Hey Element Church! On Monday's we usually have an all staff meeting over lunch and then break into a Lead Team meeting which includes the pastoral staff (Grant, Curtis, Adam and myself). Today however we called off the all staff meeting and went into an extended Lead Team meeting to pray and brainstorm some major decisions coming up in the life of Element Church. If God leads and opens doors, we may just be advancing into some uncharted territory for Element Church. All I can say right now is to please pray for God's direction for the Lead Team in these decisions. There are two things that I am going to be SO EXCITED to announce this month if things progress as we hope. HA, I love leaving everyone hanging.
My sermon this past Sunday could not have come at a more opportune time. In August we planned this Heroes series and I knew on March 30th I would be preaching on Jonathan and his armor bearer from 1 Samuel 14. I knew I would be preaching on the warrior's heart and "ADVANCING AT ALL COSTS". "Anticipating the response of God" Jonathan advanced against the multitude of philistines on the notion that "perhaps God will help us". Hmm, coincidence? Both of these decisions we have to make are "advancing" decisions. Both of them are risky. Both of them need God to show up. And both of them are scary!
In all major decisions we have make at Element Church the Lead Team whiteboard's it. "We need to whiteboard this" is becoming a common Element Team phrase. We write down the pro's, con's, questions for the decision we are making. It really helps us brainstorm all possible options. It helps us dream. It helps us get a grasp on what we are facing. We pray about what we whiteboarded and the ultimate decision rests in the Holy Spirits leading on all we talked about. I'd love to show you a picture of today's whiteboard, but I can't.
Ok, I've already shared too much. I love this church and I love Elementers. You guy's are the greatest. You put up with me every week and these crazy leave you hanging blogs. Be praying for the team. Also, Eternity series starts this week. VERY excited about that.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday Rumination (3-30-08)
Hey Element Church! Can you say April? I knew you could. Amazing that April is upon us. In some ways it seems like we've been doing Element for years, and in others it has BLOWN by. This weekend will be 6 months since we launched. Today was another awesome day at Element Church. Here my my ruminations on the day!
--- Check out the new Fusion Student Ministry Blog. Curtis started blogging his thoughts from the youth ministry. Curtis is doing a PHENOMENAL job leading our teens. He's posted two times in the previous couple weeks so he's already moving ahead of Adam and Grant. HA!
--- 406 in church today. God continues to bring us people and we are blessed and honored to have them. I said today in 3rd service that I am amazed people come to our church. I am truly humbled and honored that God chose me to do this. Thank you to all who make Element possible.
--- I am having less and less of hand in what goes on during Sunday which means more and more is being done through our volunteers. We have AMAZING volunteers. It's dangerous to name names but I'm going to. Pam (sound tech) is completely mixing the service on her own now and doing a great job. A few weeks ago I I was helping her mix everything. She's learned everything on the fly! Heidi REALLY stepped up in the lighting this week in 1st and 2nd service. I thought the settings she created were awesome! Kevin is doing great stepping up as leader of the e:coustic team. I think in a matter of weeks we'll hand that over completely to the team. I just love seeing people serve. We have a LOT of volunteers and they all do such an amazing job. WAY TO GO TEAM!
--- I LOVED the worship set and feel today. Adam's arrangement of the old hymn "All Creatures Of Our God and King" was awesome. The band was very smooth today and the spirit of worship was VERY good in the room. It is SO COMFORTING as a preacher to know that the worship each week is truly going to set up the Word. Every week, I know that Adam has put together a set that will usher in God's presence and prepare the people to hear the Word of God.
--- Our transitions between services were perfect today. I had a few minutes of time to spare in between all of them. We've only done this three weeks but it seems like it's always been there. Weird!
--- I hear Curtis is doing a great job on announcements in each service. Who knows, I may let him do that every service. No need for me to do it in first service. lol Don't do something good or you may just inherit it as your job.
--- One month from now our newest staff member arrives. VERY excited about that! Andy and Aubrey Hazelet will be arriving in early May and taking over the JV portion of Fusion. They are going to be a great addition to our team.
--- I mentioned today in the service, and I absolutely mean it, that the guys who work on my staff are the best in the world. I really do hope you all understand how great Grant, Adam and Curtis are.
--- I spoke in the sermon today how much I appreciate the hearts of those guys. I go to work each day and preach on the platform each week knowing they are with me "HEART AND SOUL".
--- Today we looked at the final Hero Jonathan and his armor bearer. I love that passage and the courage of those two. Willing to advance regardless of the cost! We talked about "the heart of a warrior" as we closed out the series.
--- Dedicated two children in the service today. I love doing that. Our set up is DEFINITELY not conducive to doing dedications, or anything on the platform, but it was a joy to dedicate those kids. One being the son of one of my closest friends, Ben. Very proud of the dad Ben has and is becoming and his dedication to the church. To know the Ben of Oklahoma Bible Academy (our high school), and the Ben of today is awesome to see where God's brought him. Way to go Ben!
--- We are baptizing 5 people in one hour. 3 of them got saved at Element Church. YES! Jonah asked if he could be baptized today. He was VERY upset when I told him no. Not sure he's ready yet. Although I know he asked Jesus into his heart and understands what Jesus did for him. I just want him to understand the significance and importance of baptism. I don't think I'd let him take communion at this age. We'll see. I want to be careful as a parent to teach them what those things mean so they understand the value of them.
--- My bracket is in the pot! Literally I might just flush it. I think I'm beating Adam though and I KNOW I'm beating Grant. He was WAY down there. That's what he gets for picking against OU just to spite me! He'll learn.
--- 4 PM baptism makes for a long day. It's usually at 3 PM I'm laying down for my nap. But I definitely mind missing my nap for this!
--- OK, that's it! That was a lot of rambling. My mind is usually so full and just RACING with thoughts on Sunday. I should wait until Monday to type the rumination. PEACE OUT!
Following Christ,
Jeff
--- Check out the new Fusion Student Ministry Blog. Curtis started blogging his thoughts from the youth ministry. Curtis is doing a PHENOMENAL job leading our teens. He's posted two times in the previous couple weeks so he's already moving ahead of Adam and Grant. HA!
--- 406 in church today. God continues to bring us people and we are blessed and honored to have them. I said today in 3rd service that I am amazed people come to our church. I am truly humbled and honored that God chose me to do this. Thank you to all who make Element possible.
--- I am having less and less of hand in what goes on during Sunday which means more and more is being done through our volunteers. We have AMAZING volunteers. It's dangerous to name names but I'm going to. Pam (sound tech) is completely mixing the service on her own now and doing a great job. A few weeks ago I I was helping her mix everything. She's learned everything on the fly! Heidi REALLY stepped up in the lighting this week in 1st and 2nd service. I thought the settings she created were awesome! Kevin is doing great stepping up as leader of the e:coustic team. I think in a matter of weeks we'll hand that over completely to the team. I just love seeing people serve. We have a LOT of volunteers and they all do such an amazing job. WAY TO GO TEAM!
--- I LOVED the worship set and feel today. Adam's arrangement of the old hymn "All Creatures Of Our God and King" was awesome. The band was very smooth today and the spirit of worship was VERY good in the room. It is SO COMFORTING as a preacher to know that the worship each week is truly going to set up the Word. Every week, I know that Adam has put together a set that will usher in God's presence and prepare the people to hear the Word of God.
--- Our transitions between services were perfect today. I had a few minutes of time to spare in between all of them. We've only done this three weeks but it seems like it's always been there. Weird!
--- I hear Curtis is doing a great job on announcements in each service. Who knows, I may let him do that every service. No need for me to do it in first service. lol Don't do something good or you may just inherit it as your job.
--- One month from now our newest staff member arrives. VERY excited about that! Andy and Aubrey Hazelet will be arriving in early May and taking over the JV portion of Fusion. They are going to be a great addition to our team.
--- I mentioned today in the service, and I absolutely mean it, that the guys who work on my staff are the best in the world. I really do hope you all understand how great Grant, Adam and Curtis are.
--- I spoke in the sermon today how much I appreciate the hearts of those guys. I go to work each day and preach on the platform each week knowing they are with me "HEART AND SOUL".
--- Today we looked at the final Hero Jonathan and his armor bearer. I love that passage and the courage of those two. Willing to advance regardless of the cost! We talked about "the heart of a warrior" as we closed out the series.
--- Dedicated two children in the service today. I love doing that. Our set up is DEFINITELY not conducive to doing dedications, or anything on the platform, but it was a joy to dedicate those kids. One being the son of one of my closest friends, Ben. Very proud of the dad Ben has and is becoming and his dedication to the church. To know the Ben of Oklahoma Bible Academy (our high school), and the Ben of today is awesome to see where God's brought him. Way to go Ben!
