Crossroads Church was a large and growing church, but it wanted a way to unify its digital and in-person experiences into a single, “all-church journey” that would bring people together and help them spiritually grow every day. Apollos helped the multisite Ohio and Kentucky ministry develop its bespoke church technology to initiate greater engagement, cultivate spiritual habits, and turn church into an everyday experience. The result was amplified daily impact and an exciting SaaS partnership that has the potential to impact the entire Church world.

The Client: Meet Crossroads Church

Crossroads Church was founded in 1995. Its goal is to connect seekers to a community of like-minded individuals who have given up on church but not on God. It helps Christians grow as Christ followers and inspires them to go out and change the world. 

The founding team initially saw the church as a place to invite their own friends to a gathering that didn’t make them feel like an outsider. This intimate vision has remained in place, but as the church grew and set up campuses across multiple states, the needs and potential of its digital ministry came into focus.

The Challenge: Using Digital Tools for Daily Discipleship

As Crossroads grew, its leadership team wanted to keep its geographically spread-out congregation unified. One obvious way to do this was to use technology to help people establish a daily habit of connecting with God, their church, and one another. 

The phone in their pocket was the obvious way to do this, but there was a problem. Most church apps aren’t built to truly engage people. They don’t spark engagement or cater to specific church needs. They are little more than a remix of the content on a church’s website. 

This resulted in a conscious effort to develop church-centric digital solutions that helped develop daily habits and bring people together online as well as in person in an “all-church journey” that built daily habits and community throughout the week. 

The initiative started a decade ago and led to countless iterations as the Crossroads app took shape. Over time, an “always on” church app emerged and became a core part of the Crossroads ministry. But as the app grew, so did the need for better support and innovation. 

Technology Leader & Pastor Matt Welty pointed out another unexpected challenge as well, learning how to reproduce their success with the “big C” Church. How could they share their digital discoveries as a more risk-tolerant organization when other churches asked for their own version of their app? The answer came through a partnership with Apollos.

The Apollos Answer: Sensible Features for Real-World People

Crossroads leadership wanted to continue to develop an online community with real-world utility. Our team took the time to get to know the Crossroads team, understand their needs, and create a clear, detailed digital strategy. This included:

• Continuing to improve the spiritual discipleship features specific to Crossroads that make sense to real-world people and everyday use.

• Thinking through digital engagement and change management in a church setting.

• Figuring out the metrics that mattered, the roadmap to reach them, and how to maintain communication throughout that process.

Once this was in place, we set to work building an app that could meet Crossroads’ needs and give its people a place to come together and build community.

The Result: Teaching Daily Habits, Supporting the Larger Church

The Crossroads senior leadership team seeks to model and teach daily habits of scripture and prayer. Apollos has helped the church’s app continue to grow its role as a weekday tool that makes that possible.

The app continues to bring a growing number of Crossroads people together from all of their campuses to engage in a church community empowered by:

• Scripture reading

• Prayer

• Giving

• Community interactions

Facilitating online interactions has led to a steep increase in engagement. For example, in 2024, Crossroads had 13,094 unique monthly active users and 29,600 total users. By mid-2025, those numbers were already 13,974 and 24,877, respectively.

This year, there have already been nearly half a million (452,581) “core actions” completed, too. Those are things like:

• Prayers Requested and Prayed (over 368,000)

• Gratitude Created (nearly 20,000)

• Scripture Read (nearly 75,000)

Thousands of people within the Crossroads ecosystem are spending time with God on a regular basis. Many have never been taught or built previous habits in this area. Having a multi-dimensional app has created an organic training ground that brings everyone together to pray and grow spiritually.

“Apollos offered a solution-oriented approach that extended beyond the specific digital features we were talking about. They took the time to understand context, voice, goals — and that shows in the results we’ve seen once the app was up and running.” - Matt Welty, Technology Leader & Pastor at Crossroads Church

One of the most exciting developments of all was the forging of an ongoing partnership where Apollos became Crossroads’ SaaS partner. The goal with this relationship is two-way: for Apollos to share the lessons learned from the Crossroads app with other churches through its digital engagement platform and for Crossroads to benefit from Apollos’ innovative features and digital development. (Learn more about the partnership here.)

We look forward to helping Matt and the Crossroads team continue to build their ministry into a church that can impact individuals, communities, and the entire Midwest and South regions.