Crossfire Youth Ministries‘ origin story begins in early 1992, when James Horning drove a dumpster truck for SonRise Handyman Service, hauling construction waste from a sports bar just across from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Later, Horning and a couple of friends stopped in and found college students shooting pool and watching sports on a huge screen while they drank. The account continues: “On the way home from this night, the Lord impressed upon James the need for a facility like this for teens without the alcohol and a place where positive moral standards could be taught and an opportunity to share Jesus Christ with students.”
That call to action led to the creation of Crossfire Youth Ministries and its two youth centers. Crossfire describes its work as introducing “Jesus Christ to hurting youth and their families by providing a safe haven where life-giving friendships are developed, lives are renewed, and connections are made to the greater church.” At the Cocalico Youth Center in Ephrata, the ministry gathers children ages 4 to 9 on Wednesday evenings, ages 10 to 12 on Thursdays, and teenagers ages 13 to 17 on Fridays. Its Ashland Youth Center opens for family time on Tuesdays and Saturdays and holds a worship service at 9 a.m. on Sundays.
Photo Courtesy Crossfire Youth Ministries
As part of its mission, Horning helps guide Crossfire teens in service around the community. In July 2020, Horning brought almost three dozen teens from the Ephrata and Carlisle areas to Ashland for two days of work. One crew repaired the ship at Oakland Park, repainted its swings, jungle gyms, and fences, and cleared brush that had overgrown the park’s edges. Another group started at the top of Centre Street and pulled weeds from the sidewalks, and borough members told Skook News the group also mowed and tidied the lawn of a woman who needed help. The teens planned a closing community picnic at Oakland Park, and Horning said neighbors who felt uneasy around groups during the COVID-19 pandemic could stop by and have food brought to their cars.
The work began with a request. “We used to go to Harrisburg every year for the cleanup, until someone from Ashland approached me about pulling the weeds on Centre Street,” Horning told Skook News. “I talked to the borough leaders, and they were on board with it.” That same summer, the ministry had bought the old A&P supermarket in Ashland and was renovating it into a new youth center. Horning said it would offer an outdoor playground, an indoor half-court basketball court, and a place for anyone who may need “someone to talk to and sit and have a cup of coffee.”
“Everything is freshly painted. It was an amazing redo. These kids never stopped; they just kept going,” Borough Council member Patti Wesner told Skook News. Fellow council member Kaity Korn spoke as a former Crossfire teen herself. “I am so grateful to have such a wonderful group of teens and adults that are willing to devote their time to making such a difference in our town without asking anything in return,” Korn said. “I was part of [Crossfire] as a teen, and I am blessed to still be associated with such a wonderful group.”
Photo Courtesy Crossfire Youth Ministries
The group came back the next July for three more days of service projects, and a family street fair was scheduled in the block behind the youth center, which was still under renovation. By November 2022, Crossfire held family nights every Tuesday and Saturday at its Ashland Youth Center for a year. Roughly 60 kids attended one evening, which served as a Law Enforcement Appreciation Night sponsored by the Ashland Elks Lodge. Schuylkill County Sheriff Joseph Groody fingerprinted children for their parents to keep on file, and Ashland Police Chief Ger Daley and Officer Drew Weaver played basketball and football with them.
“When you walk in here and see what Crossfire is doing for the youth today, it’s unbelievable,” Groody told Skook News. Horning pointed to a fear many children carry. “I love having law enforcement and community come together, because in today’s age, so many kids fear the police,” he said. “We had a great turnout tonight, and we are here to serve the community.”
Crossfire understands that partnership is part of its calling. Its statement of core values calls the ministry “a part of the larger body of ministries each with a role in the work of Christ,” pointing to 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4:25, and commits it to “Partner with other like-minded organizations to enhance our ministry activities.”
A conviction that came to one man on a drive home from Lancaster has passed through a generation. One of the teenagers Crossfire welcomed years ago was, by 2020, the council member thanking its newest volunteers. Crossfire joined Ashland’s Community Night in 2025, and this August, when hundreds of neighbors filled Walnut Street for the event, it provided a bounce house. The teenagers who painted swings in Oakland Park that first summer may one day stand where Korn stood.
Photo Courtesy Crossfire Youth Ministries
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Root and Vine