• 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!

In May of 08, Tina and I joined a gym as an anniversary gift to each other. (The traditional anniversary gift for year 6 was “iron” so we began “pumping iron” get it?)  The idea was to drop some weight and get back into shape.  Tina did beautifully and I was able to lose about 30lbs. thanks to some accountability and a lot of guidance from Kim Garcia (Kim2bfit.com) our personal trainer.

We’ve done one 12-week body challenge with her and then an outdoor co-ed boot camp.

Tomorrow I step-out on my own (Tina can’t do it due to scheduling) and get on the road toward my final 10lbs of weight loss to reach my goal weight.

This time it’s a 12-week body challenge/boot camp and I look forward to being stretched and challenged both physically and through my nutrition choices.  Help keep me accountable, and I’ll post my progress along the way!

I’m challenging myself as a leader to be in better physical shape.  Not only do I want to keep up with all of our awesome “go getter” volunteers at Crosspoint, I want to honor God with the body I’m given.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 talks about how my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (another gift from God)… I’m carrying some precious cargo and God’s not through with me yet so I need to up the maintenance on this temple so that I have no excuse to live the life He’s calling me to live.

• 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!

• “9 Ways to Save Money NOW” by Joe Sangl
• “Product Launch 101″ by Chris Guillebeau
• “Prep Your Mac For Snow Leopard” by Gina Trapani
• “Snake Video” by Perry Noble
• “Straight Talk to Married Men From a Married Guy” by David H Foster
• “10 Things I Learned the Hard Way Planting a Church” by Paul Castelli

So here are my TOP 5 ways that you can serve others on your own and during your day to day (this is stuff I personally like to do):

#5. Buy a cashier a drink. - When I’m in line at the supermarket, one of my favorite things to do is to just simply ask the cashier what their favorite drink is. When they respond I tell them, “I’ll be right back”, and return with a cold beverage of their choice. I pay for it and leave it for them with an invite card.

#4. Donut Drops - I pop into businesses all the time for different errands… nothing says “Jesus loves you” like a free box of donuts! (sometimes it might even get you to the front of the line!)

#3. Water Handout - Some cold water when it’s hot will make any delivery guy’s day.  It’s a practical way to show God’s love!

#2. BIG Tipper - I love to go out to eat, and typically I’m a good tipper, but sometimes I like to leave a big tip just to let the wait staff know that they are appreciated.  This is the front side of the card that I usually leave behind:

#1. Pay it backward! – Whether you’re in the drive-thru at Starbucks or picking up a Happy Meal, the shock and awe on the person’s face when you pay their meal is priceless!  Give them an invite card and let them know why you do what you do.

Whatever you choose to do, do as if you are serving Jesus himself.  If He was hungry would you feed Him?  If He was thirsty would be give Him a drink?  You can serve God easily by serving others!

Last night I read “You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader” by Mark Sanborn.  It’s the second book by Sanborn I’ve read, the first one being “The Fred Factor”.  His books are quickly becoming “must reads” for me, and they are definitely required reading now for anyone and everyone at Crosspoint.  Here are some of the takeaways:

• Anyone at any level can learn to be a leader and help shape or influence the world around them.
• A leader leads through their relationships with people, as opposed to their control over people.
• “The longer the title, the less important the job”
• When you do your job – any job – with initiative and determination to make a positive difference, you become a leader.
• Being happy is enviable, but being good is truly admirable.  It requires character, integrity, and perseverance.
• “While I don’t want to shortchange the importance of “the big show”, I am even more impressed by  the leaders who know what must be done behind the scenes to make the big show happen.”
• Real leaders bring the same commitment to excellence to whatever they do, whether on the stage or behind it.
• Genuine leaders make things better not just for themselves but for others.
• The people who change the world around them…rarely act from a sense of obligation.  Leaders almost always act from a sense of incredible opportunity.
• Too often, people confuse activity with accomplishment.
• Integrity after all, is measured by the distance between your lips and your life.
• Leadership is power with people, not power over people.
• Everyone makes a difference.  The choice we all have is whether we want to make a positive difference or a negative one.

I loved every minute of reading this book, if you want to pick it up you can do it by clicking on my Amazon link right here.

Just wrapped up reading “The Dip” by Seth Godin.  Here are some of the “nuggets” I took away from reading it.

• “Winners quit all the time.  They just quit the right stuff at the right time.”
• “Extraordinary benefits acrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.”
• “Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.”
• “The people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don’t know.”
• “The Dip is the long stretch between beginner’s luck and real accompishment.”
• “It’s not enough to survive your way through this Dip.  You get what you deserve when you embrace the Dip and treat it like the opportunity it really is.”
• “Quitting is difficult.  Quitting requires you to acknowledge that you’re never going to be #1 in the world. At least not at this.”
• “Quitting in the Dip though, isn’t worth the journey.”
• “Your strategy – to be a trusted source in your chosen market – can survive even if your product is canceled.”
• “Quitting is not the same thing as failing.”
• “Strategic quitting is a conscious decision you make based on the choices that are available to you.”
• “If pride is the only thing keeping you from quitting, if there’s no Dip to get through, you’re likely wasting an enormous amount of time and money defending something that will heal pretty quickly.”
• “It’s almost impossible to overinvest in becoming the market leader.”

The Dip was a quick but fascinating read.  If you are building a strategy for success take a look at this book… it’s not just about quitting, it’s about leading smart. The Dip

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