Gas Buy Down

12 05 2007

IT IS ON! Saturday, May 26th from 1-3 PM at the Exxon Big D gas station here in Cheyenne. We will be buying down the price of gas by .50 cents per gallon. Wish I could fill up. God has really opened up the doors on this one. Some people will ask about the cost/reward on this one. How many people will come to church from this? Maybe NONE! But this is the type of event that puts us on the scene. It starts to tell people who we are and what we will do. It labels Element Church as a church who is willing to do something TOTALLY out of the ordinary to show God’s love in practical ways. We have to get our church name out there somehow and we could pay LITERALLY thousands of dollars on advertisements or marketing to promote our church name. If I’m going to spend money I’d like to serve someone in the process. (Now there will be times when we just do an ad, but this is not one of those times) Since this is our first presence in the community it needs to be one of doing something for someone else. We’ve made some business cards to hand out (see below) with the intentionality of leaving off the location. This makes the person go to our website if they want to know where to get the cheap gas. We will do this on our press releases as well. I think this is a genius idea that we got from another church planter. People then see your web presence and can see what the church is about if they so choose. I’m fired up about this event. Please pray for good weather, for patient people, for the right amount of volunteers and for GOD APPOINTED CONNECTIONS. Pray that the right media outlets would pick this up to get our name out there. We’ll keep you posted on how this goes and have some pictures and video to share as well. (For some reason the website doesn’t show up on this image. It is correct on the card itself.)


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Categories : Church Planting, Marketing, Serving

Jonah

12 05 2007

Jonah went with me yesterday to the Soup Kitchen to help serve. Back in Gillette I had taken him one time to the soup kitchen and he hadn’t stopped asking to go back since. Two weeks ago he asked if he could go with me here. He said “Dad, do you know what I like most about the soup kitchen?” Thinking he would say something totally different he said “Serving people.” I immediately asked “What do we serve them.” I of course expected him to spout out “Food.” Instead he said something that made my heart leap. I don’t know if he knew what he was saying but he, without hesitating said “Jesus!”. He did AWESOME at the soup kitchen. He was in charge of serving the bread that was made. I really believe that little guy was serving Jesus yesterday. He ate lunch there, an ok ham and beans mixture in a bowl without complaining one bit. If you know Jonah you know he can be a hand full (or two hands full), but if you know Jonah you also know he can be one of the most tenderhearted and caring little boys there is. “We serve them Jesus.” I hope we remember that every time we serve.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Serving

Church In A Box

8 05 2007

Well, more like a trailer. Today we just got word from the North Central (I think that’s correct) Conference of our denomination that they are letting us use a portable church trailer, filled with supplies, that they had used in their conference. We were expecting to lease it, their annual conference agreed to just let us have it for a year, then revisit that a year from now. This is a HUGE blessing for us. Not only will we not have to invest in a trailer right now but it is filled with all sorts of supplies that we won’t have to invest in either. There are some sound system updates that we are making but for the most part everything in the trailer, we will use. It’s little things like this that remind us of how God provides and is behind all of this. When finances are limited every little thing counts. Thanks to the North Central Conference.


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Categories : Church Planting, Updates

Office pics

7 05 2007

Sabrina and Terri got the office all painted and we expect to have the carpet finished tomorrow or the next day. They got the floor floated and leveled out for the new carpet today. Below are some pictures of the work that was done. Jonah was a BIG help for Sabrina and Terri. I think he wanted to be in every picture. Can’t imagine where he got his need to be the center of attention. Once the carpet is done we’ll get some fresh pictures of the finished office. We are going to an auction on Wednesday of an office that is getting rid of their stuff. They are moving into a brand new building so buying brand new furniture. Hopefully we can save some money and find some stuff at the auction.


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Categories : Uncategorized

New Life Group being started

7 05 2007

This is cool to announce. One of the ladies (Katie) who started attending our Sunday night Life Group with her family is starting a new Life Group this week for women. She is going to head up a study through the book “Captivating” by John Eldridge and his wife. Today I received an email from her and she made up some cool invitation cards that the other women can hand out as invitations to attend the study. This hopefully is the start to Life Group multiplication. Part of our vision is to multiply ourselves. This includes personal evangelism, church planting, and the multiplying of Life Groups. It’s great to have people joining the group that have a heart to expand the Kingdom and the church. To take initiative and do the things that need to be done. This Life Group is meeting on Wednesday mornings at 10 AM.


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Categories : Church Planting, Updates

Update

7 05 2007

Our office is all painted and ready for new carpet. Sabrina and Terri worked crazy hard the last 3 days to get it all done. Props to them for their incredibly hard work. Friday night Keenan and Nate came out to help as well. I’ll get some pictures up of the office later today. We love our office. Really feel like it’s a God thing that we got it. Wednesday there is an office here in town having an auction selling off all their office furniture. We’re really praying that we can find a lot of our items at that auction.

Life Group last night was great. We had another new face there last night. They seemed to really enjoy the group. We feel if someone just gets to Life Group they won’t want to miss it. Our discussion time always seems to be very insightful and our “hang out” time went till 9 PM last night. Really connecting with one another. This summer we’re going to go either to our office or another smaller location to meet. Our basement is going to be too small once another couple or two comes.