--- We are baptizing 5 people in one hour. 3 of them got saved at Element Church. YES! Jonah asked if he could be baptized today. He was VERY upset when I told him no. Not sure he's ready yet. Although I know he asked Jesus into his heart and understands what Jesus did for him. I just want him to understand the significance and importance of baptism. I don't think I'd let him take communion at this age. We'll see. I want to be careful as a parent to teach them what those things mean so they understand the value of them.
--- My bracket is in the pot! Literally I might just flush it. I think I'm beating Adam though and I KNOW I'm beating Grant. He was WAY down there. That's what he gets for picking against OU just to spite me! He'll learn.
--- 4 PM baptism makes for a long day. It's usually at 3 PM I'm laying down for my nap. But I definitely mind missing my nap for this!
--- OK, that's it! That was a lot of rambling. My mind is usually so full and just RACING with thoughts on Sunday. I should wait until Monday to type the rumination. PEACE OUT!
Following Christ,
Jeff
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Heroes Closure
Hey Element Church! I'm back in town and was back in the office. I had an unbelievable time with my wife being away. It was a very nice sabbath rest for us. We don't get much time to just have to each other with the four kids around so having my mom take the kids for a few days was AWESOME! Thanks mom!
I can't believe we are closing out Heroes this week. I am VERY excited about this message. When we planned this series back in August, I knew I'd preach on this passage. We're looking at an obscure passage in 1 Samuel where Jonathan and his armor bearer take on a hoard of philistines in battle. This sermon this week is REALLY challenging me at the stage of life we are in at Element Church.
God changed directions on us for the next series called Eternity. We had planned a series called "Marked: Living for Eternity" but it started to be to similar to Heroes so we switched gears and Adam helped me in putting together "Eternity: Heaven, Hell and the In Between". We feel this is a great follow up to Easter and the Heroes series. We are dedicating one entire message to Heaven, one to Hell and two to what I do from now until eternity.
I'm working a rare Friday tomorrow since I was out most of the week. Again, very excited about the sermon and church on Sunday.
Following Christ,
Jeff
I can't believe we are closing out Heroes this week. I am VERY excited about this message. When we planned this series back in August, I knew I'd preach on this passage. We're looking at an obscure passage in 1 Samuel where Jonathan and his armor bearer take on a hoard of philistines in battle. This sermon this week is REALLY challenging me at the stage of life we are in at Element Church.
God changed directions on us for the next series called Eternity. We had planned a series called "Marked: Living for Eternity" but it started to be to similar to Heroes so we switched gears and Adam helped me in putting together "Eternity: Heaven, Hell and the In Between". We feel this is a great follow up to Easter and the Heroes series. We are dedicating one entire message to Heaven, one to Hell and two to what I do from now until eternity.
I'm working a rare Friday tomorrow since I was out most of the week. Again, very excited about the sermon and church on Sunday.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Devotional Thoughts
Hey Element Church. I was doing pretty good consistently posting some devotional thoughts of mine from my morning quiet times. I think the last time I posted on here I was way back in the OT somewhere before the prophets. Thought it was time to post a few things. I just finished Matthew today. Cool to read through the Easter story two days after Easter. Here are some thoughts from my devos. There is lots more but I've waited to long to share it. These are some of my favorites from the past several months.
Daniel 3 --- The story of Rack, Shack and Benny (veggie tales names) inspires me EVERY time I read. That story never gets old. The courage and resolve of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is motivating. Their "But even if..." moves me.
Daniel 6:10 --- King Darius signed a decree saying no one could pray to anyone but him for 30 days and this verse describes Daniels response. "But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with it's windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to God." He didn't shut the window. He didn't change his routine. He didn't cry out "WHY ME LORD?" He thanked God, AS HE ALWAYS DID! Love that. I want that attitude.
Hosea 6:3 --- Great prayer "Oh that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know Him."
Hosea 13:6 --- Good warning for a new church like ours experiencing success. "But when you had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me." #1 I don't EVER want to be satisfied. Unless every person in our city is saved I don't want to be satisfied. God's desire is for "all men to come to repentance". It should be ours as well. #2 Only one person deserves any credit for what's happened at Element. THE LORD GOD OF HEAVEN'S ARMIES! I can't explain what's happened at our church. Sure I wanted it to happen when we started, but God made it happen. No amount of planning or vision can MAKE something happen. Only God can. I will continue to seek vision from God and cast it as best I can. We will continue to plan and "orchestrate" to the best of our ability, but without the divine intervention of Almighty God our efforts are in vain. All that from one little verse. lol May we NEVER forget God or take credit for what is done.
Amos 5:20-21 to long to type it out. Read it here. You can also read another post about this passage I did here. God doesn't want our traditions, our methods, our liturgy. He wants an ENDLESS RIVER of righteousness and justice.
Amos 7:14-15 Read it here. This is exactly how I feel most of the time. I'm not a professional, but God called me.
Micah 2:7b --- "If you would do what is right you would find my words comforting." The reason most people don't like God's words is because they are not doing what is right.
Micah 6:6-8 --- Again, God doesn't want our sacrifices, our offerings or words. This is what the Lord requires of you. Read it here.
Zechariah 4:10 --- God gave me this verse when we started Element. "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand."
I'll post my thoughts from Matthew another time. This got too long.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Daniel 3 --- The story of Rack, Shack and Benny (veggie tales names) inspires me EVERY time I read. That story never gets old. The courage and resolve of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is motivating. Their "But even if..." moves me.
Daniel 6:10 --- King Darius signed a decree saying no one could pray to anyone but him for 30 days and this verse describes Daniels response. "But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with it's windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to God." He didn't shut the window. He didn't change his routine. He didn't cry out "WHY ME LORD?" He thanked God, AS HE ALWAYS DID! Love that. I want that attitude.
Hosea 6:3 --- Great prayer "Oh that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know Him."
Hosea 13:6 --- Good warning for a new church like ours experiencing success. "But when you had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me." #1 I don't EVER want to be satisfied. Unless every person in our city is saved I don't want to be satisfied. God's desire is for "all men to come to repentance". It should be ours as well. #2 Only one person deserves any credit for what's happened at Element. THE LORD GOD OF HEAVEN'S ARMIES! I can't explain what's happened at our church. Sure I wanted it to happen when we started, but God made it happen. No amount of planning or vision can MAKE something happen. Only God can. I will continue to seek vision from God and cast it as best I can. We will continue to plan and "orchestrate" to the best of our ability, but without the divine intervention of Almighty God our efforts are in vain. All that from one little verse. lol May we NEVER forget God or take credit for what is done.
Amos 5:20-21 to long to type it out. Read it here. You can also read another post about this passage I did here. God doesn't want our traditions, our methods, our liturgy. He wants an ENDLESS RIVER of righteousness and justice.
Amos 7:14-15 Read it here. This is exactly how I feel most of the time. I'm not a professional, but God called me.
Micah 2:7b --- "If you would do what is right you would find my words comforting." The reason most people don't like God's words is because they are not doing what is right.
Micah 6:6-8 --- Again, God doesn't want our sacrifices, our offerings or words. This is what the Lord requires of you. Read it here.
Zechariah 4:10 --- God gave me this verse when we started Element. "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand."
I'll post my thoughts from Matthew another time. This got too long.
Following Christ,
Jeff
My Hero Video
Hey Element Church. Here is the video we showed on Sunday. Not sure why it lost so much quality but you can view it anyway.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Easter Rumination (3-23-08)
Hey Element Church! Sabrina and I are on a little retreat this week. Our denomination has a pastors and wives retreat every year following Easter. This year our Conference was holding ours in Cody, WY. Adam and Amber as well as Sab and I were planning on attending. Last week we got the news that they were canceling the retreat due to the medical condition of our Conference Superintendents wife, Vonda. Vonda has been battling brain cancer for the past year. They said that she took a pretty bad turn for the worse and Dale (superintendent) needed to focus on her and memorial service plans and not the conference. The conference reimbursed each church their expenses that we already paid for the retreat at encouraged every church to still send their pastors on a retreat. SO, here we are. Enjoying a few days away with just Sabrina and myself. Our hotel just now got their Internet working. I tried blogging last night from my phone but it wouldn't publish. (Yeah, I'm sick, I know) My mom drove to Cheyenne from Wisconsin and is watching the kids. It's been a day now away from the kids and although it is a MUCH needed break for us, I think we would live VERY boring lives without our kids. it's 3 PM and we're like "We don't have anything to do". lol It's a very refreshing and energizing time for us so far to take a break from everything. It's hard for me to take a break, but I think it's good to do so. Thank you all SO much for being a part of Element Church. We did get word this morning that our Superintendents wife passed away. Please pray for the Erbele family as they go through this. The last I talked with Dale he said that he told Vonda "For years we have showed people how to live. Now we need to show them how to die." They have been a SHINING example of life through this.
