2008 --- What's next?

Wow is God stirring my heart. Had a GREAT planning session with Adam today and another good staff meeting. Some of the things we feel God calling us to do in 2008 are absolutely scary (financially, energy, volunteering). Although they are scary we feel like we MUST do them. Two things are coming in January that one is a MAJOR risk for a new church. Can't wait to unveil it. (Staff keep your mouths shut) :) We've got some service projects in the works and have even begun planning for NEXT Christmas when we do our first Christmas Eve service.

I am VERY excited for 2008. We're at that point where it could be easy for us to exhale and say "We made it". We could easily level out, relax, get comfortable and call it good for a while. BUT WHY? Has God moved on our behalf? YES! Has He enabled us to grow and reach people for Christ? YES! But He still has more. Where will He take us? I don't know, but I want to keep following so I can see. I'll be sharing some stuff this Sunday about what God has been talking to me about personally and as the leader of Element Church.

I'm very excited about our next two sermon series. We've already received one phone call from someone who didn't like the content of the mailer we sent out. One thing we will always do at Element Church is talk about the tough subjects. We'll be doing that in January and February. Two of the most difficult subjects to tackle in church we're taking on in two consecutive months. Money and sex. Below is the graphic for the mailer we sent out. We did the split graphic and saved some money by doing to series on one mailer. We're not holding anything back in our sex series. There is a reason the church is silent many times on sex. THE DEVIL DOESN'T WANT US TALKING ABOUT IT. If we don't, he gets all the airtime. Since it seems our country gets all their education about sex from satan, we're going to expose what he's been teaching through our series satan's sex ed series.


We have our sermon calendar prepared through next Fall and I am really looking forward to some of the things we are going to do. The budget got completed yesterday and I feel really good about it. There seriously hasn't been much more difficult, than preparing a budget for a full year, for a church that has existed for three months. We're stepping out in faith on some of the budget items and we understand that there are some things that are unseen for us now that will come up. We're really careful about tracking our spending right now so as to better budget as we grow.

2008 --- what's next? I know this. If we follow Jesus, we can't go wrong. God is a big God, and I think he has BIG things in store for Element Church this coming year. This turned out way longer than I had planned. Sorry. Can't wait for Sunday.