Cross+Crown Church is a non-denominational family of churches that has planted itself in three very different places, the University District of Seattle, the waterfront town of Edmonds, Washington, and the growing city of Franklin, Tennessee. The church describes its work in a single line: making fully devoted followers of Jesus. A second line captures the strategy behind that work: saturating cities with the gospel by multiplying gospel communities. What is unusual about Cross+Crown is not the vision but the structure that carries it, a family of autonomous local congregations that share a common confession, a common staff of leaders, and a single set of discipleship practices, while remaining locally led and locally responsible for the people on their own streets.
A Family of Churches in Three Cities
Cross+Crown began as a conviction that a single church could not reach the lostness of multiple geographies without diluting its local focus. The solution was a network, not a franchise. The organization is led by an executive leadership team of qualified elders, and each local church is led by its own group of elders who operate under the local lead pastor. The local elders support the lead pastor and hold him accountable, while the lead pastor and executive team give the network a shared direction, shared resources, and shared best practices.
The result is what Cross+Crown calls a marriage of independence and interdependence. The three locations are:
- U-District (Seattle). The flagship campus meets at 4554 12th Avenue NE in the heart of the University District. Services are held on Sundays at 9:00 AM.
- Edmonds. The Edmonds campus meets at the Edmonds Adventist Church, 8625 196th Street SW, on Sundays at 10:00 AM.
- Tennessee (Franklin). The newest campus meets at 4724 Murfreesboro Road, inside Bellview Church, on Sundays at 11:15 AM. The Tennessee church began as a prayer and a conversation in a living room, then grew into home gatherings in early 2022, then into parks, coffee shops, basements, and even a preschool, before settling into its current rented space in Franklin.
Across all three locations, the same gospel-centered teaching is delivered from the pulpit, so that anyone moving between campuses or joining a community group that includes people from another city can follow the same sermon series without missing a beat.
What Cross+Crown Believes
Cross+Crown describes itself as committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to the authority of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments in all matters of faith and practice. The elders and leaders of the church hold to a set of fundamentals they consider non-negotiable, and a set of doctrinal distinctives that shape the culture of the church.
The fundamentals are anchored in historic Christian orthodoxy:
- The Trinity. There is one Triune God, eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-equal in power and glory.
- The Deity of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became fully man without ceasing to be God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
- Salvation by Grace. Salvation is the gift of God, brought to humanity by grace and received through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins.
- The Inerrancy and Authority of Scripture. The Old and New Testaments are the verbally inspired, inerrant, and God-breathed Word, the final authority for faith and life.
- The Return of Christ. Jesus ascended into heaven, is now exalted at the right hand of God as our High Priest, and is coming again to rule, reign, and judge the living and the dead.
The doctrinal distinctives give the church its flavor:
- Gospel Centrality. The gospel is not only the means by which people are saved but the truth and power by which people are sanctified. Cross+Crown teaches that believers have been saved (justification), are being saved (sanctification), and will be saved (glorification), and that the cross of Christ must be central to everything the church proclaims and does.
- Concerning Salvation. The church affirms the sovereignty of God's grace in salvation, that God chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, and that the redeemed are kept by God's power and secure in Christ forever. God's sovereignty in salvation is taught as reinforcing, not undermining, the believer's responsibility to believe and the importance of prayer and evangelism.
- Spirit-Empowered Ministry. The Holy Spirit permanently indwells, sanctifies, leads, and empowers believers, distributing spiritual gifts for the work of ministry and the building up of the body of Christ.
- Complementarian Relationships. Cross+Crown affirms the equal dignity and worth of men and women in Christ, while also holding that the offices of elder and pastor are reserved for men, and that husbands carry primary responsibility to lead their wives and families in a Christlike manner.
- The Missional Responsibility of the Local Church. Mission is not an optional program but an essential element of the church's identity. Members of the local church are to be missionaries where they live, work, play, and learn, carrying out the ministry of reconciliation as ambassadors of Christ.
The church's motto - "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love" - sets the tone for how it handles disagreements within the body.
