Devotions…

13 12 2007

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart.”

Psalm 78 is an amazing Scripture on remembering God’s provision. It says several times of the Israelites “They did not remember…” “They did not remember…” “They turned their back…” All the ways that God had provided for them.

Psalm 90:17 says “And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful.”

Excerpts from Oswald Chambers devotional for Dec. 13th.:

— Don’t pray for the lost to find a way, pray that they will find God. Don’t pray for those in pain to find relief, pray they will find God. This is called intercession.

— When we pray on the ground of Redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.

— Don’t pray for whatever they are going through. Pray for their strength. Pray for their patience. Pray that they’ll know God.

Don’t we often pray for our “troubles” to end? Sometimes I think God allows us to go through troubles so we’ll find Him IN them. It’s when the wind and the waves rise that we most need to see Jesus and be with Him. Sometimes, it’s not God’s desire to make the storm stop, but for us to find Him in the storm. Perfect for my sermon this weekend.


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Categories : Discipleship, Personal

God’s Provision

13 12 2007

God is good. MAN, is He good. We are in need of a copier here at work and have been in the process of getting one. We actually approved a lease for a nice color copier, got it installed and started using it. Soon, we realized this copier was just WAY more than what was needed for our office use at this point , and at the price (good price for the copier, bad for what we needed) we just couldn’t keep it. So we returned it with no problem. (Thanks to our friends at Rocky Mountain Business Solutions who were so generous in helping us with that)

Well, if you follow this blog at all you’ve read about our recent budget work. If you’d like you can read about that here and here. Well, as I said, the budget is almost done. Although in reviewing it I had overlooked ANY money for a copier. Really, at this point, a lease is about the only way to go. We already had a meeting scheduled with an Elementer who works in the copy industry. I knew this would be a fairly hefty budget addition once we decided what copier to go with that they would suggest. I was prepared to re-allocate some funds in order for us to get one.

Today they came in to give us their proposal. They handed us a pamphlet of info on the copier they suggested that would work for our size of use. With the pamphlet was the lease proposal. It listed all the service it includes, toner, etc. At the bottom under the lease price per month, in red letters was “RAK“. Then these words were written. “Random Acts of Kindness. One never knows when they might return.” They are basically DONATING the use of this copier to us. I was blown away. I have had such a peace about this budget thing the last two days. I didn’t have that when I started it, but I felt God just saying “Trust Me!”. Then this happens. Even though it’s just a copier, it’s just another way that God says “I have it all under control.”

I don’t have permission to share who did this for us, but THANK YOU! And I hope we will take your act of kindness and bless someone else as well. If we’ll just rest and trust in God, He takes care of all the details.

I didn’t overlook a copier in the budget, God already had it taken care of.


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Categories : Updates

God’s Provision

13 12 2007

God is good. MAN, is He good. We are in need of a copier here at work and have been in the process of getting one. We actually approved a lease for a nice color copier, got it installed and started using it. Soon, we realized this copier was just WAY more than what was needed for our office use at this point , and at the price (good price for the copier, bad for what we needed) we just couldn’t keep it. So we returned it with no problem. (Thanks to our friends at Rocky Mountain Business Solutions who were so generous in helping us with that)

Well, if you follow this blog at all you’ve read about our recent budget work. If you’d like you can read about that here and here. Well, as I said, the budget is almost done. Although in reviewing it I had overlooked ANY money for a copier. Really, at this point, a lease is about the only way to go. We already had a meeting scheduled with an Elementer who works in the copy industry. I knew this would be a fairly hefty budget addition once we decided what copier to go with that they would suggest. I was prepared to re-allocate some funds in order for us to get one.

Today they came in to give us their proposal. They handed us a pamphlet of info on the copier they suggested that would work for our size of use. With the pamphlet was the lease proposal. It listed all the service it includes, toner, etc. At the bottom under the lease price per month, in red letters was “RAK“. Then these words were written. “Random Acts of Kindness. One never knows when they might return.” They are basically DONATING the use of this copier to us. I was blown away. I have had such a peace about this budget thing the last two days. I didn’t have that when I started it, but I felt God just saying “Trust Me!”. Then this happens. Even though it’s just a copier, it’s just another way that God says “I have it all under control.”