Ok, here are my ruminations on Easter Sunday.
--- 27 people indicated that they received Christ yesterday. I was praying for 20. WOW! Pray that these people make the next step in their walk with Christ.
--- 528 attended one of our three worship experiences on Sunday. Dude, 528, are you kidding me? I'm am BLOWN AWAY! When we started this adventure I knew that with God ANYTHING is possible, but I didn't necessarily think it would happen. May God receive all credit and glory.
--- Third service was JAM PACKED. Didn't seem like a seat was left.
--- e:coustic was full too. We draped off the back two rows but it was filled up pretty well. That service is so chill. Very laid back. I actually preach sitting for most of the service. When I get worked up I gotta stand though.
--- We made the service one hour yesterday. We were expecting a bigger crowd so we wanted good traffic flow. Transitions went great yesterday.
--- We had to break into the theater to set up. We got to the theater around 6 AM and our theater worker was nowhere to be found. We broke in and worked in the dark till nearly 7 AM. Grant used a leatherman to get the lights on eventually. Our worker showed up about 7:30. Crazy.
--- I did a REALLY cool illustration to close my sermon. Illustrating how it's not the outside that matters but the heart. You'll have to watch it online to see it.
--- The praise team all wore sport coats and Grant, Curtis and myself were in suits. Good lookin' bunch of dudes.
--- I serve with the GREATEST team ever man! I am blown away by our staff and volunteers. It's amazing what we pull off on a Sunday and the volunteers that do it are unreal. For 5 months old to have the # and quality of volunteers blows my mind. I can't wait to see where God takes us.
--- I love preaching three times. Sounds weird, but I actually think it's easier than two. The 2nd service actually rests me up for third. Sitting to preach, chillin' with those great people just gets me ready for third service. By third service I nearly have my sermon memorized. There has been GREAT energy in that service so far too. Really cool!
--- LOVED the song we sang "At The Cross" Such great words to it. "You tore the veil. You made a way, when you said that it is done!" LOVE THAT LINE!
--- We put together a very moving movie piece with clips from The Passion put to music with the Foo Fighters "My Hero". It is waiting to be approved on Google video. I'll put it on here asap so you can see it or link it to anyone else.
--- Yesterday was a lot of fun. If you're an Elementer THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR CHURCH! Pray for many of our guests to return and for those who made decisions as well.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Ok, here are my ruminations on Easter Sunday.
--- 27 people indicated that they received Christ yesterday. I was praying for 20. WOW! Pray that these people make the next step in their walk with Christ.
--- 528 attended one of our three worship experiences on Sunday. Dude, 528, are you kidding me? I'm am BLOWN AWAY! When we started this adventure I knew that with God ANYTHING is possible, but I didn't necessarily think it would happen. May God receive all credit and glory.
--- Third service was JAM PACKED. Didn't seem like a seat was left.
--- e:coustic was full too. We draped off the back two rows but it was filled up pretty well. That service is so chill. Very laid back. I actually preach sitting for most of the service. When I get worked up I gotta stand though.
--- We made the service one hour yesterday. We were expecting a bigger crowd so we wanted good traffic flow. Transitions went great yesterday.
--- We had to break into the theater to set up. We got to the theater around 6 AM and our theater worker was nowhere to be found. We broke in and worked in the dark till nearly 7 AM. Grant used a leatherman to get the lights on eventually. Our worker showed up about 7:30. Crazy.
--- I did a REALLY cool illustration to close my sermon. Illustrating how it's not the outside that matters but the heart. You'll have to watch it online to see it.
--- The praise team all wore sport coats and Grant, Curtis and myself were in suits. Good lookin' bunch of dudes.
--- I serve with the GREATEST team ever man! I am blown away by our staff and volunteers. It's amazing what we pull off on a Sunday and the volunteers that do it are unreal. For 5 months old to have the # and quality of volunteers blows my mind. I can't wait to see where God takes us.
--- I love preaching three times. Sounds weird, but I actually think it's easier than two. The 2nd service actually rests me up for third. Sitting to preach, chillin' with those great people just gets me ready for third service. By third service I nearly have my sermon memorized. There has been GREAT energy in that service so far too. Really cool!
--- LOVED the song we sang "At The Cross" Such great words to it. "You tore the veil. You made a way, when you said that it is done!" LOVE THAT LINE!
--- We put together a very moving movie piece with clips from The Passion put to music with the Foo Fighters "My Hero". It is waiting to be approved on Google video. I'll put it on here asap so you can see it or link it to anyone else.
--- Yesterday was a lot of fun. If you're an Elementer THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR CHURCH! Pray for many of our guests to return and for those who made decisions as well.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Easter Weekend Prayer Requests
Hey Element Church! HUGE weekend for the Kingdom of God and for us at Element Church. If you could take a break from your day and pray for a few moments on the following things I would greatly appreciate it. These are some things that are on my heart before our Resurrection celebration.
1. The Lost --- Seriously we should approach the throne of grace with confidence on this one. No one wants to see the lost come to church tomorrow more than our Father. Pray that Element and ALL Bible believing/preaching churches are filled tomorrow with fellow Cheyenneites who do not know Jesus as their personal Savior. Tomorrow is the one day a year that most people at least seriously think about attending church. Pray that God gets them there.
2. Element Church --- We are expecting a lot of people tomorrow. Pray for a sense of expectation. Pray for the Holy Spirit to FILL that theater with His presence. Pray for each person who will attend. Pray for Adam as he leads us in worship. Pray for me as I ask the question "How has Easter affected you?" Because of the crowd we are expecting we are intentionally shortening our service to create more comfortable traffic flow between services. Pray that we are smooth with our times and transitions.
3. Movie Times --- Every Saturday I check the paper to see when movies will be playing. I opened today's and there are 4 movies starting at straight up noon. I was under the impression that that was not going to happen but apparently I was wrong. We typically get done with church at 11:45 and are out by 12:30. That poses a slight problem. I'm not sure what screens those noon movies are showing, but if they are in any of ours we will have an issue. PRAY PRAY PRAY that it does not cause disruption to our presentation of the Gospel. The GREATEST message ever told we get to tell again tomorrow and offer a life changing experience to people.
4. Other pastors/churches --- Pray that God would bless the other pastors and churches around our city with WONDERFUL Resurrection celebrations. Pray for the words to be spoken and the Gospel to be proclaimed in all churches tomorrow, not just ours.
Why pray these things? Our main Scripture tomorrow is taken from Acts 26 where Paul is telling King Agrippa what God had told him he was sending him to do. "Yes, I am sending you to the Gentilesto open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me."
That is how God wants Easter to affect us. Tomorrow, people will be given the opportunity to turn from darkness to light. To be rescued from the power of satan unto God. They can receive forgiveness of sins through the RISEN JESUS which is the ONLY way we can have a place among God's people, and be set apart through our faith in Him. WOW, what an opportunity.
Anticipating and Expecting,
Jeff
1. The Lost --- Seriously we should approach the throne of grace with confidence on this one. No one wants to see the lost come to church tomorrow more than our Father. Pray that Element and ALL Bible believing/preaching churches are filled tomorrow with fellow Cheyenneites who do not know Jesus as their personal Savior. Tomorrow is the one day a year that most people at least seriously think about attending church. Pray that God gets them there.
2. Element Church --- We are expecting a lot of people tomorrow. Pray for a sense of expectation. Pray for the Holy Spirit to FILL that theater with His presence. Pray for each person who will attend. Pray for Adam as he leads us in worship. Pray for me as I ask the question "How has Easter affected you?" Because of the crowd we are expecting we are intentionally shortening our service to create more comfortable traffic flow between services. Pray that we are smooth with our times and transitions.
3. Movie Times --- Every Saturday I check the paper to see when movies will be playing. I opened today's and there are 4 movies starting at straight up noon. I was under the impression that that was not going to happen but apparently I was wrong. We typically get done with church at 11:45 and are out by 12:30. That poses a slight problem. I'm not sure what screens those noon movies are showing, but if they are in any of ours we will have an issue. PRAY PRAY PRAY that it does not cause disruption to our presentation of the Gospel. The GREATEST message ever told we get to tell again tomorrow and offer a life changing experience to people.
