Spring is in the air and Spring Break has begun. AWESOME weekend here at Element. Had the gas buydown yesterday and church today. Here are my ruminations.
— Our team KNOCKED IT OUT yesterday for the gas buydown! WOW! Cars started lining up about 2 hours before we started. Steve and his team literally did SUCH a great job. It was the BEST buydown we have done so far.
— We paid down gas by $1 per gallon for four hours. I wasn’t there the whole time but it sounded like our volunteers had some great conversations with people who were coming through the line.
— Why do we do this? We believe we serve a radically generous God so we want to be a radically generous church! Leading the way in generosity!!
— Overall 241 vehicles came through the line and we pumped 5,871 gallons of gas. So cool.
— My wife served at a pump with another couple who was serving. They actually came to Element BECAUSE of a previous gas buydown, and there they were serving at this one. LOVE IT!
— You can check out some news coverage HERE and HERE.
— We’ve done the buydown four times now and it NEVER gets old! SO GLAD we are able to serve people like that in such a practical way. When are we doing it again?
— Attendance was weird today. Some services were pretty normal while others were way down. Expected a much lower day with the BEAUTIFUL weather and the start of Spring Break.
— Concluded our series today called “Marked”. We’ve been asking the question “What are the marks of a disciple?”. Today we talked about the concept of coaching, and the big idea was “Coaching requires commitment”. Preached from 2 Timothy 2:1-10. Here are some excerpts:
- Blizzards…MMMMMMM!
- Our discipleship strategy here at Element Church is to always be REACHING more people FOR Jesus, then RAISING them up to be LIKE Jesus.
- As a church, if we aren’t teaching our people to reach other people, we’re not raising them up to be like Jesus; for Jesus said “I have come to seek and to save the lost.”
- If you say you’re a disciple but your not willing to reach more people, you’re actually a Pharisee. “You diligently study the Scriptures…but the Scriptures point to ME!” — Jesus
- Jesus didn’t need three years to die, he needed three years to disciple twelve people, equipping them to do HIS work so they could turn around and change the world.
- If you wait until you know it all you’ll never teach anyone else what you already know.
- If all we do is equip other Christians, we’ll never engage AS a Christian and we’ll end up being empty.
- Sometimes in discipleship we are so concerned with finding the answers we fail to connect to Jesus.
- Discipleship is like women…if you wait ’til you understand them you’ll never connect to them.
- Instead of being concerned with finding the right answers, we need to be consumed with connecting to God.
- If we’re not careful we can get so caught up in doing things FOR Jesus that we forget to connect TO Jesus.
- God is not as concerned with WHAT you’re doing, as He is with WHO you’re becoming.
- Suffering in Paul’s life was just an opportunity for salvation in someone elses.
— This series has been a BIG challenge to me. Not only a challenge on what discipleship is and what the marks are, but fitting it all into 4 weeks. We literally just scratched the surface of discipleship in this series.
— Pastor Andy did SUCH a great job preaching in my stead. As I said today, Pastor Andy doesn’t just fill the pulpit and is not pulpit supply. He is a bold and courageous preacher that handles the Word of God with EXCELLENCE. So appreciate his leadership as your Discipleship and Teaching pastor!
— Don’t forget the Night of Worship this Tuesday, April 3rd at 7 PM. Pastor Adam and his team have a GREAT night of music planned for us. I want to see that place PACKED OUT with worshipers of Jesus as we set the stage for Easter weekend.
— Also don’t forget we have FIVE worship services for Easter. We added the 6 PM Saturday service just for Easter.
— We are starting a new series called “This is how we change the world.” SUPER excited for what I get to share. Some BIG STUFF coming down the pike for Element. April 29th and May 20th are two dates you need to mark on your calendar to be there. More info coming soon.
— Below is the trailer for our new series:
— That’s about it! Thanks Element for just being YOU! I love you guys.
Till the end,
Jeff
