Around 1969, four men( Joe Wheeler, Warren Pitts, Cecil Key, and a gentlemen by the last name Murphy) met together at the old Calvary Baptist Church in Moultrie. In this old wooden building, they met to pray about starting a mission to provide housing, meals, assistance in finding jobs, and the ability to live and re-start individual’ s lives in a Christian environment.
“ And two, we have to stop having women. We have to go back to the original vision of men only,” he said.
He said his third condition was that they had to start all over with a brand new board of directors. He said they got 11 different churches on the board, which was something they had not had before.
“ And so I kind of redefined the vision of Crossroads to how I felt like God was leading me, in what I thought would work. And to change it from basically a homeless shelter, which is what it was, into more of a recovery center. And that’ s what we’ ve done,” he said.
Crossroads officials interview the men before they are accepted into the program. They don’ t have to be Christian, but they have to be able to tell them, in their own words, that they knew they were going down the wrong road …
An aerial view of the Crossroads Gospel Mission residence facility as it is today. The organization has plans to expand.
20 MoultrieScene AUGUST 2025