Sunday Rumination (12-23-07)

23 12 2007

One more week of 2007 and then we’re OFF to a new year. We’re kickin‘ off the new year with two GREAT sermons series that will literally take head on two subjects that are debilitating our country. Finances and sex. I’m VERY excited about both of those series to see what God has to teach us.

Here is the rumination on today.

— Don’t know the final count (need to confirm with Adam and Grant), but there at least 5 people at 9 AM and another 5 at 10:30 that acknowledged they accepted Jesus into their hearts today. I can’t tell you how important that is to the life of a church. Churches need to offer a consistent opportunity to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. Very exciting to see people acknowledge that decision.

— We had more money come in today to add to the over $940 that had already come in for the four moms we adopted. That money went to offset the cost of purchasing many of the items that Element bought for the families. Three of the families gifts have been delivered and our family is delivering the last one tonight. So far the families have been overwhelmed by your generosity. Our Life Group adopted another family as well and we’ll be delivering those gifts tonight too.

— All total, we supported 6 families (4 through the church and 2 others from Life Groups). Grants Life Group went and worked at the Comea Shelter last night and also took some milk in for them. Grant met with the directors there and they said their two biggest needs are $$ and milk.

— 218 in attendance today. Didn’t know what to expect for our first Christmas weekend. Typically you either see a LARGE increase or decrease. We were about the same as the previous weeks up some from last week.

— Terri told me the offering but I already forgot the #. I know it was over $3000. $3300 maybe. lol It was a good offering. Nice to be consistently in that area. As stated before, we also had some more $ come in for the adopt-a-moms. Can’t wait to do more of that.

— We had a great set up team today. Set up was quite possibly the best we’ve had. Done in plenty of time and gave the band ample time to practice.

— Band…Another fantastic job in leading worship today. Adam opened the service with an original rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Instrumental). It is a really cool version (Dare I say Phil Keaggy like?). Leigh, one of our new vocalists ended O come O come Emmanuel with a kickin’ solo. He really let loose in 2nd service (wish we had the video of that).

— 2nd service…wow, 2nd service was unusual. I think it was one of those moments where God allows stuff to just foul up to remind us that it’s not about us. In the middle of Adam’s opening song we lose ALL power to the sound board and computers. That means ZERO amplification for the guitar, for vocal, for ANYTHING. Adam was on an island of uncomfortability. Pam (sound trainee) went running upstairs to check the breaker. Wasn’t it. I was on the floor under the computer table checking the power strip. NOTHING! Adam was ad-libbing on stage getting ready to do his best Backstreet Boys accapella rendtion of O Holy Night. FINALLY after what seemed like 10 minutes (probably 2) we figured out that the extension cord had come out of the wall out in the hallway killing the power to the sound board and computers. Then the theater projector wouldn’t come back on. Somehow it just popped on right when we needed it. It was BY FAR the biggest interruption I’ve ever experienced in church. Thankfully it wasn’t during an intimate worship song or the sermon. Everyone laughed (hopefully with and not AT us) and was very understanding. It was definitely an awkward moment.

— I’m going skiing tomorrow with Jonah. That is his Christmas gift from us. Sabrina took the girls to Princess Wishes On Ice recently for their gift. I love spending time with Jonah like that and watching him enjoy life. He is in a spiritual inquisitiveness mode lately. He asked how old Jesus would be on Tuesday. How do you explain that really, He always has been, but that he came as a man 2000 years ago? Fully human, fully God! Explain that to a 6 year old. He’s been asking a lot of spiritual questions lately. We try and answer them as best we can. He asks questions about heaven and hell a lot. He’s very concerned that people actually go to hell. I hope that concern makes him into an effective witnesser for Jesus.

— Jaydah turned one today. We are celebrating her birthday tonight with some friends who are really more like family to us. Every Sunday night we get together with Grant and Terri Clark, Ben and Jill Roberts, and Jen and Brian Thomas. Being so far from our family the Clarks and Roberts’ soon became like family to us in Gillette. Jen and Brian have recently joined the clan and we are glad to have them. We have a blast hanging out together. It’s a good way to unwind on a Sunday night.

— Ok, I need to load the Suburban with the gifts we’re delivering. I’m excited to help these families. Anything else I’ll add as a rumination addition.

