By Journal Staff Writer

The members at the Cross Church, 2025 Airport Hwy, had two reasons to be happy on Sunday March 13. The first reason was their Pastor, Michael Prince, was celebrating his 51st birthday. The second reason was it was their church’s seventh anniversary, founded by Pastor Prince.

Besides a banquet and birthday cake, both cellebrations solicited the adult and youth gospel choirs, youth praise dancing and gospel singers, the Brown sisters, to add to the joyous occasion.

Bennie Austin, trustee at the Cross Church, told The Toledo Journal, “We have excellent leadership. After listening to Pastor Prince preach, you feel like you just left church. And our first lady, Sabrina Prince, wears many hats within the church. Her leadership helps keep everything together.”

Maria Watson, president of the Usher Board, spoke about the church leadership. “I love their vision, commitment, honesty and trust.”

Pastor Prince not only works for God and the people, he has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work, which he said helps him address the problems many people deal with on a day to day basis when it comes to mental health issues.

“Across the country, Pastors are committing suicide and people are struggling with mental health issues. I always encourage them to get help by talking to someone,” he said.

In addition, Pastor Prince is focused on financially equipping his congregation. He started the “Building Generational Wealth” program within the church.

Prior to the start of the celebration, the youth gospel choir gets in some last minute practice.

Helping him equip his congregation with the necessary skills to develop, as he called, “a holistic life,” is his wife, First Lady Sabrina Prince.

“I stay excited working with the diverse age groups, we have within our church,” she said. “We have programs that also help young people prepare for college, by filling out their financial aid, or for those who don’t want to attend college, we have people who work within the skilled trades to help the young people. And being that my husband is a Navy veteran, he can help the ones who are interested in joining the military by helping them get an understanding of that particular branch and what type of jobs are available. So we’re excited about what’s going on and we live by our theme of the day which is, “What the future looks like.”