2008 --- What's next?

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

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

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


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

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

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.

Unplugged

I couldn't sleep get to sleep last night. I dreamed of element all night long. I woke up at 5:30 am this morning and...I can't wait to have the same feeling again next week. I'm a nervous dreamer. When there is an event or something in my life I dream about it A LOT! I don't think it's worry but a nervous anticipation. Today at 10 AM element unplugged takes place. A non-church, church service. Starting this week we are multiplying our Life Group into three groups which means we won't all be meeting together as a large group each week. So we started Unplugged. We are renting a room in the Holiday Inn Convention Center and we'll worship together, get to know one another and we will be going through a series called "Why?" Each Sunday this summer we'll be asking three questions: 1. Why are we (element) here? 2. Why am I here? 3. What do I do? We'll be applying these three questions to our mission, vision, essential ministries and core values. We could have 8 people today, or we could have 40 I don't know. I counted about 40 people who have been to our events and expressed interest in being a part of Element. God gave me a verse this week that I thought was great for us. I was finishing up the OT prophets for my devos and Zechariah 4:10 leaped off the page: "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabels hand." Today is a small beginning of something God wants to do. (I know it began before today but...) Today actually feels like church. It feels like home. It feels like "This is what we are here for!" To connect people with the Life in Christ and to help them follow Him completely. In my Oswald Chambers thoughts for today (I'll close with this) he made this incredible statement. "Experience is a gateway, not an end. Beware of building your faith on experience...You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make him homesick for what you have." LIFE

Following Christ,

Jeff