Tag Archive - Cross Point Church

Full Circle

May 31, 2011 in Community, My Story, Relationships, Service with 9 Comments

(l-r) Blake Bergstrom, Tyson Harnar, me

I am in Joplin, Missouri with a team of 40 volunteers from Cross Point, my church in Nashville. We came here on a mission to provide on-the-ground support and aid to the people of Joplin in the wake of the the single worst tornado to hit the United States in over 60 years, leaving at least 139 people dead and entire communities completely devastated.

Today our team split up and was able to serve a lot of people across the city, including knocking out many projects that were a huge help at the church where I grew up, as well as helping my brother and my aunt, whose home was completely destroyed. Here’s a video of my buddy Carlos trying to describe the scene at my aunt’s house when our team first arrived to help.

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Why Joplin Matters

May 25, 2011 in church, Community, My Story, Service with 9 Comments

I was born in Tyler, Texas, but we moved to Joplin, Missouri before I was turned 1 and spent the next 26 years there. Make no mistake about it, I am from Joplin, Missouri.

I grew up in Joplin. I learned lots of ropes in Joplin. I got my foundation in Joplin. I went to 3 area schools there. I have a mother, brother, grandfather, aunts, uncles and cousins that live there. Some of my best friends live there.

The first several chapters of my story were written in Joplin. I didn’t start in Nashville. Much of how my life has evolved and the person I have become have strong ties to the 26 years I was a part of the local community of Joplin, Missouri.

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My Altar

April 21, 2011 in Faith, My Story with 14 Comments

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of a significant moment in my story.  One year ago yesterday was my first day on my then new job at Starbucks.  The morning after my first day, I was overwhelmed, afraid and clueless as to what was happening in my life. That morning I wrote a blog post called “Learning How To Die.” I know, dramatic, huh?

But it was real, and I was learning how to die… to who I had become.

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Pastor Barbie… One Year Later

April 13, 2011 in Community, Faith, Leadership, My Story with 0 Comments

Pastor Barbie

One year ago today, I wrote a blog post called “Pastor Barbie & Pulpit Culture“. It was an analogy and observation of having grown up in church, where I was in my life and how thankful I was to have encountered Cross Point Church and the culture there. It ended up being the 3rd most popular post on my blog of 2010.

At that time, I had absolutely no idea that 5 months later I would actually be on staff at Cross Point and have the hands-on opportunity to help create and shape the very culture that impacted me so much when I first came to Cross Point in January of 2010.

I now get to talk to people every single week, sharing my story and about Cross Point’s very brave and courageous culture that has reshaped how I see the role of the church.  More than that, I get to look in their eyes, see it connect and invest in and be a part of their story much in the same way others were for me a year ago.  Looking back over the past year in that context is extremely humbling and I have nothing but gratitude for the journey.

That’s all I have to say today. I just wanted to share that and, if you haven’t read it before, give you a chance to read Pastor Barbie & Pulpit Culture.

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What It Isn’t

April 4, 2011 in Leadership, Personal Development with 7 Comments

A couple weeks ago at Cross Point, during his message about the dangers of Leaving God Out of marital relationships, Pete Wilson made the following statement:

If you constantly feel the need to tell your family you’re the spiritual leader of your house, you’re probably not.

BAM. Go ahead. Pick yourself up off the floor and read that again. I’ll wait.

I can relate to that statement in a very personal way that it wouldn’t be wise for me to go into right now. Just suffice it to say, I know that statement to be all too true.

But it’s not just about being a spiritual leader in your home, it applies to a lot of things.

If you constantly feel the need to tell people you’re…

an  influencer…
an innovator…
a leader...
etc…

… you’re probably not.

The people I know who are truly influencing, innovating, leading, etc, are typically too busy actually influencing, innovating and leading to stop and identify themselves as such.  Truth is, there is much more to being a leader, an influencer, et al than simply calling yourself one.  The “be called a leader” line is long, while the “actually BE a leader” line is much shorter. A lot of people want the title, while far fewer are willing to commit to the work. The grind is the grand differentiator.

Along similar lines, lately I’ve been thinking about how there seems to be an unending litany of resources aiming to tell us what things ARE.  Books, blogs and bold headlines shout from newsstands and our computer screens at every turn, touting the secrets of “what leadership is”, “the truth of innovation” or “flexing your influence”.

Far more rare are the cautionary, but equally vital, voices that whisper things like, “don’t do that”.  In my experience, along with every lesson I have and am constantly learning about what something like leadership IS, comes with it other, often more subtle, less-obtrusive and easily glossed-over lessons about what it ISN’T.

Many love to bask in the glory of the win, but I want to hear more chronicles of lessons from the loss.  Most opportunities to learn and grow don’t come from the win, anyway. They come from disappointment, confession and humility; from watching game tapes and going back to the drawing board.  There is often more perspective, truth and wisdom to be gleaned from a loss than a win. As such, sometimes winning looks like losing.

Wins may exalt you, but losses shape you.

I need more of those voices in my life… balanced and seasoned voices from the sidelines, coaching me to embrace the reality of what something isn’t just as much as what it is…. voices from just outside the winner’s circle whose limping stride is a character receipt… voices that might still tremble when recounting their stories of recklessness, recovery and redemption… voices that exhort and refuse to let me settle for simply being called a leader without fully engaging my heart in what it means to actually lead.

Do you have any “what it isn’t” moments or voices in your life that have shaped you?

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