The CROSS Project’s purpose is to help churches consider more closely how HIV relates to them. We believe the climate of fear and denial surrounding this disease underscores why the Church must be better prepared to minister the gospel of grace and hope. Too many people are still longing to see the day when there are churches ready to overcome the silence and stigma. Our teams are prepared to advise local churches concerning their ministry but will not dictate, run or execute the ministry. Our team is cross cultural, cross gender, interdisciplinary and spans a wide age range. It is comprised of people with gifts of leadership, counseling, discipleship, and curriculum development.
The curriculum of the C.R.O.S.S. Project was developed by its own members to meet unique needs. Each lesson is facilitated by CROSS team members and centers around group participation and discussion. The curriculum is Bible-based and unapologetically Christian, speaking to the heart of people and issues. CROSS lessons are helpful for individual spiritual growth but were written with church ministry teams in mind. Lesson presentations are structured to accommodate various learning styles and knowledge levels so that all in participation will be challenged and edified.
We work to have ten churches per year complete a sixteen week curriculum. A team from the project will work with four to five churches every six months. This ministry team then meets with each church three times per month, allowing the church to meet on its own the fourth week. At every meeting a lesson will be presented that may take 2-3 hours to complete. The following is a list of the sixteen sessions we teach:
01 – Why We Do HIV Ministry
02 – HIV AIDS Broad Overview
03 – Pre-Eminence of the Word in Ministry
04 – How to Share God’s Word
05 – Understanding Stigma As Care Team
06 – Moral Stigma – Christian Stigma
07 – Encouraging Believers, Stigmatized
08 – Introduction to Counseling
09 – Facing HIV for Ourselves
10 – Family Disclosure
11 – Gender Part I
12 – Gender Part II
13 – Gender Part III
14 – Gender Part IV
15 – Domestic Abuse and HIV
16 – Eternal vs. Temporal Perspective