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

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

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

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

Cheyenne Egg Drop Almost Became Soup

Get it? Egg Drop Soup? Ok, not funny I know. Hey Element Church! What a ride it's been in our office the past two weeks. A little insane, even for my crazy taste. My personality typically is, if something isn't chaotic, let's change it to make it so. The past two weeks have needed none of my messing with stuff. With the rapid growth, three services, and a major outreach event it's done it all on it's own. We were on a roller coaster with a building situation thinking we'd found something then crash and burn. Thinking we'd found something then crash and burn. Then we get confirmation on doing this SWEET event called the Cheyenne Egg Drop, where we drop thousands of eggs from a helicopter in the sky before our Easter egg hunt. We had talked to the helicopter company 2 months ago and they had agreed to do it. We had petitioned for a place to do it here in town but felt it just wasn't going to work. Then on Thursday, we find out we'd been given a place. CHAOS ENSUED as we in the office try to pull together a 15,000 egg Easter event, with a helicopter drop, prizes, games, supplies, etc. all completed before Sunday. WE DID IT! And then loop # 30 in our roller coaster ride hit on Monday afternoon when the helicopter place backed out. YES, after a couple months of feeling great about it, they all the sudden got cold feet. PANIC set in as we realized a mailer was getting ready to go out to roughly 7,000 homes, 15,000 eggs were on their way (pre-stuffed), and 48 volunteers had already signed up. An event cancel was in progress. Tuesday morning Adam said "We should just call some other companies". I said "Dude, it's too late in the game." Well, my employee didn't listen to me, AND I'M GLAD! Adam got a return call last night (Tuesday) from a company out of Denver. The dude is going to do it, AND POSSIBLY DO IT FOR FREE! WHAT? Yeah, he was SO excited to help us out. He's a helicopter instructor and loves doing community events like this. As of yesterday, he said if we would allow him to charge for rides at the event, he'd come up and drop the eggs for free. CRAZY. So then today, IT WAS BACK ON! We're still waiting on final word from the chopper CO. but it seems as of now we're ready to roll. The mailing house is awaiting our word to send the invites out. We've ordered a TON of invite cards for you Elementers to take and use around town. Anyway, PRAY that if God wants us to get this done, it'll get done. It's going to be such a FUN event, I hope we can pull it off. Our new statement around here lately has been "That's how we roll!" And chaos, seems to be how we roll!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Adopt-A-Mom Updtate

As you may know, Element Church adopted four moms through the Life Choice Pregnancy Center here in Cheyenne. These women were counseled by Life Choice and have chosen to give life to, and keep their babies. These are four moms who were in need for Christmas and we wanted to come along side them and give them a holiday they could remember. We received MANY donations of gifts and currently have received $940 to offset some of the costs of providing these moms with their needs and gifts. Elementers, you did a FANTASTIC job. Last night some Elementers got together to wrap gifts and here is are some pictures of that. Click on the slide show to view them in a larger format.



Also, another Life Group has picked up another needy mother and family to provide Christmas for. That makes a total of 6 families that Elementers will be providing Christmas for. GO ELEMENTERS!

Sermon Series and community outreach

For those of you on the "inside" here at Element Insider you're going to get the sneak peak of our upcoming series. We'll be promoting it this Sunday at church. January 6th - 27th we are going to be doing a series called "Deal or No Deal" and talking about finances. In fact the first two sermon series of the new year are going to be topics that are literally drowning our society. Money and sex. Along with our Deal or No Deal series, we are going to be offering a FREE, one day Dave Ramsay financial seminar. Adam just got off the phone with a guy, who along with his Dave Ramsay certified brother, will be doing a full day's seminar on finances. Element Church is going to provide this seminar completely free to those in the community who may need a day like this. The seminar is highlighted on our new mailer going out, as well as our invite cards we got made. We'll also be doing an advertisement in the newspaper leading up to it. We'd like to launch a "Financial Peace University" Life Group following the event if we have enough interest, as well as someone to lead it. Below are the graphics for the invites of the upcoming series. All of our invites are done in a "rave card" size (3.5" x 3.5"). We order them from 48hourprint.com and their custom size options. VERY affordable.

Did you shovel?

It snowed today which meant for all you Elementers you had your first chance to shovel, not only YOUR driveway, but your neighbors. That was the challenge at least.

This morning I took Jonah outside and we began shoveling. I started with our neighbors sidewalk and driveway. It was very nice to tell Jonah "We're doing this just to be kind to our neighbor." Our neighbor was not home and has no idea we shoveled. Later in the day I went out front and Jonah, all by himself, was over there doing his best to shovel off the new dusting of snow that had fell. Loved seeing that. I want to raise children who WANT to serve and give.

As we were shoveling this thought/question entered my heart and mind again. Is being out here with Jonah about him really helping remove snow? NO! He doesn't accomplish much snow removal. I have to go back and shovel over his rough spots. What's it about then? It's about BEING WITH ME, and me being with Him. We need to remember that when God asks us to do something. It's more about BEING with Him than us HELPING Him. When Jonah is out there it's about him learning, bonding, loving. It's not about snow removal. When I'm "out" with God, it's about learning, bonding, loving. That is the MAIN GOAL anyway. At least how I see it.

Random Acts Of Kindness Idea

We started something this month that we will continue each month, and it's called "The Random Acts Of Kindness Idea For The Month". Serving is a key part of what we want to do at Element Church but I believe sometimes we wait for the next church sponsored community outreach or missions project to do something. What if we just started serving our neighbors as part of our lives? So we want to give monthly practical ideas to try and get us in the habit of serving. This months idea is to shovel your neighbors driveway and/or sidewalk. Just make sure it snows first.

