CrossPoint Community Church, founded in 1997, and Emmaus Road Katy, founded in 2016, have merged to become CrossRoad Church.

As one church member, Lupe Sosa, said, “I’ve never been a part of a church before, and never wanted to. But this is different.”

Pastor Paul Goeke said this feeling directly illustrates the heart of what CrossRoad has become.

Their official launch will be held during its regular worship time at 10 a.m. Sept. 18 at their campus on 700 S. Westgreen. CrossRoad is reaching out with an open invitation to the community with a circa 1970s NASA-inspired “Ready for Launch” theme.

The merger of CrossPoint and Emmaus Road Katy led by Lead Pastors Paul Goeke and Mike Weider, respectively, is the result of an 18-month effort—yet their history of working together goes much further.

Emmaus Road, a relatively new church, was renting office space at CrossPoint at the time the pandemic had shut down in-person worship gatherings. “It just made sense for us to join forces and produce the Sunday morning worship experience together for livestream,” Weider said.

Said Goeke: “By this time, Pastor Mike and I had fully realized how much our mission and vision for reaching the Katy community were aligned.” After hearing several somewhat light-hearted statements of “This is fun, why don’t we just join the two churches into one,” church leadership began to seriously consider the possibility.

After several such conversations that also included CrossPoint’s Associate Pastor Curtiss Lanham, they felt it was time to approach their respective leadership teams.

“Ultimately it comes down to the decision of the congregation with the blessing of our lay leaders,” Lanham said.

After a six-month feasibility study with the pastors and a cross-section of each church’s lay leaders, the congregations held a series of town hall meetings and eventually voted on the same Sunday afternoon last December in separate venues at the Westgreen campus. Both congregations voted yes.

“The alignment and unity we have experienced is nothing short of supernatural,” Weider said. “Not just among the pastoral staff, but all the way through our lay-leaders and beyond. The complementary nature of the two churches has been amazing. Everyone in our community seems to be sharing a similar feeling: ‘Something is not right in our world—in the way we view God, others, and even ourselves.’ We agree. And we want to create environments where people can experience peace with God, others, and themselves.”

Said Goeke: “People at CrossRoad are accustomed to the pastors sharing their flaws from the pulpit. We all experience the messiness of life, so we may as well be honest about it. When people experience this and also get to serve alongside Hope Impacts as we host a bi-weekly ‘Supper and Showers’ homeless outreach, it really brings the spiritual into the everyday mess of life. Compassion for others and being honest about our own flaws fosters an intentional shepherding culture that inspires every person to take their next spiritual step.”

CrossRoad’s mission is to create environments where people can experience peace with God, others, and themselves by taking intentional next steps following Jesus while shepherding others to take theirs.

CrossRoad includes CrossPoint Christian School, a preschool that has been named “Best Preschool in Katy” over 6 consecutive years (2016-2022).