4. Other pastors/churches --- Pray that God would bless the other pastors and churches around our city with WONDERFUL Resurrection celebrations. Pray for the words to be spoken and the Gospel to be proclaimed in all churches tomorrow, not just ours.
Why pray these things? Our main Scripture tomorrow is taken from Acts 26 where Paul is telling King Agrippa what God had told him he was sending him to do. "Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles
Anticipating and Expecting,
Jeff
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Easter and beyond
Hey Element Church! Don't forget, three opportunities to celebrate Easter this coming Sunday at Element Church. I'm VERY excited about the message and day we have planned. In typical Element style, we aren't doing a "typical" Easter service. Whatever typical is. We're going to be asking the question "How has Easter affected you?". I'll be doing a REALLY cool illustration in my message that will hopefully bring home the point we're trying to make. Take this natural opportunity to invite your friends, co-workers and family to church. Easter is a time when most people are at least thinking about attending a church service. Why not Element?I like to give you Element insiders the scoop on what's coming next. Here are the graphics for our next series called "Eternity: Heaven, Hell and the in between". It should be a great series to follow up our Easter time and Heroes series. Everyone wants to know about the afterlife. Is Heaven and Hell real. What is it like? And what do I do until I get there? Hopefully this will answer some common questions and challenge us to live for eternity.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
When they catch it...
Hey Element Church! I love it when people catch what you're throwing. And no, I'm not talking about baseball, football or cow chip tossing. I'm talking about vision, leadership, example. I saw this lived out in one of my children yesterday and that REALLY excites me.
There is nothing more frustrating as a pastor or a parent (they can feel amazingly similar depending on what church you are in, lol) than the people you are leading not catching what you're throwing. Now, I know many a parent and MANY a pastor who get upset when people don't catch what they throw, the problem is that those same parents and pastors wouldn't catch it themselves if someone threw it to them. The parent/or pastor challenges the children/or people to do something, or be something, or go somewhere, etc. that they themselves won't or wouldn't do or go. Amazing how folks can see through that pretty quick. However, when people DO catch it, it's so cool to watch. Back to my child.
We got some snow on Sunday night into Monday morning that left a small but decent coating over the ground. I was at work and Sabrina was working around the house as Jonah headed outside to play. A few minutes later Sabrina poked her head out of the front door to see what the guy was up to and he was at our neighbors shoveling their driveway. He got it cleaned off as best he could then went to the next one. He then did the walks. He came back in and Sabrina said "What were you doing out there?" Jonah answered "Shoveling the neighbors driveways." She asked "why?" His response (I LOVE THIS) "There was snow on it." HA! I LOVE it. A few months ago I took Jonah with me to clean off some neighbors walks and drives. When he asked me "why?" my response was pretty similar. "Their is snow on it so we want to help!"
I don't know if Jonah would have done that on his own without first me throwing it to him. In the church it's the same thing. The people won't get out and serve unless we serve first. They won't love unless we love first. They won't live unless we live first. They won't catch it when we throw it unless we catch it first! And by the way, Element is catching it!
When they catch it...
Jeff
There is nothing more frustrating as a pastor or a parent (they can feel amazingly similar depending on what church you are in, lol) than the people you are leading not catching what you're throwing. Now, I know many a parent and MANY a pastor who get upset when people don't catch what they throw, the problem is that those same parents and pastors wouldn't catch it themselves if someone threw it to them. The parent/or pastor challenges the children/or people to do something, or be something, or go somewhere, etc. that they themselves won't or wouldn't do or go. Amazing how folks can see through that pretty quick. However, when people DO catch it, it's so cool to watch. Back to my child.
We got some snow on Sunday night into Monday morning that left a small but decent coating over the ground. I was at work and Sabrina was working around the house as Jonah headed outside to play. A few minutes later Sabrina poked her head out of the front door to see what the guy was up to and he was at our neighbors shoveling their driveway. He got it cleaned off as best he could then went to the next one. He then did the walks. He came back in and Sabrina said "What were you doing out there?" Jonah answered "Shoveling the neighbors driveways." She asked "why?" His response (I LOVE THIS) "There was snow on it." HA! I LOVE it. A few months ago I took Jonah with me to clean off some neighbors walks and drives. When he asked me "why?" my response was pretty similar. "Their is snow on it so we want to help!"
I don't know if Jonah would have done that on his own without first me throwing it to him. In the church it's the same thing. The people won't get out and serve unless we serve first. They won't love unless we love first. They won't live unless we live first. They won't catch it when we throw it unless we catch it first! And by the way, Element is catching it!
When they catch it...
Jeff
Monday, March 17, 2008
Voice trumps budget every time!
Hey Element Church! This has been on my heart lately, and after this weekend I felt I needed to blog it. I don't claim to be a church leadership, church planting, or church in general expert, but I do feel that through this process of planting a church I have learned a TON of stuff! WOW has this been a learning process. One of the things I have learned the most about doing church is the value of listening to God's voice OVER the budget when the two conflict. Does that mean we don't have a budget. NO! We developed a budget pretty early in the process but I learned very quickly that the voice of God doesn't always come to us when a budget is being made. (I also learned that the budget of a growing church plant changes weekly lol) Sometimes the voice of God comes at a time when it APPEARS there is no money. Hmm, there in lies the conundrum. I TRULY believe that many churches around our country do not reach their maximum impact in their community because they listen to the budget first, and the voice of God second specifically when the two conflict. Now I know that we can use this TOTALLY as an excuse to spend money willy nilly on stuff that is NOT of God, HOWEVER, it is an issue we must address. Already in the life of our very young church I feel God has asked us to do some things that if we we listened solely to our budget, we wouldn't have done them. At the heart of our DNA at Element is serving our city. This already has created voice vs. budget issues. In May of last year we really felt like our opening service project to the city should be a gas buydown. This made NO sense when we had less than 20 people committed to our church. It didn't make sense financially or voluntarily BUT God's voice trumped budget. AND IT WAS HUGE! It didn't make sense in September to do another gas buydown before we launched our services, but voice trumped budget. It didn't make sense in January to give one weeks entire offering away so our people could serve others, but voice trumped budget. We moved into February and we quickly outgrowing our space. Our lead team sat down and talked about options. The ONLY options that would work included MAJOR financial risks for us, HOWEVER, voice automatically trumped budget when it came to reaching our city for Christ. When we did our budget last November we didn't plan on adding an entire service in another venue and seeing 370 people come to church. What if we would have set the precedent of listening to the budget and not the voice? A third service with the price tag it had would have been shut down pretty quick. What about the egg drop? That came out of NOWHERE for us. HOWEVER, our DNA is to serve EVEN if it costs money. We knew God wanted us to do an Easter outreach and when the opportunity arose VOICE TRUMPED BUDGET. We committed financially to the drop and what happened? FREE HELICOPTERS! If we would have listened to the budget we would have NEVER had the opportunity to watch God provide like that. This calls for some SERIOUS prayer for wisdom and discernment as Element continues to minister and serve. As I continue to lead this church, my prayer is that We/I will ALWAYS listen to the voice and NOT the budget. Voice trumps budget every time. Now I probably made some people mad. (the ones that listen to the budget) lol
Following Christ,
Jeff
Following Christ,
Jeff
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Egg Drop Video
Here is the highlight video that Adam put together. I apologize for the quality. We had to reduce it quite a bit to get it uploaded. I'll try to get a better quality sometime this week. ENJOY!
Sunday Rumination (3-16-08)
Hey Element Church! Well, three services was a SUCCESS! I don't know if it could have gone any better for the first time. The last couple of weeks have felt we were re-launching a new church. It's great to have the other venue and totally opens up more space for us to grow as a church. Here are my ruminations on the day.
--- WE MADE IT! lol The slogan at the office lately has been "If we make through this weekend..." It's been go big or go home lately at Element. Scheduling three consecutive MAJOR events on the same weekend is crazy. My staff has permission to shoot me if I do this again any time soon.
--- Friday we had a GREAT time at our volunteer appreciation banquet. We had a great meal, great fellowship and great entertainment. We opened up the floor for people to share testimonies and I was blown away at what some people said. God is so good!
--- 4, 1, and 8. Those are the #'s of hands I saw raised in our three services of people who prayed to receive Christ today. I love offering Life to people. It's what we're all about.
--- 386 in church today! Second service was packed. I'm a horrible guesser at how many we have in church. I was sure there was over 400. 386, 5 months. STILL blows me a way.
