 2011. With 29 missionaries in our initial run, we sent two teams to Zambia: one to work with Village of Hope in Kitwe, and the second to work in Chiwala with our friends Happy and Evangeline to support them in their ministry. Since 2011, our Missions Alumni boasts over 100 members, with more to come in the New Year!
So far, we've been to Mexico, Zambia, Burundi, the Philippines, Israel and Garden Hill, MB.
2013 - Our Philosophy Comes to Life
After years of study, discussion, and prayer, we decided to unveil our new philosophy for discipling people to be effective and serious Christ-followers: The 7Habits. We base all of our teaching around forming these habits in our daily lives. If you were to ask a seasoned Christian "what does a Christian actually do?", you'd get some varied answers.
This is where the 7Habits come in. Not because we want to be legalistic (you have to do this!) or judgmental (you can't be a serious Christian if you don't do these), but out of a genuine desire to see every person who calls Cross Church home experience a rich and full life. We want every person to succeed in their walk with God, become excited about discovering His will for their life, and ending their journey by arriving safely home (heaven).