Crossing over is exactly what Crossover Community Church does.

For about 10 years, the church was a small, struggling urban church in Tampa, Fla., with less than 50 members. The youth group – led by Tommy Kyllonen – began to grow as youth and young adults in the community found a place of relevance and identity through the concerts, basketball leagues, and hip-hop music.

When Kyllonen became pastor of the church in 2002, he realized he didn’t need to change his format just because his title changed. By staying true to his passion for hip-hop and his desire to reach a culture that followed the club scene and artists known only by abbreviations and acronyms, Crossover crossed over and embraced the tag of being a hip-hop church. And from the onset, it has been a purpose driven church.

“We try to treat each service as an outreach opportunity as there are always first-time guests in the house,” Kyllonen said. The ambiance of the church resembles the clubs that many attendees frequent on the weekends – dim lights, intelligent lighting flashing to thumping music, maybe a puff of stage smoke. The songs, some original rhymes and others better-known worship songs remixed to a hip-hop beat, are spun by a DJ. For someone to throw down and start spinning hip-hop dance moves on the floor would not be out of place.

“Our approach is very real and the way we set up the campus and auditorium is very comfortable and inviting,” Kyllonen said. “It’s familiar. We don’t assume everyone knows biblical stories – because in the emerging generation, they don’t. We make sure we don’t use church lingo.”

Kyllonen said that while the atmosphere and setting is inviting for the hip-hop crowd, by no means does he skirt the hard truth issues when he brings the Word.

Through the customized Purpose Driven messages, Kyllonen challenges the church to live authentic lives of purpose for Christ. “It’s a challenge to live authentic godly lives while not abandoning the relevancy and passion of who they are as people – specifically those in the hip-hop culture,” he said.

In 2003, the church participated in the 40 Days of Purpose campaign. For the next six weeks, his congregation focused on the five biblical purposes of the church by digging in to The Purpose Driven Life through small groups and messages on the weekends.

“It was great – amazing,” Kyllonen reflected. “It helped a lot of people grow spiritually. Many people started having daily times with God for the first time during that campaign. The congregation was so excited. They were all talking with one another about what God was doing in their lives.”

Crossover rode the success of the first campaign by repeating the 40 Days campaign again in the spring of 2005. This second campaign served as a refresher course for the ‘vets’ and an introduction to the heartbeat of the church for the newcomers. Since the first campaign, the church had tripled in size.

Always looking for a fresh edge, however, Kyllonen and his staff put their own spin on the second campaign. Knowing that a substantial portion of the church’s core members had previously been through the campaign, the church made their own videos for three sessions of the six-week curriculum, mixing their own in-house teaching videos filmed on rooftops and in parking garages with the clips of Rick Warren’s teaching.

“Our crowd is young, urban, post-modern, multicultural, and into hip-hop,” Kyllonen said. “We have tweaked many of the things, but the principles are transferable because they are biblical. We just put our own flavor and personality to it. We made it our own and customized the campaign for our own audience.” The church’s attendance jumped another 100 during the second campaign.

When Crossover restructured as a purpose driven church in 2002, “we developed new leaders to fit within the five purposes to make sure we stay balanced,” Kyllonen said. “At the same time, our current staff members are structured under the five purposes as well, and they meet with and disciple the leaders under their purpose.”

“Our church mission statement also includes the five purposes: ‘To relevantly introduce the truth of Christ to the hip-hop culture as we develop worship, purpose, unity, and leadership in their lives.’”

Crossover has a new believers Bible study, after which members are plugged into a small group that fits their interests. Kyllonen said about 70 percent of those attending the church have become members and about 40 percent have made a commitment to maturity.

Looking to the future, Kyllonen said he sees Crossover Church continuing to share the Crossover story and believes the church will serve as a template.

“I see us being a platform for training and resources that communicates clearly to the church that this culture can be reached,” he said.

All 2006 Church Health Award winner information is correct as of Jan. 1, 2006.