Here’s a brief listing of where and when I’ll be speaking if you’re interested in stopping by, and more importantly if you wouldn’t mind praying for me and for the churches that I’ll be visiting.

Sunday, June 6th – The Journey Fellowship Ocala, Florida 10:30am

The Journey is kicking off their “Summer of Love” campaign and I’ll be there talking about how that they can easily share God’s love in practical ways!

June 9 – 11 – IGNITE at FBC Cary in Cary, NC every night at 6pm

I’ll be hanging out with FBC Cary’s Student Ministry, helping them get their summer started off right.  Illusionist Jared Hall will also be there one night.  I’m looking forward to doing ministry with him again, (if he even remembers me!)

Back at Crosspoint Church in Spring Hill, FL for the FIRED UP! Series June 13, 20, & 27

For the rest of the month, I’m glad to be back home at Crosspoint sharing the “FIRED UP!” series.  Fired Up is a “Guys Guide to Faith”, it’s all about encouraging guys, husbands, fathers, etc. to step up and be the men of God they are called to be.  This series is for those guys and the women who love them.

If you’re interested in having me come out and speak at your ministry/event you can click on the “contact” tab at the top of the site or simply click here. You can also hear messages by me and the rest of the Crosspoint Pastoral Staff at CrosspointLive.com

Traveling and speaking is a lot of fun for me, and like I said before, it’s very humbling to be invited somewhere to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.  But I’ve also got to say that my favorite place to share about Jesus is right here at home at Crosspoint Church, there’s no place like home!

Check out this video of Ben’s story.

And for the record, I LOVE the Yankees, but I really do like the Rays too… you see, since they are in the same division that means I have twice the opportunity to watch them whoop up on the Boston Red Sox.  It’s a WIN-WIN situation for me.

Last week, Paul Castelli, Brad Klausman, and I went off to the Exponential Church Planters Conference.  It was a very encouraging and motivating experience and as always, I love to walk away with some nuggets of inspiration.  Here are a few that I jotted down:

We have to move from passive/spectator Christianity to active disciple-making Christianity. – Ed Stetzer

I just want to be your kid again, God. Wash me of thinking I have become something. – Francis Chan

‘If we’re not hanging out with broken, ‘iffy’ people then how can we say we are becoming like jesus?” – Alan Hirsch

Working for Jesus should not replace knowing and loving Jesus. – Matt Chandler

“We must remember that God has already been at work way before us”. – Matt Chandler

“You cannot expect people to be what you are not. That makes you a frustrated hypocrite.” – Matt Chandler

There are too many people in our churches for it to not be messy. – Matt Chandler

“Christ first, then His mission. My calling & job is not to be better than Jesus.” – Matt Chandler

“Sometimes God gets in the way to show us the way” – Mark Batterson

God wants you to get where he wants you to go more than you want to get where he wants u to go. – Mark Batterson

It’s never about where you’re going it’s about who you are becoming – Mark Batterson

“If God can use a dumb donkey, he can use you.” ~- Mark Batterson referencing Num. 22:20

“If someone is hurting, then the church should be the first to offer help.” Dino Rizzo

“No matter what at the end of the day, keep loving the people” ~ Dino Rizzo

When you don’t know what to do in your ministry love the people and eventually you’ll find a groove. – Dino Rizzo

“Discipleship and Outreach should be married together.” – Dino Rizzo

Nordstrom has 1 page employee manual: “we hired you for your good judgment. We expect u to exercise it.” – Ken Blanchard

“Seagull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everybody and fly out!” -Ken Blanchard

“Leadership starts in the heart,are you there to serve or be served. Its not about you” – Ken Blanchard

If I don’t have peace, joy or righteousness I’m detached from The Vine – Ken Blanchard

“what types of leaders would we be if we heard the voice of the Lord and did not obey?” – Lisa Chan

The presence of the Spirit in our life is seen when we suffer, sacrifice and give up all for Him. Francis Chan

Often our mind is more consumed with our retirement plan and our stocks than the eternal – Francis Chan

Spent a couple of days on the road with some of my best friends and I got to reconnect with many others.  I got to hear some challenging speaking from Perry Noble, glean lots of information from NewSpring’s great staff and volunteers, and even discover a little bit about myself.  Here are the highlights:

• The Worship: It was exactly the way I like it… Loud!  There were some lyrics however that rocked me.

How He Loves – He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

Freedom is Here – So take the limits off
No matter what the cost
I’m running after Your call
And I will run this race
See You face to face
So let Your power overflow

• Perry Noble – Here’s some stuff he said: Many times God takes leaders to a cliff and tells them to jump. If we don’t jump another generation will.

• God will test you financially. If you are following God you will always have your back up against the wall financially.

• Everyone loves the idea of progress, but they have a problem with the sacrifice requirements.

• The church has to be comfortable with the lost (coming to our church) and acting like they’re lost.

• Missional is a buzz word that will not be around in 5 years, if you are the church, you should be Missional.

• No man is the most powerful person in your church….Jesus is the most powerful person in the church

• If you can fully explain what’s happening in your church, Jesus probably is not involved.

• The best thing a church can do is make sure their pastor is healthy.

• If God is using us, its because we were barren, and God changed our lives, we did nothing ourselves.

• The Bible calls those who do not work, lazy; It calls the one who will not rest, disobedient.

• Pastor, your marriage is the most important marriage in the church. It’s got to remain strong.

