Chris Eads, Senior Pastor
Chris Eads is the Senior Pastor and primary teaching pastor of CrossCurrent Ministries. Founding CrossCurrent as a young adult program of Christian Fellowship Church in 1996, Chris led CrossCurrent through the process of planting as a church in January, 2005.
Passionate about reaching spiritually lost and skeptical people, Chris has served in many evangelistic and church planting roles for nearly 20 years. Saved in 1985 and called to ministry a year later, Chris began preaching in 1987 in small churches, youth ministries, prisons, and inner city missons. Graduating from Indiana Wesleyan University in 1992, he was hired into his first full-time pastorate as the Assistant Pastor of College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana, with a primary focus on evengelism ministries and college ministry. Building a very successful college program known as Chi-Alpha that reached up to 1,000 students in major outreach programs, Chris began to develop a burden for reaching his own native culture of the Washington, DC area. In 1996, he moved home to Northern Virginia and started CrossCurrent Ministries.
His long-range vision is to be primary leader of a church-planting movement in the Washington, DC area, leading CrossCurrent through the process of planting numerous small-core based churches. The second church plant of CrossCurrent is underway in 2007.
His other ministry experiences include an eleven year commitment to teaching and spiritual leadership in European youth camps from 1993-2004 in Russia and Croatia. He has served in various volunteer roles in church planting projects in Manassas and Winchester, Virginia. He has spoken for numerous youth camps, retreats, and conferences throughout the Eastern United States, and has served as an adjunct professor at two Wesleyan Bible colleges in Canada and Russia.
Shannon Havens, Flipt Kids Director
My name is Shannon Havens. I am married to Travis, my high school sweetheart. We have 2 kids; Parker (9) and Gabrielle "Gabi" (7). We are originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, but moved to Virginia in 2001 (3 days before 9/11) for Travis' job. I began at CrossCurrent in 2002 and helped as a volunteer when the church first launched from Christian Fellowship in January 2005. In June of 2005, I was hired as the Children's Director. Prior to working at CrossCurrent, I was the Preschool Director at a private Christian school.
I accepted the Lord when I was 8 years old. Even though I accepted Christ as a child, I strayed from Him as a teen/young adult. When my life hit rock-bottom in my early 20's, I knew the only way to turn things around was to rekindle my relationship with Him. My passion for teaching kids about Christ is so that they can have a strong foundation in Him that will carry with them through the ups and downs of life. God promises that if we train up a child in the way he should go then when he is old he will not depart from it. Every day I stand on that promise as the passion that drives me in children's ministry.
Jan Israel, Youth Director
Jan Israel is the CrossCurrent Youth Ministries Director. The Youth Ministries Leadership Team is the absolute best, but Jan’s greatest help and support comes from her husband, Mike. She met Mike in her first year at Trinity Bible College in Ellendale, North Dakota. Jan and Mike have moved quite a bit with Mike’s job over the past few years but have been in Virginia for three years and have attended CrossCurrent for the past 2 ½ years. They have two married daughters, two great son-in-laws, and two of the cutest granddaughters ever and one more grandbaby on the way. Prior to full time ministry Jan’s background was in software engineering project management.
Jan has had various types of ministry experience ranging from nursery, children’s ministry, youth, college and family ministry. Jan’s greatest ministry passion is among youth and college students. Jan’s prior fulltime ministry position was Chi Alpha campus pastor at Oakland University in Michigan.
Although Jan’s children are grown, she is still seriously committed to the care and development of students in their walk with Jesus. Jan desires to see students become sold-out followers of Christ by learning to hear and follow the direction of the Holy Spirit.
John Dively, Worship Director
John Dively has been with Crosscurrent as a volunteer Worship Leader since June 2000. He has been a CrossCurrent staff member since December 2005 as Crosscurrent’s Worship Pastor. He is married with two children and currently resides in Reston. His call to music ministry started in 1997 to present.
“It is amazing to see God fulfilling that call here with Crosscurrent” says John. His desire is to reveal the beauty of Christ through music, the arts, and for people to enter into His courts with praise.
Melanie Moore, Office Manager
Helen Gernhardt, Finance Director
