Element Church Insider

Check out the latest from E:Kidz and what they are doing to learn how to give and serve HERE.  Pastor Derek and his team are doing an outstanding job ministering to the children of Element Church.  Way to go E:Kidz

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

Hey Element Church!  Just wanted to remind AND invite you to join us for Enter @ Element Church.  It starts at 7 PM Friday night.  Enter is our monthly prayer & worship experience.  This month we will be sharing communion together AND the Adam will be unveiling two brand new worship songs inspired from our recent sermon series and ninety-day challenge.  During our prayer times we lift up our city, we pray for other churches and we pray for God’s blessing, guidance and protection for Element Church.  Got another BIG month ahead of us as we are taking on the issue of marriage on Sunday mornings and want to bathe that in prayer.  Worship is FULL VOLUME and our prayers are focused and intense.  Come out and join us.  Childcare IS provided!  If you’ve never been, why not now?  If you’ve haven’t been in a while, why not come back?  For your regular Enter crazies….LET’S DO THIS!  Enter is a VITAL part of what we do here at Element.  Hope to see you there.

Till the end,

Jeff

I’m a little disappointed in the NFL playoffs so far.  For an armchair fan I was hoping for some good games, but they’ve mostly been blowouts or “in control” for the whole game.  Element Church today was not disappointing though.  Another great week of worship and experiencing the presence of God together.  Here are my ruminations on the day.

—  Not sure on final count, around 12 people acknowledged Christ as their Savior today!  THAT never gets old.

—  Coming into today, I hadn’t planned on doing a response time, but after my final run through of the message I just felt strongly that we should.  I pulled Adam into my office and said “I’m not sure yet, but I feel like we should do a response time.”  After preaching the first service I still didn’t know what to do but felt led to offer salvation to those the Spirit was speaking to.  We had 5 people in first service who acknowledged Christ as Savior and I knew we needed to offer it each service.

—  One of the young men who received Christ in first service found me afterward to shake my hand and said “Thank you SO MUCH for today.  It was exactly what I needed to hear to lead me to Jesus!”  WOW!  I was blown away.

—  After 3rd service was over & the worship center cleared out, I was standing in the back with Adam, both exhausted and spent.  I looked at him and said “Every week, I wonder why God allows us to do this.”  So humbled that God ALLOWS me and CHOSE me to be a part of His work.  I don’t take that for granted.

—  Another solid day in attendance.  Had 190 kids today in e:kidz.  That is a lot of stinkin’ kids.

—  Had The Tour (newcomers lunch) today.  It shattered the record of attendance from any previous month.  I think we had about 60 people there.  CRAZY!  Love offering that and getting a chance to connect and meet with new people, and for them to hear the mission, vision and direction of Element Church.

—  I was VERY nervous and apprehensive coming in to today’s message.  I really struggled formulating what God wanted to say to us from Ephesians 5:1-17.  It is a “no holds barred” passage that Paul just speaks the truth boldly.  It is a challenging and convicting passage.  Even up until I delivered it, I was nervous about it.

—  We continued our series “Facebook:  What’s Your Status?” today, taking on the attitude of “I can’t wait until Friday.”  The big question today was “How do I make the most of every opportunity?”  Here are some excerpts from the sermon.

• At some point we have to stop and say “Wait, today is all I’ve got!”  Psalm 90:12; James 4:13-14
• Sometimes, I look at our lives and think “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then God’s probably a little embarrassed at a lot of our effort!”  Ephesians 5:1
• Boredom, often times, is much more a spiritual issue than an activity or occupation one.  A life occupied (filled) with love will always find a way to express that love, regardless of where it finds itself or what it finds itself doing, ESPECIALLY when dealing with the love of Christ.
• A full life isn’t always a fun one, but one that is filled with love.  I doubt the cross was very fun, but it was filled with love and therefore it was fulfilling.
• Often times the reason we can’t wait until Friday, is we are pre-occupied with ourselves instead of being occupied with love.
• Did an illustration with Diet Pepsi and Peanut Butter Cups.  The PB cups represented…eh hum…poop.  Why that illustration?  We wouldn’t drink even our most favorite beverage if there was ANY poop in it, yet we expect God to be ok with some in our heart.  I’m not saying there won’t be junk in our heart, I’m just saying I’m tired of us trying to justify it.  Ephesians 5:3-5
• Too many people use their humanity as an excuse NOT to pursue holiness.  God doesn’t expect perfection, but he does command imitation, sadly, I think many people are pursuing neither.
• To be honest, I don’t blame some people for not wanting Jesus.  All around them in their lives are so called “Christians” who live like nothing has changed within them.  If we’re telling people they “NEED” Jesus, but He hasn’t changed anything in me, why would they want Him?
• The church gets all worked up about how dark the world is when the ONLY way that darkness is exposed is if we shine light on it.  AND, light is not contained in picket lines, through a bullhorn or on a piece of stinkin’ poster board.  Light is in MY LIFE and how I live day 2 day.  Jesus did 1000 times more with HOW He lived than with WHAT He said.

— No one is owning up to it, but someone shook up my 2 liter bottle of Diet Pepsi used for my illustration before 2nd service.  When I opened it FOR the illustration it WOULD NOT stop foaming and spraying.  Seemed like an eternity for it to stop.  It all worked out, but I was not happy. 

—  The band did a Kris Allen (American Idol winner) cover song today called “Live Like You’re Dying”.  Did an AWESOME job with a very difficult song.  Was a great segway into my message.

—  Had some more great conversations with people today.  So encouraging to hear what God is doing in peoples lives.

—  My son just walked in and asked me to go play basketball with him.  Sorry, but that trumps ruminations every time.

—  Element Church, I love you and am so proud of you guys!  Couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Till the end,

Jeff

We’ve announced that Element Church is adopting 20 families this Christmas season to help give them a Christmas they otherwise couldn’t have had.  We kicked off this outreach yesterday at church offering 300 ornaments representing gifts for these families.  Well…I am VERY pleased to announce that after ONE DAY of offering these giving opportunities, they are ALL GONE!  Praise the Lord!  If you’ve taken an ornament, make sure you purchase the gift and bring it back to the Element Gives Back table on or before December 13th.

ALSO, if you weren’t able to get a gift (or if you did) and want to still give, we are accepting gift cards for the families.  Wal-Mart, Target, grocery stores, restaurants, department stores etc.  You can also bring those to the Element Gives Back table on or before December 13th.

I announced that Element, out of our outreach account, we are giving $8000 toward helping with this project as well.  That money ONLY comes through your generous giving.  10% of every dollar given to Element is given toward outreach like this.  A tithe of the tithe given back to people.

I’m so proud of you as a church.  We are going to significantly impact these families this season.  Don’t miss your opportunity to be a part of this.

Following Christ,

Jeff

LOVED this post from Joe Sangl on purchase decisions this week.  I know many of you will be going out to hunt for “Christmas bargains”.  Keep this in mind when you go.

You can read his blog HERE.