Last week a group of seven from our Cross Point Dickson campus visited Honduras: Walter Stephens, David Faulks, David Ford, Millie Ham, Cindy Pulse, Sara Stephens, and Erin Stephens.
The group was on a medical mission trip where they dispensed about $5000 worth of medicine. They also saw over 1,000 different patients!
Here are a few pictures they took. For more details, you can CLICK HERE and read Chad Robert’s blog, he’s the Dickson campus pastor.
I want to follow up to my post yesterday regarding hitting the lottery jack-pot. It seems that at least one blogger out there felt as if I was out of line by promoting gambling, and leading people astray.
Not going to spend a lot of time on that issue but do want to say this: I’m not suggesting you buy a lottery ticket. I’m not encouraging you to gamble. If I made you stumble or led you astray, I’m sincerely sorry. I think there are many more important things we can invest our money in besides the lottery, fast food, movie rentals, ice cream and other things that we blow money on to entertain ourselves.
The bigger issue is this: I understand the weight of my responsibility as a pastor and as a leader. I understand that I’m held to a higher level of accountability. I understand that some of you reading this think that blogging about my personal life is not a great idea. I want you to know that I don’t take my posts lightly. I usually have several people that read my post before I go public with them for that very reason.
But I also want to tell you this. This blog is not a place where you will find perfection. If you’re looking for that, you may want to drop this blog and pick up another. It’s a place where I talk about life. Specifically my life and what God is doing in my life and Cross Point Church. It’s a place where I will be open about what I struggle with and at the same time will share how Christ is forming Himself in me. It’s a place where you will find random fun posts about my family, my garden, and daily life, sprinkled among very strategic posts to make you think about where you are with God.
But use wisdom when reading this blog. I’m not always right. As a matter of fact, I’m often wrong. Don’t assume because I talk about it that I endorse it. Often I’m just trying to get us as a community to ask tough questions, and create community in the process.
There are times I write posts that I wish I could take back. There are times I write a post that I’m ashamed of, but it’s where I am. There are times I feel I may have made myself sound better than I am or wished I hadn’t been so honest.
I don’t know where the balance is in all of this, but I’m working on it. I know many of us are “working on it.” Be patient with me as I try to figure it all out and whatever you do, DON’T play the lottery. 
How do you deal with the balance? Do you struggle with this?
Yesterday at Cross Point Nashville, Pastor Tom spoke on the spiritual discipline of confession. I thought it was a fantastic message and it really got me thinking. He talked about how, as Christians, many of us have grown up in a religious format that has taught us how to “pretend”.
My guess is that many of us have layers and layers of different masks we wear. Some of these masks cover up pain from our past. Some of the masks cover up habitual sin in our life. Maybe the masks cover up our insecurities.
And most of the time I don’t think we realize just how dangerous these masks are.
There was a quote that I heard or read years ago, I can’t even remember who said it, but it has always stuck with me. It went something like this…
“You can only be loved to the extent that you are known”
This is so true! And I have a lot of work to do in this area. I’m still tempted to hide instead of reveal. I’m tempted to make myself sound a lot more spiritual than I really am. Tempted to act like I have faith when I really don’t. Tempted to tell stories that make me sound like I’m a better husband or father than I really am.
I guess I sometimes just find it easier to pretend and cover up than to live totally authentic.
I think we have a long way to go in today’s church to truly understand what confessional community looks like. We can preach it all day, but as church leaders we have a lot of work to do to create environments where people feel safe to live this out.
I know I’m committed, and so are our elders, to taking the steps needed to create this kind of life changing, authentic, community here at Cross Point.
So, why do you think we wear so many masks?
I saw this on my new friend, Dave Shaw’s blog. I love it. Could this be coming to Cross Point soon?
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/1227698]
I saw this bumper sticker the other day when I was walking into Blockbuster. It says, “My Pastor Says God Bless America.” Since seeing the bumper sticker I’ve discovered it’s linked to a political movement.
I want to be clear that I’m neither condemning nor endorsing this organization. I know nothing about it, but this bumper sticker just prompted the following thoughts.
I’m tired of praying “God Bless America.” Now, before you try to stone me at the county courthouse, let me clearly state, “I’m proud of our country.” I’m indebted to people who have served her to give me the freedoms I have. So we’re cool. I shoot fireworks off on the 4th and everything.
I’m just thinking this. It kind of looks like God has already blessed America. I kind of feel like maybe I should be praying “God thanks for already blessing America, so now I’m going to bless you.” Or maybe “God, thanks for already blessing America, so help me use your blessing to bless some others.” Or maybe just simply, “God bless Uganda.” I think they need it a little more than we do.
Around the world, some 26,500 children die every day (source: global issues.com)
That is equivalent to:
* 1 child dying every 3 seconds
* 18 children dying every minute
* A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every week* An Iraq-scale death toll every 15–36 days
* Almost 10 million children dying every year
* Some 60 million children dying between 2000 and 2006 Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
A friend sent me a video link yesterday from CNN. I dare you to CLICK HERE and watch this disturbing video where the parents walk away from their 11 year old boy leaving him in the custody of the government because they can’ afford to feed him. When I watched that little boys chin start to quiver as his mom walked away I just LOST IT.
So, I’m sorry if today I just can’t pray “God bless America”. But, make no mistake about it, I’m praying for Ahri and his family. I’m praying for the families of the almost 40 kids who have died in the time you’ve been reading this post.
Does this wreck you like it wrecks me?
my chaos,
Pete
I often get asked about our leadership structure at Cross Point. This is an important part of Cross Point because we attempt to structure the church in a way that maximizes ministry and minimizes bureaucracy, and yet, still provides accountability on all levels.
On a human level, three groups of people direct the ministries of Cross Point. Those bodies are the Elders, the Board of Directors, and the staff.
The elders are members of the church who provide general watchcare and oversight. The Board of Directors are members of the church empowered by the Elders to oversee the legal and financial aspects of the ministry (They keep us off Dateline!) And finally, the staff directs the day-to-day operations of the ministries of the church.
In our Discovering Cross Point Class we say the three groups work together as follows: the staff directs the ministries of the church; these ministries are supported by the policies and financial resource allocation determined by the Board of Directors; and all the activities of the church are carried out under the watch-care and supervision of the Elders.
I’m very excited that our Cross Point Elders have started a blog. As you can imagine, finding effective ways to communicate in a growing church can be difficult. If you’re interested in getting to know the the CP elders better as well as finding out what’s going on in the health of Cross Point you can check out the blog HERE.
Relevant Magazine is doing a series of articles entitled “The Seven Burning Issues” dealing with hot topics in Christianity. This particular article you can read HERE has to do with homosexuality and the church.
Their panelists include but are not limited to such Christian leaders as Nancy Ortberg, Chuck Colson, Steve Brown and N.T. Wright.
Here’s my question. If we assume that “homosexuality” is one of the burning issues today in Christianity what do you think the other six are? What is your burning issue?
This is a Watercooler Wednesday post.
