Amazingly beautiful day here in Cheyenne. Hard to believe it’s April. Honest moment: Every pastors dream would be for it to RAIN every Sunday. If it snows, people don’t come. When’s it’s beautiful, people don’t come! RAIN is our best friend. LOL Here are my ruminations on the day.
— 16 people acknowledged to us they accepted Christ as Savior today! WOO HOO!
— We preached on generosity and got to live out the core value of “If only for the ONE!” LOVE it!
— I joked about the weather affecting attendance, but we actually had an awesome attendance day today. 2nd service was SLAMMED. Had to pull out extra chairs.
— A full service was a GREAT reminder that it’s time to take some steps with our expansion & remodel. This coming Sunday is the official close of IMPACT and I’ll be updating the church on where we are and what our next step is. I believe God has given us the wisdom we need to move ahead, and while there is still a level of uncertainty on HOW it will all work out, we have the clarity we need to take our next steps.
— We aren’t taking a special offering or asking for additional funds. We will be celebrating all that God’s provided, what He’s been able to accomplish in 18 months, and talking about what’s next for us as a church.
— Continued our series “This is how we change the world” today by talking about Core Value #3: Leading the way in generosity. Preached from John 2:1-11. Here are some excerpts on the day:
- Leading the way in generosity: We serve a radically generous God so we will be a radically generous church.
- (After sharing some startling perceptions about the church from a national poll) It sure seems like when the world looks at the church they are able to see lot’s and lot’s of things, there’s just one problem…none of them seem to be seeing JESUS!
- The way we live, both individually and as a church, should cause people to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
- Ultimately, our goal is not for people to see our values or for people to see our church. The goal is, whether they realize it’s happening or not, that by living out the values of Jesus they would catch a glimpse of who He is and He might possibly break through to their heart.
- We don’t want to do crazy things FOR money, we want to do crazy things WITH money FOR other people BECAUSE we serve a generous God.
- Generosity from the church should be commonplace, yet it’s become unconventional. It should be expected as what we do, yet it’s elevated as something extraordinary.
- We serve a radically generous God, so, not only do we want to be a radically generous church, why wouldn’t we be a radically generous church and why should the community expect anything different?
- Undercover Boss and Extreme Home Makeover shouldn’t be leading the way in generosity, GOD’S CHURCH should be.
- A need isn’t only nourishment, a need is sometimes just being known.
- For us, doing outreach or being generous is not about getting something in return, it’s about doing what is RIGHT! It is RIGHT to be generous.
- If your giving something to someone in the hopes that you’ll get something in return that’s not generosity, it’s manipulation.
- Generosity doesn’t stop at the bare minimum, it strives to achieve maximum impact.
- We want to be a radically generous church because God has been radically generous TO our church!
— Announced an AWESOME opportunity we have coming up in August. We are taking the entire month to lead the way in generosity. We’re doing a series called “I heart Cheyenne”. We are challenging the church to give 1,000 backpacks and school supplies to kids in need, serve 10,000 hours in our community and MUCH more!
— The outreach team is putting together some AMAZING opportunities for all ages of people to serve, and they’re doing a GREAT job putting “I heart Cheyenne” together. But as the pastor, I challenged us today to up the ante. In the month of August, Element will be giving 15% (instead of 12) of every offering to outreach and generosity in our community, I challenged us to give 1,500 backpacks and serve 15,000 hours in our community.
— On August 25th we are holding our first ever Element Church 5k as well. You can register HERE. The cost is $20 and 15 of those dollars will go straight to Comea Homeless Shelter or LifeChoice Pregnancy Care Center.
— More details will be coming about “I heart Cheyenne”. I am STOKED about this opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Start praying now about what YOU can be a part of in August, as well as God preparing divine appointments for us as we serve that month.
— Had a 12 year old boy give us $1,000 for Impact today. His dad said “He sold his four wheeler and motorcycle so he could give to Impact.” I shook that young man’s hand, looked him in the eye and said “Not many adults in our church would do what you just did. I’m proud of you.” It was inspiring. He was living out our core value of generosity and didn’t even know it. HE was leading the way.
— Don’t forget, Impact closing AND update this Sunday. Excited about sharing with you where we are!
— That’s gonna be it for today! Element Church, you guys are awesome. I love you!
Till the end,
Jeff
Hey Element Church! I’m SUPER excited for tonight and what I believe God’s gonna do in our midst as we seek Him THROUGH worship and WITH our BOLD PRAYERS. I want to invite you to join us, to what may be THE most important Community Event in our church. It’s called Enter!
