Billboards

Here is a picture of our first billboard to go up on Lincolnway. We have four of them, all on MAJOR roads (South Greeley HWY, Dell Range, Pershing and Lincolnway) We're taking a big risk in doing these billboards in that we're not putting our church name on the sign at all. We want people to get to the web-site out of curiosity and see what we're doing. Just a simple yet creative way to direct people to our web.

(click on the pictures to see a much larger view)

Email

Got this email from someone who attended Element this past weekend. Always encouraging to hear good reports. (Names have not been included to protect the innocent)

Hey Jeff,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say how impressed we were with Element on Sunday. It looks like you've got a great crew to support you. We were also happy to see a few familiar faces there!

It's apparent that you're busy, but would love to get together with you sometime for coffee or something?

Weekend Wrapup (WE HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN?)

HA, Can't believe we have church again in 6 days. It's been 7 months since I had to get ready for a full church service in consecutive weeks. I'm glad we have church again. I love what we're doing. I love Cheyenne. I love Element Church. Can't imagine doing anything else. Here are some highlights of this last weekend. Lot's of stuff in this post. Hang on!

--- OU won 51 - 13 over Miami! Look out for my Sooners!
--- Jonah had his first flag football game Saturday. That was hilarious. Kids pulling off flags of random players who don't even have the ball. They don't quite get it at 6 years old. Running the wrong direction simply to avoid the other team.
--- We had 63 on Sunday. Three new families were there. Our offering was $1699.71. I really hope having successive previews will help us gain some momentum and keep people coming back.
--- We worked (especially Adam) SO STINKIN' HARD on getting our CSI video done for this week. We entitled it "Search". It is VERY good. Adam rocked da hizzy on getting it edited. The service went great, worship ended, we fired the video before my sermon, and 15 seconds in the whole thing FROZE! I walked on stage and said "SURPRISE!" Got a few awkward laughs. It STUNK. So now we're gonna show two videos this week. It better work. Keenan, Grant, Adam and I put WAY too much time into this thing.
--- We're still working on some tweaks in transitions in the service. Feel I need to do better in preparing people for transitions. We're getting better. That's on me.
--- I'm VERY excited about the sermons for the next few weeks. Can't wait to get into church again.
--- With Nicole as the manager at Carmike now it is even better. We were into the theater before 7 AM and done setting up by 8 AM. Had a couple MAJOR tech issues but had time to figure them out.
--- We started our launch day promotions today and have four billboards going up. Check below for what the billboards will look like. Or go here www.dontmissit.cc

--- We have t-shirts made and invite cards that look like that, along with the four billboards.
--- Our new web-site is up. www.elementweb.net
--- Our new podcast is up. You can link to all of our videos through the web and go to our podcast on the web too.
--- WE'RE DOING ANOTHER GAS BUYDOWN!! We wanted to serve the community again in that way and thought we'd do one the week before launch. Again I'll say, if we're gonna spend money on promoting the church, let's serve people in the process. THIS IS PART OF OUR DNA! Saturday, Sept. 29th we will be doing a four hour gas buydown. We want to accommodate more people so we're going bigger!
--- Trying to think what else happened. It's been a whirlwind 2 weeks since our last Unplugged. I told you there would be a lot in here.
--- Well, think that's about it. Thanks for following along. We'll keep you updated through the week as we approach launch. October 7th is 4 weeks away. CRAZY!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Friday Night Lights

No not high school football but watching the stars on the trampoline. I mowed the lawn tonight and kept an eye on the kids as they played on the tramp while Sabrina worked in her office. As I was finishing up around 7:30 PM I thought how cool it would be to get on the tramp and see if they would watch the sky turn dark and stars show up with me. THEY DID! It was a blast. We spotted the first star at about 7:40 PM at about dusk. As it grew darker the kids were amazed at the stars popping up. Makalah laid on my chest nearly the entire time (how can you go wrong with that? My little care bear cuddling on a cool night). Mariah couldn't stop asking if "bad guy's" could get us in the back yard. And Jonah couldn't stop asking if he could sleep out there. To be honest I didn't think he would do it. The pictures below show otherwise. He got all bundled up (getting down in 40's here now overnight) and got the sleeping bag and a flashlight and hit the tramp. He fell asleep in about 20 minutes. These pictures are great. It was just a cool time with the fam tonight. Mariah was freakin' when she went to bed. Still thinking bad guys were gonna get her brother. I should hide Jonah and tell her in the morning that they did. HA! Now that would be funny.

Really Cool!

Over a month ago I sent a press release to the local newspaper about this "new church" starting and the preview service we were getting ready to do...Nothing happened. A week ago I had Terri send another one I had written about this "new church" starting and the upcoming four preview services we were doing. And again...nothing! UNTIL today.

