If anyone is struggling with their finances and needs help, tonight is your opportunity.  Tonight and tonight only Joe Sangl is going to be doing a live, FREE online training here (http://www.newspring.cc/webcampus)!  It begins at 6:30pm and I am sure it’s going to be great.  A lot of you need to take advantage of this free training.  It’s only going to be FREE once!

Here are the topics for tonight:

• Develop a plan for your life.
• Create a budget that works.
• Eliminate debt.
• Calculate debt freedom date.
• Calculate amount needed for retirement.
• Hear about the power of compounding interest.

If you watch it, I would love to hear back from you.  Let me know how Joe helped you out.

Joe Sangl is the author of “I Was Broke, Now I’m Not“.
www.josephsangl.com

Excellence means “the quality of being exceptionally good of its kind.”  Most organizations have core values and normally one those values are excellence.  However, most organizations are not hitting their mark.  Why?  Because excellence is hard work.  It is an attitude of “whatever it takes”!  The problem is most people/organizations do not display this attitude.  I did not say they couldn’t…They just don’t do it.

Please hear me, excellence is not perfection.  We know we are not perfect nor will we ever be.  But we can be excellent (being exceptionally good of its kind) at what we do.  Crosspoint strives to do everything with excellence.  For us to accomplish this we must have the “less is more” attitude.  For instances, if we tried to do everything, we couldn’t do it all with excellence.  Why?  Because it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to do things great.  Most people have know idea what must happen through out the week to pull off Sunday mornings with excellence.  It’s not just show up on Sunday and things will just happen.  I mean, we plan, debate, meet, and even fight to make things as best as they can be for Sunday morning.  Trust me, you have no idea how much effort goes into making a worship experience a great experience for everyone. 

Why are you writing about this topic?  Because, since Crosspoint is getting larger and the expectations keep growing, people are wanting to add new things to the mix.  I mean everyone has an idea and everyone wants to see more stuff added to the plate.  I hear it every Sunday…When are we going to do_____, when are going to go_____, when are we gong to start a ______?  SERIOUSLY, we can’t do everything and do it well.  It is not that simple just to go and start doing something and do it with excellence. 

So with that said, NO, we are not going to get caught up doing 100 things poorly when we can focus on a few things and do them with excellence.

By the way…Sunday is going to be excellent at Button Auditorium and you don’t want to miss it! 

Yesterday was awesome!  I was in Anderson, SC hanging out with Perry Noble and a bunch of other pastors. God has really been rocking my world and stretching me as leader since I have been in Perry’s coaching network.  God has anointed him and gifted him to motivate and encourage pastors to be all that God has created them to be.  I am grateful just to be in the network.

After leaving NewSpring, I stopped in Ashville, NC and ate with my friend Clayton King.  Clayton is one of godliest men I have ever met.  After sitting under Perry’s teaching for 6 hrs, I went and met with Clayton for 2 hrs. Clayton also took the time to teach me and pour into me as well.  Yesterday was like drinking from a fire hydrant!  After having “brain freeze” from all the information I was taught, I finally made it home at 12:30am. 

With that said, I am pumped about this weekend.  I really believe God is going to move and change people’s lives.  I encourage you to bring someone with you as we look at Jonah 2.

* For those who Twitter, you can follow me HERE!
* I am also on Facebook.

Almost a year ago, there were a few of us who really believed that God could do more than we could ever imagine.  In fact, Eph 3:20 became our life verse and it’s still mine.  We would meet in our church office and I would preach and cast vision to about 20 people about what “could be” and “should be” here in Morehead, KY.  Now, here we are living out the vision that God burned in my heart a couple of years ago.  Obviously, we have not arrived yet but we are getting closer to turning this city upside down with the Gospel of Jesus and we are taking steps to reaching this dead and desperate region.

The first step we are taking is adding another worship experience.  We want to give more people more opportunities to hear the life changing message of Jesus.  By adding a second worship experience gives people more opportunities to serve and use their gifts as well.  So if you are not serving at Crosspoint in some capacity, right now is your opportune time.  I encourage you to find a place to get plugged-in and serve the Lord.

Remember, on Nov. 2^nd our new times are, “10:00am and 11:30am”.  Please bring someone with you to one of our new worship experiences.  It is going to awesome!

Have you ever prayed, “God, if this is your will, please open this door for me?”  Through out the years of my walk with the Lord I have prayed this prayer many times.  The more I have grown in the Lord and by experience, all open doors are not necessarily from the Lord.  We should ask for open doors but we should not walk through them just because they are open.  God speaks in several ways to His children; through prayer, His word, circumstances, and other people.  Circumstances alone should not be the only reasons why we walk through doors.  We should always seek God to confirm His will through His Word (the Bible) and His Spirit.