--- I only get to be involved in worship one time now during first service. I don't know what the other two were like but the Holy Spirit was SO heavy during first service today. People were very engaged and it just seemed to click like no other Sunday. I love when God chooses to saturate a room with His presence. He did that today.
--- My voice held up. PTL! I drank some hot tea with honey yesterday a couple of times, and drank LOTS of water yesterday and today. In fact, my voice felt great all the way through. Thank you for those of you who were praying for me. I seriously could feel my voice stay strong when I thought it might give out.
--- E:coustic from beginning to end went great! THANK YOU so much to those of you who have stepped up to serve in there. The team for e:coustic today was GREAT! I left our normal room to oversee e:coustic set up. Those guys rocked it out today. In a couple of weeks they'll be on their own running that thing. Except for a few minor hiccups, set up and tear down went GREAT over there. It was so cool after 3rd service to walk across the hall and it was ALL put away correctly. GREAT JOB TEAM!
--- The transitions went pretty smooth between the services. I ended 1st service and got to 2nd service as they were singing the last song. We then had a 2 1/2 minute sermon illustration video. By the way, the e:coustic room looked great. Very simple but very cool!
--- Two guys from the worship team closed out first service with a song for offering, we played a song off itunes for 2nd.
--- As I was getting to the end of my message in 2nd, I could not remember for the LIFE of me what time I needed to be done. It's a good thing I ended when I did cause I was making my way across the hallway and Adam comes running out "YOU'RE ON DUDE!" I ran into our e:worship room and changed out microphones, ran down front, got my notes and my podium in place almost exactly when the illustration video ended. It was close! WAY close! BUT WE MADE IT!
--- I LOVED third service preaching today. VERY relaxed. VERY comfortable. VERY prepared. LOL I think I about had my sermon memorized by then.
--- Props to my boy Adam who is doing a great job timing out our services. Also, props to Adam who stayed up nearly all night getting footage of the egg drop to show a highlight video today at church. I'll put that up as soon as Google video approves it.
--- Props to Grant and Curtis. Those boys stepped up their game in the three services as well today. Curtis is now doing announcements in the two of the three services. Grant is organizing 2 first impressions teams and closed 2nd service for me. Grant is also becoming the pastor people can connect with following the two services that I cannot. Wow, craziness!
--- I seriously LOVE our staff team. I say this a lot, but I hope you guys realize how GREAT those guys are. Unbelievable.
--- It was very weird telling the same jokes and stories three times. A couple times I said in my mind "Have I already said this to these people?" Apologies if I repeated anything. I actually really enjoyed preaching three times. I know, I'm a sick person! To me, it was easier to go three consecutive times, than to preach once and have to wait. Weird!
--- EASTER THIS SUNDAY! If you're an Elementer you need to invite someone to Easter services. I hope we pack that place out! We are doing a VERY cool illustration this Sunday and hopefully we'll be pulling off one of the most powerful dramas I've ever seen.
--- I was wacky in 3rd service. The energy was very high in that service. I was all jacked up with energy from already preaching 2 times. There is not much that gets me higher than preaching. I LOVE IT! I hope it shows. Be funny if I love preaching but no one wanted to listen.
--- Be praying for us as we're looking at another building option this week. If it worked out this would be a semi-permanent location but we'd no longer portable. It would service us for the next couple of years, depending on growth levels in the church. Portability in church is exhausting. Without some MAJOR superstar volunteers coming early and staying late we could not do what we do.
--- Well, thanks to Katie Sab and I enjoyed lunch by ourselves and have the afternoon to ourselves at home today. That means un-interrupted nap time, which is where I'm headed. If I think of anything else I'll post more later.
I love Element Church! Thanks guys.
Following Christ,
Jeff
--- WE MADE IT! lol The slogan at the office lately has been "If we make through this weekend..." It's been go big or go home lately at Element. Scheduling three consecutive MAJOR events on the same weekend is crazy. My staff has permission to shoot me if I do this again any time soon.
--- Friday we had a GREAT time at our volunteer appreciation banquet. We had a great meal, great fellowship and great entertainment. We opened up the floor for people to share testimonies and I was blown away at what some people said. God is so good!
--- 4, 1, and 8. Those are the #'s of hands I saw raised in our three services of people who prayed to receive Christ today. I love offering Life to people. It's what we're all about.
--- 386 in church today! Second service was packed. I'm a horrible guesser at how many we have in church. I was sure there was over 400. 386, 5 months. STILL blows me a way.
--- I only get to be involved in worship one time now during first service. I don't know what the other two were like but the Holy Spirit was SO heavy during first service today. People were very engaged and it just seemed to click like no other Sunday. I love when God chooses to saturate a room with His presence. He did that today.
--- My voice held up. PTL! I drank some hot tea with honey yesterday a couple of times, and drank LOTS of water yesterday and today. In fact, my voice felt great all the way through. Thank you for those of you who were praying for me. I seriously could feel my voice stay strong when I thought it might give out.
--- E:coustic from beginning to end went great! THANK YOU so much to those of you who have stepped up to serve in there. The team for e:coustic today was GREAT! I left our normal room to oversee e:coustic set up. Those guys rocked it out today. In a couple of weeks they'll be on their own running that thing. Except for a few minor hiccups, set up and tear down went GREAT over there. It was so cool after 3rd service to walk across the hall and it was ALL put away correctly. GREAT JOB TEAM!
--- The transitions went pretty smooth between the services. I ended 1st service and got to 2nd service as they were singing the last song. We then had a 2 1/2 minute sermon illustration video. By the way, the e:coustic room looked great. Very simple but very cool!
--- Two guys from the worship team closed out first service with a song for offering, we played a song off itunes for 2nd.
--- As I was getting to the end of my message in 2nd, I could not remember for the LIFE of me what time I needed to be done. It's a good thing I ended when I did cause I was making my way across the hallway and Adam comes running out "YOU'RE ON DUDE!" I ran into our e:worship room and changed out microphones, ran down front, got my notes and my podium in place almost exactly when the illustration video ended. It was close! WAY close! BUT WE MADE IT!
--- I LOVED third service preaching today. VERY relaxed. VERY comfortable. VERY prepared. LOL I think I about had my sermon memorized by then.
--- Props to my boy Adam who is doing a great job timing out our services. Also, props to Adam who stayed up nearly all night getting footage of the egg drop to show a highlight video today at church. I'll put that up as soon as Google video approves it.
--- Props to Grant and Curtis. Those boys stepped up their game in the three services as well today. Curtis is now doing announcements in the two of the three services. Grant is organizing 2 first impressions teams and closed 2nd service for me. Grant is also becoming the pastor people can connect with following the two services that I cannot. Wow, craziness!
--- I seriously LOVE our staff team. I say this a lot, but I hope you guys realize how GREAT those guys are. Unbelievable.
--- It was very weird telling the same jokes and stories three times. A couple times I said in my mind "Have I already said this to these people?" Apologies if I repeated anything. I actually really enjoyed preaching three times. I know, I'm a sick person! To me, it was easier to go three consecutive times, than to preach once and have to wait. Weird!
--- EASTER THIS SUNDAY! If you're an Elementer you need to invite someone to Easter services. I hope we pack that place out! We are doing a VERY cool illustration this Sunday and hopefully we'll be pulling off one of the most powerful dramas I've ever seen.
--- I was wacky in 3rd service. The energy was very high in that service. I was all jacked up with energy from already preaching 2 times. There is not much that gets me higher than preaching. I LOVE IT! I hope it shows. Be funny if I love preaching but no one wanted to listen.
--- Be praying for us as we're looking at another building option this week. If it worked out this would be a semi-permanent location but we'd no longer portable. It would service us for the next couple of years, depending on growth levels in the church. Portability in church is exhausting. Without some MAJOR superstar volunteers coming early and staying late we could not do what we do.
--- Well, thanks to Katie Sab and I enjoyed lunch by ourselves and have the afternoon to ourselves at home today. That means un-interrupted nap time, which is where I'm headed. If I think of anything else I'll post more later.