I don’t have permission to share who did this for us, but THANK YOU! And I hope we will take your act of kindness and bless someone else as well. If we’ll just rest and trust in God, He takes care of all the details.

I didn’t overlook a copier in the budget, God already had it taken care of.


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Categories : Updates

God’s Provision

13 12 2007

God is good. MAN, is He good. We are in need of a copier here at work and have been in the process of getting one. We actually approved a lease for a nice color copier, got it installed and started using it. Soon, we realized this copier was just WAY more than what was needed for our office use at this point , and at the price (good price for the copier, bad for what we needed) we just couldn’t keep it. So we returned it with no problem. (Thanks to our friends at Rocky Mountain Business Solutions who were so generous in helping us with that)

Well, if you follow this blog at all you’ve read about our recent budget work. If you’d like you can read about that here and here. Well, as I said, the budget is almost done. Although in reviewing it I had overlooked ANY money for a copier. Really, at this point, a lease is about the only way to go. We already had a meeting scheduled with an Elementer who works in the copy industry. I knew this would be a fairly hefty budget addition once we decided what copier to go with that they would suggest. I was prepared to re-allocate some funds in order for us to get one.

Today they came in to give us their proposal. They handed us a pamphlet of info on the copier they suggested that would work for our size of use. With the pamphlet was the lease proposal. It listed all the service it includes, toner, etc. At the bottom under the lease price per month, in red letters was “RAK“. Then these words were written. “Random Acts of Kindness. One never knows when they might return.” They are basically DONATING the use of this copier to us. I was blown away. I have had such a peace about this budget thing the last two days. I didn’t have that when I started it, but I felt God just saying “Trust Me!”. Then this happens. Even though it’s just a copier, it’s just another way that God says “I have it all under control.”

I don’t have permission to share who did this for us, but THANK YOU! And I hope we will take your act of kindness and bless someone else as well. If we’ll just rest and trust in God, He takes care of all the details.

I didn’t overlook a copier in the budget, God already had it taken care of.


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Categories : Updates

UNBELIEVABLE!!

12 12 2007

Grant blogged! Here it is. And it’s good too (it always is, so that isn’t unbelievable).


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Categories : Blog Link

Budget almost done…

11 12 2007

On one hand I HATE budgets. Not HAVING them but MAKING them. Today, outside of our creative session and one counseling session I spent the entire day trying to finish the budget. It is pretty much done and I love the way we are doing our budget. I received some tips from some other church planters and it has really simplified the process of doing the budget.

Now, on the other hand I LOVE this budget. Why? Because starting this new year we are going to be completely on our own financially as a young church. What a scary thought, but what an invigorating one as well. We are 2 months and 2 weeks old, we had 240 people at church last week, we’ve seen 34 people acknowledge that they asked Jesus into their heart to be Savior AND we are looking at being self sufficient at 4 months old. The goals we are talking about and setting are lofty BUT doable with God.

We are praying for God to continue to bring us people to connect with the Life in Christ. That’s what we’re about. We didn’t go overboard on our budget by any means, but we didn’t hold back either. We sat down and piece by piece said “What would we like to see here?” We came out in the end “inches” from where we needed to be. So a few adjustments here and there and we’re almost done.

Doing the budget this week has been so time consuming but it’s been necessary. We needed to get it done to have an idea of where we’re going to be on our own.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Church Planting, Finances

Full Day…

10 12 2007

Offering this week was $2200 or roughly that. I left the exact # on my office desk and can’t remember but it was close to that. lol

Adam and I met for our weekly Monday morning PP time. Planning and Prayer. We’ve reduced that and called it pp. Each Monday morning at 9 am we meet to start the week with prayer. If any prayer requests are given on the connection cards we specifically pray for them. We also pray for the week, Element Church and the great people God has sent us. We struggled early on to give proper time for prayer so we literally made it a calendared event on Monday mornings. We’ve made it an appointment that we won’t miss. We feel it’s that important. We typically spend a good amount of time talking about the previous day. What needs to change for the next week. We evaluate how the day went, if we missed anything, etc. We’re just getting to the place now where we are getting comfortable with how the Sundays go (based on how we did personally) and don’t have to tweak as much stuff. We then spend a good amount of time talking about the upcoming Sunday and what needs to be done.

