Element Church Insider

Right before the event started today, I wrote in my journal: “Lord, expand our vision!” MAN did he do that. None more than the first speaker.

Mark Batterson was first up this morning. Mark and National Community Church have a VERY cool story. If you get a chance to find out about their history please do. Mark also wrote the book “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day” which our Lead Team is reading right now. That had to be intimidating setting the stage for the whole day with these phenomenal speakers. He did a great job! Here are some quotes I took from him.

“The longer I’m in ministry and the longer I lead, the more I covet the favor of God.”

“Your best thought on your best day is about 13.2 billion light years short of God’s” (Isa. 55:8-9) Comparing our thoughts to the expanse of the universe.

“The moment we think we have God all figured out is the moment we lose our spiritual curiosity.” May we never be satisfied with just the knowledge we already have about God. NO ONE has Him all figured out. NO ONE!

“Your dreams are too small. We confess our sins to God but when was the last time you confessed your small dreams to Him?”

“At some point we stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing it out of memory” (When we do it out of memory we end up doing what we’ve always done. We lose creativity and risk)

“I’d rather have one God idea than 1,000 good ideas and you don’t get that one God idea from a speaker.”

“If there ever was a dreamer his name was Jesus.” (The Great Commission was a dream) Then he said this (great line) “You have been grafted into THE dreamer!”

That’s it from speaker #1. Blog more later. (This may be a week long thing)

Still Processing,

Jeff

Hey Element Church! To say my mind is about to explode would be an understatement. UNBELIEVABLE conference! Talk about expanding your vision. MAN. Both Adam and I are reeling tonight. We haven’t even hardly talked about it cause we’re still trying to process everything. The format was amazing. Ben Arment did a phenomenal job putting this thing together. It’s amazing what the blogworld can do for things. What literally (as far as I understand) was an idea Ben blogged one day, turned into a conference with 800 pastors in attendance and 8 of today’s greatest communicators sharing 30 minutes a piece. Each one shared their “one compelling idea”. The format is perfect. I hope they do it again next year. I felt it was so beneficial to get 8 guys’ 30 minutes of their best stuff in one day rather than a couple guys talking for an hour and a half and you attend 2-3 days. I took MASSIVE notes and will be blogging on what hit me from each speaker. We paid $99 to attend this bad boy. Worth every penny!

Adam and I went and saw Indiana Jones tonight. Definitely not the best of the series but it wasn’t horrible. Typical Indiana Jones. I was hoping it would be a bit better but a good flick to go and just relax and not think about anything for a while.

Adam has some new pics up and some thoughts. Amazing day! Can’t wait to get back to tornado infested Cheyenne. Looking forward to Sunday.

Processing,

Jeff

Hey Element Church! We’ve arrived in Washington D.C. I REALLY wish I could share this with my wife. We love coming to places like this. Went to Pennsylvania together 2 years ago and had had a BLAST! Both Adam and I did much better and enjoyed much better the flight today, compared to our last flight. Although I do miss having Permagrin with us. Adam and I have got to stick out like a sore thumb here. We’re walking around with our eyes as big as big as baseballs. The difference in culture from Wyoming to DC amazes me. We’re in the same country, yet it’s SO different here. Beautiful! (that’s not what’s different, cause Wyoming is definitely beautiful) To say I am excited for Whiteboard Sessions is an understatement. I am SO pumped to be challenged tomorrow. We are staying in an AWESOME hotel. Terri did a FANTASTIC job setting up all the details for us on this trip. Adam and I drove into Reston Town Center, where the conference is tomorrow, and had dinner. We then went to where the conference was held. I felt like a fish out of water. Saw some of the guys who I follow on a regular basis in the blog world. Some GREAT church leaders. Made me feel pretty small. lol Like a fish out of water. We’re chillin‘ now watching the American Idol finale. Gonna head to the conference early. I think Adam got some pictures up already. Here is a link to his blog. We’ll both be blogging our thoughts on the conference tomorrow. There are 8 pastors sharing in this one day conference. Each get 30 minutes a piece. It is going to be info overload and I AM PUMPED! I love learning. Love being challenged. Love being stretched. Alright, be watching for more from D.C.

Hey Element Church! We’ve arrived in Washington D.C. I REALLY wish I could share this with my wife. We love coming to places like this. Went to Pennsylvania together 2 years ago and had had a BLAST! Both Adam and I did much better and enjoyed much better the flight today, compared to our last flight. Although I do miss having Permagrin with us. Adam and I have got to stick out like a sore thumb here. We’re walking around with our eyes as big as big as baseballs. The difference in culture from Wyoming to DC amazes me. We’re in the same country, yet it’s SO different here. Beautiful! (that’s not what’s different, cause Wyoming is definitely beautiful) To say I am excited for Whiteboard Sessions is an understatement. I am SO pumped to be challenged tomorrow. We are staying in an AWESOME hotel. Terri did a FANTASTIC job setting up all the details for us on this trip. Adam and I drove into Reston Town Center, where the conference is tomorrow, and had dinner. We then went to where the conference was held. I felt like a fish out of water. Saw some of the guys who I follow on a regular basis in the blog world. Some GREAT church leaders. Made me feel pretty small. lol Like a fish out of water. We’re chillin‘ now watching the American Idol finale. Gonna head to the conference early. I think Adam got some pictures up already. Here is a link to his blog. We’ll both be blogging our thoughts on the conference tomorrow. There are 8 pastors sharing in this one day conference. Each get 30 minutes a piece. It is going to be info overload and I AM PUMPED! I love learning. Love being challenged. Love being stretched. Alright, be watching for more from D.C.

Hey Element Church! We’ve arrived in Washington D.C. I REALLY wish I could share this with my wife. We love coming to places like this. Went to Pennsylvania together 2 years ago and had had a BLAST! Both Adam and I did much better and enjoyed much better the flight today, compared to our last flight. Although I do miss having Permagrin with us. Adam and I have got to stick out like a sore thumb here. We’re walking around with our eyes as big as big as baseballs. The difference in culture from Wyoming to DC amazes me. We’re in the same country, yet it’s SO different here. Beautiful! (that’s not what’s different, cause Wyoming is definitely beautiful) To say I am excited for Whiteboard Sessions is an understatement. I am SO pumped to be challenged tomorrow. We are staying in an AWESOME hotel. Terri did a FANTASTIC job setting up all the details for us on this trip. Adam and I drove into Reston Town Center, where the conference is tomorrow, and had dinner. We then went to where the conference was held. I felt like a fish out of water. Saw some of the guys who I follow on a regular basis in the blog world. Some GREAT church leaders. Made me feel pretty small. lol Like a fish out of water. We’re chillin‘ now watching the American Idol finale. Gonna head to the conference early. I think Adam got some pictures up already. Here is a link to his blog. We’ll both be blogging our thoughts on the conference tomorrow. There are 8 pastors sharing in this one day conference. Each get 30 minutes a piece. It is going to be info overload and I AM PUMPED! I love learning. Love being challenged. Love being stretched. Alright, be watching for more from D.C.