Crossroads Church in Russellville is expecting a big turnout this week when the Xtreme Impact ministry comes to town.

“We’re thinking we’ll have 2,000 people come out to the church over the course of the crusade,” said Muryd Scipio, the youth pastor at Crossroads.

Xtreme Impact is a team of world-class athletes who perform feats of strength, power and speed in order to inspire both the young and the old.

Crossroads is bringing in the team, which will be doing a series of school assemblies on Thursday, Feb. 7 and Friday, Feb. 8

They will be at Adairville, Stevenson and Chandlers schools on Thursday and Lewisburg, Olmstead and Russellville on Friday.

Xtreme Impact will be working with the CharacterWorks of Logan County program as they put on their shows at the schools.

“When they go into the schools, they are going to tailor their message to be about character instead of Jesus,” said Chris Cowan, the pastor at Crossroads Church. “They are going to be working along with our CharacterWorks trait for February, which is forgiveness.”

Students will see the team members tearing phone books and license plates like they were paper. They also snap baseball bats like twigs and smash through walls of concrete and bricks.

“What they do in the schools hooks them in to see the rest of the feats of strength at the church at night,” Scipio said. “But then when they get to the church, they can get a little more in depth about where the source of their character comes from.”

In addition to the shows they will be doing in the schools, there will also be evening rallies on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at Crossroads Church. Each evening rally will begin at 7 p.m. and last approximately a half hour.

“It appeals to the kids and the parents both. They kids bring the parents out to it at night and the parents get something out of it too.”

They are all free and the public is encouraged to attend.

“After the events, the athletes spend a lot of time talking to people individually and getting to know them,” Scipio said.

In the evening rallies at the church is where they will be sharing more of the message of Jesus and His power, Cowan said.

And while the Xtreme Impact team will be speaking to students during the day, their evening sessions will be for everyone.

Jeremy Baker, the leader of Xtreme impact, will also be the morning speaker at Crossroads Church at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 10.

Scipio, who spent time touring with a similar ministry, said one of the biggest things young people can take from the Xtreme Impact group is that they have achieved this level of strength without the use of performance enhancing drugs.

“They really go the extra mile to show that they can do this without steroids,” Scipio said. “Part of the message is the just like everyone else, they could take shortcuts, but they don’t. They show kids that you can do it the right way and get just as strong as them.”