M O N E Y

Seems like this is the perpetual plague of ministry leaders.  There is never quite enough of it to fund all the dreams we believe God has given our ministry.

As Executive Director at Cross Point I haven’t been exempt from the frustration of not meeting budget or having the resources we need to accomplish the vision we have.

A couple of years ago I had the privilege of getting to know Casey Graham.  Casey began working with me and challenging me about how I approached our finances.  He inspired me to think differently, to lean into our finances rather than run away from them and to change my habits in how I engaged our congregation in this area.

I’m excited about the release of Casey’s new book “Funded and Free”, co-written by Joseph Sangl.

I encourage you to check it out and consider reading it with your leadership team, Board of Directors, etc.

You can check out more at their website FundedandFree.

And for the next 48 hours you can get 5 copies of the book for just $50.

Go check it out!

Hey everyone, we’re beginning the search for Student Pastors to join the Cross Point team.  If you know of someone who might be a great fit, please send them our way!

Cross Point, a multi-site church, in Nashville, TN is looking for a Campus Student Pastor.  As a member of the student ministry team the Campus Student Pastor will help shape the strategy for carrying out the Cross Point vision on their campus.  Please note the qualifications below before sending your resume.

Qualifications:

• Passionate about seeing students come to Christ and can inspire students to reach their friends.
• Minimum of 3-5 years of student ministry paid staff experience.
• Visionary & Strategic Thinker with a proven track recorded of starting new ministries and developing leaders.
• Strong communication skills being able to speak to a wide variety of audiences and ages
• Team player, we are not looking for lone rangers, you have to be willing to work along side the Student Ministry team and under the direction of Campus Pastor and Family Ministries Pastor.

Any interested individuals should submit a resume, social media contact, website/blog info (if applicable) and cover letter to Cross Point Family Ministries Pastor, Pat Rowland via email, pat@crosspoint.tv

I get the question all the time “are you hiring?”  So I’m excited to say that we are!  Here are the details for our current opening.

Cross Point Church

announces the search for

Campus Pastor for Cross Point Dickson

We’re excited to extend the search for the Campus Pastor position at our Dickson, TN campus.  Cross Point Dickson launched in January 2008 and was the first venture into multi-site ministry for our church.  Cross Point Dickson has grown strong and steady for 2 1/2 years and we’re excited to find the leader who will help us take this campus to it’s next season of growth and impact.

Preferred candidates will have experience leading in a church of 500+ in regular attendance and preferably experience in a multi-site church model.

Any interested individuals should submit a resume, social media contact, website/blog info (if applicable) and cover letter to Cross Point Executive Director, Jenni Catron at jenni@crosspoint.tv.  (That’s me )

I look forward to hearing from you.  And please feel free to pass the word along to anyone you know who may be interested.

I was recently talking to another Executive Pastor who was graciously asking me how we’ve been doing since the Flood in Nashville.  He was praising our team for how quickly we responded and served our community in that crisis.  And I had to be honest with him and tell him that it was “against my better judgment.”

I know, I know… that sounds horribly insensitive and calloused, but here’s what I mean.

Responding to the catastrophe of the flood was one of the most intense leadership situations I have ever found myself in.

We had to move.

We had to move fast… and we had no idea how.

Literally we asked volunteers to show up to help with flood relief and we had no idea what we were going to have them do.  I’m not joking.

We didn’t know exactly how to prep them and we certainly weren’t prepared with paperwork, tools, supplies, etc.

We didn’t do any of the things that a responsible Executive Director would normally be sure to do.  (I shudder just thinking back on it.)

But here’s the deal.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t thinking about the need for those things.

It wasn’t that I was throwing all caution to the wind.

It just wasn’t practical or possible in the state of emergency that we were facing for me to have every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed before we acted that Monday morning after the flood waters had ravaged over 10,000 homes in our community.

People needed hope and help immediately and they couldn’t wait on forms, procedure & process.

Talk about a “grey” leadership issue.  The compassionate side of me was aligning with our pastors to create an action plan to get people out to help, but my administrative side was raising red flags about the need for order, systems and protections.

This wasn’t black and white.  It was grey… really grey.

In the end, I believe we did what God called us to do that day.  We responded.  We loved people.  We provided hope for people.  And we provided practical help on that first day of recovery.

And to put you administrative types at peace, we did add all the proper administrative paperwork.  Even by Day 2 of relief efforts much of those things were in place.