Thanks Elementers for supporting us! You guy’s are AWESOME!!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Church Planting, Sunday Rumination, Updates

First Element Wedding (and a picture to hold on to)

21 12 2007

Tonight we had the privilege of performing the first wedding as Element Church. It was a very simple but honoring ceremony that we performed in the garage at the office. I did 5 weeks of pre-marital counseling with the couple I don’t have permission to share their whole story, but God is doing some wonderful things in them and connecting them to Element Church. It’s actually a very cool story how they found Element. Grant and Mike (groom) had a mutual friend in Gillette that connected them together. Grant connected with Mike and the rest is history. Since Grant had that connection with him I asked him to help me in the ceremony. I wanted to get Grant some experience doing some stuff like this. He is the connections pastor after all. It was an honor to have Grant stand beside me and join this couple together before God. This is one of the VERY FEW occasions you’ll see Grant and I together in suits (no ties tonight). Funny, I used to where a suit every week to church, now it feels weird. I’ll let Dan where his suit for me. Below are some pics.






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Categories : Pictures, Updates

Watching Staff

21 12 2007

I love watching our staff interact with people. I love seeing them do what they do best. Wednesday night I had the opportunity to attend a Life Group that Grant leads at his home. There were 29 people there for his Life Groups chili and fellowship night. (Food and fellowship are 2 things that I think are biblical commands for churches). As I sat there and watched Grant interact I realized something about hiring staff. (Even though Grant isn’t hired he’s the first person I asked on my team) I didn’t ask Grant to be a pastor on my staff because he was educated. Grant has had ZERO formal training to be a pastor. NONE! I didn’t ask Grant to be a pastor on my staff because of experience. When Grant moved here in March his total number of pastoral hours totaled? ZERO! I didn’t ask Grant to be a part of my team because he could wax eloquently. (Grant has preached for me before but I didn’t need a preacher). I asked Grant to be a part of my team for the following reasons, and I think they should be some of the reasons anyone hires pastoral staff:

1. Loyalty. I truly believe that Grant would charge a hill with me to the death of needed! And I would do the same for him. When hiring someone loyalty has got to be one of the top qualities to consider in hiring staff. Besides the obvious of being loyal to Christ they also must be loyal to the vision of the church. Grant believes in what we do and invites people to join it.

2. Natural ability. Grant doesn’t have to try to be a pastor, he just is one. (Just like Adam doesn’t have to try to be a musician or be creative, it just flows from him) When I say pastor I don’t mean the leader of the church, I mean loving, shepherding, caring and just being with people. We got in the car Wednesday and said to my wife “Grant is a MUCH better pastor than I am”. Being a pastor just happens for Grant. I knew that before he was ever on our staff, that’s why I asked him to be our connections pastor. You MUST look for what the person does naturally and give them that role. (Other gifts will accompany staff but typically one thing rises to the top)

3. Fill your weak spots. Don’t put people around you that will want to do what you do for the church. Seems like common sense but a lot of people don’t do that. They find people with similar strengths and skills and put them on their team. I can lead a song, but I am NOT a worship leader. I can talk to people but I am NOT a people person. I used to (key word USED TO) LOVE working with teens, now, not so much! LOL I asked Grant to be on my team cause he filled a hole in me. Grant, you complete me. Again, LOL!

4. Teachable. Don’t hire people who can’t submit or be taught. Grant is absolutely teachable under me. Here he is, 10 years my superior yet he always listens to me. He may not always like it, BUT, he always takes it and works on it. Being teachable doesn’t mean spineless. Teachable is an attitude. Grant has and is allowed to call me on issues, but he has gained that permission through being teachable and humble.

5. Friend. You’re going to spend a lot of time with these people in ministry. Make sure you can be friends. All of our staff I consider friends first, co-workers second, and Grant is the epitome of that. Grant and I were great friends LONG before we were teammates. That is going to be a huge hiring factor for me.

Anyway, most of you could probably care less about all that, but I’ve been thinking about those things since Wednesday night. I could have wrote the same things about Adam or Curtis as well, but watching Grant brought them to my mind. I love our team!!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Church Planting, Staff

Adopt-A-Mom Updtate

19 12 2007

As you may know, Element Church adopted four moms through the Life Choice Pregnancy Center here in Cheyenne. These women were counseled by Life Choice and have chosen to give life to, and keep their babies. These are four moms who were in need for Christmas and we wanted to come along side them and give them a holiday they could remember. We received MANY donations of gifts and currently have received $940 to offset some of the costs of providing these moms with their needs and gifts. Elementers, you did a FANTASTIC job. Last night some Elementers got together to wrap gifts and here is are some pictures of that. Click on the slide show to view them in a larger format.

Also, another Life Group has picked up another needy mother and family to provide Christmas for. That makes a total of 6 families that Elementers will be providing Christmas for. GO ELEMENTERS!


