God Likes It When We Share

30 04 2013

experiment 432That was what my daughter told me not too long ago when I wouldn’t share the LAST piece of my FAVORITE cake my wife makes.  Funny thing is, I didn’t share it.  BUT, that is besides the point.  It’s just a good segue into what I want to share.

About a year ago, my heart was stirred by a verse in the book of Acts.  Acts 4:32 says, All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.

I read that verse and started asking the question: “What would it look like if a church figured out a way to SHARE what we had to CARE for each others needs?”  An idea was born in my  heart that we’ve been talking about, praying about and planning for about a year.  We launched this idea Sunday in our church.  It’s called “The Element 432 Experiment” based off of Acts 4:32.

The whole idea is to get our church family SHARING what we own.  Think of all the possessions and talents we have as a church.  I mean, we averaged 1,303 people in the month of April.  That’s a LOT of stuff we own.  SO, how can we leverage that to care for each other.

We decided to utilize the power of Facebook, and created a Facebook Group called “Element 432″.  You can check it out HERE.  Right now, we are limiting the group to those who are a part of our church, so it is not an open group at this time.  We’re simply checking peoples names to our church database system.  We’re trying to BE the church together.

This IS an experiment that could be messy but has the potential to be SO powerful.  We are not allowing payments for anything.  It has to be COMPLETELY free. There is also no trading or bartering.  If you have a need FOR something.  Post that need.  If you have something that maybe someone NEEDS, post it!

I’ve LOVED to see people living out this principle of SHARING already.  I know one family needed help moving this weekend.  They are finding that help.  Car seats have been given away.  Blankets.  Clothes.  A lawn  mower was offered for use.  SO COOL!  We’re actually living out a principle that the early church figured out.

Can’t wait to see what God does as we “Feel that what we own is not our own, so we share everything we have.”  SO PROUD of our church people stepping up to EVERY challenge.  You guys are AWESOME!

Blessed,

Jeff





Sunday Ruminations (4-28-13)

29 04 2013

I LOVE MY CHURCH!! SERIOUSLY…SO proud to call these people my family.  You guys are amazing.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I NEEDED today!  Was so filled during worship and so passionate about what I was sharing.  Trust you were filled up as well and encouraged by God.  Here are my ruminations.

—  After 1st service I got to pray with a man in the lobby who wanted to ask Jesus into his heart.  He came right up to me, it was his 2nd time here, and said, “I need God in my heart man.”  We stepped aside and he confessed Christ as Lord, confessed His sins, and opened his heart to Jesus!  WOO HOO!! If only for the ONE!

—  This guy had lived a VERY rough life and he said, “I feel like I can be myself here.”  LOVE it!  I told him that we literally designed our church with guys like him in mind.  We got him a Bible, a next step packet and will be able to follow up with him.  THAT’S WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO!

—  Man, I don’t know what it was about today, but I was so moved during worship.  Yes, the band sounded AMAZING and they did a great job, but I was just overwhelmed with the love, mercy and grace of God.  Seeing the team worship as they were playing, I was literally just grinning from ear to ear.

—  TONS of cool stuff happening in our church right now.  Through the power of ONE dollar experiment we received $2,344 to bless two families from our campuses.  The church is matching that amount out of our outreach funds for a total of $4,688 that will go a long way to meet some real needs.  THANK YOU to everyone who helped us with that experiment.  You can read more about this experiment we did HERE.

—  On Saturday, 277 people from Cheyenne & Wheatland were out serving the communities through the power of ONE day serving opportunity.  In Wheatland they had over %50 of the congregation out serving the city through some major cleanup.  SO proud of our Wheatland team.  You guys ROCKED it!  Here in Cheyenne we had over 100 people who did landscaping and painting at the Comea Homeless Shelter and large groups of people serving the city through various clean up projects as well.

—  Again, SO proud of our church and those of you who stepped up to love on our communities this way.  It was great to be out there on Saturday with our family, meeting new people, talking to passersbys who had questions, serving together as a church.

—  Today we launched a NEW experiment called, “The Element 432 Experiment”.  It’s based off of Acts 4:32 “They felt that what they owned was not their own so they SHARED everything they had.”  God used that verse to stir my heart about a year ago, thinking, “What would it look like if a church shared everything they had?”  I am SO excited about this.

— We developed a Facebook Group called “The Element 432 Experiment”.  Go HERE for the page.  This is for our church family only, so it is a closed group for now.  To be added to the group a moderator will have to approve you.  (We’ll just check our database system to confirm people who are a part of Element)  On this page, you can post something that you are in need of or something that you can give.  For instance, you might post “I’m in need of a lawnmower”.  Someone can reply to your post that they have a lawnmower you can have or one you can borrow.

— HOW COOL would it be if the church started sharing what we had to take care of each others needs.  I LOVE IT!  I hope it works.  We’re calling it an experiment because it might fail miserably, and we’ll just pull the plug, BUT we’re willing to try anything!  HA!

