Sunday Rumination (2-28-10)

28 02 2010

Gotta say, this will go down as one of my top memories in ministry.  What a GREAT privilege and honor to have my parents and grandparents share the platform with Sabrina and I today as well as baptize my own son.  MAN what a day.  Here are my ruminations.

— Today was such a great day at Element Church.  We concluded Desperate Households by having my parents and grandparents share about creating a marital legacy.  30 people went public with their faith through baptism today.  Jonah got baptized and we launched our parking team.

—  No idea how parking team went.  It was the first week so I’m quite sure there are some kinks to work out.  In fact, Pastor Jason did say he had a list of fixes.  Thanks for everyone’s patience and we hope it will make the parking, in and out flow of the parking lot much smoother.

—  Please remember that until today, no one on the parking team had ever done a parking team so they are learning how it all will work.  Thanks to all the guys who stepped up to serve in that.  We will continue to make it better every week.

—  I attended the KidFaith class last night with Jonah that Pastor Derek put on.  First off, he did a fantastic job and it was such a blessing to talk with Jonah and see other parents talking with their kids about their faith.  Then today I had the INCREDIBLE honor of baptizing my own son.  WOW!

—  So proud of Jonah for waiting until he understood what baptism was.  He has wanted to be baptized for a while now but just didn’t feel like he was ready.  He expressed interest recently and displayed a grasp on the power and truth of what baptism is to his own faith.  Hope he never forgets that moment.  I know I won’t.

—  So cool to see different pastors baptizing people today.  Pastor Jason baptized his son Nathan.  Pastor Andy baptized several teens.  Pastor Grant baptized his son Morgan and another student.  Pastor Curtis baptized one of the SHIFTers and Pastor Derek baptized 20 kids.  It was AWESOME!

—  One young man who got baptized in 2nd service was a very powerful moment.  He was moved to tears before even entering the water.  Afterward his mother and he embraced in emotion for quite sometime.  I told her “Seeing the embrace between you and your son was worth the whole day for me.”  She said “God has brought my son HOME!”  SO GOOD!

—  Brian, it was an absolute HONOR to be a part of your baptism today.  So proud of you and your family.  Gonna miss you guys like crazy.

—  And the SHIFTers went NUTS for their fellow members getting baptized.  It was like a sporting event.  HA!  Way to go guys, that was cool.

—  62 years together, 89 & 88 years old for my Grandparents.  40 years together for my dad and mom.  102 years of marriage wisdom graced our stage today.  I thought they did an AMAZING job.

—  We didn’t rehearse any of the answers, I didn’t know how they would be answering any of the questions, and I’ve got to tell you, I couldn’t have asked for a better job from them.  (Not that I expected any less)

— Seemed each service that something different would be added.  I trust that what was said each service was given specifically by the Holy Spirit for someone who needed to hear it.

—  At the conclusion of each service I asked my Grandpa to pray over the marriages in our church and for our church.  His prayer to close 3rd service ended up being something TOTALLY different than any other prayer today.  I felt it was anointed from God.  He told me after church “I almost couldn’t finish the prayer” he was so moved.  It was a powerful moment for me.

—  One line today that stood out so much to me today was from my Grandpa.  He was talking about commitment and love in a marriage.  He mentioned how he became the chief caregiver for Grandma the last 8 years since she had surgery and treatments for cancer.  He put his hand on her wheelchair and with tears in his eyes said “I haven’t once wanted to stop pushing this chair around.”  MAN it was good.

—  I am so thankful for my parents keeping the legacy that was passed on to them and giving it to us.  I hope and pray that Sabrina and I can pass it on as it was given to us.

—  I can honestly say, there has NEVER been a time I’ve questioned my parents love or commitment to one another or to Christ.  I’m not naive enough to think they never had problems in marriage or their faith, but I NEVER questioned their commitment or resolve to make it till the end.  Divorce was NOT an option for them and they made that clear.  Their commitment to Christ was obvious.  Thanks guys.  I love you!

—  Had several people mention after each service “That was just what I needed to hear” concerning an answer that was given.  So many people said they were encouraged or challenged by what the panel had to say.  Sometimes you never know how days like today will go.  It went great.

—  Alright, that’s it!  Gonna chill in my recliner for a while.

—  Element, thank you for being the BEST church in the world!  You guys rock!

