Weekend Wrapup (Holy Hangover)

8 10 2007

Man, today has been a holy hangover. My brain is still trying to wrap around all that happened yesterday. The whole weekend was just incredible. It just blows my mind. We are getting pictures online that you will be able to see. That theater was PACKED with people. Here are some highlights from the weekend.

Friday night: What a POWERFUL night. 24 of us gathered at the office for a time of focused praise and prayer for launch Sunday. What an absolutely powerful time. The presence and direction of God was thick, as we prayed for our city, for each other and specifically for launch Sunday. We took communion together for the first time as a team. It was so cool to see these people that God has brought us on their knees weeping over the city and people they know. Prayers were confident, focused and intentional. We were specifically praying for 150 people and 5 salvations.

Saturday: OU beat Texas. Nuff said!

Sunday: I think I was more confident in praying this week than I may have ever been. Toward the end of the week there was just a confidence in God that was unexplainable. And boy howdy did God show up. We had 200 people in church on Sunday. 153 in the e:worship auditorium and 47 in e:kidz or roaming volunteers. 31 first time guest connection cards were filled out and 5 people indicated that they crossed the line of faith and became followers of Jesus yesterday. THAT is what it’s all about.

Here is a link to pictures of Sunday.

We gave out free bags of theater popcorn in the middle of my message yesterday. We had the popcorn popping as people were walking so the smell filled the lobby. Then we gave it out during the message as we were talking about cravings. It was a cool little illustration.

We added a couple of new elements to the stage set up. Used some tension fabric to highlight the platform. It REALLY made the stage pop. Added a couple of flat screen TVs just intended to be creative elements but they became a Godsend when we had to use the front row for seating and people used the TVs to read lyrics off of. Cool how God works even those little details out.

Out of the 200 people only 34 were out of town family and friends. That means that 166 people were from the Cheyenne area. I sent an email follow up to everyone who wrote down their email and already received 3 emails back saying they will be back in church this week.

Our offering was right at $1600. Don’t have the final count on that.

What’s next? What is that next step. We have definitely NOT arrived. This is only the beginning. We will be faithful to work, risk, love, and serve and I know God will be faithful to bring the harvest. What an amazing weekend. Pray for great follow up and for people to return. Looking forward already to Sunday.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Uncategorized

?

7 10 2007

I don’t know what to title this post. I am absolutely BLOWN AWAY. As I stood outside next to our trailer with a tear running down my face, I was amazed at how a dream that was born in my heart by God was now a reality. Today, seriously, could not have gone ANY better. I am truly amazed. Check this out.

- Total attendance 200. That’s right. 200 people came to our opening service. We haven’t done a final count but we are guessing 35-40 were out of town friends and family.

- We had 153 people in the adult e:worship theater. With our set up eliminating some seats we figured we could PACK 160 in there. We couldn’t have accommodated 10 more people. We had some of our team standing up the entire service. It was awesome to see.

- I just responded by email to 31 first time guest connection cards. 31? Are you kidding me. The marketing we did and the free pub we got seriously paid off. We had several people come because of the postcards in the mail. Another family from the magazine article. Two from the gas buydown. One guy came due to our flag football team (that’s cool). A couple more through the newspaper. Several friends invited people. And we had one from the billboards. AWESOME.

- Five souls crossed the line of faith today and became followers of Christ. THAT is worth it all. I counted around 9 who raised their hands today and said they received Christ. Five of them marked that on their connection card so we’ll be able to follow up with them.

- The Spirit was very heavy today. The band was absolutely SMOKIN‘ and totally led us into the presence of God today. The energy in the room was amazing. To see the place full was AWESOME!

- The lobby was packed with people before and after the service talking and hanging out. Our new set up with banners and set design in e:worship was off the hook. MAN, it looked good in there today.

- Our volunteers were out of this world today. They adapted to the business of what was going on and totally stepped up their game.

I am absolutely wiped out. I got a power nap in today but my mind was racing so much it was hard to even eat after service. I am exhausted. Can’t wait for staff meeting tomorrow. We are debriefing today and seeing what’s next. This is weird (and will be a post later this week) but I am totally not satisfied. I don’t ever want to be. Don’t get me wrong. I’m pleased. Incredibly blown away. But not satisfied. I’ve already been thinking today. How do we take this to the next level. Be praying for people to come back. We want this to continue, not just end today.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Sunday Rumination

19 Months: 7 Days Ago

5 10 2007

Right about 19 months and 7 days ago this adventure started. I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that we are actually starting this church, THIS SUNDAY! It seriously seems like it was just 7 months ago that this started, but it’s been 19. The excitement in the office yesterday was electric. For the first time in this whole process I got butterflies in my stomach yesterday. It was the same feeling I would get when playing sports in school, just that nervous anticipation. Here are some memories and thoughts of the last 19 months and 7 days.

