Pastors and Wives Recap

16 04 2009

Well, we are back in C-Town from our retreat.  I don’t know about the rest of the team, but I had a blast hangin’ with them and just being together without being in “church” mode.  We did have an impromptu lead team meeting that may have been the most intense disagreement we’ve had as a team on a ministry decision.  IT WAS AWESOME!  We left that heated discussion and played games together.  Gotta be a sign of a good team.  Here are some final thoughts from our guest speakers.  Just wanted to get them down.

— “Sometimes there is more fellowship in a bar than their is in the church”  Speaking of transparency in the church to each other.  Not just hanging out.  The church does a good job at creating hang out opportunities.  We don’t do a good job at creating freedom to admit our struggles.

—  “If God’s work is done in God’s way you will not lack God’s support”  Hudson Taylor

—  “Whatever the checking balance is, PRAISE THE LORD!”

—  “Never say there isn’t enough money or you can’t afford it.”  You can usually afford whatever is a priority.  We need to say “This is not a priority for us right  now.”

—  “If ministry isn’t fun, you aren’t doing it right!”  LOVE that!

Learning,

Jeff


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Reflections From Cody

14 04 2009

The pastors and wives are having a GREAT time relaxing and hangin’ together here in Cody.  It’s not often that ALL of us get to be around each other and NOT be doing business.  We played a game last night together.  Ate dinner together and are just hanging out and having fun.  It’s so nice to just be friends first and pastors second for a few days.  I’m SO proud of our team.  I have received lots of compliments already this week about our guys and their wives.  People have commented on our energy, our commradere and our passion in worship.  (I’m not sure everyone likes our passion in worship, lol). Here are a couple thoughts on the week so far.

— Adam was asked to lead worship this week for all the district pastors at the retreat.  Let me tell you, He is stinkin’ KILLIN’ it.  Knocked it out of the park last night.  BY FAR the best time of worship I remember and a P&W retreat.  It’s just Adam with his acoustic, Curtis in djembe and a bass player.  BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER!  I’ve got a post coming on what makes a great worship leader.  I think Adam embodies it!  Can’t tell you how blessed we are to have  him.

— Element has the largest representation of staff here.  We took up the whole front row.  lol  I think we are the wackiest crew here too.  I love that our team has fun together.  There aren’t many moments were laughter isn’t abounding.

— Our guest speakers are sharing some great stuff on leadership.  I love little snippets of leadership.  Here are some I wrote down.

— “If your memories are greater than your vision you’re already dying.”   WOW!

—  The guest speaker, telling about how his wife won him to the Lord “She didn’t try to preach to me…she prayed for me”  We need to hear that.

— “Leaders have a teachable point of view.”  There is a time to be FIRM and a time to be molded.  Knowing when those times are well define your leadership.

—  “We need to close the gap between vision and reality.”  Our vision should be beyond our reality.  We  need to work to close that gap.  LOVE that!

— The speaker quoted Oswald Chambers “Jesus Christ plus anything else is heresy”.  AMAZING quote.

— “For a church to be a family, it must be a church of small groups.”

—  Speaking to the men pastors in the room “Your wife needs to dream with you and your wife needs to be at the center of your dream.”

— “If you have 200 people in your church you should have 200 ministers.”

— “Be professional, but never get into professionalism.”

— “Surround yourself with people who are better than you are.”

More to come.  Love the time to relax and hang out with other pastors.  Receiving some good challenges too!

Relaxing,

Jeff


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Asking…

12 04 2009

Now, God doesn’t always do this but He did this time.  About a month ago I felt God prompting me to pray for specific things for Easter Sunday.  This doesn’t happen often but I REALLY felt clearly that I should.  I wrote them down in my prayer journal.  I told very few people about this prayer.  I told our staff, a few close friends and family, and our leadership council.  I felt God asking me to pray for 1200 people at our Easter services and 30 people get saved.  I didn’t know what to expect coming in.  I believe that sometimes God asks us to do things JUST to see if we’ll be obedient and nothing more.  Seeing the one young lady stand up to receive Christ in first service was worth it for me.  But then they just kept pouring.  All through the day I was reminded of the power of prayer.  NOT only that He answered YES to our prayer, but the faith it increased in me BEFORE He answered.  I truly believed that God COULD do this as the week arrived.  I had some GREAT prayer times seeking God’s face for this Easter Sunday.  I was comforted by God that EVEN IF we didn’t reach that number that God would do something great!  It was SO GOOD for me, and seeing what happened today simply blows my mind!  Andy posted some similar thoughts HERE, check them out.  I hope we NEVER stop asking God for HUGE things.  Whether or not they happen is up to HIM!  All we can do…is ask.