Till the end,

Jeff


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Setting The Example

25 02 2010

1 Timothy 4:12 says:  Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

I can honestly say that our Varsity Fusion students are doing this under the direction of Pastor Andy.  I’ve continued to be impressed with the depth and level of spiritual fervor our students are displaying.  Are they young?  Yes!  Do they make mistakes?  ABSOLUTELY!  Can they be annoying?  Don’t get me started.  BUT, I believe that on some levels, THEY are leading the way for US.

About of the 25-30 Varsity students, around 15 of them are signed up to serve somewhere in Element.  Out of the 25 – 30 Varsity students, around 15 are involved in some sort of Life Group outside of their weekly program.  Right now the students are raising money to purchase a mini-van by mother’s day for a single mom.  They’ve raised over $4000.  They have a student led prayer meeting BEFORE Fusion begins each week.  I believe they are living out the challenge from the Apostle Paul to young Timothy.

Read Andy’s latest blog HERE about how youth is going.  LOVE seeing students pursue Christ.

Excited for Fusion,

Jeff


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This Sunday

25 02 2010

Hey Element Church!  Just wanted to give an update on this Sunday.  I’m VERY excited for what is going to be taking place.

#1  We are celebrating Life in Christ through Baptism.  We actually had to cut off the Baptism application process because of the outstanding response.  Right now, we have THIRTY FOUR people confirmed for Baptism.  Yes, that’s a 3 and a 4 together.  LOVE IT!  The really cool part is, 22 of them are elementary school kids from our Elevate program.  I told Pastor Derek that he needs to stop allowing kids to be saved (obviously joking, please no comments).

This Saturday, Pastor Derek is doing a Baptism class for the students being baptized and for their parents.  We do have each student communicate when they received Christ and show that the understand what baptism is through our application process.  This class will help prepare them for what happens and baptism and again, reiterate and confirm their understanding of it before participating.  I have the absolute JOY this week of baptizing my son Jonah.  Can’t wait.  Pastor Jason is baptizing his son and Pastor Grant is baptizing his oldest son as well.  Gonna be VERY cool!

#2  Marriage Discussion Panel:  Lord willing my parents and grandparents will be joining my wife and I on the platform to talk about creating a marital legacy.  We will be answering questions that have been submitted by YOU the congregation.  We received some outstanding questions and really, aren’t going to be able to answer them all.  Almost need two or three weeks of just answer questions.  So many hurting, wondering, confused people out there.

Looking forward to all that God has for us this week.  VERY excited to share the platform with my parents and grandparents.  Hope to see you there.  Praying for life change.


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Parking Change This Sunday

24 02 2010

Hey Elementers!  Don’t forget that THIS Sunday we are instituting the parking team and new parking arrangement.  I shot a quick video on my phone to share with ya.  The wind (surprise) gets a bit loud on it.  Remember, we will ONLY be entering the parking lot from the South off of Carlson.  We will ONLY be exiting to the East (right as facing building) or West (left as facing building) depending on what side your car is parked on.  Front spaces are reserved for first time guests.  We’d appreciate your patience and help to the parking crew that will be out there helping out.  It is a work in progress but it’s a process that NEEDS to begin.  See you Sunday.


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Who Is Sending You?

23 02 2010

Reading through the Bible in 90 days has been awesome!  Since you read much more in a day, the story stays together a little better.  Anyway, as I was reading in Judges last week, something jumped out at me concerning Gideon and how it compared to the people of Israel in Numbers.

The Lord appears to Gideon while he is hiding in a winepress threshing wheat, and He tells him to go rescue Israel from the Midianites.

Judges 6:14 says this:  Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites.  I AM SENDING YOU!” (Emphasis added)  Gideon goes on to defeat the Midianites with just 300 men.  When I read that I immediately thought of Numbers 14.

In Numbers 14 the Israelites had just scouted out the promised land, came back and said “WE CAN’T CONQUER THE LAND!”  This ticks God off and He tells them “You are now going to wander the wilderness for 40 years until every one of you dies!”  The people realize they’ve blown it and they decide, against the advice of Moses, to try and conquer the land anyway.

Numbers 14:41-42 says this:  But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the LORD IS NOT WITH YOU.“  (emphasis added)  The Israelites went anyway and they were crushed.  What was the difference in Gideon and the Israelites?

The difference was in WHO was sending them.  Gideon was sent by the LORD and He succeeded.  The Israelites were sent by their PRIDE and they failed.  Who is sending you?  When it comes to leadership, IF GOD IS NOT SENDING YOU DO NOT GO!  If He IS, it doesn’t matter what He’s asking you to do, DO IT!