Adam and I were sitting in his office working over lunch on the video for preview service. (Adam was working...I was looking over his shoulder making him change things, HA) The phone rang and it was Brandon from the newspaper. Brandon in the lead reporter for the religion department at the paper. He asked if he could come and hang out with us during our previews, take some pictures and interview us. They want to do a FEATURE article on us and our new beginning for the paper. HOW COOL IS THAT? I'm not sure if it will be a feature for the "whole paper" or one for their religion section that runs on Saturdays, but either way it's free pub and an answer to prayer! God could not have treated us any better in this whole process. I shouldn't be, but I'm amazed at all he's given us. Wow!

Following Christ

Jeff

Almost there...

Wow, I am getting excited. Adam has done just a FANTASTIC job on getting this video done. He's been putting in WAY over what is expected. Just a couple things I thought I'd put on here that we're doing.

For our FTG's we wanted to welcome them with a great gift, something maybe out of the ordinary that other churches don't do. So we are getting Nalgene water bottles made with our logo on them. They'll look like this.

Inside the bottle will be two movie passes to the Carmike Theater, a flyer about Life Groups, 3 invite cards, a pen with our info and a postcard. The postcard is cool. We wanted a written note from me to go to the guests but I can't write that many notes, so I wrote a note, we scanned it as a picture and got them printed onto postcards from www.overnightprints.com. We then put on the back a "to do list" that is kinda cool. Anyway, posted those below.

Just a few random things for ya. I can't wait to preach this week. REALLY excited about what we're looking at. Please pray that all our loose ends get tied up. We've got a lot accomplished but also a lot left to do.

Following Christ,

Jeff

Preview Invite Cards

Our series for these September previews is called CSI: Critical Scenes Investigated. We will be looking at some critical scenes from the Gospels and answering the question "Who is this Jesus we say we're all about?" Nothing we are doing in the series really has anything to do with CSI the tv show. Just liked the title. HA Anyway, here are some invite cards that we got made up. Adam did a great job with them.

(Front)

(Back)

Theater Update

I put in the weekend wrapup that the theater we meet in was getting a new manager. Nicole, who is the current Assistant Manager, had put in to be the GM. We REALLY wanted that because someone coming in that had no vested interest in us could just shut the door on us. I called Nicole today to make sure we were still on for this Sunday and found out that she had just been named the manager. SO, for the time being everything is still the same. She now has say in what happens but has been GREAT to work with so far as an assistant. We assume everything will carry on as it was but your prayers are still appreciated. This is a HUGE praise the Lord and answer to prayer.

Following Christ

Jeff

Weekend Wrapup

This weekend couldn't have come at a better time. We strategically took this Sunday off. We've been doing Element Unplugged since June 10th, and REALLY pounding, maybe instilling is a better word, the vision of Element Church into our people. With 4 consecutive previews coming up and launch around the corner, a weekend for everyone to just "chill" was needed. I needed it. This past week I was exhausted. I think I put in more hours last week than I ever have in the ministry. Keenan put in hours above and beyond his job... Grant put in extra time... Terri (does this every week, she is doing AWESOME)...and Adam put in a lot of extra as well. He's been working at home on web-design and videos. I am SO excited about who God has brought us. I can't imagine doing this with anyone else. Here are some thoughts on the weekend and upcoming events.

--- We went to a church in Laramie today. My heart kind of hurt today. This 5 year old church plant is going through some VERY difficult times. It was a good warning to me as lead pastor about what can happen. To be on our guard. No moral failures or anything, but it seems just some MAJORLY burnt out leaders.

--- We had an all church BBQ today at on of our families houses. Had a GREAT turnout. Cooked burgers and dogs, played volleyball and badminton and had great conversations. It was the first extended time of getting to know people that a lot of Element people had. Usually it's 5 minutes before and after Unplugged. Tonight was good!

--- Labor Day tomorrow and then IT'S ON getting ready for previews. It will be weird cause we're doing church every week now in the theater. No more one month planning. I CAN'T WAIT!

--- I keep saying we have some big announcements to make. I'll be posting those here this week.

--- Got word yesterday that the General Manager of our theater where we meet was fired. They will either hire the current assistant manager or bring someone from Fort Collins. PRAY PRAY PRAY That Nicole (Assistant Manager) gets the job. If someone new comes in they would have say on whats done with us and Shawn was giving us a KILLER deal that I'm not sure someone else would continue to do. Nicole would, so pray for her. We are going to work on a plan B this week "just in case".

--- Don't know what to expect for this Sunday. We have an AWESOME core group, God will only build on that.

--- OU won 79-10 yesterday. The best opening game I've seen them play in a LONG time. Can't wait for Saturday again. I love college football. Nothing like it.

Thanks for following. Please pray for us this week. Keep following along.

Following Christ,

Jeff

All is right in the world again

8 AM - College Gameday on ESPN
10 AM - First college football game of the day
5 PM - First OU football game of the season

Got my Jersey on. All my kids have their OU stuff on. Good games already on TV. I love this time of year. My favorite! lol

Jeff