Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Aurora observes 15th anniversary

The congregation at Aurora’s Cross of Christ Lutheran Church on South 16th Street gathered for a 15th anniversary celebration of the founding of the church on Sunday, Oct. 26. Following a special worship service which featured a video of the church’s original pastor, Rev. Kevin McReynolds, the congregation gathered for a potluck lunch to celebrate. 
The church’s current pastor, Rev. Tim Wells, who celebrated his 10th anniversary as pastor in July, said the actual 15th anniversary of the church was on Friday. 
“That was the anniversary of our congregation being officially recognized as an official congregation in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod,” he said. “So the congregation had been meeting and getting started for probably roughly a year to a year and a half, somewhere in there, up to that point. But this is the official date given to us by the synod. This is when we were officially recognized, officially became a congregation.”
“So in the early days, I know they were meeting in homes,” Wells said. “I don’t know how long that was before they started meeting at the Bremer Center for a time.”
Wells said in 2014, the year before he came to Aurora, the congregation purchased the building the church currently calls home at 209 South 16th St. and began holding services there. 
“It was built as a gymnasium, and I don’t know what all was in it right before the congregation moved here,” he said. “But I do know one thing that had been happening and continued for the first four or five years here, was Jazzercise. So in the my early days here we were known as the ‘Jazzercise Church.’ They met at the front half of the building, and then I think it was roughly four years into my time here, they made the decision to move, and at that point we renovated the east half of the building.”
McReynolds, who had been serving at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Central City, helped start the congregation and served as its pastor the first five years. He greeted the congregation via video conference from his current charge at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Mountain Home, Ark. 
Wells said the special anniversary worship service focused on Jesus and “the promises that we have in Him.”
“Our focus was on the blessings we have in Christ and what He has done for us,” Wells said. “That’s our goal. Our mission statement here is ‘Sharing the cross,’ so everything that we do we want, in some way, shape or form, to help us point others to Jesus. And so that was our focus Sunday.” 
The service was followed by a potluck brunch attended by about 60 members and friends of the congregation.