I love Element Church! Thanks guys.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Wind Chill = 9; Snow = 1/2 to 1 inch; Egg Drop? AMAZING
YO YO YO Element Church! Amazing what went down today. Absolutely amazing! That's Curtis (youth pastor) hangin' out of the chopper droppin' eggs. HOW COOL IS THAT? No one else but God deserves credit for what was pulled off this morning at Miller Field. Absolutely amazed. Here is what went down today. I need to be careful or I'll type WAY too long.6 AM got up and went right to the window. Much to my chagrin, there was a coating of snow on the ground, weather channel said 22 degrees with a wind chill of 9. I filled my coffee cup and headed down to the office to make some final preparations for today. (I fully expected to cancel the event at this time)
7 AM picked up Adam and drove trailer over to the field. It was VERY cold and everything was covered in snow. Within minutes volunteers were showing up. I looked at Adam and said "I don't think we can do this." Adam said "Bro, we've got to do it!" The volunteers said "What can we do to pull this off?" ...I paused and said "Shovels...LOTS AND LOTS OF SHOVELS". People made phones calls for shovels, others went home for shovels. Our thoughts were on shovels. The Sun wasn't even up at this point. I'm thinking "Will anyone show up?" HA, wow. What small thinking I have sometimes.
Our volunteers absolutely ROCKED IT OUT today. AMAZING! Seriously they did an unbelievable job pulling this off. We had 20 people shoveling a stinking football field. We shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. People received their assignments for game areas, cleared it with a shovel and set up their games. At 9 o'clock a line started forming. Gates didn't open until 9:45 AM.
The Sun was up, wind was down and it turned into a BEAUTIFUL day. By the time we dropped the eggs it was sunny and in the 40's. The line of people waiting to get in seemed to go on forever. Folks, over 2000 people came to the egg drop today. 1000 kids received a ticket and we know that many families bypassed the tickets and just came in. There may have been 3000 there. IT WAS PACKED!
The helicopter came roaring in and did an amazing job hovering and dropping the eggs. They flew over several times and the crowd screamed and yelled. So cool! The amount of people was overwhelming. We weren't prepared for that many. I'm so glad we ordered the extra 10,000 eggs to make it 25,000 total. After we cleared the field of snow we covered it with about 10,000 eggs.
After the chopper dropped the eggs the kids were chompin' at the bit to hit that field. When we did the countdown it was CHAOS! 1000 kids going nuts over Easter eggs. Some kids got WAAY to much while others who weren't as aggressive were short changed.
We gave away 4 Easter baskets, tons of candy, a video ipod, and a Nintendo Wii with a video chair. While we were standing there the YMCA director said "I'll throw in two 6 month memberships to give away." HA, that was crazy.
We're already talking about changes to make. No event is perfect by any means. There are MANY things we can do better. Now that we've done it once, we kinda know what to expect. We seriously may need 50,000 eggs next year. LOTS of people asked if we were doing this again. LOTS of people were VERY interested in Element Church. Our goal was not to get people to church, it was simply to serve the city and say "This is for YOU!" If no one comes to church because of it we'll STILL do it again next year, BIGGER AND BETTER!
If you were a volunteer today and have any suggestions for us as far as logistics, traffic flow, personnel, please email me and let me know. We need to start compiling a list of how to improve the event. I think the advertising worked. LOL
Two weeks ago we started planning this thing. TWO WEEKS! In two weeks God pulled a LOT together. WOW! I think for two weeks of planning it went pretty well. I felt bad for the pre-school area. They were overflowing. Also, I apologize for any families who were jipped on candy and eggs. I trust that the majority of the people had a GREAT experience today. In any event this big there are bound to be people who don't get a good experience. Our goal next year will be to make it smoother, more enjoyable and more successful.
If adding our third service tomorrow goes this well, I'll be a happy man. I was more nervous for this event today than any other event I've done EVER in church. I did not feel ready yesterday. Element E:Team, you guys ROCK! Thank you to all who helped out. Watch tonight on the 10 o'clock news for a report on the day. They were out there and interviewed me following the event.
Told ya I'd type too long. Praise the Lord for safety, good weather, amazing people and out of this world volunteers. We'll post pictures and video tomorrow! Adam is working on a vid for church in the morning.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Egg Drop Needs Filled
Hey Element Church! If I make it through this weekend it's going to be amazing. WOW do we have a lot in one weekend. Almost there! All the Egg Drop needs have been met and we are set and ready to go. We have a local concession wagon coming to sell refreshments (not sure if I shared that or not). Weather is going to be GREAT! (I'm trusting God. So should you. lol) I have thoughts of thoughts running through my head that I want and need to blog. With e:coustic, egg drop and Easter coming up, it's been a whirlwhind and the blogging has been lagging.
I love Element Church and can't wait for this weekend.
Following Christ,
Jeff
I love Element Church and can't wait for this weekend.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Egg Drop Needs
Hey Element Church! We're in need of a few supplies for the egg drop.
3 Wheelbarrows
3 Scoop Shovels
We'll be using these to pre-cover the field with 10,000 eggs before we drop the 15,000 from the helicopter.
2 motorized kids vehicles. We have 2 little motor cars donated for the event, we'd like to have 2 more. One of the basketball courts in the toddler area will become a motorized car area. (Motorized Mayhem we'll call it)
If I think of more I'll post it!
Following Christ,
Jeff
3 Wheelbarrows
3 Scoop Shovels
We'll be using these to pre-cover the field with 10,000 eggs before we drop the 15,000 from the helicopter.
2 motorized kids vehicles. We have 2 little motor cars donated for the event, we'd like to have 2 more. One of the basketball courts in the toddler area will become a motorized car area. (Motorized Mayhem we'll call it)
If I think of more I'll post it!
Following Christ,
Jeff
Egg Drop Details
Hey Element Church! Here are a few VERY IMPORTANT egg drop details.
--- PRAY LIKE CRAZY! lol Calling for sunny and colder on Saturday. 40's. Snow showers on Friday. I'll take sunny and 40's. Snow would not be good.
--- Mail invites hit the boxes today. We've already been getting calls from people about the egg drop. I think this can be a GREAT turnout.
--- VOLUNTEERS please wear your red Element shirt or a red shirt in general.
--- VOLUNTEERS please park farther away from Miller field so close spots are saved for attendees. 3rd or 4th avenue is good. Also, we've been given permission to park at Lenox Auto Body which is a few blocks from the drop zone. DO NOT PARK IN THE PARKING LOT!
--- VOLUNTEERS timeliness is a must. We'll be meeting at 8 AM and then breaking to our assigned areas. We are putting the final touches on placing people, mapping the area out, doing some city approval stuff and talking with the helicopter company.
--- They are bringing two helicopters. That is going to be cool. Both will be doing rides and then one will do the drop. The drop is going to be wicked sweet. Just talking with Curtis about it gets me excited.
--- We have a local concession company coming to sell refreshments.
--- I can't believe what we've pulled off in two weeks. We are INSANE to try it this late but I CAN'T WAIT!
If you are volunteering and have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me or call the office. Thanks to all who are helping. See you Saturday.
Following Christ,
Jeff
--- PRAY LIKE CRAZY! lol Calling for sunny and colder on Saturday. 40's. Snow showers on Friday. I'll take sunny and 40's. Snow would not be good.
--- Mail invites hit the boxes today. We've already been getting calls from people about the egg drop. I think this can be a GREAT turnout.
--- VOLUNTEERS please wear your red Element shirt or a red shirt in general.
--- VOLUNTEERS please park farther away from Miller field so close spots are saved for attendees. 3rd or 4th avenue is good. Also, we've been given permission to park at Lenox Auto Body which is a few blocks from the drop zone. DO NOT PARK IN THE PARKING LOT!
--- VOLUNTEERS timeliness is a must. We'll be meeting at 8 AM and then breaking to our assigned areas. We are putting the final touches on placing people, mapping the area out, doing some city approval stuff and talking with the helicopter company.
--- They are bringing two helicopters. That is going to be cool. Both will be doing rides and then one will do the drop. The drop is going to be wicked sweet. Just talking with Curtis about it gets me excited.
--- We have a local concession company coming to sell refreshments.
--- I can't believe what we've pulled off in two weeks. We are INSANE to try it this late but I CAN'T WAIT!
If you are volunteering and have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me or call the office. Thanks to all who are helping. See you Saturday.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Voice
Hey Element Church! Yesterday my voice was nearly completely gone. My throat is sore and I'm battling a small but annoying lingering cold. My concern is this Sunday I get to preach three times. I am VERY excited about e:coustic and the opportunity to reach new people but I have never preached three times on ANY day let alone three consecutive times with a 10 minute break. Normally I think I'd be totally fine, but with this cold and voice issues I need some prayer. SO, if you're out there and read this and are willing to lift me up in prayer, please do so. I preach a certain way (maybe that's a fault lol) but I don't want to let up one bit in any of the three messages and if my voice begins to go I may have to. Anyway, I trust God will have my voice ready and rested for Sunday morning.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Following Christ,
Jeff
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday Rumination (3-9-08)
Hey Element Church! Here are my thoughts on the day!
