Cross Road Church Reunites With a Unicorn Senior Pastor

Meet Cross Road Church

Cross Road Church is a non-denominational Christian fellowship, originally started in a backyard in the summer of 2002. Cross Road Church operates on the belief that the most important thing they can do each week is to gather to worship the Lord. On any given Sunday morning at Cross Road Church, you will find people wearing everything from suits and ties to jeans and t-shirts, stating that God never looks at the outside appearances of a person. Rather, He is most interested in what’s going on inside.Cross Road Church is a non-denominational Christian fellowship, originally started in a backyard in the summer of 2002. Cross Road Church operates on the belief that the most important thing they can do each week is to gather to worship the Lord. On any given Sunday morning at Cross Road Church, you will find people wearing everything from suits and ties to jeans and t-shirts, stating that God never looks at the outside appearances of a person. Rather, He is most interested in what’s going on inside.

Opportunity

After several fruitful years serving at Cross Road Church, the Senior Pastor was called into service elsewhere. The previous Senior Pastor was successfully matched with the church through a partnership with Vanderbloemen. As 2024 approached, the Cross Road church family found themselves in need of a new Unicorn candidate to lead the congregation.

Solution

Cross Roads church immediately reached out to partner with Vanderbloemen again. Executive Search Consultant Brian Dunks met with Cross Road’s Search Committee, Pastoral Advisor, and Office in Charge to begin the search process.

Result

While the team was able to find a large field of qualified candidates, one stood out as the first choice. Someone familiar.

“What's unusual is that we presented Mark Cress to Cross Road five years ago, but the church felt he wasn't ready for the lead position,” Brian says. “We presented him again to Cross Road, and this time around, it was obvious Mark was the right man for the job.”

Brian reconnected the Search Team with their unicorn candidate, who now was clearly a perfect match for the role. The following week after Mark accepted the role, he was presented to the church with full confidence. Brian says the church is “thrilled” to welcome Mark Cress as their new Senior Pastor.

Benefit

The benefit of hiring Vanderbloemen is that we have the search capabilities to find the ideal fit for your organization, whether the right person is already working for you or is living halfway across the globe. We can provide an extensive reach and a full-staff approach for organizations that otherwise would be limited to their local networks and would need to sacrifice other responsibilities to invest in a quality search. We are able to bring schools and organizations executive position candidates they could not find on their own.

If you’re ready to start the conversation around hiring, contact our team. We’ll guide you through the hiring process at every level, from job descriptions to signing the offer letter.