WithoutWax.tv by Pete Wilson | Archive | April, 2011
Archive - April, 2011

Bigger Than The Royal Wedding

April 29, 2011 in Cross Point Church with 18 Comments

Okay, maybe not, but I am super excited about several things going on this weekend at Cross Point and I would appreciate you joining me in prayer.

1. Starting a new series.

“Anything But Ordinary” This is the first time I’ve ever preached through the Beatitudes and I’m so excited. Here’s the promo…

2. We’re launching our Internet Campus.

Starting this Sunday you can join us anywhere around the world for a live service that will start at 6pm Central time. There will be all kinds of cool features with this campus, but what I’m most excited about is having the opportunity to take questions from the internet audience live after each service.

So spread the word and if you’re not in the Nashville area join us online this Sunday night. Just go to www.crosspoint.tv and you’ll find the link.

3. Mission Trips To Alabama

Yesterday afternoon a team of 20+ from Cross Point dropped everything and took off with our Mobile Hope Center to Alabama to love on and begin clean up for those impacted by the devastating tornadoes. The death toll has now climbed to over 300! There will probably be more opportunities in the coming days to help out. I know several more took off today to join the team. If you’re interested you can email our missions pastor at ryan@crosspoint.tv. I saw a tweet from Ryan this morning that said, “We have more work than we do people.” Let’s go be the church!!

Creative Catalysts

April 29, 2011 in Church Leadership with 23 Comments

Got back in town last night from a quick trip down to Orlando to speak at the Exponential Conference. Had a blast meeting tons of new friends and even got the incredible opportunity to attend my first Cirque Du Soleil as the guest of my friends Maurilio and Shannon. Holy cow that was amazing!  I’ve never seen anything like it.

Back at the beginning of the year I wrote a post about how to get the creative juices flowing. Part of what I talked about was the importance of not looking at your creative slump as “writers block” or a “creative block.”

Anne Lamott said,

“The word block suggests that you are constipated or stuck, when the truth is that you’re empty.”

“Stuck” suggests that you need to try harder.

“Empty” prompts you to fill up.

Understanding my creative slump as the result of being empty gives me the permission to engage in the activities that fill me up.

I can’t even begin to tell you all the creative ideas I’ve had since watching that show last night. It really filled me up. If you’ve never been you’ve got to check it out sometime.

It takes everything you enjoyed about the circus as kid and presents it in a mature, but unbelievably entertaining way. I’ve never wanted to be a part of the circus more than today! :)

So here’s a fun “all skate” question for the day: If you could be a part of the circus which act would you most want to perform?

Me? I want to get shot out of the cannon.

Am I A Good Christian?

April 28, 2011 in Spiritual Growth with 15 Comments

I’ve been contributing fairly often to a great new site called ChurchLeaders.com. I love writing articles for them as they have such a wide variety of authors, pastors, and teachers that I can learn from at the same time.

Just recently Francis Chan wrote an article entitled “Why We Need To Throw Out Out The Term Good Christian.” He stated..

I think it’s time we stop asking ourselves the question: “Am I a good Christian?” We live in a time when the term “Christian” has been so diluted that millions of immoral but nice people genuinely consider themselves “good Christians.” We have reduced the idea of a good Christian to someone who believes in Jesus, loves his or her family, and attends church regularly. Others will label you a good Christian even though your life has no semblance to the way Christ spent His days on earth. Perhaps we should start asking the question: “Am I a good Christ?” In other words, do I look anything like Jesus?

He continues,

So how did Jesus live? You could make a list of character traits to compare yourself to, but it would be far more beneficial to simply read through one of the Gospels. After you get a bird’s-eye view of the life of Christ, do the same with your own. Are you comfortable with the similarities and differences?

Those are some powerful questions. And I don’t think this has to be about legalism. I don’t think this has to be about a checklist of things you must do everyday.

1 John 2:6 “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

I think it’s this exciting idea that it’s now possible, through Christ, for our lives to progressively look more and more like the person we claim to follow.

It’s possible, if we’ll stay connected to the Vine, to begin to think, act, talk, and love more like Jesus.

It’s possible for us to experience the freedom of living life the way we were originally created to live, bearing the image of our Creator.

So which question are you more likely to ask yourself:

Am I a good Christian?

or

Am I a good Christ?

The Real Me

April 27, 2011 in Spiritual Growth with 23 Comments

I read a great article the other day from John Ortberg called “Who Am I?” I so identified with this section:

There’s the public me. I prepare talks, and lead meetings, and say words that I want others to hear. This public me isn’t deliberately false. But I am always aware, when I am in the presence of other people, of how they will hear what I say. This awareness is a kind of filter that I cannot put away. This public me will always be gauging other peoples’ responses and adjusting accordingly. I often do not like this dynamic. But I cannot flip it off as if it were a switch.

