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So the rumors are true….

June 3, 2008 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Cross Point Church, Leadership, Staff with 26 Comments

Anne’s coming on staff and we are so excited. You can read all about her big move HERE!

I am so blessed to be surrounded by what I believe is the best team I’ve ever worked with. They work hard, pray hard, lead hard and play hard. I’m so thankful for each one of them. I know Anne is going to be an incredible fit and will help us take one more step toward becoming the community God is calling us to be.

Right now at Cross Point we are also in the process of accepting applications for a few other staff positions.

Pastor of Student Ministries…We are looking for a pastor who is committed to leading and creating a dynamic and innovative student ministry that can help develop students who are radically devoted to Christ, irrevocably committed to one another, and relentlessly dedicated to reaching the lost. If interested, please email your resume to Pat Rowland our Pastor of Family Ministries at pat@crosspoint.tv

Pastor of Spiritual Development and Small Groups…We are looking for someone who can help us craft and develop a spiritual transformation plan which will include a commitment to Community Groups ministry. This is a new position that we are really excited about. If interested, send your resume to Jenni Catron our Executive Director at jenni@crosspoint.tv

Annual Staff Retreat

May 22, 2008 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Cross Point Church, Friends, God, Leadership, Religion, Staff with 10 Comments

Earlier this week I got to spend two days with our staff on our annual all staff retreat. What a blast! This is such an important time for our staff to get away and dream about the future as well as just spend quality time together. This crew deserves a few days away for all of the hard work they do day in and day out. I’m so proud of each one of them and for the many sacrifices they make to serve our church community so well.

We had a ton of fun (I’ve got pictures at the bottom to prove it). A few of my favorite highlights were the talent show, the jet ski’s, and the exciting wii competitions.

On a serious note, I thought our time together assessing and discussing our giftedness and how we work together as a team was priceless. Jenni Catron is very gifted at leading these discussions. I also can’t tell you how much I appreciated the open dialogue we had during our Bible study on pride. This staff is committed to stewardship of this ministry instead of ownership.

I’m so blessed to get up every day and have the joy of going to work with a group of people that I love doing life with.

Enjoy the pics. I’m of course breaking the cardinal rule: what happens on the boat stays on the boat. Sorry guys, I couldn’t help it.

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.

I Love Learning From Others

April 16, 2008 in Church Leadership, Cross Point Church, Leadership, Staff with 5 Comments

One of the most exciting things about my job as pastor is keeping up with what God is doing in churches around the country. I love to see how others are making an impact for the Kingdom.

Yesterday, our church staff got the opportunity to spend the morning with many of the staff at Long Hollow Baptist Church. In my opinion, Long Hollow is one of the most incredible churches in the country. God is using them to make a huge impact in the Hendersonville community.

Their staff was incredibly helpful and generous. They took time out of their busy schedules to answer questions, show us around, and ultimately encourage our Cross Point staff. Thanks David, for allowing us to come visit.

Here are a few pictures from our little field trip…

So who are you learning from these days?

Guest Blogger- Pat Rowland

April 11, 2008 in Cross Point Church, Leadership, Staff with 29 Comments

Living the Dream

I’m excited to be a guest blogger here at Without Wax. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Pat Rowland, Family Ministries Pastor at Cross Point.

My greatest passion (aside from my relationship with Jesus) is family. I’ve always wanted to be a Dad-I couldn’t wait to have kids. When Mandy and I were first married I couldn’t wait until we brought home our first child. For some reason I always thought it would be a boy… however, God has blessed me with 3 incredible daughters. I love my family more than anything which drives me to be so gung ho about seeing healthy families developing healthy children that impact communities and culture.

I believe it is vital for churches and church leaders to highly value the development of family ministry. In 11 years of pastoral and student ministry, I’ve seen my fair share of hurting kids, marriages, and adults. No one likes to see a child hurt; we cringe at the news reports of a 2 year old girl being beaten to death with a video game controller. No one likes to hear that their friends are separating after 15 years of marriage or that their teenage daughter is cutting. Typically, our response is to develop programs, throw money at the problem, or pray for them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about prayer-I have 3 daughters with one on the brink of adolescence!

