Been a full day today. It’s 7 PM and I just sat down to do the blog. I typically try to get it done in the afternoon. Was a great day at Element. Three services, leadership council, private baby dedication, then home to sick kids. Makes for a full day. Here are my ruminations on the day.
— 9 kids accepted Christ today in Elevate. NINE! Pastor Derek, KEEP ROCKIN’ IT! Amazing.
— “God is blowin’ my mind out of my head right now” I think were Derek’s exact words. lol Love it! Been there Derek. Still there actually!
— 878 in church today.
— I told Grant “I’m done predicting what attendance will be based on what the room looks like.” Every time I think my guesstimate is right it is far off. I’m surprised every time Grant tells me the attendance. Whether I think it’s up or down I’m never right. I think Grant just picks a number that sounds fun to him that day. lol
— Second service is by FAR the most full. We definitely still have quite a bit of growing room in first and third service.
— Third service is least attended and we could use some Elementers to switch from second to third.
— Loved how Adam and the band did worship today. Great way to mix it up. It was a total acoustic set with keys, acoustic guitar and some percussion instruments.
— Adam stepped away from center stage and let Katie lead. GREAT job Katie.
— Thought it was a great lesson in leadership from Adam to step aside and let someone else take the reigns even when we was there. Great job band!
— Loved the new percussion stuff from Bryant. Stellar!
— Nathan suggested a song to the team during their song selection planning that TOTALLY fit the theme of the day. I think I cried every service when they sang it. It’s called “I’ve had questions”. We’ll do it again later this series. PERFECT for today’s message.
— We started Life’s Toughest Questions and took on the most difficult yet most common question I think we have as humans today. “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
— I felt uneasy this whole week leading up to this and that didn’t stop this morning. I KNEW this was what I was supposed to preach on but never felt great about it, even after I was done. People were ministered to and God was glorified so that is all what it was all about.
— Even if we knew why bad things happen, would it take away our pain? NO! We ask the wrong questions. We don’t need to know why, we need to know where to turn when bad things happen.
— The world doesn’t need answers, the world needs HOPE, for it is HOPE that will define us when bad things happen NOT answers.
— What separates Christians from non-Christians is not answers, but HOPE. Why is it that as Christians we feel we have to have an answer for everything?
— The answer to WHY bad things happen is simple. Sin and the free will of man. That is why we have to answer WHERE do I turn and not just WHY it happened.
— Jesus promised us hard times when He said “In this world you WILL have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world”
— My default message is LIFE. When I feel uneasy about a message I always want to scrap it and preach on my passion…LIFE Amber (Pastor Adam’s wife) said something today that I’ve been thinking about since. She said “I know your passion is to preach on life, but messages like this one help people overcome hurts that will enable them to actually live.” That dog’ll hunt right there.
— Had our 3rd leadership council meeting today. Those guys on our council ROCK! Not many pastors can say they enjoy (or at least don’t mind) going to their elder meetings. Our team BELIEVES in our mission and literally want to see ANYTHING done to reach this city for Jesus.
— That’s all she wrote folks. Time to watch Amazing Race and Apprentice with my beautiful bride. I LOVE Element Church and can’t imagine doing ANYTHING else. You guys ROCK!
Following Christ,
Jeff
