Why Cross-Connection exists
There is no shortage of young adult groups. What's harder to find is good culture — places to gather that have real joy in them, real vigor, a genuine spirit of life.
Christians ought to be the gladdest people in any city. We ought to be the ones who sing loudly, feast well, work hard, and build friendships that sharpen. We ought to be the people others look at and want what we have. That is not a preference; it is what we are called to.
So we decided to build it. Cross-Connection exists to give young believers a place to gather that is glad, active, and unashamedly Christian — where you'll be welcomed, where you'll sing, and where you'll walk away with friends.
What we're after
The Church is one body, not a hundred competing ones. We have one Father, and we ought to act like a family.
We want a Huntsville where believers recognize each other on the street. Where friendships — and marriages — cross the lines between congregations. Where a young Christian who moves here for a job can find his people in a week, not a year. Where the churches of this city know each other and hold the ground together.
Our story
Gideon Harris grew up in a large family — eight siblings, of which he is the middle child — in the Reformed world. He spent the first half of his life in an Anglican church, then his family joined a Presbyterian church before he moved out of his parents' household. He moved to Nashville when his web and software development business took off, and then to Huntsville after hearing about a church plant he wanted to be part of.
Cross-Connection began in January of 2023, around a table. Gideon started having people over after church on Sunday for board games and a meal. It was small — eight or ten people, mostly from Trinity Reformed Church. But it kept growing, and it kept growing across churches.
The Sunday board games turned into volleyball. Volleyball turned into hiking, then meals, then dances. That first summer, events averaged twenty to thirty people. The following year, upwards of sixty young adults were coming, from twenty-five different churches.
Gideon met Elizabeth at a church conference in Nashville in 2025, and they married in April of 2026. Elizabeth is from Boone, North Carolina, one of a large family, and she plays the fiddle — including at the dances we put on. She is now a stay-at-home mom. Together they run Cross-Connection as a family ministry.
What they're after is culture. Inspired in no small part by what has been built in Moscow, Idaho, they want to see something rich and real take root here — believers who grow in their faith and take all of Christ for all of life as their mantra. They attend Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, and they want to see this city become a Christian city, full of strong-faith believers.
Cross-Connection is funded personally by the Harris family, with the help of a few generous friends.
Huntsville, Alabama — cross-connection.com