We showed this video to promote our first idea. We chose the windiest day of the week to film, and as you'll see, it effected the video juuuuuust a tad.

Simple Church and Missions Philosophy

We have taken on some different church philosophies around Element Church. We have done this intentionally. As a new church with limited resources (money, people, time) we want to do our best to maximize our impact to the city of Cheyenne. Really all churches should have impact in mind when determining what and how they do things. So, here is my take of simple church and my missions philosophy.

Simple Church: We have chosen to pursue three main programs at Element Church. The Worship Experience, Life Groups, and Servant Evangelism (missions, outreach). Now there are a few exceptions of things that we do which revolves around these three things. For example: We have First Friday (prayer night for ministry of Element Church and the Cheyenne area on the first Friday of each month), The Tour (our connecting point for first time guests once a month), etc. Pretty much other than our three essentials we are going to say "NO" to everything else! There are lots of great ministries that we will probably never do because we don't feel that's what God has us here for. For instance: I don't know if we'll ever do MOPS program. Why? There are several churches doing great jobs with them already. Why don't we support THEM in what they are doing. VBS: What if we volunteered our services to another churches VBS instead of adding another one to the PLETHORA already happening. It amazes me how many VBS' the same week were doing the same curriculum. Nothing wrong with doing those ministries, and it doesn't mean we NEVER will, we just are choosing to focus on three main ministries. This allows our time, energy, and finances to be focused in three areas. It hopefully will help us maximize our impact.

Missions: In Acts 1 Jesus tells his disciples "...and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the world." Now, I'm not saying this is Jesus' missionary strategy but it is ours. We want to be good missionaries to Cheyenne (Jerusalem) first before we ever take our message and serving around the globe. I've said several times that if we aren't good missionaries to our city FIRST we'll never be good ones to another country. Our first calling is Cheyenne. That's why we will put money and effort into organizations such as Life Choice Pregnancy Center, Needs Inc., and into serving the City of Cheyenne. Notice the scope of what Jesus said. Jerusalem (home city), Judea (area or state), Samaria (region, country), ends of earth. If each of us would work from that circle the ends of the earth will be reached. For far too long I think we've placed our major missionary efforts on overseas missions while the whole time the spiritual health of our countries, states and towns were fast deteriorating. SO, we as Element Church are going to pour efforts, finances and time here in Cheyenne. Please don't tell me I'm not concerned about overseas works. My wife and I financially support missionaries in Brazil each month. WE WILL NOT NEGLECT OUR CITY. PERIOD! That is our missions strategy.

Our goal is to do one major outreach/service/serving project once a quarter to our city. We will fill in monthly things and things as they arise as well to serve Cheyenne.

There it is. Simple church and missions strategy. You maybe didn't even want to know, but now you do. HA!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Christmas Outreach and outreach thoughts

Hey Elementers! Don't forget to go to Wal-Mart or Target and start supporting the moms and their families that we are providing Christmas for. Reagan has done a phenomenal job of setting all of this up. We have found needs, wants and desires for these moms. All four moms are soon to have, or recently had children in which they chose LIFE for those Children. We found the moms by partnering with and working through LifeChoice Pregnancy Center. Check out their web-site and see what they do. They are an awesome organization. Element was one of a few churches who sponsored tables at their recent fundraising banquet in October.

We are not supporting these ladies to get them to Element, or even to get them to Christ. We ARE doing this to BE Christ to them. To be the hands and feet of Jesus. That's all. Would we welcome them at Element? YES! Do we want them to receive Christ? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! Simply put, this is part of going to our Jerusalem. Being missionaries to our city. I'll be posting tomorrow on my missions philosophy.

This outreach may not be a gas-buydown in which hundreds of people are served and the news airs it and the city reads about it, but that doesn't make it any less outreach. We are meeting a practical need for some moms who are IN need. Sometimes our serving the city will be a big project. Other times it will be smaller. EVERY TIME it will help bring life to individuals and to our city.

Starting in January we are going to be on the ground floor of a new program to help keep the food pantry stocked at "Needs Inc." here in Cheyenne. Needs is a community non-profit serving the needy of Cheyenne. I'm not sure I'm at liberty to share details but I will when I can. We are the first church in on this program and it will be a HUGE service to this community group and to the needy of Cheyenne. NEEDS also knows they can include us in any service needs they may have.

We are continuing to develop our relationship with the City of Cheyenne. We have asked to be involved in the Easter Egg hunt again this year and even added an idea of our own, that if pulled off, would seriously be the BIGGEST Easter egg hunt this city has every seen. (Not sure the city is on board with the idea...we'll see) We have offered our service to the city, not only at events, but to clean parks, clear brush, paint over any vandalism (graffiti), etc. We want to serve... just to serve.

Anyway, I don't want to just give from our church during the Holidays, but all year long! We are starting our ability to do that. We are 8 weeks old and we have provided inflatable games for the city Easter Egg Hunt (snowed out), held one gas buy down (2 hours, 200 vehicles), provided free inflatable games at the city SuperDay, held anther gas buy down (4 hours, over 400 vehicles), provided prizes to the city Goblinwalk, Sponsored three tables at the Life Choice fundraiser, adopted 4 moms and families to provide for Christmas, and starting in January, this new NEEDS Inc. food pantry deal. I'd say we are building this into our DNA. Wouldn't want it any other way. And we're not done yet. Still developing other ideas and always open to knew opportunities to serve.

Following Christ,

Jeff