In staff meeting today we debriefed The Tour and were REALLY critiquing how we can make it better. For our first Tour yesterday it ended up being really good. There are definitely some things that we feel we can do better to make it a more pleasant experience for all. Some things that we didn’t like happened outside our control. Others we felt we could just do better. Our first group at The Tour was GREAT! They were MORE than patient and were very responsive and appreciative. Thanks to all who came and made it a great event.

THEN we took on the challenge (as a reaction to the Colorado shootings) to develop and evacuation plan for our e:kidz area were something horrible to happen at Element Church, as it did at New Life and YWAM. We understand that we cannot control everything but we recognized that we didn’t have ANY plan in place so we developed that. We are also going to take some measures to try and insure some more security to our morning. It’s sad we have to devote 45 minutes of our staff meeting to talking about that, but we feel it’s necessary. Our prayers go out to those involved in the shootings.

Finally, for the remainder of the day, Adam and I worked on budget stuff. We have been blessed to be supported in part by High Plains Church, in Gillette, and by our Denomination. That funding will end come February 1st which means we will be a self-sufficient church plant. SO, we spent the final three hours of hour day hashing out budget stuff. I HATE IT! I hate budgets but I know they are necessary. They are scary, challenging, convicting and down right ANNOYING. We trust that God is going to provide EVERYTHING we need to exist as a full and thriving church. These are just some of the details that are not the most enjoyable part of the process.

That was our day in a GIANT nut shell. Monday is MEETING day at Element Church.


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Categories : Church Planting, Updates

Rumination Additions

10 12 2007

Just wanted to add a few things to the Sunday Rumination.

— Attendance adjusted to 240. We had one family come in after attendance was taken. They only got about half the service so maybe we should count them as 2 1/2 instead of 5. JUST KIDDING!

— Offering will be counted today, update that later.

— We had 6 first time guests fill out connection cards yesterday and 4 return guests. One of our prayers since we started Unplugged on June 10th is that each week we would see new people come to Element Church. As of this week, God has saw fit to bring us at least one new face each week we’ve met. PRAISE THE LORD!

— Well, off to our Monday morning planning session with Adam as we make lists and to dos for the week and weeks to come. Staff meeting today at 11:30. Got lots to talk about. Have a great week guys!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Sunday Rumination, Updates

Sunday Night (afternoon) Rumination: 12-9-07

9 12 2007

WOW! What a day. (This is going to be a weird reference so be forewarned) I’ve never done drugs but I know what it’s look to be high and then crash. Sundays are like that. Sundays are exhilarating and exhausting all in one. I absolutely love Sunday mornings. The day starts early for me (4 AM) and by the time I get home, email the first time guests, chill with family and/or friends I am just crashed. The morning is a high. I love seeing people come in those doors, worship, listen, fellowship. Nothing like it man! I thought I’d write while I’m watching football cause after 7 PM on Sundays I’m pretty much useless.

— RECORD ATTENDANCE TODAY! I believe Grant said 235. If not it was 234. Needless to say it was a GREAT turnout! I believe we had 90 in the first service and 145 in the 2nd. I’ll correct that if I’m wrong. Grant takes out the duplicate attenders as well (volunteers who attend both services).

It was a very confirming day for me today. Questions were answered like “Did we make the right move in 2 services?” “Did we do it too soon?” Today confirmed that we needed to do it. That it was the right decision. We couldn’t have had a service for 235 people before. Having two services enables that. What’s next? Only God knows. I see big things I’ll tell you that! God’s not done.

— Offering isn’t counted until Mondays now so I’ll report that tomorrow!

— The big question for our Christmas series is “Why did Jesus come?” The big idea today was “He came to increase our faith.” We looked in John 4, the story of the Officials son that Jesus healed. Talked about the progress of faith in that story and how Jesus does the same with us. We had 15 -20 people raise their hands saying they’ve trusted in Jesus for “saving” faith but there are areas of their lives in which they need to “believe” in Jesus. Need to increase their faith. It was a great response and a message that spoke to and challenged me as well. Those are the good ones.

— No first time decisions today but I just felt like the sermon connected with some people who were already followers of Christ in a good way. Got lots of comments from people that they were challenged. Lots of “Thank yous” for what was said.

