Untouchables

30 05 2008

Hey Element Church! Don’t forget that we start our new series this week. I am STOKED for these sermons. (SCARED OUT OF MY MIND TOO) But stoked!

Here is a post from a pastor that I feel VERY similar too when it comes to preaching.

I am JUST as nervous each week when I preach. Whether it’s for 50 people or 500. I used to not be able to eat anything before I preached. Now I have ONE donut and that’s about too much. But if I don’t eat I get a horrible headache before church is over. Anyway, random glimpse into me right there. Pastor Furticks blog cracked me up cause it’s exactly how I feel. If you see me on Sundays after set up, you see me wandering around aimlessly a lot, or sitting by myself. We are a weird bunch, us pastors!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : personal, updates

Building Update

30 05 2008

Hey Element Church! Well, to say I am frustrated would be the understatement of the year. To say I’ve been worried about the progress of the building would be just short of where my frustration is at. We signed the lease on May 1st and were given two months of free use to begin the remodel of the space. As of today, we still have no permit to demo or build. Things were going SO smooth and God was opening EVERY door and then BAM…we hit a snag. I’ve had some heart to hearts with God about this in my prayer life recently and then He did what He should have done and SLAPPED me upside the head with a reminder. I need to beware what I preach on cause then I’m held accountable to it. lol

Philippians 4:6 says “Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and THANK HIM for everything He has done.” Don’t we typically forget the thanking part? I know I do sometimes. The reason we worry is that we DON’T remember OR thank God like we should. When we thank Him we are forced to remember all the things He has done. Yesterday I was REALLY challenged with this. Here is what I wrote in my journal.

“Lord, I don’t know what’s going on with the building but I trust You. If this is Your timing, we will wait patiently. If this is a hindrance, Lord I ask that you move it on our behalf. Your will be done. I’m frustrated but I don’t want to worry. I need to follow Philippians 4:6.”

So I did. I followed Philippians 4:6. Here is what I realized. At this point, I’m worrying and frustrated over ONE need. “Get the permit and start working on the building” So I wrote that need down: “Get in the building” Then I wrote down all the things God has done JUST with this building. 1. A GREAT Christian realtor who helped us through the process. 2. Our GREAT Christian contractor donating his time and doing ALL he can to get us in. 3. The book that God put on my desk that helped prepare me for the decisions that would have to be made concerning the building. 4. The support of the people of Element Church. AMAZING! 5. ONE CHECK for $20,000 6. Two free months of use. (They could have gave us NONE…HELLO!) 7. 450 people coming to church so we NEED a new facility. 8. Consistent giving that enables us to GET a building. 9. The timing of the owners calling me and OFFERING us the building. 10. A staff that didn’t waiver to follow me in this decision. I stopped there but there is more. I realized, that God has ALREADY done so much WHY SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT ONE MORE THING? Anyway, God’s been teaching me through this.

Element Church…the timing of things with this facility may not be ours, BUT I will trust God that it’s His. He is not caught off guard. He is not waiting by the phone hoping the city calls. He is not wondering what will happen. HE KNOWS…HE CARES…and HE WILL GET US IN! Amen?

Learning,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, discipleship, personal, updates

WiBo Speaker #3

29 05 2008

Hey Element Church! Installment #3 of the Whiteboard sessions overview.

Tim Stevens: Tim is the executive pastor at Granger Community Church. He just recently released a book called Pop Goes the Church, that is receiving quite a bit of buzz around the church world from those who agree AND disagree. Here are some thoughts I took away from what Tim shared. (The non quotes are my spin)

“Most churches aren’t impacting their communities.”

“Many churches are getting in the way of the Gospel…” instead of advancing it. WOW!

“Spiritual interest is rapidly growing in our culture…” yet we are doing a great job of continuing to reach the “churched” and not the “un-churched” or “de-churched”.

“As a church, we’re answering questions no one is asking!” He talked greatly about how we do not allow a culture of questions in our churches AND how we are giving answers to questions no one is asking. People come questioning real life issues and many times we skirt them for our “greater” answers on theology.

He shared John 1:14 from The Message Bible. Cool way to word what Jesus did. It’s what our churches should be doing. “14 The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” Moving into the neighborhood. IMPACT!

“We need to be using culture to raise the questions and use the Bible to answer them.” If we watch culture (what movies, music, media) is saying, we will find the questions people are asking. We can then address them through Scripture.

He talked A LOT about using media (movie clips, music, tv) etc. in our services to raise the questions. I appreciated his honesty on being careful to find the line of what is “just using a clip” and “what legitimately raises a question” that we can answer through Scripture. Using things that people are familiar with (ie. movies, tv, music). This is NOT a new idea by the way. What IS new I believe is the intentionality of using pop culture to help us find the questions that need to be answered. The cry of the culture. Thought it was good stuff.