Super Day is coming up one June 23rd. It’s a city event that the Parks and Recreation department puts on. Thousands (like over 10,000) people come out to this event. God has opened the door for us to be a feature event at Super Day. We are providing inflatable games to the event. We just found out that our church name will be in the promo brochure that the city puts together. Pete from Fun on the Go said that the line literally goes across the park for inflatable games. It’s going to be a great way to get our name out there that we are here to serve.


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Categories : Serving, Updates

Fun vs. Blessed

5 05 2007

MAN, I think if you read my blog you’re gonna get sick of Soup Kitchen follow ups. Seems like each time I work there God reveals something new to me. As I’m washing dishes, scooping out some salad, or rolling silverware in napkins, God continues to teach me or reveal to me some things. As I was working yesterday I started thinking about something. As I looked at my life, as I watch other people in the church and other Christians I realized something at least about myself. We are WAY more likely to serve if it’s fun. Generally in life we want everything to be fun. If it’s not, we don’t see it as a benefit. Don’t see it as a blessing. But especially when it comes to serving, if I don’t have fun it must not be for me. Doesn’t that then make it not a serving experience. Serving is NOT for me, it’s for THEM. It’s for our God. I realized this… The soup kitchen isn’t necessarily on my fun list, BUT it is ALWAYS a blessing. I leave blessed every time. I don’t know how you couldn’t leave blessed. I’ve also had fun but that’s NOT the criteria for serving. Lot’s of things in life aren’t fun, but they can be a blessing. I’m sure it’s not fun having a kidney replaced, but it’s definitely a blessing. It’s NEVER fun going to the dentist, but it’s a blessing. It’s not fun to be disciplined, but it’s a blessing. All of us have things in life that as we look back, they were DEFINITELY not fun, but man were they a blessing. Now, I truly believe this. If I go into a serving experience with the attitude of “for them, not for me” I think we actually end up having fun. I haven’t always thought that way in my life. Hmmm, maybe I used to think more of myself. How about you? Anyway, just some ramblings from a pastor. I wonder if I’ll have something to say after every soup kitchen?

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Uncategorized

Would you like to come speak to our small group?

3 05 2007

Is there sugar in syrup?… THEN YES! This is a very cool story. When we moved here, Sabrina became a Tastefully Simple consultant. And yes, it is VERY tasteful and simple. You can order the food from her web-site. Great stuff. I was so SO proud of her for stepping out and taking the risk to start her own business in the midst of a move, a church plant and a new baby. She is doing a great job getting started. Well, tonight she had a party at our house that another lady in town, the lady from the Cheyenne Welcome Wagon hosted. This story is gonna get too long so I’m gonna cut it WAY short. After the party one of the ladies that attended started talking to me about the church plant. She asked if we were trying to meet people, if we were meeting together yet. I told her of our Life Group on Sunday night’s and that we’ve met lots of people. She proceeded to tell me that they started a small group Bible Study when they moved here and they started connecting with other families that just couldn’t find a church to fit in. I think 6 families/couples attend this small group. She then asked me “Would you like to come speak to our small group about your church?” I was floored! What an opportunity. As I understood it only 1 couple has found a church. They are ALL still looking. Anyway, if my wife hadn’t taken the risk to do something WAY out of her comfort zone I never would have talked to this lady tonight and even had a chance to talk to her small group. She took a stack of my business cards and said she will “definitely” call me about speaking to their group. Now that is cool, I don’t care who you are. God’s timing is amazing! Be praying that I’ll get this chance to share with them the mission, vision, and values of Element Church.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Church Planting, Updates

Gas Pains

3 05 2007

Price of gas got you down? Us too! And if we feel that way, we figure all of Cheyenne does as well. SO we are going to provide a gas buy down for the community. Grant has had 2 GREAT conversations with the managers of Big D Oil (gas stations) here in Cheyenne. They are totally on board with what we are doing. Saturday, May 26th, we’ll be paying the price of gas down by 25 cents per gallon. We’ll pump the gas and wash windshields. We’ll then give them a connection card that will point them to our church web-site.

We got the idea from another church planter we met at church planters boot camp. I asked him what the return was on the investment. Did anyone come attend church out of it. He told me a great story. I won’t take the time to tell you all the details but I’ll give you the BIG stuff. The manager of the gas station was Indian and a Hindu. He loved the idea from day one. In the process of the gas buy down Mike (church planter) asked him if they went to church anywhere. He said “We don’t but can we be a part of your church?” He was so blown away that a church would do something like that, that he brought his whole family to Elk Creek church. They got saved and are a major part of that churches launching process. They are bringing other family and friends who are being taught about Christ as well. Really cool. Anyway, we loved the idea from the day we heard about it and think it’s a great way to serve the people of Cheyenne.

We could definitely use some help from anyone at HPCC who would want to come down for that day. We’ll be doing the buy down in the afternoon. 1 – 3 PM or 1-5 PM. Something like that. Haven’t nailed down timing details yet.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Serving

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