Element Church Insider

Hey Element Church! Can you say April? I knew you could. Amazing that April is upon us. In some ways it seems like we’ve been doing Element for years, and in others it has BLOWN by. This weekend will be 6 months since we launched. Today was another awesome day at Element Church. Here my my ruminations on the day!

— Check out the new Fusion Student Ministry Blog. Curtis started blogging his thoughts from the youth ministry. Curtis is doing a PHENOMENAL job leading our teens. He’s posted two times in the previous couple weeks so he’s already moving ahead of Adam and Grant. HA!

— 406 in church today. God continues to bring us people and we are blessed and honored to have them. I said today in 3rd service that I am amazed people come to our church. I am truly humbled and honored that God chose me to do this. Thank you to all who make Element possible.

— I am having less and less of hand in what goes on during Sunday which means more and more is being done through our volunteers. We have AMAZING volunteers. It’s dangerous to name names but I’m going to. Pam (sound tech) is completely mixing the service on her own now and doing a great job. A few weeks ago I I was helping her mix everything. She’s learned everything on the fly! Heidi REALLY stepped up in the lighting this week in 1st and 2nd service. I thought the settings she created were awesome! Kevin is doing great stepping up as leader of the e:coustic team. I think in a matter of weeks we’ll hand that over completely to the team. I just love seeing people serve. We have a LOT of volunteers and they all do such an amazing job. WAY TO GO TEAM!

— I LOVED the worship set and feel today. Adam’s arrangement of the old hymn “All Creatures Of Our God and King” was awesome. The band was very smooth today and the spirit of worship was VERY good in the room. It is SO COMFORTING as a preacher to know that the worship each week is truly going to set up the Word. Every week, I know that Adam has put together a set that will usher in God’s presence and prepare the people to hear the Word of God.

— Our transitions between services were perfect today. I had a few minutes of time to spare in between all of them. We’ve only done this three weeks but it seems like it’s always been there. Weird!

— I hear Curtis is doing a great job on announcements in each service. Who knows, I may let him do that every service. No need for me to do it in first service. lol Don’t do something good or you may just inherit it as your job.

— One month from now our newest staff member arrives. VERY excited about that! Andy and Aubrey Hazelet will be arriving in early May and taking over the JV portion of Fusion. They are going to be a great addition to our team.

— I mentioned today in the service, and I absolutely mean it, that the guys who work on my staff are the best in the world. I really do hope you all understand how great Grant, Adam and Curtis are.

— I spoke in the sermon today how much I appreciate the hearts of those guys. I go to work each day and preach on the platform each week knowing they are with me “HEART AND SOUL”.

— Today we looked at the final Hero Jonathan and his armor bearer. I love that passage and the courage of those two. Willing to advance regardless of the cost! We talked about “the heart of a warrior” as we closed out the series.

— Dedicated two children in the service today. I love doing that. Our set up is DEFINITELY not conducive to doing dedications, or anything on the platform, but it was a joy to dedicate those kids. One being the son of one of my closest friends, Ben. Very proud of the dad Ben has and is becoming and his dedication to the church. To know the Ben of Oklahoma Bible Academy (our high school), and the Ben of today is awesome to see where God’s brought him. Way to go Ben!

— We are baptizing 5 people in one hour. 3 of them got saved at Element Church. YES! Jonah asked if he could be baptized today. He was VERY upset when I told him no. Not sure he’s ready yet. Although I know he asked Jesus into his heart and understands what Jesus did for him. I just want him to understand the significance and importance of baptism. I don’t think I’d let him take communion at this age. We’ll see. I want to be careful as a parent to teach them what those things mean so they understand the value of them.

— My bracket is in the pot! Literally I might just flush it. I think I’m beating Adam though and I KNOW I’m beating Grant. He was WAY down there. That’s what he gets for picking against OU just to spite me! He’ll learn.

— 4 PM baptism makes for a long day. It’s usually at 3 PM I’m laying down for my nap. But I definitely mind missing my nap for this!