Spoke on Acts 17 where Paul used popular lyrics from a poet and philosopher of his time, as well as the statue of “the unknown” god to answer his cultures questions. Leveraging culture, increasing impact.

“We need to leverage the culture (to our benefit) or risk losing your impact.”

“What do people think about our churches. Can they ask questions or do they just get answers?”

This session REALLY challenged me to know more about what the culture is asking. What are the heartbeats of our culture. What are people struggling with? Wrestling with? How can we leverage our culture to maximize our impact? Are people allowed to question? Without questions there are no answers.

Questioning,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, discipleship, personal

Untouchables Sermons

27 05 2008

Hey Element Church! A couple things about Untouchables. First off, please pray. We are tackling 4 VERY tough subjects. I want the Bible to drive our discussion and not JUST opinion. The WORD is where we find our source of Truth. I have some strong opinions on each of these subjects, as I know all of you do as well. My goal for this series is that we could all walk away closer to Jesus and with a deeper understanding and conviction of what we believe and where we stand with these subjects.

Second, I wanted to share the order in which we are taking on these topics. I know some of you have specific subjects you want to invite people to hear. So here they are.

June 1st: Abortion
June 8th: Drinking
June 15th: Homosexuality
June 22nd: Divorce
June 29th: Q&A (we’ll be setting up an email address for you to send in questions to) That will be a fun Sunday.

There ya go. Have an AWESOME day. Working on my messages right now. I’m getting pumped.

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, prayer request, updates

WiBo Speaker #2

27 05 2008

Hey Element Church! Again, Adam and I went to a pastors conference in Washington, D.C. called Whiteboard. It was the perfect format. One day, eight speakers with 30 minutes a piece. Each were asked to share one compelling thought, idea, philosophy to the pastors.

Vince Antonucci: Vince pastors Forefront Church in Virginia Beach, VA. He has an INCREDIBLE passion for reaching lost people. He has an evangelists heart and the majority of Forefront Church (around 70%) came from an un-churched and un-christian background. Here are some things I took from Vince’s talk.

Vince received Christ as his Savior when he was 20 years old. He said that until he was 20 he had never heard about the Jesus of the Bible or the Gospel message about him. As far as he knew he had NEVER met a Christian, and if he had they never said they were or said anything about Jesus. He made this quote “How is it that in America for 20 years I had never heard about Jesus?”

“The total number of people going to church today is 8 million less than what it was 20 years ago.” (Not per capita, TOTAL)

Speaking of church growth: “We’re reaching people, we’re just not reaching lost people.”

“We get the honor of being the answer to Jesus’ mission and prayer: ‘To seek and to save that which was lost.’”

“The church is too content with seeking and saving those who are already saved.” WOW!

“Reaching the lost made Jesus’ heart beat fast. It made Paul’s heart beat fast. Does it make yours? What makes your heart beat fast?”

“If you’re not close to people who are far from God, you’re not as close to God as you think you are.” That my friends, is a POWERFUL statement.

Learning,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, discipleship, personal

The Untouchables promo

26 05 2008

Hey Element Church! Here is the Untouchables promo video. It’s not in full quality because of the upload to Google Video, but you get the idea. We’re themeing the series around the gangsters of old who were “untouchable”. Thought we pulled off the idea with this video. I think the production by Adam was GREAT! Here it is.


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Categories : Element Church, video

Missions Video

26 05 2008

Hey Element Church! This is the missions video from Aaron Brakefield that we couldn’t show Sunday. If you want to see more from their mission field you can watch it.


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Categories : Element Church, Missions, updates, video

Sunday Rumination (5-25-08)

26 05 2008

Hey Element Church! First off, let me say “THANK YOU!” to our veterans and those who are currently serving in the military. Also, a thank you to our fallen soldiers who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We were able to worship God yesterday because of the lives of soldiers who fought on our behalf. From the Revolutionary War to the current war in Iraq men and women have fought and died for us. Regardless of where you stand on war in general or the current war, you are able to have AND share your opinion because of the men and women who fought for you!! Their sacrifice and commitment blows me away!

— I took the afternoon off yesterday and didn’t blog. I actually played Xbox instead. lol

— 463 in church yesterday. 2nd service was VERY full. I was pleasantly surprised with the Memorial weekend #’s.

— We had several first time guests today. One thing we have asked for since we started Unplugged almost one year ago was that God would bring us someone new every week. We have yet to have ONE Sunday where we didn’t have one at least one first time guest. PTL

— We finished off our Little Rascals series yesterday. I can honestly say that this was one of the MOST challenging sermon series’ I’ve ever done. It was so close to home and God challenged Sabrina and I GREATLY through this series. I want to be the BEST parent I possibly can.

— We had Aaron Brakefield and his wife Christina with us yesterday. Aaron has a wonderful ministry to teenagers in Brazil. I HIGHLY believe in what they are doing on the mission field. I believe we had some new people step up to support them financially. Element is also going to support the Brakefields through our general fund.

