Element Church Insider

Everything changed today for Element Church.  We launched three services this morning and everything went REALLY good.  I was nervous going in, but VERY pleased with how the day turned out.  Here are my Ruminations on the day.

— First off… THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  To all our volunteers for stepping it up BIG TIME today.  Holy cow.  We have the BEST group of volunteers I’ve ever seen.  Some volunteers worked two services.  Saw some brand new volunteers stepping it up too.  AMAZING!

— 789 in church today.  Unbelievable.  Launch a third service and add 50 people from a previous high.

— I was shocked at how each service had a decent amount of people.  Not one service was overcrowded, nor was on under crowded.  SO pleased with that.

— We were CONVINCED that first service would be the smallest service out of the three.  Oh ye of little faith!  Pastor Grant was so convinced that we’d have a small first service, that we put up pipe and drape to block off the side sections of the worship center.  (Ok it was ME who did that)  When Adam strummed the first cord of first service the ushers were tearing down all the drape and opening up the side sections.  Couldn’t believe it!

— Funny thing is I was preaching on faith today.  HA!  God has a sense of humor.  I totally thought that we’d have 50 – 75 people in first service and the last two would be packed.  It was the biggest one.  Go figure.

— Second service was the next biggest followed by third service.  Like I said though, it was all spread out so even.  EVERY service has empty seats so EVERY service NEEDS to and CAN grow.  LOVE that.  Hopefully we can keep things evened out.

— THANK YOU to all the Elementers that came out to first service.  You guys ROCK!

— My voice held up really well over the three services.  I was SUPER worried about that.  Thank you to all the people who were praying for me.

—  After today, I know for sure that three in a row are definitely possible for our team.  What do we do when we’re full again?  Hmmm…there might be a wall coming down somewhere.

— The band was TIGHT today.  The harmonies they sang on Sing, Sing, Sing stinkin’ rocked it!  Band is just getting better and better.  LOVE that they are stretching themselves AND seeking to improve.

— We’ve shortened our service up to accommodate the faster turnaround between services.  Timing seemed to work great!

— The band did a song called “Burn Us Up” by Shane and Shane.  It’s about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  They nailed it!

— I preached on the same story from Daniel 3.  Definitely one of my favorite all time Bible stories.  When those three young men said “Our God is able to save us from the fire.  But even if He doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you o king, that we will NOT bow down to your idol or worship your Gods.” That dog’ll hunt right there.

—  Had some friends from college here today from Oklahoma.  God is doing some VERY cool things in their life and they may have a future at Element.  We’ll see!

—  Met a bunch of new people again today.  Actually met someone who just moved here from D.C. and they used to attend Mark Batterson’s church called National Community Church.  Batterson wrote the book The Wild Goose Chase which we just based our previous sermon series on.  The church they were attending most recently, one of Adam’s best friends leads worship at.  Crazy.

— OU game getting ready to start.  Hope they can take it to the Heels.

— Can’t wait to do this all again next week.  I LOVE Sundays!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Everything changes this week for Element.  We’ll no longer have two services but THREE!  HOLY COW, I can’t imagine how tired I’ll be.  We did three before, but it was almost easier because there was no break in between.  At the theater having two auditoriums and staggered services, once I started I didn’t sit down.  Now, with time in between, it’s going to be difficult to amp back up.  Third service may want to buckle up cause I’ll be so wired and have my sermon pretty much DOWN by then.  Ha.  Here are my Ruminations on the day.

— 9  people stood in front of everyone to receive Christ today.  Amazing!   (3 in first service and 5 in second I believe)  It’s hard to count sometimes from the platform. Grant may have a better idea of how many stood.  We’ll wait and see who marked on their card so we can follow up with them.

— Seeing people acknowledge Christ as Savior never gets old.

— Record attendnace today…742.  GREAT way to go into three services.  Not sure where everyone was the last two weeks but they’re all back, and more!  Just a handful of seats were left in second service and e:kidz was SLAMMED!

— Don’t forget, next week we go to THREE services.  8:30; 10 and 11:30 AM.  We did a “test run” today on timing .  We’re going to be limited on transition time between services so we adjusted our worhsip service to maximize transition time.  We were SPOT ON today!  Excited for next week.

—  Had someone come in the front door for church today and go into the worship center.  A few seconds later they came out and found Grant.  They said “I have NEVER seen greeters at a church as good as yours are…and I’ve been to a lot of churches!’  We have a STELLAR First Impressions team.  Great job Grant and FI team!

— I sat in the lobby before first and second service and watched the FI team at work.  It was awesome!  I typically don’t get to see people coming in.  You can’t get too far into our lobby without some loving people and offering Life.  We have ALL TYPES of people coming through our doors.  It’s so cool to watch each of them get loved as they come in regardless of who they are and what they look like.

—  Some people are now offering Grant a high five when they come in.  You know they’ve been before when they lift the hand first.  Grant is BY FAR the most popular dude at Element.  I asked him if I could stand next to him today.  “I’m not worthyyy”

—  Met lots of first timers today.  LOVE that!  13 FTG’s filled out cards today.

—  We need to get the AC figured out in our building.  It’s the first time we’ve had to use it and it didn’t work well.  It was HOT in second service.  Reminded me of how hot the theater got. We’ll get it figured out this week.

— The creative team stinkin’ knocked it out of the park with the set design this series.  MAN it is good.  We have a talented team.  They moved the light trusses and motion lights to the ceiling, they made chalkboard drawings of David and Goliath and spelled out “Sunday School” on them.  They also hung blow up crayons from the ceiling and added a few other “Sunday School” touches.

— We started our new series “Sunday School” today.  Tackled the story of David and Goliath.  It’s tough to break the “Sunday School” mentality when preparing a message on that familiar of a story.  Our goal for this series is to look behind the story and hopefully learn some things that Sunday School never taught us.  It was fun.

— God really challenged me personally when preparing this message.  Challenged me on what set David apart from the rest of the Israelite army who was afraid to act!

—  I’ve been going through some challenges from God about my personal life and the church lately.  I hope I’m never to the place where God doesn’t challenge me or I don’t allow Him to.

—  Egg Drop coming up on April 4th.  Start collecting food for Needs Inc. and Comea Shelter.  Our goal is to fill an entire Uhal truck and THEN some.  Can’t wait!  We have a TON of volunteers signed up.  So excited about this event.  You can bring food to the office.  You can also download the “needs” list off the egg drop web site.

—  We got an email from the library this week.  Apparently an Elementer (or a few) has been putting invites in secret places in the library.  They asked that we not place invites there but they WILL display our cards and offer them to people.  While we LOVE the zealous inviting of some of our people, PLEASE be careful how you are inviting and where you are inviting. I’m going to have Terri send out a similar email this week to urge people to invite, but in the right way.

—  Excited about this week.  Tons of stuff going on.  Got a couple of things in the works that are not public yet but CAN’T WAIT to pursue.  SO excited about the possibilities that are ahead.  Got some crazy cool stuff coming up.

— Alright, got Partnership Class at 4 PM today.  Gonna chill, watch some basketball and head out in a few.

Following Christ,

Jeff