AMAZING day at Element Church today. I can’t believe I get to be a part of this. It is SO AWESOME seeing God transform peoples lives, receive Him as Savior AND learn to follow Him. Today was a day I’ll remember for a long time.
— We had well over a dozen people acknowledge Christ as Savior today. Seeing people receive Christ NEVER gets old.
— Had the highest attendance today since Easter. It was packed!
— We baptized 33 people today in our three services. We only had 21 signed up, so YES that means that 12 people decided ON THE SPOT to make their declaration for Jesus public.
— Here’s how it went down: We gave an opportunity for people to acknowledge Christ as Savior. The band rocked out a song called Declaration. After that song we opened up Baptism to ANYONE who just received Christ or who had never been baptized but wanted to make their public declaration. We also took away all excuses NOT to get baptized. We pre-bought underwear, bras, shorts and shirts of ALL sizes. We opened it up and they took the plunge. It was AWESOME. Men, women and children acknowledging Jesus as Savior.
— Since we don’t have a baptistry, we again baptized the Wyoming way…in a horse trough. We set up the trough in the lobby and actually bought horse tank heaters that warmed the water right up (we could have used those in July). We then video casted the baptism into the worship center live. It worked out GREAT!
— Pastor Derek got to be a part of his first baptism. It was SO COOL to see him get to baptize all of the kids. He got to baptize his own son today too. That was way cool.
— It was VERY cool to see people get baptized who have family and friends at Element who have got baptized with us. LOVE seeing how people connect together via church. We’re made to belong.
— We had a TON of moving parts today with the lobby video feed, stage props for sermon illustrations, special song at the end, multiple video aspects in the service. Our tech team NAILED it today. To all those who volunteered in ANY of those areas, you guys ROCK! Thanks for serving.
— Adam had a TON of things to get done for the service this week. He worked extra long and knocked everything out. Still pulled off a GREAT worship set too. Way to go Adam and the band!
— I completed our mini-series called Bailout today. Andy kicked it off last week. Here are some portions from today:
— A lot of times, the people who get the most worked up over discipleship programs, if you dig deep enough, really want to find out “How can I make everyone look, act, talk, think and believe like me.”
— One of the biggest issues the church faces today is thinking that everyone outside our walls needs to become more like us. They need to become more like JESUS!
— We spend WAY too much time theorizing and analyzing how Scripture relates to everyone else, when we should be re-organizing our lives and actualizing principles FROM Scripture as it relates to US.
— When Jesus called those who believe, He never said “Come join a class!”. He said “Come follow me!” There has to be an element of DOING when it comes to discipleship.
— That was before we even got to the text. I preached from Luke 14:25-35 today. I’m not sure we completely understand that passage. In fact, I KNOW we don’t. I told the staff this week “I don’t think I want to preach this passage.” I then said “I don’t think you WANT me to preach this passage.” This was a tough one to swallow.
— Jesus said you must hate EVERYONE else in comparison to Him. The toughest part of that verse is when He says “Yes, even your own self.” We MUST die to ourselves before we can die to anyone else. Following Jesus costs me every person. Including myself.
— The cross is not a part of our life, it IS our life. It’s not an addendum as if I can choose to carry it on Sunday’s, at least the Sundays I feel like attending church. I don’t get to check my cross at the door. However I think it’s funny that is where you would find many the Christian cross…left at the door of their church on the way out.
— Every position I hold, I now hold in relation to the cross. Following Jesus costs me every position.
— Following Jesus costs me every possession. “You cannot be my disciple unless you give up everything you own.”
— Following Jesus costs me every pleasure. If salt loses it’s flavor it is not good even for the manure pile. If we are the salt of the earth then we are to bring flavor to the world around us. How? By being DIFFERENT! We are to preserve the world by upholding truth, values and standards that are decaying all around us. It is the pleasures of this world that cause us to be flavorless and lose our preservation value.
— That’s the sermon in a nutshell. I wrestled with that passage for a long time. Again, not sure we understand the cost of being a disciple.
— Announced today that we are adopting TWENTY families for adopt a family this year. 4 families are homeless. One of them has 5 kids with 1 on the way. A couple of single moms. One woman recently out of prison trying to get back on her feet. You can get more info at Element Church on Sunday, just visit our Element Gives Back table for all your information.
— Announced last week that we will be partnering with the F.E. Warren Chaplaincy by serving at their new progressive worship service on base. It’s called Ignite and is geared toward the some 2,000 airmen on base that are 18-25 years old. The Element band will be leading worship and we’ll be serving Chaplain Marley as he leads this outreach on base. Can’t wait to see what God does through this. Our first service is Sunday night December 20th. It will be offered once a month.
— That’s all for now. Tons more on my heart and mind. Got Partnership Class in 1 hour that I need to get ready for.
— Thanks Element for letting me lead you. It’s an honor!
Till the end,
Jeff