Asking,

Jeff


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Sermon correction!

12 04 2009

I stated today that the Bible tells us that Jesus was raised from the dead “ON” the third day and not that he was in the tomb for three days.  It actually states BOTH.  A quick search on Bible Gateway revealed about 8 -10 times it mentioned both in the Gospels.  He wasn’t in the tomb for three full days but was in for three days.  Depends on how you look at it I guess.  Anyway, wanted to throw that out there.  Amazing day!  Thanks to all who were a part of it.


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Easter Ruminations (4-12-09)

12 04 2009

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  I don’t even know where to begin.  I’m floored at what God chooses to do.  Seeing what happened today should NEVER cease to amaze us.  ‘Salvation is here and He lives in me.  Salvation is here and He did just to set me free!”  We sang it today and people experienced it today.  AMAZING!  Here are my thoughts on the day.

— The most important numbers of the day…1…26…8!  Those are the numbers of people that accepted the risen Jesus as their Savior in first, second and third service.  35  people.  What?  Stinkin’ amazing.

— in first service one young lady stood up all by herself when the response was given.  Took some guts!  Was so proud of her standing there all by herself receiving Jesus.  Jesus was proud of her too.

— 25 people stood in second service.  I was nearly brought to my knees with emotion when all those people stood.  During third service, one of our volunteers received a text from her husband who attended second service with her…It said “Just wanted you to know I accepted Jesus in to my heart when Jeff gave the invitation.  I just didn’t stand up.”  AWESOME!  Her sisters received Jesus too today!

—  8 people stood in third service to cross from darkness unto light and the power of satan unto God!  Folks THIS SHOULD NEVER GET OLD FOR US!  It is the reason we do what we do.

— We had 1,217 attend Element Church today.  LOL  That doesn’t seem real.

— We had to bring, literally, EVERY chair we owned in for 2nd service.  We weren’t done seating people until the last song of the worship set.  We had chairs wall to wall in the worship center.  We had more people in 2nd service than we had last year for all of Easter in three services in the theater. People just kept pouring in.

— Our first impressions team was amazing today.  To Keith and your set of ushers, WOW!  You guys were AWESOME!  I don’t know how you got everyone in there but you did.

— We finished our Sunday School series today by telling the story of the Passion week illustrated on a giant flannel graph.  It was a BLAST!  When I say giant…I mean GIANT.  World’s largest?  Maybe we should check.  Pictures are below.

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— We looked at the Passion week and talked about five groups of people I could find myself in.  I’m going to die, or Christ is going to return, the question is “Where will I be found?”  Talked about what group we should want to be found in.  It was a blast to do!

— Adam, Steve and Christina AMAZING job figuing this thing out.  Terri and whoever else cut out all the pieces, thank you and I’m sorry!  lol

— All the dudes who moved those heavy things in each service, THANK YOU!

— Had one guy ride by on a bike this morning and saw the huge crowd.  He asked Grant “What is going on?”  Grant tells him about church, he comes in and LOVES it!  Filled out a connection card and said he’d be back next week.  That was cool.

— The band…that’s all I’m going to say cause you’re probably sick of hearing it!  lol

— Over 50 first time guest cards were filled out today.

— So many things going through my head right now.  Can’t even put them all down.  This is probably too long already.

— I am amazed that God allows us to be a part of something like this.  Absolutely amazed!  I don’t understand why He chose me, but he did!  I am humbled!

— Element Church, you guys ROCK!  I love every one of you.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Egg Drop Recap

11 04 2009

HOLY COW!  I think I’ve said that 100 times today.  HOLY COW!  First off, I’m exhausted, as is the rest of the team, including volunteers.  Here are my thoughts on today.

— Words can’t express the thanks to the Elemenet volunteers.  Un-STINKIN’-Believable.  There were ugly flourescant green (or were they yellow) shirts EVERYWHERE!  It was GREAT!  Our volunteers showed up at 7 and just rocked da hizzy!

— My first thought was “Well, better than last year.  No snow!”  That was a plus.  Last year we shoveled the snow off the field for the drop.