— I’ll talk of this over and over till the day I die. February 28th, 2006 God confirmed to me through Scripture that we were to go and start a new church in Cheyenne. I asked Grant that day “Do you ever think about church planting?” His response “I think about it every day bro!” That 1 minute conversation started a course of adventure for us that will/has forever changed our lives.

— The Sunday I told Dan of this calling in my heart is a day in the process I’ll never forget. I went over to his house on a Sunday afternoon. He had to know something was up. I was scared to death, don’t know why. Felt the same way when I told my dad I was called to the ministry. Both Dan and my Dad are two the of the godliest men I know so being afraid doesn’t make sense. God had already been speaking to Dan’s heart about me leaving. That was amazing. He wasn’t surprised! The Lord had already prepared his heart for what I was going to tell him. Dan has been nothing but 100% supportive since then.

— Church planters boot camp. We attended boot camp in June of 06′ in Pennsylvania. I remember going through three emotions when we were there. “What in the world have we got ourselves into?” “Man, I think we can do this.” “When can we start, we can definitely do this!”
This is a church planter MUST. I don’t know where we would be were it not for boot camp.

— Result from boot camp. They had challenged everyone to be in your mission field for a year before launch. We were planning on coming here in June of 07′ and launching in September. Because of their advice, and the divine working of God in the hearts of HPCC and provision of a youth pastor for them, we were able to move here in February of 07′ which gave us a 4 month head start. We wouldn’t be ready to launch this week if we would have arrived in June.

— September of 06 Keenan and Katrina moved to Cheyenne. Again, one of those things that got us to where we are at today. They paved the way and made some key relationships for us in the community. HUGE step of faith for them to do that. They were here all lone for 5 months.

— October of 2006. Our first team meeting with Adam and Amber. Adam and Amber didn’t commit at that time but the Lord spoke to Grants heart and said “This is the first meeting of your team.” I didn’t look for anyone else. Adam was the first person that God laid on my heart to be our worship leader. I talked to him from October 06 to February of 07 before that punk agreed to come down here. LOL It was a huge step for them as well to leave Adams home church and the only place he had done ministry. God clearly paved the way for them as well with confirmations through friends, family and Scripture that this was God’s move for them.

— Adam joining the team just completed it all. I don’t know of anyone else on this entire team I would do things differently with. God brought us together for this calling. That amazes me.

— March 2007: 6 of us meet in a basement to start Element Church.
May 2007: Gas buydown serving over 200 vehicles
June 2007: Life Groups multiply from 1 – 3
June 2007: Unplugged worship service begins with 34 people
June 23, 2007: We serve thousands of people at Superday with inflatable games
July 1, 2007: First Preview 75 people
August 5: Second Preview
Sept. 29th: Gas Buydown, over 5,000 gallons and 480 people served.
Sept. 30th: Final Preview 78 people in attendance
Oct. 7th, 2007: ????? What will happen. This is not the end. This is not the day I see in my heart. In fact. I don’t see an end. The opportunities for God to work in Cheyenne are LIMITLESS. What will we do? Where will we go? Who will we reach? WOW! It is here. I can’t believe it.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Memories, Random, Updates

New Mover Cards

4 10 2007

Each month, outreach.com will be sending out invites to Element Church to all the new movers into Cheyenne. The over sized postcard is VERY well done with our info on it. It’s also personalized to the actual person being mailed to. On ours, the persons name is on the coffee cup. I posted pictures below of our cards. This month we sent out 200 cards costing a total of $178. We don’t do a thing. Outreach does it all. I don’t know why more churches aren’t doing this. You can cut it off at any number you want. So if you can afford 50 cards to go out, they will only send 50. You can do it by zip code, radius around church, etc. Very cool deal. Anyway, every month those will go out for us.


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Categories : Marketing

Launch Week Updates

3 10 2007

This week is really FLYING by. I cannot believe we are 4 days from launch. We are going to be doing some cool stage/set stuff this week. We’re trying to finalize that. Here are some stuff that has been going on this week.

— Our direct mail piece hit mailboxes today. Our family received one. Every home of 18-45 year olds in Cheyenne received an invite to Element Church this week. 8,049 to be exact. Thank you to Terri for finding Kinkos to get this done for us. It cost us more money but i think it’s worth it to get it out.

