What is Cross-Current?

The aim of Cross-Current is to help young Christian professionals become more effective ‘ambassadors for Christ’ in their workplaces (a phrase Paul uses to describe himself in 2 Corinthians 5:20). Ambassadors are official envoys who represent their country in the place they have been posted. In order to do their job well, they need to represent their own country well but also be aware of the culture they live in, not causing offence unnecessarily. The same principle can be applied to Christians in the workplace: we are called to be an authentic witness to Christ: to work to the best of our ability and to sensitively engage with the people and culture we live in. At work, most of the people we spend our day with know very little about Jesus and his good news. To be effective ambassadors, we need to know how to gently and consistently show the difference Jesus makes in our lives. Cross-Current aims to help young professionals grow in their ability to live as signposts to Jesus by being authentic witnesses and living lives of integrity.

The transition into working life can be a time of great turmoil: new faces, new places, new expectations and a new questioning of whatever people thought was true beforehand. Of course you want to do your job well, to impress your colleagues, but often it can be hard to reconcile this new world-of-work with your trust in Jesus. This context, with all its pressures and uncertainties is the place where God has put young Christian professionals to make a difference, to be salt and light. No church minister can easily go into our workplaces, and most of our colleagues will not step into a church. But when we go to work we have the amazing privilege of being Jesus’ representative - his ambassador - in that specific context at that specific time! In Cross-Current we work from theology to practical application in each participant’s own work context. In this way the Cross-Current group becomes a praying support group for each of its members wherever they work.

The way we behave and the things we say are influenced both by our worldview (the unshakeable beliefs about life and the universe) and by the culture in which we have grown up and in which we now live and work. Integrity is when the fruit of our lives - what we say and do - is consistent with the root of our lives - what we claim to believe. If you planted an appleseed in the ground and came back twenty years later, you would expect to find a beautiful apple tree in exactly that same spot. But if you found a banana tree there instead, you would know something had gone wrong! It’s the same for our lives. What we say and do should be directly linked to what we claim to believe as Christians.

Cross-Current begins with God. We want to know our God better and to see his character as part of our worldview: he is good, generous, just, loving and so much more. If we created a series of rules on good Christian living, they might work in one context but not another. But if we focus on the character of God, we learn from his character about how to live in different circumstances. Our prayer is that his Holy Spirit would open the eyes of our hearts and minds to know him better. As we get to know him better, he will begin to transform our values, vision and virtues to be more like his.