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Sunday Ruminations (2-21-10)

21 02 2010

CRAZY weekend in the Maness house and Element Church.  Here are my Ruminations on the day.

— Well, yesterday while Sabrina and I were chillin’ downstairs and the kids playing upstairs we hear a blood curdling scream coming from upstairs.  Not being alarmed by over reacting kids, I sauntered up the stairs while the screaming continued.  As I peaked above the railing I see Makalah standing there and the bend in her arm wasn’t bending the right way.  Her arm was obviously broken, and broken BAD.

—  I yelled to my wife “THIS IS REAL!!! MAKALAHS ARM IS BROKEN!!”  She was in obvious pain, and as stated before, her arm was OBVIOUSLY not correct.  I picked Kalah up and went straight to the car.  Poor thing was scared to death.  I rushed her to the ER with her crying the whole way.

—  To make a very long story shorter, She broke her arm so bad that they almost sent her to Denver Children’s Hospital for surgery.  Praise God though, there was an orthopedic surgeon on call here that used to work at Children’s and was able to do the surgery.  He said he used to do about 10 of these a week down there.  Her arm broke right through the growth plate and dislocated her elbow.  The Xrays made us see why her arm looked so funky.  It was nasty, She went into surgery immediately.  One hour and 2 pins later, her arm was back together.  She stayed the night in the hospital and was released this morning.

— Makalah will be in a soft cast for 2 weeks and then get a hard cast put on.  Her biggest concern through this whole thing was “Will I be able to color?”  lol  She did break her right arm and she is right handed.  Glad she is fixed up and home.  Nothing worse as a parent than your child being in tremendous pain and you can do nothing about it.  I would have done ANYTHING for her to take that pain away and fix the problem.  Hmm, good spiritual analogy there I’m thinking.

—  To go along with that we were getting dumped on with snow, so while in the surgery waiting room I was working with Kody over the phone on what to do with today’s services.  We ended up canceling first service this morning and doing 2nd and 3rd.

—  Glad we ended up canceling first service.  We were down by almost 50% in attendance today.  Thanks to all who came out for church today.

—  My mind was elsewhere this morning so felt weird for me.  I am a man of routine and don’t do well when that changes.  So not having my normal Sunday morning routine threw my off.  Then with Makalah in the hospital and in a lot of pain, that was an obvious concern of mine on my mind.  I know many of you were praying for Makalah and praying for me this morning.  Thank you so much for that.

—  Really was excited for today’s topic as we continued the Desperate Households series.  Talked about “What myths need busted about marriage?”  Here are some excerpts from the day:

  • A marriage makes someone complete (myth)
  • The only relationship that will fulfill or complete us is a relationship to Jesus Christ.  If you’re looking for a relationship to fix your fulfillment problems, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
  • You don’t have a spouse because you don’t trust God completely (myth)
  • We should be content with only Jesus, but not so we can get a spouse.  We should be content with only Jesus so that if we DON’T have a spouse we can still be fulfilled.
  • The key to a lasting marriage is NOT finding “the one”, it is making the one (JESUS), the center of your marriage relationship.

— We actually talked about 10 myths today.  Don’t want to go through all of them on here.  If you missed and would like to listen to it, you can listen at elementweb.net

—  Adam and the band pulled a switch this morning.  All three of the regular Element drummers were either sick, snowed out of town, or unavailable.  So the entire set as planned, couldn’t go as planned.  Thankfully, Pastor Curtis brought his djembe and Adam changed up the set to be acoustic.  Sounded great and the band adjusted flawlessly.

—  Thanks Curtis for stepping in and filling the gap.

—  Had The Tour today after church.  Not all were able to make it, but we still had 20 or so guests there I think.

—  I LOVE meeting new people.  Had some great conversations with folks who are making Element their home.  Spoke with on young guy whose family (wife and son) started coming the first week of Desperate Households.  He said “The guy you talked about is totally me!”  (at The Tour I mention how our goal for Sunday morning is that “Joe Schmo” who would NEVER attend church would come on a Sunday morning and enjoy attending Element Church)

—  He said our messages have spoken straight to his heart and that “we are HOOKED”  LOVE IT!

