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My New Year’s Resolutions

December 31, 2008 in God, Leadership, Relationships, Vision with 64 Comments

I know some people are “anti” New Years resolutions.  However, I think this is an exciting time of year to set goals and establish new perspectives. As a matter of fact this blog is a result of one of my New Year’s resolutions from last year.

There are two resolutions I’m making this year.

The first resolution consists of  three commitments  I’m making to my church, Cross Point, for 2009. I’m going to be sharing those this Sunday, so I’ll wait to post them next week.

The second resolution is more of a broad perspective I want to establish throughout my life in this new year. It’s inspired by the following passage in Psalm 39.

4 “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath.”
Show me, God, my life’s end. Show me the number of my days. Show me how fleeting my life is.

I want to live in 2009 with the awareness of LIFE GOES BY FAST and MY DAYS ARE NUMBERED.

Like everyone else I can get caught up in trying to rush through life acquiring things, trying to attain security, and achieving meaningless goals our culture has deemed worthy.  But so many of the things I focus on and worry about are simply futile.

I waste time regretting things from the past I can’t change. I settle for mediocrity trying to avoid difficult decisions and conversations. I get consumed with trying to be loved instead of loving others. I squander precious moments trying to control things I can’t control.

I don’t want that to be my life. I don’t want that to be my vision… because that vision cannot sustain God’s design for something as splendid as a human life. That is a vision born out of thinking I have an endless amount of time on this earth to make the impact God has designed me to make and this, my friends, is nothing more than an illusion.

So in 2009 I’m making a resolution, a commitment, a promise to view my life (my marriage, my job, my friendships, my purpose) through the understanding that LIFE GOES BY FAST and MY DAYS ARE NUMBERED.

I pray it will help me love deeper, pray harder, focus intently, and seek to make the greatest impact with my one and only life that I possibly can.

So what’s your New Year’s resolution for 2009?


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This Was A Huge Weekend!

August 25, 2008 in Church Planting, Cross Point Church, Leadership, Missions, Multi Campus, Preaching, Religion, Vision with 42 Comments

Wow, where do I start? First of all let me say this….. if you attend Cross Point Dickson STOP reading this right now! If you rebel and read on, at least do me a favor and keep this information just between the two of us. I’m going to be at your campus this Sunday to do a little vision casting and I don’t want you to let the cat out of the bag.

Here’s a quick wrap up of some of the exciting plans we announced at Cross Point Nashville this weekend.

1) We’re going to add an additional Sunday service.

Between our two campuses Cross Point has grown 94% in the past year. How? Because you keep inviting your friends. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. So, at Cross Point Nashville starting September 7th our new service times will be… 8:30, 10:30, 11:45 and 6:00 p.m. KidStuff will be at 9:40.

2) We’re going to plant our 3rd campus.

Our goal is to plant our 3rd campus in January of 09′. While we don’t know exactly where yet, we are hopeful to give you more details in the near future. We are so excited about the opportunity to reach more people in the Nashville communities with God’s incredible message of hope. Cross Point will be one church meeting in 3 locations!

3) We’re partnering with Habitat for Humanity.

This fall we will help build 3 homes with Habitat for Humanity. One of them is an all womens build on a house that is being personally funded by Reba McEntire. We’ll need several hundred volunteers to step up to pull off this huge feat.

4) We’re increasing our giving to missions.

Since day one Cross Point has given 10% of its weekly budget to missions. In the almost 6 years we have existed we’ve been able to give some $750,000 to missions. While this has been incredible, we feel led to step it up. Starting this year we are going to add 1% per year to our missions giving for the next ten years. A decade from now 20% of our entire budget will be designated to impact our world for Christ. Our conservative estimation is that we will give over $6 million to missions over the next 10 years.

On top of that…My personal goal is to find 100 churches to partner with us in adding 1% to their mission budget over the next ten years. I’m praying that we can collectively see $100 million designated to world missions over the next decade.

I’m so pumped about what God is doing here at Cross Point. I can’t wait to see what God continues to do through this community!!

I love being your pastor,

Pete

Boys’ Night

August 19, 2008 in Family, Leadership, Parenting, Vision with 75 Comments

Well having a “boys’ night” certainly means something different these days than it used to. However, they’re still a lot of fun!!

You won’t want to miss what Gage does at 1:58 into the video. Totally wrong!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1555404]

Do you think I’m a bad parent?