• Listen to your coaches, not your critics.

• Your leaders will have a solution, your robots will wait until they are told what to do. Pastor, make sure your leaders are resourced, and get out of their way.

• Keep short accounts – Don’t be bitter at people.

• The guys – I got to spend my time with Paul Castelli and Brad Klausman… Two of the most important men in my life and it was a blessing beyond reason!  These guys keep my head on straight and they remind me of who  I really am.  As hard as I believe ministry has made me, they keep reminding me that I am a sensitive guy who lives by his heart, and as long as that heart is captured by Jesus then I’m in good shape…

I had a blast at Unleash… can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

“You are the BEST pastor I’ve ever had.” I was floored! This was such a touching letter from one of the children at our church and it made my heart warm. As I wiped the tear from my eye, I looked down to see the information portion of the letter, it was a special box for the school administration to read so that they would know where to send these heartfelt tokens of appreciation. And this is what I saw:

PASTOR BECKY!! This letter wasn’t for me at all… it was actually for Becky Russ, a leader in our Crosspoint Kids Ministry. Becky is a faithful volunteer at Crosspoint in many areas, but the impact that she is making in our Crosspoint Kids Ministry will be felt for generations

I’ve had the privilege of seeing what happens at Crosspoint Kids and I wish EVERY one on that team could get a letter like this. The Crosspoint Kids Ministry Team works hard to provide a safe & secure place for kids to grow and connect with God! I appreciate all of them, and I couldn’t imagine what Crosspoint would be without them all.

(Especially PASTOR BECKY!)

Unfortunately, my desk looks a little more like former Vice-President Al Gore’s desk (minus the 3 monitors, and the scary frog.):

What does YOUR workspace looks like?

Well this Fall there will be a lot of changes going on in my life.  A LOT.  As Crosspoint grows I know that my position and job description has to grow and change.  So here’s a few of the features that Wayne 3.0 will have by the end of 2009.

• I will lead  & manage a new Digital Media Team at Crosspoint. No longer will I doing the tasks involved in graphic design, web design, media, email, print, etc. [The job is way too big and there are people out there with greater gifts and talents in this field that are waiting to be used by God!]
• A new Outreach Team will be formed, to help plan, coordinate, and equip the people of Crosspoint to “Serve, Reach, Feed, & Build”
• A better listener
• A feedback seeking machine! [At Crosspoint, we want to have a steady diet of feedback.  So I will ask you, please help me be better.]
• Clearer communication. [If you're on one of my teams you'll get clear communication with expectations, deadlines, and a desire to hear your heart.]
• Short Accounts. [The "duck & cover" method of conflict was never my thing.  I will keep short accounts with the people around me so that there could be no foothold of resentment, anger, or division.]
• A fire and a passion like never before for God’s word and my personal growth.

Help keep be accountable.  Ask me how it’s going.

• It’s for church leaders
• It’s all day.
• It free. (register here)
• It’s a conference that you don’t have to leave your home or office for, you just watch online.
• The goal for the speakers is to simply answer this question: “If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them?”
• I can’t wait to hear what they have to say.

The Nines from Todd Rhoades on Vimeo.

• “7 Benefits of a Good Busy” – by David H Foster
• “You Owe it to Tyndale” – by Mark Batterson
• “YOU Version Goes Live, Like Live Live…!” – by John Saddington
• “I Can’t Get This Word out of my Head!” – by Pudge

Happy Blogging!

• I was sick at the start of the weekend but I wasn’t going to let that keep me from all of the blessings that God had in store for me over the next few days.
• On Friday I got to spend some much needed “hang-time” with Paul & Brad.  Little known fact: not only do I work with these guys, but they are also my friends.  A few hours of “fun time” spent with them is work way more than a work week spend “around” them. Truly a gift and a blessing.
• Tina’s car finally got the a/c fixed!  And it didn’t cost as much as I thought it would… Double Awesome.
• Saturday was an incredible day of Vision and Leadership!  All of the Small Group Facilitators were invited to take part in a special leadership training in preparation for the next semester of small groups.
• I was blown away by the job that Beth Smith did with the room, I was excited for days leading up to this thanks to the work she did!
• Pastor Brad pulled together an All Star line-up for the training (of which I got to participate and lead in).  I got to share the new initiatives we had in place for Outreach & Service in the Fall of ‘09 and Small Groups will be a BIG chunk of it!
• (By the way, I had a killer breakfast date with my wife.  I can’t get enough of her.)
• SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
• Once again God blew the doors off the place and graced us with an all time high of 539 worshiping on Sunday!
• Small Group sign-ups are skyrocketing and I will guarantee we will have a sell-out crowd for small groups.  (Don’t worry we have some extras waiting in the wings.)
• We closed out an incredible series entitled “The Call”… It was all about Matthew 16:24 and what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus.  Download the messages straight from iTunes… click here
• My favorite line: We need your seat. (and we do… in fact we’ll need 100 more seats!)  You’ll find out how you can help soon!
• The blessings just kept coming, I was surrounded by an awesome group of ladies after church.  They are our Volunteer Coordinators. (It’s not a requirement to be a woman, I just think these are the most organized!)
• We talked about some great volunteer initiatives that we’ll be rolling out in the fall of ‘09.  We talked vision. And best of all, we talked about what God is doing in their lives.  I was blown away.
• OH! and best of all, 3 people began their relationship with Jesus… it’s all worth it for that!

What a ride!