21 Day #15: Not Surprised

16 02 2009

This is day #15 in our 21 day journey.  The last week!  I have really enjoyed going through the Gospel of John and pulling out random truths.  If you haven’t checked out Andy’s blog lately, you need to.  He also blogged every day about each chapter in John.  Today’s question was “What can I do to keep from ‘walking by’ the house of sin?”  (Read Proverbs 7 for reference to that question)

John 15:

Verse 18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.”

Folks, I got news for us (and I’m sure you’re not surprised either).  I don’t think the attitude toward Christianity is on the way up.  While people are still finding Jesus and receiving forgiveness of sins, the growing attitude and spiritual landscape of our culture is getting very ANTI Christian.  Jesus warned of this, even in his day, and it is continuing to rise today.

Here is the thing.  Jesus basically said “if you belonged to the world it would love you, but you DON’T.  You belong to ME!”  It’s the whole addage “To be IN the world but not OF it!”

I don’t know where that line is.  I think the debate about being OF the world has gone on since it was drawn out of Jesus’ prayer in John 17.  Many people have taken the “NOT of the world” part, and gone into far extremes of legalism.  Many have taken the “IN the world” part, and gone into far extremes of liberalism (spiritually).  But, haven’t we missed something here?  Wasn’t Jesus the ULTIMATE example of being IN but not OF the world.  Isn’t that what He is trying to get at here?  HE is why WE will be hated, if WE live like HE lived.  (read that again)

Jesus hung out at parties, but He wasn’t the “life” of the party, He brought LIFE to the partiers (new wine).  Jesus was friends with prostitues, but He didn’t employ their services,  He employed THEM to NEW services (Go and sin no more).  Jesus hung out with sinners (and was hated for it), but He NEVER followed them in their sin, He led them OUT of it!  Jesus touched the lepers, and the lepers were healed.  The Pharisees hated Him because He broke THEIR “rules” and He raised the bar!  He didn’t live in the tiny religious box that man had created.  He LOVED, He LIVED, He SERVED, He LED!  And the world hated Him for it.

I’m not surprised then, that even when the church LOVES, and LIVES, and SERVES, and LEADS, that the world hates them for it.  YES, we have horrible examples of churches who have gone to the extreme of: “of the world” and  “in the world”.  But it doesn’t change the fact that we are called to BE LIKE JESUS.  Who was the ULTIMATE “in the world…not of it!”  And when we live like that…the world will still hate us!  But for the few who will follow…

Not surprised,

Jeff


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21 Day #14: The Greatest Gift

15 02 2009

Today is day #14 of our 21 day journey.  It’s Sunday and I am STOKED about church today.   I have been SO challenged in my own walk with Jesus through our current series, as well as the 21 series we did in January.  Today’s question “How is the enemy trying to trip me up?  What areas of weakness do I need to be aware of?”

John 14:  Here in this chapter we find Jesus revealing literally the greatest gift we could ever receive.  The Holy Spirit!  This might be my shortest 21 blog.

‘The Bible promises us the Holy Spirit as a Counselor.  Like a good counselor He comforts the afflicted.  But also like a good counselor there are times He will afflict the comfortable!”  (from The Wild Goose Chase)  I love that.

That is what 21 and The Wild Goose Chase is ALL ABOUT!  It is about living a spirit FILLED and a Spirit LED life!  The Holy Spirit is a GREAT comforter.  Encourager.  Sustainer.  But He also is SO GOOD and rockin’ our boat when we get too comfortable in our faith.  He IS the greatest gift.

Thankful,

Jeff


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To build or not to build…#2

6 08 2008

Hey Element Church! You can read post #1 about this HERE. I’ve been wanting to blog about this for some time now and thought that now was a good time. The #1 question we received when we started Element Church from other Christians was “Do you have a building yet?” That bothered me. Are we not REALLY a church until we have a building? Why was that the most asked question? Why is it every churches goal to have a building? To be honest, it was my goal when we started NOT to move to a permanant location this quickly, but due to post #1 and some other things I think it plays into answering the question “To build or not to build…” Here is #2

2. Have you exhausted all options? I’ll be honest, I’m stinkin’ jealous of church plants that get to use movie theaters that seat 800 people with 60 foot screens, and church plants that meet in high school fine arts auditoriums that are state of the art and seat 1200 people. We are in a unique church plant situation. While we are one of the largest communities in Wyoming, we are VERY small compared to other metropolitan areas around the country where many church plants take place. With a smaller area comes less meeting options.