The Four Marks of a Fully Devoted Follower
Cross+Crown defines a disciple as a fully devoted follower of Jesus, and it teaches that every believer is meant to grow along four dimensions the church calls the Four Marks. Programs, classes, and resources at Cross+Crown are designed to develop all four in parallel, not in sequence.
- Believing. Believing in the power of the gospel unlocks the new life promised in the Scriptures. It is a response to truth, an understanding of who God is, who the believer is, and how the two fit together.
- Belonging. Belonging requires security in who one is in Christ and a connection to community and cause. It happens when an association moves to ownership, on the other side of vulnerability, trust, and common belief.
- Becoming. Becoming is the lifelong process of active, obedient following of Jesus, shaped by the Holy Spirit into increasing conformity to the image of Christ.
- Building. Building is the multiplication of the disciple's life into others, whether through evangelism that draws someone toward truth or through intentional relationships that help a fellow believer become more like Christ.
Cross+Crown has published a Four Marks workbook that can be used one-on-one, with a non-believer, with a new believer, or in a community group. The church stresses that the four marks are not boxes to be checked once and forgotten, but ingredients that must be continually mixed in active, working proportions.
Sundays Across the Family
A first-time visitor at any Cross+Crown campus will encounter a fairly similar rhythm. The service opens with music, followed by a brief welcome and announcements. At the U-District campus, elementary-aged children are dismissed to their classrooms after the first songs and a brief welcome, while nursery, toddler, and pre-K children can be dropped off in their upstairs classrooms starting at 8:55 AM. At the Edmonds and Tennessee campuses, children are typically included in the opening portion of the service before heading to their classrooms. After the sermon and communion, children are brought back into the sanctuary for the remainder of the service.
Coffee and treats are part of the experience at every campus. At U-District the coffee and treats are set up in the sanctuary after the service. At Edmonds, coffee and donuts are served in the fellowship hall. At Tennessee, donuts and coffee are available before the service so newcomers can meet people as they arrive.
Sermons are consistent from campus to campus, which allows community groups to include people from any of the three locations and still have a shared conversation about the same message. Sermons are available through the sermon library and on the Cross+Crown app.
Kids and Students
Cross+Crown takes its children's ministry seriously. The church uses The Gospel Project, a three-year curriculum produced by Lifeway that walks kids from creation through the New Testament and the promise of Revelation. Each weekly lesson in the preschool and elementary rooms includes a brief video teaching, a moderately physical activity, and a craft, all related to the lesson, and kids leave with an activity page to take home. The nursery offers a less structured play time, with formal teaching reserved for the preschool and up rooms.
Volunteers in every classroom have passed a national background check, had their references checked, and completed training. Classrooms adhere to strict adult-to-child ratios: nursery at 1:3, preschool at 1:7, elementary at 1:10, and mid-kids at 1:10. Volunteers do not facilitate diaper changes or bathroom breaks, and no child is ever alone with a volunteer.
U-District Kids serves infants through fifth grade with four classrooms: Nursery and Toddlers, PreK (ages 3-5), Younger Elementary (K-2), and Upper Elementary (3-5). Check-in computers are in the parlor near the coffee and restrooms.
Edmonds Kids offers the same four age divisions: Nursery (0-2), Preschool (3-5), Elementary (K-2), and MidKids (3-5). Check-in opens at 9:45 in the main lobby. Older students at Edmonds gather for a pre-service devotional at 9:45 AM in the chapel and then sit in service together, with some serving as junior volunteers in the kids' classrooms.
Tennessee Kids is designed for the whole family, from babies to grandparents. The Tennessee team encourages families to arrive five to ten minutes early for check-in.
For students in middle and high school, Cross+Crown offers two regular youth gatherings. The U-District Youth Group meets at the church every Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM during the school year, with pizza, games, and a Bible study that gives students space to ask hard questions and build strong friendships. The Edmonds Youth Group is run in partnership with other churches in the area and meets on Sunday evenings at the North Sound Center in Edmonds, drawing an average of thirty to forty-five students each week.
Community Groups: The Foundation of the Church's Mission
Cross+Crown calls Community Groups the foundation of its mission to make fully devoted followers of Jesus. While every group has its own personality, Cross+Crown works hard to add value through care, missional support, leadership training, and opportunities for members to belong and grow.