—  Makalah just got up from her nap so I’m gonna go and hang with her.  She is the talk of the house right now.  lol

— I didn’t proof read this, so enjoy the typos.  I know there are some!

— Look forward to the close out of Desperate Households this week as my Grandparents and parents join Sabrina and I on the stage to talk about “How to create a marital legacy”.  Enter your questions HERE.

—  Have an AWESOME week!

Till the end,

Jeff


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The Heart Of Our Student Ministries Pastor

17 02 2010

Element, if you don’t know, our students are VERY privileged to be led by Pastor Andy and his wife Aubrey.  I wanted to share with you his most recent blog, because I think it’s a reflection of the GREAT heart God has given him for our students.  So blessed to have Pastor Andy lead our students.  I wouldn’t want anyone else.  You can read his latest blog below called “Things that make me cry”:

Varsity Fusion was incredibly refreshing tonight.  We started a new series called “Habits”, focusing on developing habits that will shape our lives.  At the end of our small group time I spoke for about 15 minutes on Jesus’ common phrase “Follow Me”.  I think the call that Jesus gave the disciples when He first met them, people like the rich man throughout his ministry, and even Peter when he reinstated him is the same call Jesus gives us today, Follow Me.  I simply posed the question to our students tonight:  “Who do you follow?  We all follow someone or something, who do you follow?”

We listened to  a song called “You” and just took a few minutes to pray and reflect where we were at individually.  After playing the song the Lord just broke me to tears for our students.  I just want our kids to know Jesus, nothing else matters to me, nothing.  I’m not one to be brought to tears on a consistent basis, unlike my wife, but tonight the Lord gripped my heart for my students to be consumed with Jesus.

Who do you follow?



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Who do you serve?

17 02 2010

Last year I set a goal to memorize one Scripture verse per week.  While I certainly don’t have all of them perfectly down, and while I need to review them often to keep fresh, I did get pretty close.   I have 46 verses I memorized, or am getting real close to having down, from 2009.  I chose the verses as God spoke to me through them from Scripture.  I was reveiwing some of the verses today, and quoted one that I REALLY  need to remember.  I think every pastor or church leader should memorize this verse.  Doesn’t need much explanation.

2 Corinthians 6:8  We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander or praise us.

Who do you serve?  Is your preaching determined by whose in the seats, or whose on the throne?  Is your vision directed by the ones who pay the bills, or by the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills?  Are your decisions guided by what they will say, or what HE has already said?  Who I serve, determines what I will do.  I need to remember that.

Serving God,

Jeff


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Update On the R3 House

15 02 2010

Hey Element Church!  As we told you back on January 31st, we feel God is moving us to purchase a four plex home to rebuild, restore and redeem (R3) for Kingdom purposes.  The main objective is to help provide short term, affordable housing for families who are in need and trying to get back on their feet.  You can read a little about the project HERE from the Sunday when we announced it.  As a part of this project, we REALLY felt like we needed to get a home that we could “Rebuild, Restore and Redeem”, so we weren’t looking for something move in ready.

We’ve assembled a team of people to help oversee the process that are MUCH smarter than those of us who are on staff.  Financial advisers, lawyers, financial investors, and real estate experienced people (All of them attend Element).  That team is helping us oversee the legal, financial, tax and professional aspects of this project.  The pastoral Lead Team found a home that just seemed to be “the one”.  The R3 team looked at the house and approved the pursuit of it.  But, as soon as we were ready to make an offer, the home went off the market and was scheduled for auction.   Well, today was that auction.

Pastor Kody and Pastor Jason, along with our realtor, attended the auction today not really knowing if we had a chance to win it.  The GREAT news is, not only did we WIN the auction, we won for $60,000.  A four plex apartment home (two 2 bedroom and two 1 bedroom apartments), $60,000.  This FAR exceeded our expectations and we are THRILLED.  The paperwork has been signed and now we are waiting on approval from the bank who holds the mortgage.

What can you do?  PRAY that, if this is the Lord’s will, the offer from the auction will be accepted.  As soon as the deal is final, we will start the process of rebuilding, restoring and redeeming this property.  There is still a lot left to do, and the process only gets bigger as we seek to fill it with families who are in need.  SO EXCITED for the potential IMPACT this can bring and the LIFE it can offer to someone who needs it.

Till the end,

Jeff


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Element Church Video Announcements on Vimeo

14 02 2010

Makalah did video announcements at Element Church Sunday. This is her HOLLYWOOD debut.


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