--- One person marked on their connection card that they received Christ today! PTL
--- MANY people responded through raised hand that they were a follower of Christ but wanted to be "wholehearted" in their devotion to Jesus.
--- We talked about Caleb today, who at 85 years old STILL was passionate about fulfilling his God given destiny.
--- God said of Caleb that he will receive the land that was promised to him because his "attitude was different than everyone elses". God said of him that he was "wholehearted".
--- I talked about "calendar challenged" people today. lol I LOVE Caleb's spirit in Joshua 14. At 85 years old he was PASSIONATE about his God. I want to have a faith like that. GIVE ME MY MOUNTAIN!
--- 336(?) in church today. I put the question mark cause can't remember if it was 331, 333, or 336 or some other 33#. It's in the 330's.
--- Band stinkin' ROCKED DA HIZZY today. Our new sound board and speakers made ALL the difference in the world. That new sound board is amazing. WOW!
--- We were much more even in the two services today. We've been HEAVY on the 9am attendance and slim pickins' at 10:30 lately. Today was way more even.
--- We got done with practice at 10 till today. That's a little to close for my comfort.
--- Our sound tech was sick today so I took on a much bigger set up role than I'm comfortable with. Thankfully Bryant and Curtis filled in on sound board. Thanks guys! You did a great job.
--- 15,000 eggs are going to fall from a helicopter this Saturday. Mailer should hit the boxes this week and we were in the paper yesterday and hopefully again this week.
--- Egg drop volunteers need to be there READY for the meeting at 8 AM.
--- I can't believe we are adding a third service on Sunday. Towards the end of my sermon today my voice just went for a few seconds. It was gone. I'm going to have to stop singing and talking until I preach. Crazy! Pray for me, Adam (and band) as we do the three services.
--- Easter already?
--- I hate the time change. Especially when the alarm sounds at 4 am.
--- Had several people showing up late for the services. I always think that's funny. How come no one ever forgets to change their clock on the day it would make them early to church? HMM...
--- I love speaking on purpose, destiny and passion. Life to its fullest fires me up. I think SO MANY Christians are content with wilderness living when the promise land is waiting for us to attain.
--- One of my favorite lines from today "Caleb received rest in his heart before he ever received the rest in the land." Joshua 14:10 Caleb says that God kept him alive the whole time that "Israel" wandered in the wilderness. Why not say we? I believe it's because Caleb didn't feel like he wandered. His spirit, his heart was at rest. He was WHOLEHEARTEDLY God's!
Alright, my put on more later. I'm going to Billings for some denominational meetings tomorrow and Tuesday.
Following Christ,
Jeff
--- One person marked on their connection card that they received Christ today! PTL
--- MANY people responded through raised hand that they were a follower of Christ but wanted to be "wholehearted" in their devotion to Jesus.
--- We talked about Caleb today, who at 85 years old STILL was passionate about fulfilling his God given destiny.
--- God said of Caleb that he will receive the land that was promised to him because his "attitude was different than everyone elses". God said of him that he was "wholehearted".
--- I talked about "calendar challenged" people today. lol I LOVE Caleb's spirit in Joshua 14. At 85 years old he was PASSIONATE about his God. I want to have a faith like that. GIVE ME MY MOUNTAIN!
--- 336(?) in church today. I put the question mark cause can't remember if it was 331, 333, or 336 or some other 33#. It's in the 330's.
--- Band stinkin' ROCKED DA HIZZY today. Our new sound board and speakers made ALL the difference in the world. That new sound board is amazing. WOW!
--- We were much more even in the two services today. We've been HEAVY on the 9am attendance and slim pickins' at 10:30 lately. Today was way more even.
--- We got done with practice at 10 till today. That's a little to close for my comfort.
--- Our sound tech was sick today so I took on a much bigger set up role than I'm comfortable with. Thankfully Bryant and Curtis filled in on sound board. Thanks guys! You did a great job.
--- 15,000 eggs are going to fall from a helicopter this Saturday. Mailer should hit the boxes this week and we were in the paper yesterday and hopefully again this week.
--- Egg drop volunteers need to be there READY for the meeting at 8 AM.
--- I can't believe we are adding a third service on Sunday. Towards the end of my sermon today my voice just went for a few seconds. It was gone. I'm going to have to stop singing and talking until I preach. Crazy! Pray for me, Adam (and band) as we do the three services.
--- Easter already?
--- I hate the time change. Especially when the alarm sounds at 4 am.
--- Had several people showing up late for the services. I always think that's funny. How come no one ever forgets to change their clock on the day it would make them early to church? HMM...
--- I love speaking on purpose, destiny and passion. Life to its fullest fires me up. I think SO MANY Christians are content with wilderness living when the promise land is waiting for us to attain.
--- One of my favorite lines from today "Caleb received rest in his heart before he ever received the rest in the land." Joshua 14:10 Caleb says that God kept him alive the whole time that "Israel" wandered in the wilderness. Why not say we? I believe it's because Caleb didn't feel like he wandered. His spirit, his heart was at rest. He was WHOLEHEARTEDLY God's!
Alright, my put on more later. I'm going to Billings for some denominational meetings tomorrow and Tuesday.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Friday, March 7, 2008
SPRING FORWARD!
Hey Element Church! No day where you are required to lose one hour of sleep should include the word "Spring". We talk about having a "spring" in our step. I got so much sleep I was able to "spring" out of bed. I love the sights and sounds of "spring". "Spring" is a positive word. Never the less, we are required tomorrow night to turn our clocks ahead one hour. I am blogging this so that as many of our Elementers who read this would remember. Also, I am officially changing the name of this day to "It sucks to lose an hour of sleep day"! LOL The great thing is, I'll be one hour closer to church when I go to bed. Only I need to be in bed by about 6 PM tomorrow night. PEACE
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Egg Drop Invite Cards
Hey Element Church! We got 2000 invite cards ready to go for the Cheyenne Egg Drop! We'll have them available Sunday for you to take and hand out. If you want to stop by the office and grab a stack we encourage you to do that as well. If you have kids ages that are 12 and under in school, have them take a stack to give out to all their classmates. Jonah is taking one to all of his classmates today. We have a limited time for the promotion of this event so your help in getting these invites out is HUGE! If you've signed up to volunteer for the Egg Drop, we are working today on putting each volunteer at a station. Someone will be calling you this weekend or early next week to tell you where you'll be serving and any instructions. Continue to pray for the weather next Saturday. The extended forecast now calls for being cold, with a mix of snow and rain. God can, and I trust WILL, allow this event to take place. (But even if he doesn't...)
Following Christ,
Jeff
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS!!
Hey Element Church! I apologize for the lack of blogging this week. My oh my, this time for us at Element I think is crazier than launch. Seriously, it is insane. Every day was like Christmas this week at the office. Because of e:coustic we have add to duplicate our sound system, computers, stage, EVERYTHING, so we get boxes every day all day from UPS and FedEx.
Adam and I took out as much of the stuff as we could to the other theater yesterday. We are able to store, pretty much ALL of our stuff at the theater which is huge. I am SO STOKED about our new sound system we're unveiling in e:worship this Sunday. We basically are taking all of our current equipment to e:coustic and we upgraded e:worship. New lights, sound board, speakers, etc. It is super sweet stuff. In fact, Adam, Morgan and I were on the floor laughing at how HUGE our new sound board was. We seriously may not ever have to buy another sound board as long as we're a church. It is stinkin' SWEET. And sounds amazing! Our current board had major problems so we had planned on upgrading anyway, before we even added e:coustic. I think the board is bigger than Pam (sound tech) and she's gonna freak when she sees it.
We have 25,000 Easter eggs sitting in the office. lol Boxes are everywhere from all this stuff we got going on. You can check out the egg drop website here. It's super simple but it gives us a web presence. Adam is doing a TON of stuff right now so just to get this up was a chore. Adam literally is a church planting stud. I don't know of another lead pastor that could find someone like Adam with his skill set to put on a team. He's been amazing! Thanks bro! He's so much more than a worship leader (although he's an awesome worship leader).
Weather is looking decent for the 15th. High of 43 and partly sunny. We seriously need to pray like mad for God to help us with the weather. I really feel as if God moved on our behalf for the drop. Free helicopter, great location, and I found out today that the newspaper is going to do some stuff on the event. Look for a news brief in this Saturdays religion section and an article next week as well.
I'm VERY excited about this weeks message and worship set. I actually got back on track in my schedule today and took the entire day to study. I need to get back to being strict about that. I typically take Wednesday and lock myself in my office and study study study! When I don't get that I suffer for it.
