SPRINGDALE, Ark. – Cross Church was already a large and thriving church when Nick Floyd took over as pastor seven years ago.
Floyd, who has been at the church for 17 years, served under his father, Ronnie Floyd, who was pastor more than 30 years. Nick said he assumed leadership over a church that was already a “healthy church with a heart for evangelism.”
In addition to his role as the senior pastor, Floyd also serves as the chaplain for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team.
“As far as changes, in many ways I’ve just leaned into who we are as a church,” Floyd said. “We are an evangelistic, Bible preaching, next-generation-focused type of church. Most of the changes have been related to those things.”
The church has seen rapid growth in recent years and now includes four campuses located in the Northwest Arkansas region – Springdale, Pinnacle Hills, Fayetteville and the newest campus on Hwy 62 in Farmington.
Founded in 1870 as Landmark Liberty Baptist Church with 13 members meeting in a log house, the church was renamed First Baptist Church of Springdale in 1910 and later changed its name to Cross Church.
“I was raised in the home of a pastor,” Floyd said. “I was saved at 12 years old and started growing in my faith. By the end of my sophomore year in high school, I had surrendered to full-time ministry.”
The church was strategic in positioning its Fayetteville campus near the University of Arkansas. Every Wednesday night, there are around 1,000 college students gathering for worship.
“We’ve emphasized college ministry for many years, but in 2023 we put a stake in the ground that we were going to be a church that reaches, develops and sends out college students,” Floyd said. “We bought a fitness gym on an adjoining property and renovated it to become our new college building. There are a ton of stories about students meeting Jesus through our college ministry, getting discipled and now serving the Lord in some type of ministry.”
Floyd said what the church does “really isn’t that complicated.”
“We have an evangelistic heart to reach people locally and around the world,” he said. “We are committed to expository preaching. We run hard after the next generation. We want to experience the manifest presence of God in our services. Everything else beyond that is just details.
“In many ways, we don’t really know what to attribute the success and strategy to, other than we have no explanation apart from God just placing His hand upon us during this season. From a human standpoint, I think people are searching for the truth right now. By God’s grace, I think we’re a place where they can come and hear exactly what the Bible says about an issue. We’re also very intentional about our next gen ministries. We’ve got a great team of pastors and staff who loves people well.”
Cross Church ranks as the largest church in the state with a combined attendance of more than 10,000 each week.
“We started a campus in February in a growing part of our region,” Floyd said. “We’ve renovated or constructed new areas for almost all of our next gen ministries. Again, I started on third base. I’ve just tried to bring deeper alignment and focus in some areas. I am in a church that has a long history of faithful pastoral leadership that has been very committed to reaching people.”
Floyd is excited to see what the Lord has in store for the future of Cross Church.
“God can do incredible things with an established church,” he said. “These people know the Bible and are committed to the Great Commission. Many of them were taught how to be generous decades ago, and they joyfully and sacrificially give. They are used to hearing vision and following the leadership of their pastor.
“If I stand before the church and give them a big vision that is committed to the Great Commission, I have no doubt they are going to go for it. A few years ago, I brought before the church a vision to launch a seminary that is training men for service in the local church. On top of that, I told them I wanted us to fully fund the tuition of every student. They have wholeheartedly embraced that vision and supported it.”
The first class of students graduated from Cross Theological Seminary in May. All the students received accredited master’s degrees, fully funded by the church.
“Not every church can do that,” Floyd said. “If you find yourself in a church like I am in, embrace it and lean into the best parts of it. The faithful people are a force for Great Commission work.”
