Building altars!

6 08 2007

We have to be careful! I say it again WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL! There is a danger out there in the church world and I think it can become an altar. Something comes along and BOOM “We should do that. Look how everyone loves it.” People get excited over something done in church and we think “That’s it, that’s the ticket.” And we sometimes don’t ask if it should be in the church. I’m not pointing to anything specific or some “technique” in church but in this whole chase to be relevant and reach the culture there is SUCH a danger. I’m all for being relevant and reaching the culture. I’m all for pushing the envelope and CRUSHING the box. HOWEVER, where do I draw the line. I read this in my devotions this morning, check it out.

Exodus 32:3-5 “All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”

Aaron saw how excited the people were so he offered them what they wanted. BUT IT WASN’T RIGHT. NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY LIKED IT! Anyway, I just think we need to be creative, relevant and reach the culture without JUST offering what makes the people excited. There needs to be a filter in which we run everything through. “If we do this, can and will it bring glory to God and draw people into HIS presence.” It’s such a fine line. I want to be careful as I try to be relevant. I have one person to please and that’s it.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : church life, church planting, discipleship, personal, relevance

Weekend Wrapup Additions

6 08 2007

WOW! A couple of additions to the weekend wrapup. The office staff met today to evaluate our preview service. That’s always fun yet challenging. Asking the questions “What can we do better?” “What needs to be fixed?” “What did we do well?” Hard questions to ask sometimes but I think when we are offering the GREATEST news imaginable we want to package it in the BEST package possible. Anyway, couple things totally not about what we did wrong or right that I wanted to add.

— Our offering was $2118.61. Again, GO GOD! That is awesome! Several first time givers which we celebrate! Thanks God!

— We had 24 volunteers. Yeah TWENTY FOUR. And they aren’t just warm bodies to plug in, they are qualified, love the Lord, serve people, volunteers. We didn’t beg, plead, or have 47 sign up sheets. We said “You have an OPPORTUNITY to serve your church and to serve your God.” They took the opportunity. I hope we teach that well. Serving is NOT an obligation. It is NOT a duty. It is ABSOLUTELY one of the GREATEST opportunities we have as followers of Christ. To serve our God and serve other people.

Anyway, couple of extras for ya. CAN’T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, Weekend Wrapup, church planting, preview service, updates

Weekend Wrapup

6 08 2007

Had another GREAT Sunday at Element Church. Didn’t see the increase in attendance as I would have liked but we had a BUNCH of first time guests. Here are some thoughts and results from preview.

— We had 63 in attendance yesterday. At our last preview we had 75, that was with 18 out of town guests. I didn’t know what to expect.

— Our offering was over $1500. Largest yet. Go God!

— We had 4 families/individuals fill out connection cards as FTG’s (first time guests). At least two others were FTG but didn’t fill out a card.

— We had a HORRIBLE time setting up and specifically in the technical audio/visual area. It REALLY set us back time wise for the morning. It all came together and the service went great but MAN it was a frustrating morning.

— We have, already, an AMAZING group of volunteers. People helping at 6:30 AM loading up a stage. 7 AM had 8 people setting up (we need more). We had 6 or 7 volunteers on our first impressions team. We had several in the e:kidz department. We are off to a great start with volunteers.

— We added two stage pieces which were priceless. It enabled us to set up one whole corner for a drama that Keenan did. Keenan did a great job on a little monologue to set up my message.

— The theme for the day was “What will your story be?” Showed the video “The Martyrs Prayer” as part of my message. Adam and the band closed the service with an AWESOME version of Blessed Assurance. It wasn’t your mom and dads hymn that’s for sure.

— The band sounded great. WE HAVE A DRUMMER! One of the guy’s new to our church is playing drums for us. We added a drum shield which helped us control sound TREMENDOUSLY.

— Got a list of new things to work on. I’m glad we’re doing previews. Helps us tweak things that need to be tweaked. Learn from our mistakes. Get ready for our public launch.

— Can’t wait for Unplugged on Sunday. Hoping to see some of these new faces back. We have not had ONE week yet without a new face. That’s all we’re praying for. “Lord, bring us new faces.” At this point we just want to see and connect new people.

— Sept. 9th marks our next preview service. Starting that Sunday we will be in the theater every week. Please join us in praying that we outgrow the theater quickly. I WANT a space problem.

— On a side note…Can’t share a whole lot of detail but please also pray for the theater situation. Slight possibility that we won’t be able to stay there. Long story and lots of details but the future at this time is uncertain. Please pray!

That’s it. Thanks for following along. I probably forgot stuff that I’ll have to add later.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Weekend Wrapup, church planting, preview service, updates