Cross Training Ministries Podcast

Modern culture is setting men up for burnout. Men are being shaped in a world where achievement is the god, and productivity is the cult. And the expectation to be a disciple-making, family-leading, neighborhood-evangelizing, church volunteer…doesn’t make it any easier.In this episode of the Cross Training Ministries podcast, Joe and Evan walk you through 9 questions that will

Life Planning is like a stick of dynamite. It's undeniably useful if used in the right way, but horrifically dangerous if played around with hastily. For this reason books by life coaching gurus like Michael Hyatt and David Allen ought to include a warning label. Unless filtered through a spiritual colander they easily lead to an achievement based, self-centered lifestyle. More tha

Picture a guy wanting a more focused life. He hears a podcast on how to draft a plan for his life, then he sits down with a notebook and pen and begins to attempt to write a vision for himself. He takes inventory of his roles and responsibilities. He budgets his time and creates space for new things. Will this result in focus? Sadly, the answer might be yes. It's entirely possible

We're in a series on the Disciplines of a Focused Mind. This week we're covering the fourth discipline: prayer.Prayer ought to focus the mind of a man, but often times prayer is a time when men are most easily distracted. In this episode, Joe and Evan talk about 6 ways to pray that won't lead you to focus, and then they give you 7 elements of prayer that help with focus and alignme

Wouldn't it be wonderful if understanding and transformation were identical. They are not. There are lots of pastors and seminary teachers who are spiritually distracted and lifeless. How can this be? They know the meaning of 1,000 different Greek words, and they have read 100s of different books. The problem isn’t in the understanding but in the heart; they do not take the time

Information doesn't naturally stick in the mind - the mind is a sieve and billions of bits of data pass through all of the time. Think about how terrible it would be if we had to understand and process every piece of data that we encountered. The problem with this system is that sometimes important stuff passes through the sieve. Think of reading through John 17 - this is Jesus' gr

"Focus" is what CS Lewis calls a "halo word". Everybody wants focus, but no one really knows what the word is referring to. We think that focus will come naturally if we eliminate distraction. That's a joke. Cutting out distraction will no more produce focus than cutting out dessert will produce muscle. Focus is something that must be cultivated. But what do we need to be doing to

Do you want to learn what it means to be a loving dad? Look to the example of Jesus, Everlasting Father (Is 9:6).1) Protect your family2) Lead your family in worship3) Teach your children to follow JesusOther Cross Training Christmas resources:Blog: Help for Men Who Struggle to Make Much of the IncarnationVideo: The Incarnation Transforms Our Knowledge of Godhttps://www.xtrainingmi

Imagine you could spend an afternoon with the 65 year old you, what do you hope to see? What do you hope to have accomplished at this point in your life?In the last two chapters of Hudson Taylor’s autobiography we get a glimpse of what it looks like to finish strong. It should be no surprise that finishing strong has very little to do with his worldly success, but rather the lega

You’ve spent six weeks considering this question: How would my life change if I were friends with Christian hero Hudson Taylor? You are the sum of your 5 closest friends, and by now we’ve read enough of the life of Hudson Taylor to know that his presence in our friend group would challenge our faithful obedience to God.This week we want to take that question, and scale it up: H