I just got home so not sure how long this will be. We had our Leadership Council meeting today so it made the day longer. Interesting day to say the least at Element Church. For those of you in 2nd and 3rd service, you have NO idea.
— Great turnout again today. I don’t usually post attendance statistics on here, but wanted to share that 4 out of the past 6 weeks we’ve seen over 800 people attend Element. Outside of an Easter month, November was the highest attended month in the history of Element Church. So amazed at the people that God is bringing to us.
— Had a bunch more new people again today. I love meeting first time guests and hearing that they are going to be back, that they were blessed by the service or that they felt at home.
— We were SUPER excited about something fun we were doing in our service today. We had a special song that was a remake of “Carol of the Bells” we were going to kick off service with. Adam, the band and Curtis put in a TON of time getting this song ready. Everything worked great in rehearsal, we were all set, it sounded amazing. Then we kicked off first service and…well…we had the perfect storm of technological disaster in epic proportions go down. If anything could go wrong technologically, it did on that song.
— Curtis’ mic didn’t work to start so they switched mics on the fly, which messed up all the effects for that song. The track that was playing for the song froze on one computer, lyrics froze on the other, the band kept playing but when the track started up again they were completely off. I was so embarrassed for Curtis that I left the room. It was an UTTER disaster. LOL They eventually just stopped mid song and went on with the service. OH MAN it was bad. I felt so bad for Curtis, the band and the tech team. Needless to say we nixed the song for 2nd and 3rd.
— Curtis then had to get up to do announcements. Had to be horribly awkward for him. He did a great job recovering. Glad you’re on the team Curt.
— I did meet one first time guest after 1st service who said they loved the experience and would be back. So, I guess our screw up didn’t effect us too bad. Glad church doesn’t depend on being perfect! lol
— Continued our Vantage Point series today by looking through the lens of King Herod. Here are some excerpts from today.
- Jesus is still a threat to thrones today, it’s just the throne of our heart.
- Lots of us live off of rumors about Christ. Believing what someone else has told us about Him but never investigating ourselves.
- We need to stop reading so many books ABOUT the Bible & Jesus, and start reading more of the Book written BY Jesus called the Bible.
- The church can easily begin to DO things based on what we’ve ALWAYS done, instead of BEING who we’re called to be based on WHO we follow (Jesus).
- The church is not here to coddle the already convinced or to cater to the consistently comfortable. We’re called to help convert those who are yet to believe and challenge the stinkin’ heck out of those of us who already do!
- Jesus wasn’t out to kill Herod, but to be killed for him. He wasn’t after Herod’s throne, He was after Herod’s heart…and He’s after yours as well.
- The reason lots of people give up on their devotions is because they are reading just to read instead of reading to seek Jesus.
- The wise men experienced Jesus while Herod waited for a report. The sad thing is that we often live our lives waiting for a report from someone else’s experience with Jesus, because we never really experience Him ourselves.
- Herod didn’t realize this, but we NEED to. Jesus is not out to GET us but to HAVE us! He’s not out to KEEP us from things but to FREE us from them.
— I had mentioned the kids Bible we are taking our family through right now for family devotions. Had one young couple ask me after 2nd service if it would be ok for them to start with a kids Bible to learn the basic Bible stories. They REALLY want to start investigating the Scripture, but they are so brand new they just wanted to learn the basic Bible stories that we take for granted from growing up in church. I challenged them to read a children’s Bible AND then read the same passage from an adult translation. They were relieved that it was ok to not know much right now, and they could start at the beginning. It was cool!
— Met with our Leadership Council and shared with them our vision for 2010. I’m SO EXCITED for what God has laid before us. I love our council that God’s given to us. It is so great to have their input, advice and accountability. Not sure the realize how much they are appreciated. You guys are awesome!
— Thanks Element for being who you are. LOVE every minute of serving you!
Till the end,
Jeff