— OK, that’s it! That was a lot of rambling. My mind is usually so full and just RACING with thoughts on Sunday. I should wait until Monday to type the rumination. PEACE OUT!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Hey Element Church! Sabrina and I are on a little retreat this week. Our denomination has a pastors and wives retreat every year following Easter. This year our Conference was holding ours in Cody, WY. Adam and Amber as well as Sab and I were planning on attending. Last week we got the news that they were canceling the retreat due to the medical condition of our Conference Superintendents wife, Vonda. Vonda has been battling brain cancer for the past year. They said that she took a pretty bad turn for the worse and Dale (superintendent) needed to focus on her and memorial service plans and not the conference. The conference reimbursed each church their expenses that we already paid for the retreat at encouraged every church to still send their pastors on a retreat. SO, here we are. Enjoying a few days away with just Sabrina and myself. Our hotel just now got their Internet working. I tried blogging last night from my phone but it wouldn’t publish. (Yeah, I’m sick, I know) My mom drove to Cheyenne from Wisconsin and is watching the kids. It’s been a day now away from the kids and although it is a MUCH needed break for us, I think we would live VERY boring lives without our kids. it’s 3 PM and we’re like “We don’t have anything to do”. lol It’s a very refreshing and energizing time for us so far to take a break from everything. It’s hard for me to take a break, but I think it’s good to do so. Thank you all SO much for being a part of Element Church. We did get word this morning that our Superintendents wife passed away. Please pray for the Erbele family as they go through this. The last I talked with Dale he said that he told Vonda “For years we have showed people how to live. Now we need to show them how to die.” They have been a SHINING example of life through this.

Ok, here are my ruminations on Easter Sunday.

— 27 people indicated that they received Christ yesterday. I was praying for 20. WOW! Pray that these people make the next step in their walk with Christ.
— 528 attended one of our three worship experiences on Sunday. Dude, 528, are you kidding me? I’m am BLOWN AWAY! When we started this adventure I knew that with God ANYTHING is possible, but I didn’t necessarily think it would happen. May God receive all credit and glory.
— Third service was JAM PACKED. Didn’t seem like a seat was left.
— e:coustic was full too. We draped off the back two rows but it was filled up pretty well. That service is so chill. Very laid back. I actually preach sitting for most of the service. When I get worked up I gotta stand though.
— We made the service one hour yesterday. We were expecting a bigger crowd so we wanted good traffic flow. Transitions went great yesterday.
— We had to break into the theater to set up. We got to the theater around 6 AM and our theater worker was nowhere to be found. We broke in and worked in the dark till nearly 7 AM. Grant used a leatherman to get the lights on eventually. Our worker showed up about 7:30. Crazy.
— I did a REALLY cool illustration to close my sermon. Illustrating how it’s not the outside that matters but the heart. You’ll have to watch it online to see it.
— The praise team all wore sport coats and Grant, Curtis and myself were in suits. Good lookin‘ bunch of dudes.
— I serve with the GREATEST team ever man! I am blown away by our staff and volunteers. It’s amazing what we pull off on a Sunday and the volunteers that do it are unreal. For 5 months old to have the # and quality of volunteers blows my mind. I can’t wait to see where God takes us.
— I love preaching three times. Sounds weird, but I actually think it’s easier than two. The 2nd service actually rests me up for third. Sitting to preach, chillin‘ with those great people just gets me ready for third service. By third service I nearly have my sermon memorized. There has been GREAT energy in that service so far too. Really cool!
— LOVED the song we sang “At The Cross” Such great words to it. “You tore the veil. You made a way, when you said that it is done!” LOVE THAT LINE!
— We put together a very moving movie piece with clips from The Passion put to music with the Foo Fighters “My Hero”. It is waiting to be approved on Google video. I’ll put it on here asap so you can see it or link it to anyone else.
— Yesterday was a lot of fun. If you’re an Elementer THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR CHURCH! Pray for many of our guests to return and for those who made decisions as well.

Following Christ,

Jeff