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Categories : Outreach, Pictures, Serving, Updates

Sermon Series and community outreach

19 12 2007

For those of you on the “inside” here at Element Insider you’re going to get the sneak peak of our upcoming series. We’ll be promoting it this Sunday at church. January 6th – 27th we are going to be doing a series called “Deal or No Deal” and talking about finances. In fact the first two sermon series of the new year are going to be topics that are literally drowning our society. Money and sex. Along with our Deal or No Deal series, we are going to be offering a FREE, one day Dave Ramsay financial seminar. Adam just got off the phone with a guy, who along with his Dave Ramsay certified brother, will be doing a full day’s seminar on finances. Element Church is going to provide this seminar completely free to those in the community who may need a day like this. The seminar is highlighted on our new mailer going out, as well as our invite cards we got made. We’ll also be doing an advertisement in the newspaper leading up to it. We’d like to launch a “Financial Peace University” Life Group following the event if we have enough interest, as well as someone to lead it. Below are the graphics for the invites of the upcoming series. All of our invites are done in a “rave card” size (3.5″ x 3.5″). We order them from 48hourprint.com and their custom size options. VERY affordable.



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Categories : Element Church, Finances, Marketing, Outreach, Planning, Updates

Staff Christmas

18 12 2007

Sunday night we had a blast hanging out as a staff. Curtis and Heather (youth ministry) had us over to their house and Curtis cooked a mean steak. (He cooked more than one) We were able to just relax for an evening together. We then had a white elephant gift exchange and played a game that had us all laughing nearly to tears. We also got Curtis and Heather started on watching Lost. One by one our goal of converting the planet to Lost is slowly unfolding.

Adam and I (as paid staff) wanted to be able and honor the other guys/gals who don’t get compensation for their staff efforts. We gave both Grant and Curtis cash bonuses (small for what they deserve). Terri is a payed employee but she literally keeps the office going so we got her and heather a day spa treatment. Adam and I also purchased one for our wives as well to join the other ladies on a day out. (We have to watch the kids) Sabrina’s birthday was on Sunday (big 30) so the day spa was part of her birthday/Christmas present. The day spa includes a one hour massage, facial, herbal wrap and lunch. Part of the deal for Terri was that she had to take a complete day off to do this and it couldn’t be her normal day off. She works many extra hours for Element Church and this was just a small way we could say thank you.

The meal, the gifts, the games, the laughs were only great because of the great people I work with. To think that 6 months ago we didn’t know Curtis and Heather existed, now I can’t imagine doing this without them. Grant and Terri up and left pretty much all their family had known for YEARS. HUGE risk for them financially and with their family. (Morgan and Nate are amazing young men and should be proud of their parents) Adam and Amber left the only ministry they had known together. The church Adam served in was his home church where he grew up. And here we are, all together, doing our best to hang on to Christ as He leads us on this journey. My wife had to “redo” her nest and replant all her children into a new world. Started a business just to meet people and now helps direct e:kidz.

Grant, Curtis, Heather, Terri, Adam, Amber and Sabrina. You make this thing go round’ Thank you so much for being a part of my team. You guys are amazing!


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Categories : Church Planting, Staff, Updates

Too old? NEVER!

17 12 2007

We have some AMAZING people who come to Element Church and there is a group of them that I want to honor today. Many people might think that the only folks coming to Element are “young” adults or “young” families. First of all “young” has nothing to do with age and everything to do with your heart. We do have our share of young people but we have an AWESOME group of…well, age challenged folks. Like Grant for instance! LOL Just kidding bro! One of our regular attenders (I believe she helped ush recently too) turned 80 two weeks ago. I don’t know peoples ages but we have several coming AND serving who are probably in their 60′s (or close, lol, I’m gonna be in trouble for this). There is one wonderful lady who just recently started coming (at the beginning of “Believe”), I won’t guess her age, but she’s someone you may not expect at Element and she welcomed me with a smile and a hug on Sunday and left with a glint of a tear, AND another hug. I LOVE having these people by my side. God’s purpose for us doesn’t go away when we get older. No matter how old you are, YOU ARE USEFUL AT ELEMENT CHURCH! I pray that those of you who attend Element (or anywhere) and are getting up in your years, I pray that you will dream dreams! I pray you will pursue your passions! I pray that you will NEVER believe the lie that you are too old to be used! I had the wonderful privilege of riding out to the local dump today with just one of those folks from Element. We had an AWESOME discussion in the pickup. I don’t know how old they are but I know this. If I have HALF of their passion for Jesus when I’m their age, I’ll be doing VERY well. God brought them to Element and they are truly an invaluable part of our team. May I never take for granted these people that God has brought us. For all you age challenged followers of Jesus out there. THANK YOU! You are an inspiration and may God use you in MIGHTY ways for Him!


