Cross Training Ministries Podcast

Most guys want to date their wife, but their calendar is too full, their wallet is too empty, a babysitter is too hard to find, and they’re all out of new ideas. In this episode, Joe and Evan encourage ordinary men to push past these obstacles by focusing on the three essentials for dating your wife:

1. Genuine Curiosity
2. Curated List
3. Predetermined Rhythms

For a copy of Cross Training's guide to dating your wife, email Evan. [email protected]

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 help you avoid burnout and keep a lifestyle where Christ comes first.

Get help at menneedhelp.org

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 than one Christian man has left the straight and narrow due to having some life coach affirm the favorite lie of Satan - that the center of the universe is me.

In this episode, Joe and Evan give you 5 steps for making a Christian Life Plan.

Want more help with life planning? Check out Challenge 5 in the Decathlon - or email [email protected]

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 that this guy will figure out a way to more strategically pursue idol worship - he will be better at serving secular gods than before.

Focus by itself is not a virtue - focus is only good if we're focused on the right things. What will help you focus on the right things? Perspective - the 5th Discipline of a Focused Mind.

In this episode, Joe and Evan guide you on the path to perspective, and show you some of the challenges along the way.

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 alignment.

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 needed to apply the truth to themselves so that it adheres and affects them.

Men, be warned: it’s possible for you to understand a doctrine or a Bible verse without that truth adhering to you in a way that changes you.

In this episode we talk about the third discipline of a focused mind: Adhesion. Listen as Joe Barnard gives you 4 steps to adhesion.

https://www.xtrainingministries.com/

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' great prayer - you read it and walk away without anything sticking with you or transforming you. This begs a question - how do we turn the sieve of the mind into a container that holds and stores vital spiritual truth?

In this episode we give you three ways to improve your understanding.

Join the Focus40 Challenge

"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 strengthen focus? That's the subject matter of this podcast season. We're going to look at the disciplines of a focused mind.

Discipline One: Memorization

This is the discipline everyone wants to skip - a lot of guys want to reduce the high bar of memorization to the low bar of reflection. In this episode we give you six reasons memorization is a vital discipline for Christian men who want to be focused on Christ.

Join the Focus40 Challenge

https://www.xtrainingministries.com/

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 family
2) Lead your family in worship
3) Teach your children to follow Jesus

Other Cross Training Christmas resources:
Blog: Help for Men Who Struggle to Make Much of the Incarnation
Video: The Incarnation Transforms Our Knowledge of God

https://www.xtrainingministries.com/

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 legacy he leaves after a lifetime of trusting in the faithfulness of God. 

This is the final week of the HeroChallenge. As you and your friends bring this spiritual exercise to a close, make sure to finish strong. Encourage one another to continue trusting God. Help your friends see what their life will look like, if they become the kind of man who believes the promises of God.

Follow along with the HeroChallenge