Why didn’t we wait a day to have all of our “ducks in a row”? Because honestly, hurting people couldn’t wait for that.

For another day, another time, another project, you better believe that we’ll have our administrative stuff in order.  For events that are planned and prepared in advance, there’s no excuse for not following proper protocol and protections.

That’s wise.  It’s good stewardship of the responsibility we’re entrusted with as administrative leaders.

But every once in awhile, you’ll get thrown a leadership curve ball and you gotta pray for discernment in leading through the shades of grey.

Ever found yourself in one of these situations?

I was 20 years old.  The world seemed big and bright to this wide-eyed small town girl from Northern Wisconsin.  I had already spent two years 1000 miles away from home beginning my education and now was taking one of the greatest risks yet.  I was loading up my 1992 4-door burgundy Saturn named “Alice” and we were moving to music city.  I had landed my dream job… or more accurately my dream opportunity – the chance to work for FREE for the company I had dreamed of working for since I was 13 years old.

That season of my life is remarkably vivid even 14 years later.  I was interning at the company I dreamed of working for.  I was living in the city that I’d always wanted to move to.  I was working two part-time jobs to make my rent payment.  I was dirt poor… and totally happy!

I fondly refer to those days as my “peanut butter days”.  Peanut butter days because, seriously that’s all I lived on!  I would literally walk into the grocery store with a budget of $20, buy a big jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread, and a few other essentials like soap and toothpaste and live off of that for a week or so.

But in spite of my limited resources, I saw God’s provision, His favor and His blessing all over my life. It was one of the most exciting seasons of my life and also one of the most stretching.

You’ve probably experienced peanut butter days too…

… Maybe it was when you went off to college and lived off of Ramen Noodles because all your money went into tuition and books

… Maybe it was when you were newly married, sharing one car without AC, but giddy in love

… Maybe it was when you decided to start a family and to live off of one income, complete with coupon clipping and strategic meal planning

I would venture to guess that most of us have experienced “peanut butter days”.   We not only experience peanut butter days in our personal lives, but organizations also have their share of peanut butter days.  And although we all would rather avoid these days (or seasons), I think peanut butter days can be important for you and your team to lead and learn through.

Peanut Butter Days:

1. Remind us of God’s provision. We’re much more tuned into the little blessings.  Perhaps someone gives you a gift card, an unexpected check in the mail, etc.  It means more when you need it most.
2. Breed creativity. Limited resources draw out unique ideas and new ways of accomplishing goals.
3. Keep us focused on what’s most important. You don’t take for granted the things that really matter like friendships, family and what God is growing in you.
4. Can unify and unite a family or a team if we choose to lean into one another.

Don’t be afraid of the peanut butter days.  Embrace them.  Lead through them.  Learn from them.

They are a greater gift than you may even know.

What’s your “peanut butter days” story?

I’m really excited to announce the newest member of the Cross Point team!

Stephen Brewster officially begins today as our Creative Arts Pastor serving all four of our campuses.  Stephen (aka Brewster), his wife Jackie and their four fabulous kids – Isaiah, Ashlyn, Grace & Hope – have relocated to Nashville from Mobile, AL where Stephen was Sr. Director of Marketing at Integrity Music.

Stephen has a massive heart to help creatives reach their God-given potential and is equally passionate about seeing “the church embrace culture and began to take the lead in creating”.

He’ll be directly leading our central creative arts staff: Matt Singleton, Jarrod Morris, Miranda Telford and Matt Warren and he’ll be providing creative vision and direction to our creative staff and volunteers at all campuses.

Join me in giving the Brewsters a great big welcome!!

I find myself processing a lot what I call the “grey” issues of leadership… the answers and decisions that are not so easy to figure out.  (I think that’s why they call it leadership, right?)

As Cross Point has grown, one of the big grey areas for me is the leadership of letting go.  I have a tendency to be a very hands-on, in-the-details leader – ok, I’ll just come out and say it… I can be a micro-manager.

I don’t mean to be.  Truly.  But I’m horribly wired to see details.  I see the direction we need to go and then I can – in a matter of seconds - rattle off every minute detail that needs to take place to get us from point A to point B.  Frankly, I wish I didn’t think this way.  Ignorance seems like bliss, but I just can’t seem to ignore details.

As Cross Point has grown, it has stretched me tremendously.  If I weren’t learning to let go, you would have probably found me somewhere in a corner curled up in the fetal position a very long time ago.

To be a leader of a growing organization you have to learn the leadership of letting go – the leadership of trust – the leadership of empowerment.