Cross Point Leadership Team

June 25, 2008 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Cross Point Church, Leadership, Religion, Vision with 4 Comments

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.

Why Should Pastors Blog?

June 4, 2008 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Cross Point Church, God, Religion, Vision with 127 Comments

I often get asked, “why do you blog?” I think this is a fair question, even if there is an underlying assumption that it’s a waste of time. While I’m addressing this to pastors, I think it applies to all of us.

My time is more limited today than ever before. Between my personal goals of being in a growing relationship with Christ, being a good father and husband, and leading a fast growing church I have to be pretty selective on what activities I engage in and what activities I pass up. Here are five reasons I choose to invest a portion of my time in blogging.

1) We can change the world. The Compassion Uganda bloggers proved this earlier this year when they used their blog voices to bring attention and hope to Uganda. Thousands of people around the world followed their eight day journey in real-time and over 400 children were sponsored and rescued from poverty. I’m praying we see more and more influential bloggers using their platform and influence to bring hope to the hopeless.

2) We can encourage other believers. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us to “encourage one another daily”. I’m always looking for ways to use WithoutWax to bring a smile to someone’s face and at the very least just take their mind off of whatever they might be dealing with. Here’s a great email I got last week from a reader.

Pete,

Its good reading your blog. I’m deployed right now onboard a US Navy warship and sometimes it is challenging to get daily inspiration. You being a pastor and reading your blog is like going to church sometimes. No praise music or long sermon, sometimes just one sentence, one comment is enough. So thanks and keep it up.

Very Respectfully,

Adam Dye-USS BULKELEY

Blog: www.adamintheocean.wordpress.com (Why don’t you drop in and encourage him)

3) We can create community. I’m tired of being a talking head. I’m not looking for one more environment where I communicate in a one-way fashion. Blogs allow us to turn our sermons into conversations allowing people to interact, question, discuss and debate. This week I will cross over the 3,000 comment marker. I love this stat more than any other stat on my blog. It tells me people are not just reading, but interacting and creating community with one another.

4) We can establish relational influence. People no longer want to follow you or me just because we have pastor in front of our name. As a matter of fact, this automatically puts us at a disadvantage. They want to know if we’re authentic. I am learning that influence is directly related to relationship. In other words no relationship, no influence.

My friend, Randy Elrod writes about the death of the alpha leader. He says, “Alpha leaders value control, servant leaders value collaboration. Alpha leaders value individualism, servant leaders value community. Alpha leaders value affluence, servant leaders value influence.” Go HERE to read the entire post.

5) We can show the world the origin of our hope. Matthew 5:14 says, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (and neither can a blog). This is an email I recently received that absolutely blew me away. Since receiving it I have had some awesome conversations with this lady. God is up to some amazing things.

Pete,

I have read your blog for the past two days. Inside and out. Up and down. I have devoured and cried. Laughed and clicked out of it to get away and yet I kept going back. Who is your Jesus? Loaded question. Is there an easy answer? Suggestions?

So, why do you blog? I’m dieing to know!

A Winner Is Declared!

May 9, 2008 in Cross Point Church, Friends, My Family, Vision with 51 Comments

You asked for it…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvS8ZPvOB_0&hl=en]

Wind Beneath My Wings

May 5, 2008 in Church Leadership, Cross Point Church, Friends, God, Leadership, Multi Campus, Religion, Staff, Vision with 4 Comments

Okay, so the title may be a little over dramatic. Give me a break, it’s Sunday night and I’m loopy. Tonight I’m so thankful for the incredible team of people (staff and volunteers) I serve with at Cross Point in both Nashville and Dickson.

I am totally aware that I get way too much credit for many of the things that happen at Cross Point. I love what I do and the reason I get to focus on what I love is because I’m surrounded by such an awesome team.

I’m a better pastor because..

  • George keeps a calm spirit when things are chaotic
  • Pat is developing a first class spiritual formation program for our kids
  • Jenni sharpens my leadership gifts
  • Jarrod leads me in worship that draws me closer to God
  • Matt inspires me with creativity
  • Chad does such a great job pastoring our Dickson Campus
  • Brian (along with our other elders) holds me accountable

I’m blessed to serve along side these guys (and many others) here at Cross Point who help this community become more radically devoted to Christ, irrevocably committed to one another, and relentlessly dedicated to reaching the lost.

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