Ok, that gets you caught up a little bit. I know there is probably so much more but it is literally mayhem right now. LOL The crazy thing is, I LOVE IT! That's just how we roll.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Sunday Rumination (3-2-08)
Hey Element Church! March is here, Easter is just around the corner and we're starting three services with a 15,000 egg drop on the same weekend. That's how we roll.
Great service again today. Below are my ruminations on the day!
--- 6 people today acknowledged that they prayed to receive Jesus into their hearts. PRAISE THE LORD!
--- 15 -20 people indicated that they really felt challenged to "step it up" as a follower of Christ. That was cool.
--- Each week, regardless of what our topic is, we try to do some sort of spiritual decision time. I'm not sure we've had a service where we offered a specific time for a spiritual decision and not one person responds. That is the most important part of our service.
--- 366 in church today. I really feel like we've maxed out what two services is capable of handling. Before we hit 300 our staff felt like 350 was the most two services could accommodate. We've been over that three times in four weeks now. I'm really hoping that e:coustic enables us to see even more people come to church and to Jesus!
--- I LOVED our worship set this week! Adam and the band did incredible. God Of This City is my new favorite song.
--- Our scheduled drummer (Bryant) got called into work early this morning (search and rescue I believe. He's an AF helicopter pilot) so we didn't know what we were doing for a drummer. At least one of the songs HAD to have a drummer to really make it work. Adam called our other regular drummer and he came at a moments notice. We have two AWESOME drummers. So amazing who God has put on our team. Thanks Bryant and Brian for your faithful drumming. (Brian did awesome too. Without any practice)
--- During communion the band did another one of my favorite songs and it fits our series perfectly. It's called "Faith Like That" by Jonah 33. Amazing song and the band knocked it out!
--- The city scape set design looked great! Adam built 2 skyscrapers, we had chain link on the stage, stop lights and other stuff. It looked cool. Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon!
--- The lobby was set up different today and it looked and worked GREAT! We have a merchandise table now and a Life Group table. Putting a Life Group table in the lobby has REALLY helped us getting people signed up for groups. Not sure who's idea that was but it's working great!
--- If you are an Elementer and not in a Life Group, I encourage you to get in one. As the church is growing you need to be connecting with people in a smaller group. I am convinced that a church is NEVER too large if it has effective and healthy small groups. We're working hard to ensure that ours are effective AND healthy.
--- If you want an easy way to invite someone to Easter, use some of the Heroes invite cards we gave out today.
--- We have Egg Drop invites coming and will need your help in getting them distributed around town. We didn't order them on time because of the craziness of last week and trying to get the event finalized. If you have kids, send some with them to school to give to their friends. We're hoping for a HUGE turnout.
--- If you can help by serving on the team for the Egg Drop or by helping with supplies that would be great. We need several of the motorized kids cars to use in a pre-school game area. (The cars they can actually drive like the jeeps, corvettes, etc.) We need someone to build us a bean bag toss and ring toss game for the little tykes as well. (Or if you know where we can get those) And we need one of the kids basketball goals. We want a pre-school game area for the 3 and 4 year olds to participate in and we need those games. The older kids will have races to participate in.
--- We are THRILLED about this event and hope it's a wonderful service to families in Cheyenne. If you could help us spread the word that would be AWESOME!
--- Three services is gonna wipe me out.
--- Three services is gonna HYPE ME UP!
--- We pretty much have our e:coustic team in place. Could use a little bit more help with set up/tear down.
Alright, that's about it. I'll add more later. Off for my AWESOME Sunday afternoon nap.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Great service again today. Below are my ruminations on the day!
--- 6 people today acknowledged that they prayed to receive Jesus into their hearts. PRAISE THE LORD!
--- 15 -20 people indicated that they really felt challenged to "step it up" as a follower of Christ. That was cool.
--- Each week, regardless of what our topic is, we try to do some sort of spiritual decision time. I'm not sure we've had a service where we offered a specific time for a spiritual decision and not one person responds. That is the most important part of our service.
--- 366 in church today. I really feel like we've maxed out what two services is capable of handling. Before we hit 300 our staff felt like 350 was the most two services could accommodate. We've been over that three times in four weeks now. I'm really hoping that e:coustic enables us to see even more people come to church and to Jesus!
--- I LOVED our worship set this week! Adam and the band did incredible. God Of This City is my new favorite song.
--- Our scheduled drummer (Bryant) got called into work early this morning (search and rescue I believe. He's an AF helicopter pilot) so we didn't know what we were doing for a drummer. At least one of the songs HAD to have a drummer to really make it work. Adam called our other regular drummer and he came at a moments notice. We have two AWESOME drummers. So amazing who God has put on our team. Thanks Bryant and Brian for your faithful drumming. (Brian did awesome too. Without any practice)
--- During communion the band did another one of my favorite songs and it fits our series perfectly. It's called "Faith Like That" by Jonah 33. Amazing song and the band knocked it out!
--- The city scape set design looked great! Adam built 2 skyscrapers, we had chain link on the stage, stop lights and other stuff. It looked cool. Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon!
--- The lobby was set up different today and it looked and worked GREAT! We have a merchandise table now and a Life Group table. Putting a Life Group table in the lobby has REALLY helped us getting people signed up for groups. Not sure who's idea that was but it's working great!
--- If you are an Elementer and not in a Life Group, I encourage you to get in one. As the church is growing you need to be connecting with people in a smaller group. I am convinced that a church is NEVER too large if it has effective and healthy small groups. We're working hard to ensure that ours are effective AND healthy.
--- If you want an easy way to invite someone to Easter, use some of the Heroes invite cards we gave out today.
--- We have Egg Drop invites coming and will need your help in getting them distributed around town. We didn't order them on time because of the craziness of last week and trying to get the event finalized. If you have kids, send some with them to school to give to their friends. We're hoping for a HUGE turnout.
--- If you can help by serving on the team for the Egg Drop or by helping with supplies that would be great. We need several of the motorized kids cars to use in a pre-school game area. (The cars they can actually drive like the jeeps, corvettes, etc.) We need someone to build us a bean bag toss and ring toss game for the little tykes as well. (Or if you know where we can get those) And we need one of the kids basketball goals. We want a pre-school game area for the 3 and 4 year olds to participate in and we need those games. The older kids will have races to participate in.
--- We are THRILLED about this event and hope it's a wonderful service to families in Cheyenne. If you could help us spread the word that would be AWESOME!
--- Three services is gonna wipe me out.
--- Three services is gonna HYPE ME UP!
--- We pretty much have our e:coustic team in place. Could use a little bit more help with set up/tear down.
Alright, that's about it. I'll add more later. Off for my AWESOME Sunday afternoon nap.
Following Christ,
Jeff
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Egg Drop Weather!
Hey Element Church! Ok, here's where we are at. It sure seems God has helped us out in some Egg Drop details. The helicopter company doing the event for free is a HUGE God thing. The approval from the school district at literally the last minute for us I feel was a God thing. The company we got the eggs from was able to prepare 25,000 eggs. YES, 25,000! Now, I ask us to approach God in prayer for some good weather. Here is the forecast right now, 2 weeks out from the event. Obviously the biggest factor for us is wind and precipitation.
Today's weather was unbelievable. 66 degrees and very little wind. Let's collectively join in praying for good weather and a GREAT event!
Following Christ,
Jeff
Today's weather was unbelievable. 66 degrees and very little wind. Let's collectively join in praying for good weather and a GREAT event! Following Christ,
Jeff
New Series!
Hey Element Church! Tomorrow we start a new sermon series and I am REALLY excited about it. It actually has been weird preparing for it. It is a totally different feel from the previous two series'. Heroes, I hope will be inspiring and motivating for us to awaken the Hero within. Lurking inside all of us are Heroes of the faith. As we take an inside look at some Biblical heroes, what I hope we will see is that they were just like us. They were ordinary people living extraordinary lives because they believed in an EXTRAORDINARY GOD! We've got a worship song that is the theme for the series that is ROCKIN' MY WORLD right now! It's a song that I feel is exactly where Element is at. Adam has worked REALLY hard on a cool set design. As a portable, new and growing church we try to do some cool set designs on a budget. I think Adam could write a book called "Set Designs On A Budget". This one (I think he got it done) is going to be a cool fit for Heroes. Come as we look inside the lives of people like Esther, Caleb, Gideon, Jesus (Easter DUH), and one person who the Bible doesn't even give a name!
Following Christ
Jeff
Following Christ
Jeff
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