If you know anything about me I’m sure you know that I love to serve the local Church. One thing I’ve learned while serving in ministry over the years is that I have a lot more to learn. Which is why I love getting time to be able to learn from Leaders who have gone before me and one leader that I really look up to is Pastor Pete Wilson.

Pastor Pete Wilson is the founding and senior pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee, a committed church community that he and his wife, Brandi, planted in 2003. Over the course of 9 years, Cross Point has grown to reach more than 5,000 people each weekend through its five campuses located around the Nashville area, and online.

As one of the fastest growing churches in America, Pete’s ministry–an outreach focused on helping people become devoted to Christ, irrevocably committed to each other, and relentlessly dedicated to reaching those outside of God’s family with the Gospel–has made Pete a frequent speaker at national and international church conferences.

Pete gained national attention in 2010 when Thomas Nelson published his best-selling book, Plan B, a title that has been printed in five languages and launched Putting Plan B into Action, a 6-week DVD curriculum that serves as a study companion to the book. Empty Promises, Pete’s much-anticipated second book, releases in spring 2012.

I got the gift of asking Pastor Pete some questions and I thought I’d share a couple with you guys.

1.) You’re a very busy guy with tons of things going on. How do you “turn it off” and just relax with your family and God? By turn it off I mean take your mind off of your next sermon or thing to do at Church. Or is it something we as ministry leaders can’t turn off?

I think it’s really important for ministry leaders to have a Sabbath. A day where they don’t check email, answer phone calls or go near the office. It’s vital to replenish yourself each week in ministry in order to be most effective with your family, friends and the people who look to you for guidance. 

 

2.) What do you think your biggest weakness is and how are you trying to turn that into a strength?

I am a people pleaser. I want to grant every request, every meeting and it sometimes gets me in trouble. That’s definitely one thing I continue to work on.

 

3.) What is the serving culture like at Crosspoint Church and how do you inspire others to serve?

We take volunteers and serving very seriously. We wouldn’t exist without them. I am constantly overwhelmed at the attitude and culture of our volunteers. In addition to the over 500 volunteers it takes each Sunday we have Serving Saturdays and many other opportunities to serve. We have a missions pastor on staff and someone who is in charge of first impressions for guests.

4.) If you could go back and do one thing differently in your time of ministry what would it be?

I would have said no more often. I let a lot of things slide in my early years of ministry because I wanted to make everyone happy. It created a lot of messes I had to go back and clean up.

 

5.) Everyone has their own way of preparing for sermons, how do you prepare?

Mondays are my writing days. I don’t come back to the message until Wednesday. I almost always have my manuscript finished before I leave on Thursday and then I use the weekend to memorize and become familiar with the content.

 

Thanks so much for your time Pastor Pete. Guys can you give Pastor a big thank you for answering some questions that I’m sure all of us have.