Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where do you come from?
2. How did the journey start?
3. How did the change take root?
4. How do you relate to the rest of the church?


1. Where do you come from?
The network started as a local church that was planted when eight individuals came together in Ladysmith South Africa on the 1st July 1984. The Lord called people from diverse backgrounds through a time of supernatural and prophetic input to set out on a journey towards an unknown destination. All that we knew was that God had spoken in all our hearts and that He wanted to do something in our town.

Years of highs and lows followed this breathtaking prophetic time. One thing kept us together and focused and that was a passion to know God and to be satisfied with Him only. We tried to work out this passion through the structures of the conventional local church. We joined a charismatic network called “Christian Fellowship International” led by Dr. Fred Roberts and was called “Ladysmith Christian Centre” but never really fitted in.

After a time of being an independent ministry called “El Bethel Ministries” we later joined the International Vineyard movement and became “El Bethel Vineyard Christian Fellowship”. We felt that we had found a home there and joined with gusto in the activities of the movement.

After 16 years of painful and ecstatic experiences in the cauldron of the local church structure, we were confronted by our own burnt out hopes and dreams and the passion to know God that could not be satisfied within the competition and comparison paradigm of local church politics. We went back to God and were led into a 40 day fast.

The fellowship was the typical charismatic evangelical church with 150 active adults, three worship teams, a growing children’s ministry and an active youth ministry. Teaching was done through our School of Discipleship and we had a weekly medical clinic in the rural area that catered for some of the medical needs of a community of fifty thousand underprivileged people. We were involved in the monthly distribution of food to seventy thousand pre-school children, running two Christian schools with 300 students and feeding street children. We had our own building and on the surface looked like a successful church with two pastors and three full time missionaries on staff.

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2. How did the journey start?

When Jesus asked us, “do you really want to be healed?” we heard the question within the parameters of our existing definition of church and bravely, like the man at the Pool of Bethesda, said “yes Lord”. Then followed a time of prophetic revelation through many mature Christians. Over a period of five years He led us as a group further and further away from the existing paradigm and slowly caused us to take away programs and structures that took the place of Jesus as the centre of everything we were doing.

Slowly the way we were doing church changed and we realised that wherever two or three of us meet around Him Jesus is present and we are the church in action.

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3. How did the change take root?

Our original vision, “to know God and be satisfied with Him”, was coming to fruition. Slowly we started to feel the pleasure of the Lord when we came together and the phrase, “What is Jesus saying?” became more and more the lingo of the new move. The breaking of bread became the centre of our meetings and we learnt how to wait on the Holy Spirit for our meetings and our lives. Parents took responsibility to teach their own children about this new way of life and the children started to spontaneously take part in our meetings.

The importance of bigger meetings and programs dwindled and was replaced with friends coming together to share life and seek to know Jesus better. Our regular Sunday meetings were replaced with a once a month meeting on a Sunday afternoon that includes lunch or supper. Preaching at that meeting has been replaced with people telling their stories. We have learnt to ask, “What is Jesus doing in your life?” and let the testimony open the way to teach the biblical principles that govern the experience.

Small groups started spontaneously and kept going without any organized input from leadership. Leaders started to emerge without training programs. People started to function in their gifts and motivations. It is as if while we are focusing on growing up into Christ, the members start to function and provide for the growth of the body in love. Apart from the friendship groups that are intimate and closed, ministry groups formed spontaneously and are ministering to the poor and needy. There is much space for growth in all these areas. As Jesus is becoming more central, He is motivating people to grow in these areas. As our hearts change and we are motivated by love, we see people change and being constrained to serve, not by the law but by love. The goal is to become like Jesus, so we are far from having arrived.

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4. How do you relate to the rest of the church?

We took away the walls around our fellowship and integrated ourselves into the church at Ladysmith. We exhort everybody to go to denominational churches if the Lord leads them to do that. People who need musical worship seek out the church with the best worship team in town and go there on a Sunday without having to belong or feel guilty. When we need to hear preaching we go to the local Baptist church and listen to the minister. When our children need fellowship we send them off to the most active youth group in town. Our children go on camps with their friends even though they are from other denominations. When we pray together we pray for the whole church in our town. We really belong to Jesus and so we belong to His body.

We relate together and experience the dynamic of friendship and accountability in small intimate groups. We work together and experience the dynamic of servanthood as we serve the poor and reach out to the lost. We worship together and experience the power of lifestyle worship and the excitement of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We study together around Jesus and learn to hear the voice of the Shepherd. And we are changed.

We can not cause division in the Body because no one can join the network. There simply is no official structure to join. Anyone can relate to the people who are already relating but the only identity we have is being a child of Jesus and a member of His body. CrossContact is just about facilitating relationship with each other and with Jesus.

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It is amazing how much easier it is to hear His still small voice when there's not the constant mooing of sacred cows in my head.

From a letter on the Lifestream Blog