Cross Point Bellevue became a case study in this lesson for me.  There was simply too much going on for me to know all the details.  I had no choice but to trust, and thankfully we have amazing team that helps make that a bit easier.

I had to learn to know the “right” things and then I had to trust our team to handle the rest.

Was everything done exactly as I would have done it?  Probably not

Were there some surprises?  Sure

Did the campus launch extremely well?  A resounding YES

Here are some things that I didn’t know until the campus opened:

• Who our volunteer leaders were for each ministry area
• What color the classrooms were going to be
• What our furniture looked like
• How the office was going to be set up
• How many volunteers were signed up to serve the first day
• If the toilet paper was stocked, if the coffee was brewing, if there were trash cans in the building

These are just a few… and I’m sure there are many more things that I don’t even know that I don’t know.  I also know that I didn’t lead through this without my share of mistakes.  I leaned in too heavily in some areas and was unnecessarily absent in others.

But, what I’m discovering is that every leadership journey and experience will be different and I have to choose to listen and find a way to grow in the middle of it… and discern what to let go of.

How about you?  What have you learned to let go of in your leadership growth?

I have very few words right now.

My heart is very full!

We had an amazing day at the launch of our Bellevue Campus.  Here are a few pics from my iphone and a few pics from the twitterverse.

To everyone who gave of their time, resources and prayers… THANK YOU!

• I’m so proud of our staff and volunteers who gave tirelessly to make this happen
• I’m so grateful to hundreds of people who are giving faithfully to Faith, Hope & Love to fund this campus

God used a community of people to create a new community ready to love and serve the people of Bellevue.  We could never have planned for or predicted just how important this campus would be for this moment.

It’s just beginning!!

I keep pinching myself.

It’s hard to believe it’s really happening…

The launch of Cross Point Bellevue!

This campus has been well over a year in the making and it’s hard to believe we’re just two days away from opening the doors for the very first worship service.

After months of craziness including…

• hunting down the facility
• purchasing our first piece of property
• recruiting a fabulous campus pastor
• leading a capital campaign in a tough economic year
• casting vision to our church and asking people to become part of this launch team
• navigating the renovation process and learning more about metro codes than I ever want to know
• responding to a natural disaster in the heart of this community

I can’t wait to see the doors open with hundreds worshiping together:

THIS Sunday, May 23rd

9:00 & 11:00 AM

Cross Point Bellevue

God, may you be honored in this place!

I didn’t get into ministry to fight this battle.

I’m not one to stir things up and I really don’t enjoy invoking criticism or argument.

But…

After 5 years of ministry, the fact that I’m a woman in a high level church leadership position occasionally raises some eyebrows.  I’ll be honest.  I took my job at Cross Point with limited knowledge regarding what the scriptures have to say about women leaders.  I was just doing what God had naturally gifted me to do and that was never challenged until I applied those gifts in the church.

I encounter people every day with varying interpretations on what they believe the scripture to say in regard to women leaders, pastors, teachers, etc.  It’s funny because it felt so foreign to me that gender would matter in any of these areas.  It really caught me off guard as I began to get questioned about it.

So for the last couple of years I’ve been researching and studying what the Bible has to say on these issues.  I understand why there is confusion.  I understand why the church has wrestled with this for literally a couple of thousand years.

I’ve been praying for God to give me insight and clarity.  I’ve been praying that he would remove my pride and my bias.  My heart is to help the church better understand God’s unique design of people – all people, all races, both genders. I pray that the church could be effectively functioning as the body of Christ rather than bickering over interpretations and prejudice.

My heart is heavy on this.  I don’t have all the answers yet.  I may never have them all in this lifetime.  But I’m committed to studying and seeking God’s heart.

Recently I was sent a copy of a brand new book on the topic: What’s With Paul and Women?

In this book, Jon Zens tackles one of the most confusing passages of scripture regarding women, 1 Timothy 2.  If you are just beginning your journey of study on this topic, this is a great place to start.  It’s a quick, insightful read and I particularly appreciate the cultural context that Jon explains.

If you’re a ministry leader, will you join me in this study? Will you take some time to study and seek God’s clarity on the gender dynamics in scripture?

I believe this issue is one of the most misunderstood and the most avoided discussions in our modern churches. But the issue is bubbling under the surface and as church leaders I believe we have a responsibility to seek understanding and lead with clarity and discernment.

If you have done some personal study on women leaders, pastors, or teachers, what resources have you found beneficial?