— Our missions philosophy is and always will be Cheyenne first and foreign second. The Brakefields and their youth center WILL be a foreign mission Element takes on. I’ll get a video we didn’t have time to show yesterday at church up later. Aaron put it together as a highlight of their youth center. Take some time to watch it if you’d like when it’s up.

— No e:coustic was…a relief. I actually got to greet people after the 9 AM service. There was one couple who had been coming for 2 months that I had never met. That’s crazy!

— If there is one phrase that can sum up our time recently at Element it is “Technical difficulties”. I swear if we solve one problem 5 more are created. We FINALLY defeated the buzz demon in our sound system yesterday by using the projector we bought for e:coustic instead of the theater projector. It was AMAZING! BUT, we created several other sound problems in the process. Now we have a microphone demon. My wireless mic was wiggin‘ out BIG TIME!

— Untouchables is next. This is going to be a challenging series too! Taking on some VERY difficult subjects. I’ll get the video promo up later that Adam made. I think production wise it is his BEST! We’re themeing the series around the old gangster stuff. Guys who were “untouchable”. I think we captured that through the video.

Alright, got stuff to do. I need to do this on Sunday afternoon like I normally do. Much easier than when the fam is all awake.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, Sunday Rumination, church life, church planting, updates

Quick Saturday Reminders!

24 05 2008

Hey Element Church! If you can come early to help set up that would be AWESOME! The few new ones who helped last week ROCKED! Each volunteer adds so much to getting the morning done.

NO ECOUSTIC tomorrow! Don’t forget that. Just back to 9 am and 10:30 am.

If you can come to 9 AM please do that. That is the area with the most available seats. That’s it. I’m excited for tomorrow!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, updates

We should go to the Pentagon!

23 05 2008

Hey Element Church! Those are famous last words. Almost DEADLY last words. I’ll get to that in a second.

We spent the ENTIRE day in Washington D. C. today. I think Adam and I could start a Speed Tour business here and make a KILLING. We got into D.C. about 10:30 and went to the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Wall, lunch with one of Adam’s friends, White House, National Air and Space Museum, Union Station, Ebeneezer’s Coffee shop and the Pentagon. Below is a slide show of pics I took on my phone today. Here are a few thoughts on the day.

I am BLOWN AWAY at the sacrifice men and women have made to defend our country and provide us with what we know today as FREEDOM. It STINKIN‘ TICKS ME OFF (LOL) that some people today are trying to change what men and women died for to satisfy their lusts and desires. What our country was established to be is so far from what it is. In my LOUD yet humble opinion. The WWII Memorial and Vietnam Memorial was VERY cool.

It was weird being in D.C. To know that people who started our country were there. Amazing. Didn’t seem real all day.

D.C. is the stupidest city I’ve ever walked or driven in. ABSOLUTELY and THOROUGHLY confusing! I can’t tell you how many times we were lost. It is THE CRAZIEST place to get around in. Adam and I wasted at LEAST 1 - 2 hours trying to figure out where we were at and how we get to the next place.

We had visited everything we wanted to and Adam was like “We should go to the Pentagon!” We bought a one day pass on the Metro and it went right to the Pentagon so as our last site to see we headed there. We got off the Metro and went up the escalator. Little did we know that we actually came out of the ground and we were standing NEXT TO the Pentagon. Security everywhere. A guy about 10 feet away was a big ole’ security guard standing with an AK47. We started walking to where we could take a picture. Adam pulled out the camera, we thought we could see where one of the jets hit the building. The following conversation happened:

Adam: I’m gonna get a picture of that right there. (pulls out camera)
Mr. AK47: (steps out from behind a bullet proof security thingy. Yes that’s the official name ’security thingy’. With AK47 CLEARLY showing) HEY YOU CAN’T TAKE ANY PICTURES!
Jeff and Adam: (Now need a new pair of shorts)
Mr. AK47: DID YOU GET ANY PICTURES BACK THERE?
Adam: Umm, no.
Mr. AK47: PUT THE LENS CAP BACK ON THAT CAMERA NOW! YOU CAN’T TAKE ANY PICTURES.
Jeff: (What I wanted to say was “Yeah, we heard you the first time when I messed my shorts!”) But what I really said was “We didn’t know you couldn’t take pictures.”
Mr. AK47: (With gun still CLEARLY showing in front of him) “Yeah, that’s why I warned you.”

HOLY COW! That dude wasn’t messing around. Needless to say, we did NOT get any pictures of the Pentagon. Overall it was a very fun day. Cool to see all the history and sites. The navigating was insane. Don’t wish that on anyone. Adam should have some stuff up soon too. I think he’s blogging in the other bed. LOL Can’t wait for Sunday. I miss my family and I miss Cheyenne! Here are the pics. Click on the slideshow to view them from my online album.

Still Alive With Clean Shorts,

Jeff


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Categories : Random, personal

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