There is the private me. This is the me who watches and listens and feels. I sometimes avoid this me, especially in seasons of great busyness. When I slow down, and bring the private me before God, I often become aware of my inadequacies or sense of lack. I sometimes can slow down to a level of deep peace, or of awareness of my longing for God. This private me often seems surprisingly conflicted—moved some times by genuine desires to serve and grow, and other times by reflexive habits of greed or resentment.

There is the real me. This is true person who inhabits my life; the mixture of what is admirable and what is squalid and what is small. This me must exist, and must be fully known if justice is to prevail.

So, clearly part of the goal here for my life is to spend more time getting to know the “real me.” Knowing this people will often point to Psalm 139:23-24 to illustrate the need for self-examination. It says,

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

But if you back up to the beginning of Psalm 139 you’ll discover something interesting. The Psalm actually begins by acknowledging that God has already searched me. Verses 1-4 state:

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all of my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”

Ruth Haley Barton says, “This may point to the fact that the real issue in self-examination is not that I am inviting God to know me (since he already does) but that I am inviting God to help me know me.

As I’ve been spending more and more time alone with God I’ve begun to pray, “God help me to know me. Help me to tear down the scaffolding of power, praise, perfectionism and performance that I use to prop myself up. Strengthen me so I can bear to be naked, vulnerable and willing to see the areas of my life where Christ likeness is so lacking.

How in touch are you with the “real you?”

A Place To Belong

April 26, 2011 in Church Leadership with 22 Comments

I think one of the greatest gifts you can give another human being is simply a place to belong.

We need that place.

That place will…

guide us,
care for us,
confront us,
shape us,
console us.

As long as you have breath you will search for a place to belong.

As long as you can take one more step you’ve been designed to move towards this powerful, life altering, place.

What role does community play in your life these days?

An Amazing Easter

April 25, 2011 in Cross Point Church with 25 Comments

Hope everyone had an amazing Easter weekend.

There’s nothing like it is there?

The resurrection is the only hope that has held human beings across every continent and culture together for two thousand years in the face of difficult times like poverty, disease, pain, crisis, and even death itself.

I was reminded afresh yesterday that Easter changed everything.

It wasn’t a new religion. It wasn’t a new system that we had to work in order to please a God who was withholding his love. It was an event in history that changed everything.

My worth is established.
My past is forgiven.

He defeated the power of death and sin all in one move.

So I would love to hear what the highlight of your Easter was? Any takeaways? Stories?

*As a sidenote: For the hundreds of you that served yesterday at one of our 15 Cross Point services: Thanks for making it such a special day. I’m honored to serve with you guys week in and week out. Can’t imagine life without you!!

Stuck In Saturday

April 22, 2011 in Spiritual Growth with 45 Comments

*I recently wrote an article for the March/April issue of Relevant Magazine entitled “Stuck In Saturday.” It’s based off of a section of my book Plan B . It’s a bit longer than my average post but I thought it quite appropriate going into this Easter weekend. Hope you find hope in it today.


The other day I stood in line at my local coffee house. I was in a curious mood and just watched the four or five people in front of me as we stood in this unusually slow line. Their body language and facial expressions said it all. There were hands on the hips expressing disgust at the current inconvenience, some were rolling their eyes as they glanced up momentarily from texting on their cell phone, and there was the predictable looking at the watch and then looking at the line and then looking back at the watch.

Most of us do not like waiting for anything.  We live in a day of fast everything and waiting for anything seems like a major inconvenience.  I must confess I don’t like waiting either.  I don’t like standing in line for my favorite cup of coffee, flipping though magazines in the waiting room of the doctor’s office and I sure don’t like waiting in traffic.  And if I can just be honest with you, I don’t like waiting on God either.

Lewis Smedes described waiting like this: “Waiting is our destiny. As creatures who cannot by themselves bring about what they hope for, we wait in the darkness for a flame we cannot light.  We wait in fear for a happy ending that we cannot write. We wait for a ‘not yet’ that feels like a ‘not ever.’”

This is what we often see in the anatomy of hope. There is an event that takes place that sucks the life out of you.   Something goes horribly wrong:

A dream dies.

A relationship ends.

A job dissipates.

A desire is crushed.

You’re left there standing, waiting, paralyzed by hopelessness.    You start to wonder…

Did God forget his promises?

Does God know?

Does God care?

Luke 23:44-49 44 It was about noon, and the whole land became dark until three o’clock in the afternoon, 45 because the sun did not shine. The curtain in the Temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, I give you my life.” After Jesus said this, he died.

47 When the army officer there saw what happened, he praised God, saying, “Surely this was a good man!”

48 When all the people who had gathered there to watch saw what happened, they returned home, beating their chests because they were so sad. 49 But those who were close friends of Jesus, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance and watched.

Notice how Jesus’ closest followers react.  The gospel account says they “stood at a distance and watched.”

Have you ever been so hopeless you couldn’t do a thing?  You couldn’t get mad or fight or even cry?  Have you ever felt so hopeless you didn’t have the energy or passion to even get ticked off?

Continue Reading…

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