— I referred to a story in Mark 9 today about a dad who came to Jesus for his son to be healed. You can read it here if you want. The dad asks Jesus “If you can, would you heal my son?” Jesus says “If I CAN? Anything is possible if you just believe.” The dads response “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” Seemed like that story connected with some people. I admitted in my own life that I find myself like that sometimes. “I DO believe, help me overcome my areas of unbelief.” There are times I so desperately want to believe God FOR something or IN something and I feel like that dad. “I DO believe, but I’m struggling in this area.” Jesus wants to help us overcome our unbelief. That’s why He came!

— Adam pulled me aside before we started and prayed over me. Really felt that helped. He just felt led to do that. I reported last week how I felt about the 2nd service sermon. This week I felt like it flowed very well in both and the connection to the people seemed MUCH better for me. Thanks Adam!

— Set up was frustrating today. Some people didn’t come that we “assumed” would be there. I ran sound today for one service which is a strain. I had to set my mic, get down to the platform and run back up to the sound board. Keenan stepped in for first service and did a great job! Thanks Keenan! We got it all up, we were about 15-20 minutes behind schedule. Just one or two people not there really backs us up. We had a good crew stay after to help tear down. If you are an Elementer and are looking for a place to plug in and serve in a way that would REALLY help us. Be a part of the set up crew. The guys and gals that come now do a BANG UP job but they need some help!

— The “spirit” of worship was at an all time high in 2nd service today. Not sure what it was but it just seemed to connect at a different level. The band, once again, did an outstanding job. Added a new vocalist to the band today. (Thanks Lee!) Lee also brought me REAL White Castles home from Chicago after Thanksgiving. GO LEE!

— Did I mention I love this?!

— Held The Tour today (our first one). The Tour is our newcomers luncheon. We had 30 – 40 people come for lunch and some Element vision casting. For our first one, excluding a few early hiccups, I thought it went great. Thanks to those of you who came as our guinea pigs. We shared some of our history of Element Church. Introduced all the staff. Shared about e:kidz and Fusion ministries. Grant and Adam both shared from their hearts about their specific ministries. I then talked about some key things all Elementers should know. About our essential ministries (Worship Experience, Life Groups, and Outreach). About our Vision: That God would so impact the Cheyenne area through Element Church that if it were gone the community would miss it. And shared some stuff on my heart. I really felt like it went well. You’ll have to ask one of the attenders their opinion.

— All Elementers don’t forget the moms we are adopting. Please join us in making this a special Christmas for them. They are registered at Wal-Mart and Target under First Name (Element) and Last Name (Church). We also have some non-registered items that you can get a list of at the e:connect table.

— If you get a chance to go to a movie at the Carmike, please tell any of the workers that you are from Element Church and say “Thank you!” They bend over backwards for us. We could not do what we do or have done what we’ve done without them. We are going to honor all the employees with a good Christmas gift.

Thanks to all who follow! Elementers, you are AMAZING! Keep coming and invite someone with you. I love serving with and for you.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Church Planting, Sunday Rumination, Updates

Did you shovel?

7 12 2007

It snowed today which meant for all you Elementers you had your first chance to shovel, not only YOUR driveway, but your neighbors. That was the challenge at least.

This morning I took Jonah outside and we began shoveling. I started with our neighbors sidewalk and driveway. It was very nice to tell Jonah “We’re doing this just to be kind to our neighbor.” Our neighbor was not home and has no idea we shoveled. Later in the day I went out front and Jonah, all by himself, was over there doing his best to shovel off the new dusting of snow that had fell. Loved seeing that. I want to raise children who WANT to serve and give.

As we were shoveling this thought/question entered my heart and mind again. Is being out here with Jonah about him really helping remove snow? NO! He doesn’t accomplish much snow removal. I have to go back and shovel over his rough spots. What’s it about then? It’s about BEING WITH ME, and me being with Him. We need to remember that when God asks us to do something. It’s more about BEING with Him than us HELPING Him. When Jonah is out there it’s about him learning, bonding, loving. It’s not about snow removal. When I’m “out” with God, it’s about learning, bonding, loving. That is the MAIN GOAL anyway. At least how I see it.


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Categories : Discipleship, Outreach, Personal

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