— Our “new mover” cards went out this past week. Through outreach.com we have purchased a new mover program. Each month Outreach sends out oversized postcard invites to all new movers in Cheyenne. It is VERY affordable and we are the only church in town doing it. IF another church decides to do it they cannot use the same design of card. I’ll post a picture of the card on here tomorrow. Outreach sent out over 100 cards this month to new movers into Cheyenne.

— We pumped 5,500 gallons of gas in four hours. 480 vehicles were filled up with gas. Got that report today. Kathy, from Big D Gas Stations, said they are receiving lots of comments and “thank yous” from people who attended. I’m convinced one of the families from this past Sunday was from the buydown. I STILL need to get the news highlights online for that. We have video footage too.

— Sermon is complete. Worship is finalized. Tweaks are made. Purchases are purchased. I feel good about this Sunday. We have a large contingent from HPCC coming down sounds like. The Search video and finale is going to be awesome.

— On Sunday we had the church write down names of people they want to see cross the line of faith. We then asked them to place the names in a bucket, sitting in a wheelchair, representing those who are spiritually paralyzed and need help getting to Jesus. One of the names that was put in the bucket on Sunday, told the person who wrote the name, that she got in her car on Sunday and just felt that she “needed to talk to God”. How cool is that? It was HUGE confirmation for this person who wrote their name, that God answers prayer and is in the business of moving people toward Him.

— We have 2 children dedications lining up and 2 folks who want to get baptized already. I’m excited about experiencing that for the first time.

That’s about it for now. I got a few things I really want to post on and am finding myself a little busy this week. Try to get them down.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Random, Updates

Weekend Wrapup

1 10 2007

I’ve already shared some of this on the Sunday Reflection post. Here are some thoughts on the weekend.

— Gas Buydown was phenomenal (I know, I like that word). Can’t wait to be able to do it again. People are amazed at us doing it. We typically have two types of people come out. Those who are totally out to get everything they can from you. One guy brought at least 3 vehicles through. And others who are absolutely grateful and appreciative. It blows me away that someone would come through the line and cop an attitude or be impatient. Some folks were asking when we were doing it again. Thought that was cool. I hope we develop a reputation of regularly doing things for the community.

— We’re currently working on something to give the kids that attend the Cheyenne City Goblin Walk. GASP! Goblin walk? All I can say is, every kid who attends the Goblin Walk needs Jesus and so do their siblings, friends and parents.

— Back to Gas Buydown. I’ll try and get footage on the blog soon. Things are a tad busy with launch week.

— Launch week. (How’s that for a segway) I felt great today about where we were at. Got a few bugs figured out from yesterday. Still a few things we’re trying to make smoother, but overall our service, I feel, is great! Love the way it flows and feels. Nothing spectacular about what we do, just like the way it flows.

— I can’t believe we are launching this Sunday. That blows my mind. So many thoughts about that. I was moved to tears Sunday when the Elementers came forward to write down on index cards, names of people they would pray for and do their best to help cross the line of faith. We placed those cards in a wheelchair representing the spiritually paralyzed people in our lives who cannot come to Christ on their own. Like the four men who lowered their friend before Jesus on a mat (Sunday’s sermon) to what lengths will we go to get people to Jesus? You SERIOUSLY need to watch how we ended our service. I think it was the most creative sermon illustration/ending I’ve ever done. We wanted to actually lower someone onto the platform, we settled for what you’ll see. Go to www.elementweb.net and click “watch and listen” to find the sermon video.

— We had 78 in church on Sunday. For not launching yet, I’d say that is pretty good. That is a new high at Element Church. I just called Terri to get the offering total and in typical Jeff fashion totally forgot what the number was. I know it was $1800 something. I think $1813.

— We are SO excited for launch. We have a couple of cool creative elements for Sunday that will add to the worship experience. We have some family and friends who will be coming in to celebrate with us. Pastor Dan and Liz will be coming from HPCC. A couple other families as well are coming down to support us.

— Man, I have so much more on my mind and heart right now but I know this has gotten too long. I’ll try and blog more about it later this week. If you’re an Elementer, I love you guys. If you’re a prayerful supporter, THANK YOU! If you’re a curious onlooker, stay curious. I don’t have any detractors yet, but if you’re out there, just stay silent. If you’re Bob Stoops, WHAT THE WORLD? GET THEM SOONERS IN GEAR!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Updates

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