I will never forget the time, one of the largest churches in Kentucky offered me to be there full-time Student Pastor.  At first, I was amazed they would even consider me.  I was looking at a pay increase of $20,000 more a year, 30 minutes away from seminary, and the church was building an auditorium that would seat 1,800 people.  After much time praying and fasting, I came to the conclusion that God did not want me to take this position.  When I called them to decline the offer they told me, God told them I was going to be their Student Pastor.  I was like, what?  So, I went back and prayed some more, because I know God speaks through people as well, but God told me the same thing, “Do not go!”  Again, they could not believe I would turn this offer down.  Right after God took us through that time of seeking Him, He showed us clearly what His will was for our lives.  You see, there could be open doors and there could be people telling you to walk through them, but if God hasn’t confirmed it through His word or His Spirit then I say pull back and wait on Him.

For further study, you can read 2 Corinthians 2:12-17.

Momentum can be a very powerful force.  The unique thing about momentum is it can be hidden or it can be seen.  For instance, you will never see the momentum of a volcano building up ready to erupt all over the place until it has already erupted.  Though the momentum was unseen, it was there.  Or, you may be watching the NBA playoffs and see a team that is behind substantially, then something changes and the team that was once down begins to pick up momentum and comes back to win the game.  It was clear to everyone who was watching that something visible was taking place on the court.

Before we launched the church there was an unseen momentum building up that no one would recognize.  Once we launched, we started seeing a shift in attendance and the impact the church was having on people’s lives.  Our momentum begin to be visible to all those who were attending.  Look at the last 5 week’s attendance:

• 141

• 159

• 163

• 170

• 233

We increased in attendance by 63% in five weeks.  It is obvious momentum has taken place here at Crosspoint but there is something very dangerous that could be lurking in front of us if we are not careful.  It is called, “The Momentum Myth.”   You may be thinking, “What could be wrong with momentum?”  Here is the problem that could occur once momentum picks up and you begin to succeed in phenomenal ways. 

John Maxwell says, “Leaders presiding over good times and high profits begins to relax. Comfort sets in, and the leaders lose their edge. Hard work and a sense of urgency are replaced by naive optimism and idleness. Falsely believing they can coast, leaders fall asleep at the wheel. The end of their vigilance coincides with the end of their time at the top.” 

Just because things are going super well does not mean that we have time to stop or rest or really celebrate too long.  We cannot live on past numbers or past performances, so we must continue to work hard and bring our “A” game every Sunday.  We must always be thinking ahead or we will find ourselves living in the past; our past successes or past failures, both could hinder us from moving forward.  Don’t get me wrong, I am excited about this past Sunday, but I am really pumped about next Sunday!!!

This morning at 6:50 AM, the Lord woke me up to start my day with Him.  As I wobbled into the living room looking for my backpack, I began to check my email on my phone.  I know, I know, who would email me that early in the morning?  Ok, I’m addicted to my iPhone… Get over it or get you one.  As I finally made my way to the sofa, I sat down, sent a text message, and started reading about Joshua, Moses’ right hand man.  Over the next hour or so, God used the life of Joshua to teach me about some basic leadership principles that I would now like to share with you…

1. It takes time to prepare to be a faithful leader of others.
2. We must realize the unique balance between dependence on God and confidence in the strengths and abilities that He has given us.
3. We must begin to serve God now in order to prepare for future responsibility.

As God continues to stretch me and grow me as a leader, I must understand that He is taking me through preparation for the next level.  My prayer for you is that God will take your marriage, your business, your church or your relationship with Him to the next level.

Question: How is God preparing you for the next level?

When you hear the word “volunteer”, what comes to mind?  Help…Work…Time?  Well, a volunteer is someone who offers himself or herself for service.  Here at Crosspoint Church, we have over 30 volunteers, and these people rock!  They’re always the first ones to show up and the last ones to leave.  Every Sunday they take care of the set-up just so you can have an awesome worship experience.  And when it’s all over, they still manage to muster the energy to break everything down and load it right back into our trailer knowing that they’ll have to do it all over again in just one short week.  You may be asking the question, “Why would they volunteer?”  Well I can answer that for you…They want to see people who are far from God become followers of Jesus Christ.  In the past 3 months we’ve seen 9 people decide to follow Jesus for the first time in their lives.  That’s why they do it!  That’s why they dedicate their time on Sunday morning.  Without them we couldn’t pull off such an awesome worship experience.  Their job is to do whatever it takes to get people from their cars and into their seats with no distractions.  Did you know that most people that visit a church have already decided whether they’ll return before they even hear the pastor preach?  Here at Crosspoint, the sermon begins in the parking lot.  What do I mean by that?  Come and find out…

Crosspoint volunteers, I just want to tell you that I love you guys and can’t wait until our Crosspoint Volunteer Dinner tomorrow night.  Thank you for all that you do!!!