Crossroads Church is in the news because of an investigation into its founding pastor, Brian Tome, who is accused of inappropriate conduct with a church member.
The accusation struck a chord with so many because Crossroads is the largest nondenominational Christian church in Greater Cincinnati, expanding from a small group that held services in a middle school auditorium in 1996 to nine locations and 30,000 members today.
What is Crossroads Church?
Crossroads’ founders, Jim Bechtold and Brian Wells, came up with the idea of starting their own church in 1994 after deciding the churches they’d found in Cincinnati didn’t meet their spiritual needs.
They began organizing and placed an ad in magazines seeking a pastor to lead them. Tome, who was raised Presbyterian and trained as a minister in that church, answered the call in 1995. A year later, Crossroads held its first services…