Umm, where did Fall go and if you took it can you bring it back? GORGEOUS Spring like day today in Cheyenne. Sunny and like 85 degrees. Unreal. It was also a GREAT day inside Element Church. Here are my ruminations on the day.
— Not sure on the full count so I’m gonna play it safe. I know for sure one person acknowledged receiving Jesus as Savior today. LOVE it. If only for the ONE!
— We are in this for HIM alone and we do it to connect THEM alone! (NEVER forget that)
— Thanks to those of you lifting up prayers for me today. I asked for prayer via Facebook cause I just felt a spirit of uneasiness and heaviness today. Didn’t feel right at all. The prayers were greatly appreciated.
— I’m gonna blog on this later this week, but I knelt to pray in my office before heading in for worship and just said “Lord, I don’t feel right but I’m going to go in there and CHOOSE to worship You.” I went in, started to worship and the song we were singing was PERFECT. It said: “I will bring praise, I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice, I will declare. God is my victory and He is here.” It was almost as if the Lord was re-assuring me “I’m here and I am your victory”.
— LOVED worship today. The energy was electric.
— 230 kids today in our kids ministry. ARE YOU SERIOUS? That is crazy! CRAZY!
— Thanks to everyone who came to first service. It was our highest attendance in that service in a LONG time and REALLY helped create open seats in 2nd service. Keep it up! We need the most seats in 10 AM service.
— Continued the series Impact today. Asked the question “How do we get this done?”. With all that is laid before us as a church and the enormity of the task presented to us, that seems like the right question to ask. Preached from Acts 13:4-52. Here are some excerpts from the sermon:
- As scary and uncertain as it may be, I’d rather be a church that’s willing to risk it all and see the vision of God fulfilled, even if it means a constant level of uncertainty, than to be a church that saves it all and never sees the vision of God fulfilled, even if it means a constant level of comfort ability.
- Safety is sometimes the enemy of success. Safety was never promised by our Savior yet safety seems to be what we easily pursue as God’s church and His people.
- How do we get this done? WE DON’T! Paul and Barnabas were SENT OUT by the Holy Spirit. If what we do is not inspired by God we are destined to fail. We are inspired in our pursuit.
- MMMM, steak! (Had to be there) At Element Church we are not an all you can eat buffet, we are a great steakhouse. We choose to do a few things as best we can, instead of trying to do everything for everyone and end up doing nothing really well.
- We are intentional in our purpose. Paul and Barnabas KNEW who they were trying to reach, WHERE those people were going to be and they did EVERYTHING they could to reach them for Jesus. (They came to each town, went to the synagogue and PREACHED JESUS)
- We are relevant in our practice. Paul and Barnabas taught Jesus in a language their AUDIENCE could understand and in a WAY they could apply it. We are trying to proclaim the promise of Jesus with the BEST possible presentation to reach as many potential people who don’t yet have Life in Christ. The promise of Jesus deserves the BEST POSSIBLE presentation.
- We are practical in our programs. Paul and Barnabas said “We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness of sins”. EVERY place they went, their “program” was PREACH JESUS. That’s it!
- We aren’t going to spend a whole lot of time or money on huddles at Element Church. The game is WAY to big. We must be careful as a church because you can end up spending so much time and money on huddles that you don’t have anything left to make an impact in the game. And we WILL make an impact in the game.
- We will be effective in our product. The people BEGGED Paul and Barnabas to come back and speak again, and the following week almost the ENTIRE town came out to hear them. If they were gone, the community would miss them.
- If we are going to offend anyone I’d rather offend the overly religious and keep reaching those who don’t yet know Jesus! ANYTIME the church is “successful” there will be jealousy, dissension and opposition…mostly from INSIDE God’s church.
— Sermon should be up online Tuesday. I shared a TON of stuff on our vision here at Element. This is WHAT we do, WHY we do it and HOW we’re going to get it done.
— Had two church planting teams in church today. One from Elevation Church in Aurora, CO led by Scott Bloyer. Had a GREAT time talking with their team following 3rd service today. They launch on 10-10-10. If you would, lift up a prayer for them. We are celebrating three years of God’s greatness and they are just getting to begin. SO COOL! They are going to do a GREAT job.
— The other team was from Inside Out Church in Fort Collins led by Nate Templin who is a high school classmate of mine. They have a real heart and passion for reaching the college students at CSU. Didn’t get a chance to hang with him today but LOVE his heart for the FoCo area.
— HUGE week at Element Church this week. This Wednesday at 7 PM we are having a CD release party for Pastor Adam’s new worship album called Till The End. We want to PACK THE PLACE OUT in support of Adam and his music. His songs have been such a HUGE inspiration and part of the Element Church story. Come out and worship with us.
— THIS COMING SUNDAY IS OUR 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!! We are pulling out the stops to celebrate what God has done on our behalf over the past 3 years. ONE service in ONE location with ALL ages together. 11 AM at the Civic Center. DON’T MISS IT! Adam and his team has put in a TON of time, energy and creativity into making this an amazing event. I can’t wait!
— Make sure you get there and invite someone to come with you. We are praying for GOD to fill up the place with His Spirit AND fill it up with His people.
— That’s about it! I’m WIPED! Woke up at 3:45 AM this morning and have been going ever since.
— Element Church I LOVE leading you. You guys are amazing. Can’t wait to see where God takes us next. Greater things are yet to come. May we never settle for reasonable when God has called us to irrational.
Till the end,
Jeff