Once we started filling up two services the search was on for a new meeting facility. The idea of a permanent place was our LAST option. We looked at going back to the Holiday Inn. We looked at doing a video venue in the theater. We tried a third service. We tried and tried and tried to get into the school system, with no avail. We considered the civic center. Some things that were available just wouldn’t have worked for what we felt we needed to be as a church. The fact that we needed new space but NOTHING was available to remain portable and true to who Element was, opened the door for us to look into permanent locations.

I’ve heard of so many churches that USED to do outreach, USED to be in the community, USED to (fill in blank) UNTIL they got a building. I DON’T WANT THAT! I’ve said from the very first Unplugged “We WILL NOT be about a building!” And I stand by that. Having a building MUST ENABLE us to do more outside the church, not keep us more in it. If it doesn’t it is a waste of every stinkin’ cent. I LOVE the fact that we are still in town. There is nothing wrong with having a building outside of town, but I felt strongly that was not for us. We needed to be in the city. Down the road that may change (coming in another post) but for now we need to be.

When asking the question of whether to build I think we ask “Have we exhausted all options?”

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Sunday Rumination (4-27-08)

27 04 2008

Hey Element Church! Man oh man am I wiped today. I think three services affected more today than any other. Much of it had to do with just the heaviness of the message upon me today. The future for Element is SO exciting but the HUGENESS of what God is asking us to do is so far beyond me. We announced today two MAJOR pursuits in Element Church:

#1 August 1st we’ll be bringing Pastor Grant on staff full time. Up until now Grant has worked for Frito Lay full time and donating his time to Element. That needs to change for Grant and for our church. We have grown so quickly that Grant can’t keep up with the connecting and small groups and we can’t go any longer without him being able to. SO, we are stepping out in faith to hire Grant full time. I CAN’T WAIT to have him in the office, ministering to YOU every day.

#2 We are in pursuit of a building to lease for the ongoing ministry of Element Church. WE NEED SPACE if we are to grow any more. God is HUGELY blessing us with people coming to Element and we don’t want that to stop. This will be a HUGE step of faith, but one I think we have to take. We are working on a lease for about 16,000 square feet of space on 600 Carlson Ave. The worship center will hold 300 – 400 people. It would house our offices, kids and a MUCH NEEDED youth space. We’d have the ability to expand into existing empty space adjacent to what we’d be getting if needed. We have a local contractor who is donating his time to help lead the project. As a team of 6 last Spring we laid hands and prayed over the building for God to give it to us. Two months ago I received a phone call from an ownership group that heard we were needing space. They said “We have some space with think you’d be interested in.” It was the building we prayed for. More details will be coming this Sunday. PRAY PRAY PRAY for God’s will to be done in all of this. This is our mountain. I’m advancing onto it and need YOU to go wit me!!

Here is my other rumination on the day.

— I am more tired today than maybe any other Sunday at Element. I am SPENT! Feel emotionally and physically drained. Wouldn’t want it any other way. Typically means it was a good day at church.

— The theater employee was 30 minutes late in opening the door this morning. That adds some stress.

— Had MAJOR technical problems again today with audio/visual stuff. It’s starting to REALLY bug me. Getting VERY distracting and I don’t like it. Not sure what to do.

— Adam played TWO originals today. He wrote the song Yearn a couple of years ago and is an AWESOME worship song. I think it’s good enough to “make it”. He then sang a new song he wrote today called “The Heart of a Warrior”. It was based on my heart of a warrior sermon I did on March 30th. I LOVE the fact that we can do original music. Adam wrote another one inspired form our Eternity series that we’ll bust out real soon. It too is AWESOME!

— We’d love to do an Element Worship CD some day. Put some of our original stuff on it. That would be cool.

— PACKED HOUSE TODAY! 505 in attendance. The Sunday I announced we were going to two services we were way down in attendance if I remember correctly. It was confirming to bust 500 again on the day we’re announcing that we are pursuing a building.