—  It was cold!  COLD!  When I got up it looked great outside.  I think it was warmer at 6 AM when I got up than it was at 11 when we dropped the eggs.  Kept praying for the weather to clear and the sun to poke out.  But the wind increased and the cold continued…but it didn’t stop the drop!

— The 6th grade boys group from Fusion @ Element came out and made breakfast for all the volunteers.  SWEET!  Thanks guys!

— By 9AM a line began to form.  We actually decided to open 15 minutes early since a line was beginning to form.

— One thing I’m learning.  We roll VERY different in Wyoming.  Who comes to an egg hunt when it’s windy and 30 degrees?  All of Wyoming yells “WE DO!”  So cool!

— By 10:30, 10 minutes from gathering for the drop, there were still 300 -400 people in line waiting to register for the drawings.  We actually had to hold off the drop to get everyone through the line.

— Last year we had one registration table and were backed up.  This year we had FOUR and were backed up.  HOLY COW!

— By 10:50 the chopper lifted and both sides of the football field were SLAMMED with people.  I have no idea how to estimate numbers and there is no possible way to count everyone, but there were THOUSANDS of people.  We guessed around 4,000 – 5,000.  I have no idea.  It was a LOT of people.

— The egg drop itself was sweet.  They hovered over the field for a couple minutes and dropped 14 bags of eggs.  I was so jealous of Curtis.

— Then the chaos.  THREE…TWO…ONE…and they were off.  The field was covered in kids getting eggs.  That scene amazes me.

— I hate to give special thanks out, but I think a HUGE thank you goes out to Ryan Scheer for heading up the event.  He took a VERY large burden off of me by taking this on.  Jay Gohldberg and Bob Gudhal also did a TON of pre-work for the event.  You guys ROCK!  Thank you so much!

— My staff team was amazing.  Grant, Adam, Curtis and Andy are studs (and I mean that in the most spiritual and manly way possible).  Terri, Katie and Pam, thanks for all the help in the office leading up to this too.  Amazing!

— Volunteers UNREAL!  You guys made that event happen.  I LOVED seeing you serve, greet, welcome, direct, care for, lift, move, haul.  Crazy!  I love all of you guys!

— SO STOKED for Easter services tomorrow.  Can’t wait to see you all there.  Check out pictures below, or click the link HERE to look at them online.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Devotional Thoughts

9 04 2009

Here are a couple things that jumped out to me recently in my devotions. You can click on the passages to read them online.

Ezekiel 3:10-11 — Pastors…NOTHING can be a substitute for your own personal devotions.  “Let these words sink DEEP into your own heart”.  So many pastors declare their sermon prep time as their devotional time.  If you don’t FIRST have God’s Word sinking DEEP into your own heart, you’ll have NOTHING to say to the church!  WOW!

Ezekiel 13:6b-7 — MAN, the prophets have been SO challenging to me this time reading through the Bible.  So many warnings for teachers.    You better make sure God told you that before you go saying it.

Ezekiel 16:49 — HELLO CHURCH!  Aren’t they still right out our door?  Are we missing something?

Ezekiel 20:19-20 — Now, I am NOT advocating legalism or living by the Old Covenant, but if God’s decrees and regulations are a sign that HE IS GOD!  Then isn’t my response to them a sign as to who is MY GOD?

Ezekiel 22:30 — I pray WE would be those people.

Ezekiel 33:13 — Shouldn’t we be taking sins more seriously?

Daniel 4:27 — Ok, we can’t escape this in Scripture.  Daniel says stop sinning AND be merciful to the poor.  Why not both?  Read more on my thoughts about that HERE.

Daniel 9:18-19 — I LOVED this prayer.  We ask not because we deserve it, but because of your mercy.    We need more prayers for our cities like this one!

Hosea 4:4 — Church, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the spiritual condition of our country.  It isn’t the fault of Hollywood, it’s the fault of Christians that PAID TO WATCH what Hollywood produced.  It wasn’t Bill Clinton, George Bush and it won’t be Barack Obama that is the cause of our spiritual downfall.  I think for far too long the church didn’t have a backbone to stand up!  I better stop!  We can’t pass the blame!

Hosea 6:3 — LOVE this prayer too.

Hosea 13:4-6 — I pray this never happens to us.

Challenged,

Jeff


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What does a baseball game have to do with church?