Discipleship and spiritual development doesn’t happen in a classroom, program, or book study; it happens in the context of real life. Jesus’ invitation to his disciples was “Come and See.” In John 1, two of John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?” What they wanted to know is “Who are you? What is your life like, because there is something about you that intrigues me?” I love Jesus’ response, “Come and you will see.” He was saying, “Look at my life, spend time in my home, watch how I live every moment and you will see who I am.”

If we are going to see deep life change in our children’s lives, then we have to develop a “come and see” discipling ministry. We have to train and equip parents to understand the influence they have in their kids’ lives. We have to give parents the tools to teach their kids the foundational and life-changing principles of scripture that are being taught at church. We have to have spiritually mature adults being another voice in the kids’ lives that is saying the same things their parents are teaching them. We have to continue to cast vision to board members, leaders, volunteers, and parents about the importance of life change in the context of family ministry.

I’m so thankful God has called me to live my dream as a husband, dad, and Pastor of Family Ministries, and I’ll give everything I’ve got for this calling!

Seamless Worship

March 20, 2008 in Cross Point Church, Staff, Videos with 5 Comments

Here is my Creative Chaos post for the week. This was one my favorite services we have done here at Cross Point this year. We were doing a service that had a theme of “restoration”. We talked about John 8 and the story of the woman caught in adultery.

The first video (directed by our resident genius) was our set-up video to the message. The second video captures the song that we went into right after the message. Matt had a great idea to use the extra “b-roll” from the first video to accompany the Natalie Grant song “Make Me Over” sung by Marcia Ramirez. This allowed us to tie all the morning elements together.

We really believe at Cross Point that we don’t have music, and then announcements, and then a video, and then a message, and then a special. We believe we have worship. We are focused from a programming stand-point on making all of our elements flow together as seamlessly as possible. Hope you guys enjoy!

If you were at Cross Point that Sunday, I would love to hear how God used these elements of worship in your life.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNqu9I9SFgA&hl=en]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZeHCUM0UMM&hl=en]

Pete

Ladies, have you found your voice?

February 18, 2008 in Church Leadership, Cross Point Church, Leadership, Staff with 15 Comments

I just finished reading an article from Carolyn Custis James entitled “When a Woman Finds Her Voice” on Christianity Today’s website. You can click here to read the full article.

The topic of women in leadership has always been intriguing to me, but this election year has really heated up the conversation. I have been in Christian leadership circles for almost 15 years now. I have heard a lot of the debates. I have heard the pros and cons. I have heard scripture used effectively and scripture totally manipulated.

I have served with some very effective women leaders and some not so effective women leaders. The factors that contributed to their effectiveness had nothing to do with their gender. It had everything to do with them discovering the way that God had uniquely gifted them and living that out in the comfort of their own skin.

In her article James says,

“While I don’t want to discount the importance of understanding men and how they think and operate, we aren’t men and are giving up something central to who we are if we lose ourselves by imitating them. We end up distancing our very selves from the message we proclaim. We can routinely prepare and deliver messages without connecting our words to our own hearts and struggles, without tapping into the rich perspectives God has given us as women or drawing out of our personal histories with God. “

At Cross Point, I get the unique opportunity to serve with Jenni Catron , our executive director. Jenni is a very effective, comfortable leader whom I believe has discovered her unique voice. It’s been a joy to learn from her, walk with her, and partner with her in leadership. There have been a couple of instances where she has been looked down upon and treated unfairly because she is a female in church leadership, but each time, she has handled the situation with grace and understanding.

I think Cross Point and the general church as a whole has a lot of improvements that we need to make in helping women find their unique voice. I hope and pray this will continue to be a front burner issue for the Christian community over the next couple of years.

What do you guys think?

Opening a can of worms,