— This building scares me for a couple reasons. #1 I don’t want to be about a building. We ARE NOT buying but leasing this space. It will be a 3 year lease. I FULLY expect to move in three years to another, larger location. Either that, or plant another church from Element. (Not me personally, but Element daughter a church) Maybe a video campus here in Cheyenne. (That is a whole other blog) #2 The risk! This is by far the BIGGEST decision I’ve EVER made in ministry. Moving here affected just my family. Moving now to a building affects our entire church. This is a financial risk for us. We have it made at the theater. But I don’t want to “have it made”. I want to anticipate God will show up when we need him. He won’t lead us down a road He can’t provide on. Financially this is a faith move for us.

— 1st and 3rd service were full. In 3rd we had folks on the front row. I hate that. It’s so uncomfortable. Heard one of the families on the front were first time guests too.

— 55 in e:coustic today. That’s up from previous weeks. That’s good!

— I preached on mission, vision and where we’re going as a church today and how we’ll get there. I want to blog a little this week about what I preached on. I think our decision making process is so helpful to what we do. Maybe it can help another pastor who reads this. Maybe not. I’ll blog it anyway.

— Partnership class this Sunday at 4 PM. Don’t miss out on that. If you want to take the next step in Element to get more plugged in and be a part of what’s going on you need to come to that.

— Seriously, Elementers, you guys are the GREATEST! I absolutely love, LOVE leading this church! Can’t imagine not doing this.

— That’s it for now. Blog more later.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, Sunday Rumination, church life, church planting, decisions, updates

Lead Team

31 03 2008

Hey Element Church! On Monday’s we usually have an all staff meeting over lunch and then break into a Lead Team meeting which includes the pastoral staff (Grant, Curtis, Adam and myself). Today however we called off the all staff meeting and went into an extended Lead Team meeting to pray and brainstorm some major decisions coming up in the life of Element Church. If God leads and opens doors, we may just be advancing into some uncharted territory for Element Church. All I can say right now is to please pray for God’s direction for the Lead Team in these decisions. There are two things that I am going to be SO EXCITED to announce this month if things progress as we hope. HA, I love leaving everyone hanging.

My sermon this past Sunday could not have come at a more opportune time. In August we planned this Heroes series and I knew on March 30th I would be preaching on Jonathan and his armor bearer from 1 Samuel 14. I knew I would be preaching on the warrior’s heart and “ADVANCING AT ALL COSTS”. “Anticipating the response of God” Jonathan advanced against the multitude of philistines on the notion that “perhaps God will help us”. Hmm, coincidence? Both of these decisions we have to make are “advancing” decisions. Both of them are risky. Both of them need God to show up. And both of them are scary!

In all major decisions we have make at Element Church the Lead Team whiteboard’s it. “We need to whiteboard this” is becoming a common Element Team phrase. We write down the pro’s, con’s, questions for the decision we are making. It really helps us brainstorm all possible options. It helps us dream. It helps us get a grasp on what we are facing. We pray about what we whiteboarded and the ultimate decision rests in the Holy Spirits leading on all we talked about. I’d love to show you a picture of today’s whiteboard, but I can’t.

Ok, I’ve already shared too much. I love this church and I love Elementers. You guy’s are the greatest. You put up with me every week and these crazy leave you hanging blogs. Be praying for the team. Also, Eternity series starts this week. VERY excited about that.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, church life, church planting, decisions, team, updates

Decisions

21 08 2007

MAN! Financial decisions are the toughest for me right now in this whole church plant thing. We have been SO blessed through our mother church and through our church conference financially. We received over $150,000 of seed money from those two groups to get started. The hardest part right now is budgeting that to fund the initial year. Obviously we want to plan ahead to ensure that year #2 happens, but part of making sure year #2 happens is spending some money in year 1 to attract and assimilate people to Element Church. We are facing, in the next week, some SERIOUS financial decisions at it pertains to launch. We want to launch HUGE so we want to be specific in our promotions and do the things that will yield us the most fruit. Anyway, my personality is “Let’s do it all!” and that’s not what we need right now. We are seeking God for some advice and wise counsel in these matters. We want absolute peace about the financial decisions that have to be made. Your prayers are MUCH appreciated.