8 04 2009

Yesterday I was able to go to the opening day Cardinals game in St. Louis with my dad.  While we were there, I noticed some things in relation to the church, and like usual, I blog them.  I Know I’m sick.  Here are some things I noticed at the game in relation to the church.

1.  Great service goes a LONG way. It’s amazing how quickly your attitude can change with good or bad service.  It was COLD at the game.  Like, Wyoming cold.  By far the coldest baseball game I’ve been too.  It snowed at one point.  But I digress.  I was cold, so I wanted to get some hot chocolate.  I stood in line for several minutes at one concession stand only to find out they didn’t serve hot chocolate.  I walked our entire level to the 4th concession stand before I finally found one selling hot chocolate.  The line was LONG, I was FREEZING and I was already perturbed at having to find the 4th concession stand for something warm.  I got to the front, and the lady behind the counter was MORE than friendly and accomodating.  It’s AMAZING how great service can change your tude.  A church that doesn’t make First Impressions a priority is borderline moronic.  People will decide within the first few minutes whether they are coming back to your church.  It BETTER be a priority!  If you don’t have your BEST people meeting and greeting, your’e done for!  Your greeters, ushers and first impressions teams are the ones setting the stage for the rest of the guests experience.

2.  Keep people engaged. I noticed that there isn’t a silent moment at a ball game.  In between batters there is music.  In between innings there are games or videos on the big screen.  In between pitches the organ plays a ballgame song or leads in a fan chant.  EVERYTHING is orchestrated, scripted and done with the intention of engaging the fan.  NOW, I know there is an intentional place in church for silence, BUT there is literally not a moment of silence at a ballgame and I think that is done on purpose.  If silence is un-planned, uncomfortable, and awkward in church, people will dis-engage.  If transitions aren’t smooth and the service isn’t planned or orechestrated well, people WILL notice AND it hinders engagement.  YES the Holy Spirit should have free reign in our services, BUT to neglect in planning everything down to the smallest transition is POOR stewardship of the opportunity GOD gave you to engage people for Jesus each Sunday.  People who refuse to plan down to the smallest moments of the service are probably lazy and looking for an excuse to not work. Excellence honors God.  Giving our best IS Biblical and should be pursued.

3.  It’s all about the experience. EVERYTHING at the ball game is an experience.  EVERYTHIGN!  From the mascot…the pre-game…the mid-inning entertainment…the freebies…the service…EVERYTHING.  Part of what makes going to the ballpark so memorable is NOT the game itself, but the WHOLE experience. (This might be 2b instead of 3)  There is as much planning and organizing of the event as there is for the team to play.  If you had a simple baseball field with no extra stuff.  No mid inning fun.  No entertainment.  No music.  No mascots.  Who is going to show up at the baseball game?  ONLY true baseball fans. The casual fan or the family looking for a fun outing WILL NOT show up.   If you do church without putting some SERIOUS thought into the ENTIRE experience…the Kids ministry…the music… the lightsing…the seating…the parking…the transitions…the sound system…the greeters…the ushers…WHATEVER!!  Who is going to show up at church?  JUST the committed Christians.  The “causual” attender WILL NOT show up.  The un-churched or de-churched person “seeking” a church home WILL NOT show up.  It’s ALL about the experience!

4.  It’s DEPENDANT upon the content! Like I said, it was COLD!  REAL cold.  But my dad and I, being true (or dumb) Cardinal fans, stuck it out for the entire game.  We had a two run lead TWICE and blew it.  We hit a homer in the 7th inning to go up two runs.  We had them down to the 9th inning with two outs and two strikes, AND WE BLEW IT!  They scored four runs in the 9th and we lost.  That’s ok for one game, but if that continues…Look in the stands of the teams who have NO CONTENT and what do you see?  No fans…or at least a lot less.  There are a few who will stick with it, but even the most die hard of fans at some point won’t go the game, EVEN for the great experience, if there is NO CONTENT!  Church, we might have the BEST expereince in the world BUT IF WE DON’T HAVE CONTENT WE DON’T HAVE A CHURCH!  Paul urged Timothy “PREACH THE WORD”.  You’ll lose even the committed ones without content.  A great experience with no Jesus is just…another experience.  EVERTHING, the service, keeping engaged, the experience is dependant on the content.  We must preach CHRIST… Him crucified, risen and coming again.  We must preach CHRIST and our giving our ALL to Him as commanded in Scripture.

The first three things are attractive.  They help “catch” people.  The last thing…is retractive.  It helps to keep what is caught, AND God’s Word helps foster the transformation in lives that people need.

