We have taken on some different church philosophies around Element Church. We have done this intentionally. As a new church with limited resources (money, people, time) we want to do our best to maximize our impact to the city of Cheyenne. Really all churches should have impact in mind when determining what and how they do things. So, here is my take of simple church and my missions philosophy.
Simple Church: We have chosen to pursue three main programs at Element Church. The Worship Experience, Life Groups, and Servant Evangelism (missions, outreach). Now there are a few exceptions of things that we do which revolves around these three things. For example: We have First Friday (prayer night for ministry of Element Church and the Cheyenne area on the first Friday of each month), The Tour (our connecting point for first time guests once a month), etc. Pretty much other than our three essentials we are going to say “NO” to everything else! There are lots of great ministries that we will probably never do because we don’t feel that’s what God has us here for. For instance: I don’t know if we’ll ever do MOPS program. Why? There are several churches doing great jobs with them already. Why don’t we support THEM in what they are doing. VBS: What if we volunteered our services to another churches VBS instead of adding another one to the PLETHORA already happening. It amazes me how many VBS‘ the same week were doing the same curriculum. Nothing wrong with doing those ministries, and it doesn’t mean we NEVER will, we just are choosing to focus on three main ministries. This allows our time, energy, and finances to be focused in three areas. It hopefully will help us maximize our impact.
Missions: In Acts 1 Jesus tells his disciples “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the world.” Now, I’m not saying this is Jesus’ missionary strategy but it is ours. We want to be good missionaries to Cheyenne (Jerusalem) first before we ever take our message and serving around the globe. I’ve said several times that if we aren’t good missionaries to our city FIRST we’ll never be good ones to another country. Our first calling is Cheyenne. That’s why we will put money and effort into organizations such as Life Choice Pregnancy Center, Needs Inc., and into serving the City of Cheyenne. Notice the scope of what Jesus said. Jerusalem (home city), Judea (area or state), Samaria (region, country), ends of earth. If each of us would work from that circle the ends of the earth will be reached. For far too long I think we’ve placed our major missionary efforts on overseas missions while the whole time the spiritual health of our countries, states and towns were fast deteriorating. SO, we as Element Church are going to pour efforts, finances and time here in Cheyenne. Please don’t tell me I’m not concerned about overseas works. My wife and I financially support missionaries in Brazil each month. WE WILL NOT NEGLECT OUR CITY. PERIOD! That is our missions strategy.
Our goal is to do one major outreach/service/serving project once a quarter to our city. We will fill in monthly things and things as they arise as well to serve Cheyenne.
There it is. Simple church and missions strategy. You maybe didn’t even want to know, but now you do. HA!
Following Christ,
Jeff