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Categories : church planting, decisions, finances

Carmike Frontier 9

23 04 2007

This is a possible meeting location. We love the feel of a theatre. Very modern. The seats are already there and if we are portable that is huge in set up time. We CAN use the theatres High Definition projector for our services and that is awesome as well. 2 major factors that we’d deal with here. #1 the largest auditorium holds 188 people. That is with every seat filled. If we eliminate the front row for some sort of stage set up your down to 155. Two services would be nearly impossible especially with the age demographic we’d be reaching. There probably aren’t too many young families who will want to get up and be at church by 8 am. So that is something we have to consider. #2 Starting in April through August of each year the theatre summer schedule begins. This means a lot of movies starting at 11:30 or 11 AM and the big blockbusters (Spiderman, Transformers, etc.) have 10 AM showings. This completely eliminates the use of the theatre during those months. SO, if we do go with the theatre it will be to get us started and we’d try and find something else starting April of 08′. The cost of the theatre is fantastic and the manager has been wonderful to work with so far. Very accommodating. Anyway, here are some pictures of the theatre. Please pray for God’s direction in this. Other than staffing, I think that the meeting location is the biggest first year decision.


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Categories : church planting, decisions, meeting space

Our best!

13 04 2007

We had the chance to celebrate Easter with my sister and her family in Greeley, CO this past Sunday. Not only did we have a great time with them and our kids’ adopted grandparents (sisters husbands folks) but we enjoyed a phenomenal Easter service at their church, Greeley Wesleyan. The worship not only sounded great but it was genuine (big difference). And their pastor preached one whale of an Easter message. Through this week I’ve been thinking about something, and it really has nothing to do with Greeley Wesleyan, although the quality of their service triggered my thought process. There are so many churches who put days, weeks, perhaps MONTHS, planning their Easter service. They want to pick out the perfect songs, graphics, dramas, cantatas, because “Someone new will be there to hear the Gospel for perhaps the first time”. They spend money on larger and better advertisements, challenge their people to “INVITE, INVITE, INVITE!” Put together special choirs, etc. You get the picture. My thought (I know you’re wondering when I’ll get to it). Shouldn’t this be our attitude EVERY Sunday. Isn’t every Sunday the celebration of the risen Lord? Isn’t every Sunday a chance for “Someone new to be there to hear the Gospel for perhaps the first time?” Seems lots of churches roll out the red carpet for Easter and then settle for the other 51 weeks of the year. I hope at Element we’ll give our best, our ABSOLUTE BEST! Every Sunday. We give our best not to “sound good” or “look good”, but in the hopes that perhaps we will engage someone with the greatest message known to man in a way that they can best see Him and know Him. If we don’t give our best, why give at all?

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : church planting, decisions

Finding A Home

31 03 2007

God provided the perfect home for our family to live in and now seems to be opening doors for
Elements home. Our plan is to open our office on June 1st and launch public services Oct. 7th. We’ve been researching possible meeting locations since June 0f 2006. We’ve been researching office space since we moved here at the end of January. As a church plant we obviously are limited on spending (God has provided MARVELOUSLY with finances) so we are looking for the best possible location/space/storage etc. Nothing seemed to be the right fit. Some were great offices but horrible location. Great location but horrible offices. I was driving down Lincolnway Ave. (main drag) the other day and saw a nice office strip with a for lease sign on it. I called them and set up an appointment. When Grant, Terri and I walked through it just felt right. Not only is it an unbelievable location, but it has a 1000 sq. foot warehouse attached to it for storage, drama and praise team practice, AND it was exactly at our budget with ALL utilities included. The landlord even agreed to replace all the carpet in it. The Lord’s hand is definitely in this. THEN it seems we have found our meeting location. Lord willing we will be meeting at the Frontier Mall Carmike Theatres. The General Manager is willing to work with us in wonderful ways and is extremely open to some cool stuff with a church in a theatre. As our team walked through the theatre it just felt like home. I’ll write more on church in a theatre later. Please continue to pray for us as we walk through these possiblities and look for God’s direction.


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Categories : church planting, decisions, meeting space