Observing and thinking out loud,

Jeff


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Sunday Ruminations “That’s how we roll” (4-5-09)

6 04 2009

“That’s how we roll” should have been the theme for yesterday’s church service.  Not that we did anything special, or out of the ordinary IN the service, but the fact that we HAD service at all.  We had a MONSTER blizzard come through on Saturday in Cheyenne, nearly shutting down the town.  On Saturday, the police asked for no unnecessary travel on city streets.  By Sunday morning the snow and wind was gone, but many of the streets were still a mess.  Many, if not the majority of Cheyenne churches canceled services.  By the time I got to the church I wondered if we should have done the same.  BUT, we thought, “Hey, we’ll open the doors, and whoever comes…comes!”  We had to carve a path the the snow drift in front of the main entrance to get in.  Here are some pics of the front door…again, that’s how we roll.  Here are my ruminations on the day.

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— I am in St. Louis until Tuesday.  My dad got us tickets to OPENING DAY for the Cards.  I flew in last night and we’re going to the game today.  It’s supposed to be cold and wet, but who can pass up White Castle and a Cards game.  COME ON!

— I love coming to my Grandma’s house.  AWESOME memories here.  It’s gonna be a short visit, but so glad I got to come and see the fam.

— 566 in church yesterday.  WHAT?  I was seriously expecting 250 at the most.  We got some BRAVE Wyomingites coming to Element.  Thanks to all who came out!

— 566 spread over three services makes the room EMPTY!  566 two months ago would have been one of our biggest yet!

— Room dynamics change EVERYTHING.  An empty room translates HUGE into the feel of worship and the sermon.  I won’t even tell you how I felt about the day.  Glad we had church, but it was rough for me delivering the message.

— Looking back, we should have canceled the 8:30 service and had the last two.  Oh well, hindsight huh?

— Our drummer got stuck TWICE on the way to rehearsal today.  The General had to go rescue him with my Suburban.  Our acoustic guitar player got stuck and his father in law rescued him.  I think our drummer made it to church with about 30 minutes left till we started.  Adam and the band pulled it together and did an AWESOME job!

— We did one song that an emty room just doesn’t work with.  lol  They pushed through!

— Spoke on Jonah and the FISH (Bible never says whale).  Although I always say whale.  Was a challenging message for me.

—  “Maybe if we’d quit pointing out people who are running from God, and concern ourselves WITH running TO Him, we’d be better off and more people would follow.”

—  “You can say to God now ‘Thy will be done’.  Or you can continue on the path you are on and God will eventually say to you ‘Ok, thy will be done’.  You don’t want to hear the latter.”

— My voice is RAW today.  I think I’m getting a cold.  I need to figure out a weekly routine that prepares my voice for Sunday.  Not sure if what I’m drinking is making my throat not good, but I need to figure it out.

—  Egg Drop has been RESCHEDULED to this Saturday April 11th.  Same time, place and details.  The chopper, games, porta potty’s and food have all been rescheduled.  The weather for this Saturday looks AWESOME!  If you signed up you should be receiving a phone call this week. Go to cheyenneeggdrop.com for all your details.

— SPREAD THE WORD that the dates changed!  Not sure what kind of turnout we’ll get, but we’re gonna do it.

— BRING FOOD for Needs Inc. and Comea House.  We trying to fill a moving truck.

— Had an AWESOME Leadership Council meeting today.  MAN God has blessed us with some amazing leaders to advise us.  I’ll be sharing some MAJOR news for Element later this week that came out of that meeting.

— Alright, need to get ready to head to the ballpark.  Gonna be a fun day hanging with my dad and the Cards!

Following Christ,

Jeff


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If people can get to Wal-Mart and Safeway…

4 04 2009

during an all out blizzard, then they can get to church in the morning!  There were people at the theater.  People renting movies.  IHOP was packed.  There were people at stinkikn’ Sonic (we were one family there).  So, I think we should have church!  For any late blog checkers, we ARE having church tomorrow.  We understand not everyone will be able to make it, but for those that can (most of you) we are gonna ROCK IT OUT tomorrow at church!  We have three opportunities for you and it should be clear enough by either later service for you to get to church.  8:30 AM; 10 AM and 11:30 AM are your three opportunities.  DON”T MISS IT!  Hope to see you all there.  I LOVE Element Church!

Jeff


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