Hi, I’m Jon, Jon Cook. I’m the campus youth pastor for this awesome church in St. Louis called The Crossing. I spend a lot of my time with students (surprise!) and this is where I get to unpack life as a youth pastor, teacher, leader, thinker, and creative.

First off, this blog is me sharing my own thoughts and ideas. This isn’t the place to go to get any official opinion or stance on what The Crossing thinks, just what I think. As much as I’m a big fan of the ideas and opinions that are on this blog, nobody else is responsible for what’s on here but me.

This blog is more for my ideas to be chronicled, for letting my words drop onto the screen as I wrestle with the thoughts and ideas that cross my path on a daily basis.  I hope that I will become a better leader, idea shaper, and communicator for Christ through my writing as I try to capture my ideas in my own words and way.

This blog is about five ideas, five fuels for what makes me tick the fastest: Reading. Writing. Thinking. Dreaming. Leading. Almost everything I blog about fits in one of those buckets, because great leaders know how to be laser-focused. Potpourri is for Celebrity Jeopardy and the coffee table.

My wife Kara and I have been married for a year and a half now, and we kind of have this thing for baseball. Part of our bucket list is our “30 before 30″ dream: catch a game in all 30 MLB stadiums before we turn 30. At the start of the 2013 season, we’re at the midway point: 15 down, 15 to go. After each visit, I post about our experience and some good-to-know’s for anyone who wants to visit some of the same diamonds around America.

If you’d like to start up a conversation, send me an email at writetojoncook@gmail.com.