Each group is expected to engage in four core elements. The first is studying the Scriptures together, opening the Bible and walking in repentance as a regular practice. The second is sermon discussion, taking the Sunday message and working through its practical applications during the week, with discussion questions available on the Cross+Crown app to support that conversation. The third is sharing life together, choosing vulnerability and honesty, and trusting other group members with the breakthroughs, breakdowns, successes, struggles, relationships, jobs, moves, children, and life milestones that make up a real life. The fourth is serving together, both inside the group and out in the surrounding community, with a community fund available to support service plans the group develops.
Groups meet in homes, on porches, in coffee shops, and online across all three cities. The church makes it easy to find one with an online form.
Leadership and Biblical Eldership
Cross+Crown is organized around biblical eldership. The organization is led by an executive leadership team of qualified elders, and each local church is led by a local elder team that operates under the local lead pastor. The local elders support the lead pastor and hold him accountable, while the executive team and lead pastor give the family of churches its shared direction.
Members who want to formalize their commitment to the church go through a membership process that includes a statement of biblical doctrine and a set of mutual commitments between members and the elders. Members commit to regular participation in corporate worship, active participation in a community group, regular service, sacrificial and cheerful giving, and the mission of making fully devoted followers of Jesus. The elders, in turn, commit to teach and shepherd the flock, to care for members' growth as disciples, to provide counsel from the whole of Scripture, to guard against false teaching, and to exercise church discipline when necessary.
Mission, Generosity, and Community Impact
Generosity is one of Cross+Crown's six core values, alongside biblical truth, authentic communities, innovation, beauty, and service and participation. The church teaches that believers are stewards of what God has entrusted to them, and that resources are not meant to terminate on the giver. Giving can be done online through Pushpay, and all gifts are placed in a general fund distributed at the discretion of the elders. Cross+Crown is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, and gifts may be tax deductible.
The Edmonds campus partners with four mission-minded organizations: Run To Win, Olive Crest, the Nourishing Network, and New Covenant Missions. These partnerships focus on the needs of foster and adoptive families, food insecurity, and other local concerns.
The Tennessee campus operates a Community Impact Team that partners with CarePortal of Tennessee to respond to real, tangible needs of foster, adoptive, and at-risk families. Through CarePortal, local agencies and social workers share verified needs, and the church family steps in quickly with resources, support, and care.
Core Values, Woven into Everything
Six core values shape the culture of Cross+Crown. Biblical truth is the standard for life, not cultural relativism. Authentic communities connect people from diverse nationalities, ethnicities, generations, and backgrounds to God and to one another. Innovation recognizes that the message of the gospel is timeless, but communicating it to an ever-changing culture requires continual reinvention. Beauty is pursued because the beauty of Christ and the glory of God propel the church toward excellence in everything it does. Service and participation reject spectating in favor of every person being involved in worship and service. Generosity recognizes that resources are meant to flow through the church, not stop with it.
Practical Notes for Visitors
At the U-District campus, parking is reserved in the building directly to the south. The parking entrance is on 12th Avenue NE on the south end of the building, and a volunteer opens the metal grille for arriving cars. The garage is open from 8:30 AM to noon for services and after-service events. Once inside, the exit elevator is at the north end of the building, and the church is just up the sidewalk from the lobby.
Kids' check-in at the U-District campus opens at 8:55 AM in the parlor. At the Edmonds campus, check-in opens at 9:45 AM in the main lobby. At the Tennessee campus, families are encouraged to arrive five to ten minutes early for kids' check-in.
There is no dress code. Visitors are simply welcomed as they are. Services are held in English. The Cross+Crown app is available for iOS and Android, where sermons, community group discussion questions, an online connect card, and the membership interest card can all be accessed.
From a living-room prayer gathering in Middle Tennessee to a Sunday morning worship service in the U-District, Cross+Crown Church is one family of churches learning together what it means to follow Jesus fully, to belong to one another deeply, and to take the gospel of grace to the streets where each campus is planted.