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Categories : Discipleship, Personal, Random

Rumination Additions for 12-16

17 12 2007

— Offering Sunday was $4257.50. WAY TO GO ELEMENTERS!

— We also received $810 above that for the adopt a mom outreach we are doing. There is still more money coming in for that and if you’d like to give to that you still can. We purchased the remaining items yesterday for the moms and their families and all the money given will go toward that.

— Thanks Elementers for stepping up and helping out these moms.

— One of our Life Groups adopted another needy mom here in town. They provided clothes and gifts for the kids and mom as well as providing a holiday meal.

— Another Life Group will be serving at the Comea House (homeless shelter) this Saturday evening.

— Fusion JV and Varisty student ministry went out to Wal-mart this past week and put away shopping carts for the store and for their customers as a random act of kindness. WAY TO GO FUSION!

— Adam has two blogs up. Bout time! You can check those out here and here.

— My brother in law who pastors in Warrenton, MO has a great blog on serving. His name is Ryan Akers. Check it out here. It goes along with our Random Acts of Kindness idea for the month. Good job Ryan!


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Categories : Sunday Rumination, Updates

Rumination Additions

16 12 2007

HOW COULD I FORGET THIS? Just had a power nap. Maybe it re-engaged my brain. (I’m exhausted today)

We had one person today who indicated the accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. We didn’t even do an invitation today, yet someone marked on their card that today they became a follower of Christ. WOW!! Praise the Lord. Anyway, thought I’d add that. Probably think of more stuff later.


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Categories : Sunday Rumination, Updates

Sunday Rumination (12-16-07)

16 12 2007

Another great Sunday at Element Church! We have such awesome people that come. Look forward to it every week. Well, we have our staff Christmas party tonight at 5:30 so I wanted to get some rumination in, maybe catch a quick nap, and then head out to the party. I may post some more thoughts tonight so this won’t be as long as it normally is. (You’re probably glad about that)

— 214 in attendance today. Good to be over 200 again. That next growth barrier is going to be 250. I believe the breakdown was 77 in the first service and 137 in the second. We took the pipe and drape down in between the two services to make room for #2. We’re going to need people to start attending the 9 AM service or we’ll outgrow the 10:30. By the way, that would be a GREAT problem to have. I hope everyone knows that we post #’s whether they are “good” or “bad”. We obviously want to see more and more people come, not so we can break a certain barrier, but so that more people can connect with Life in Christ! #’s are ok. God cares about who is in church, and so do we! We will, and HAVE, put 100% of our energy into church regardless of how many people come.

— Offering will be posted tomorrow. I do know we got about $1000 of offering through the mail this week, so that’s a good sign. The offering will be tallied tomorrow by the tellers. I’ll post that then.

— 10:30 sermon flowed great for me. Our first week at two services I felt like the 10:30 was a dud. Last week they literally felt exactly the same. This week, I didn’t feel bad about either but I just loved the way it felt in 10:30. I felt much more connected to the word in 10:30. It’s impossible for me not to compare how each service feels.

— Adam and the band did what had to be the best version of O Come Let Us Adore Him that I’ve ever heard. They rocked it out man. What a blessing we have in the leaders and volunteers that serve at Element Church.

— If you don’t currently serve at Element, I encourage you to do so. I get paid for what I do, but I truly believe that if I weren’t a pastor, I would love serving at church. I just love what the local church does. It is the hope of the world. For some reason, God chooses to leave HIS most important message and tasks to a group of people called “The Church”. Why wouldn’t we want to be a part of that? There are lots of areas to get plugged in at Element, and we’d love to help you do that.

— I serve with the greatest staff in the world. I get to hang out with them tonight at our Christmas party and hopefully show them how grateful I am to serve with them. I know there will be a time when we start adding to the team, but I can’t imagine serving with anyone better than the guys I serve with now. Grant, Adam, Curtis, Heather and Terri, you guys are incredible.

— That’s it for now. Check Adams blog later for the set list. We had a great worship set today and the band, as usual, ROCKED!

I’ll post some more thoughts later. Maybe I’ll do a weekend wrapup. Don’t forget, if you want to get anything for the adopt a moms we’re supporting please do so soon! I love being your pastor.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Sunday Rumination, Updates

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