—  This will be a work in progress so please be patient with us as we try and live out this Biblical principle.  This could turn into a GREAT way to serve each other in the church.

—  Continued The Power Of ONE today preaching from Acts 4:32-35 and asking the question, “How can one church make a difference?”  Here some excerpts on the day:

  • A difference is not determined by how many people you have or how big of projects you can do, it’s determined by how the community around you begins to change.
  • I fully believe the church that God desires EVERY church to be is a church that makes a difference in their community.
  • While one church might make a more noticeable difference, EVERY church can make a difference.
  • Unity does NOT equal uniformity.  The church will never be unified in practice, but we CAN be unified in purpose.
  • The devil knows that for the church to make a difference we need to be unified in purpose, so he distracts us from our purpose by getting us divided over our practice.
  • What we need to understand is there is no perfect church because there are no perfect people!  What we CAN have though are imperfect people in an imperfect church that are united in heart and mind because we serve an ABSOLUTELY perfect God.
  • Unity in the church doesn’t happen because of all the great people.  It happens because of the power of our great God.
  • Instead of being selfish, what if the community began to see us sharing.  “They shared EVERYTHING they had”.
  • Being unselfish is not just about our belongings, it’s also about our bodies.  Specifically, serving God through the church that you attend.
  • I don’t believe you should volunteer because the church has a cool mission that needs fulfilled, I think you need to serve because it’s what you’re MADE to do.
  • Jesus, through His church, has established the church to be THE difference making organization in the community and I believe if there’s anything to give our time and our bodies to it’s HIS church.
  • Their testimony carried WEIGHT because it matched the WAY they lived.
  • Jesus said, “I will build my church”!  We can’t build the church, ONLY Jesus can.  The only thing we can do is BE the church, and the church that Christ intended was one that is united, unselfish, unashamed and HE will make it unstoppable.
  • The biggest obstacle to the church today, are those of us who attend it.  Complacency is a bigger danger than conflict.  Greed a greater opposition than any government.
  • The community in Acts began to change and take notice of the church NOT because of their preaching, programs, property or the fact they made a POINT.  The Community took notice because the church made a DIFFERENCE.

—  Challenged everyone who calls Element “home” but is not currently volunteering to step up and serve.  You can sign up to volunteer HERE.

—  Updated our Cheyenne campus on where we are with the remodel.  Our final stamped architectural drawings have been submitted to the  city for permitting.  Lord willing, we will have our demo permits to start demo on May 17th.  We are doing most of the demo ourselves, which is a HUGE cost savings.  We’ll have more detailed information and sign up instructions coming up so you can be a part of the demolition process.

—  Ok, that’s it!  GREAT GREAT day today!  Thanks so much to everyone who is a part of this thing called Element.  Love you guys.

Till the end,

Jeff





God’s Standardized Tests

25 04 2013

A or B testingRemember standardized testing?  I do!  I HATED that in school.  I was a horrible test taker.  I remember on one test making designs in the unending columns of “filling the circle with your #2 pencil.”  Needless to say, I brought the school average down on that test.

Did you know it’s God’s STANDARD to test us?  Well, at least it was with the people of Israel, and if He is truly a “God who never changes” I would assume it’s still His standard to test us today.

Exodus 15:25b-26 says, It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a STANDARD to TEST their faithfulness to him. 26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” 

God tests our faithfulness.  It’s His STANDARD to do that.  The great part about God’s tests is, we also get to test Him back.  His test was backed with a promise.  There was always an, “If you will…then I will” decree on His tests.  I still believe God tests us today.  It may not be in the same way that He tested the Israelites, and He may not test ME the same way He tests YOU…but it’s still His standard to test.

It’s not a test that determines what level of Heaven you will receive.  It’s not a test that puts you in remedial Christianity, while the smart kids are in Advanced Christianity.  There is now awards assembly, no #2 pencils, no entire days in a desk staring at columns of circles with the letters “A, B, C, D” next to them.  BUT, there are those moments of victory.  Those IF/THEN circumstances of life.  Where God tests your faithfulness to Him, and PROVES His faithfulness to you!

So thankful for a God that builds our faith through tests.  Tests are what create a tighter relationship with Jesus.  If I were never tested, why would I need any faith?  Why should I lean on God?  Why would we pray if we were never tested?  I want to be ready for the next test.  You never know when it might come.

Ready,

Jeff





God Plans Problems

24 04 2013

You can’t acknowledge the POWER of God without having a PROBLEM to face.

I think God knows that if life were always roses…if we never faced a problem, we probably would never acknowledge His power.  Because of that, I believe that God PLANS problems in our life.  Now, you may have a BIG issue with that, but I have Scripture to back it up.

In Exodus chapter 14, God has miraculously set the people of Israel free and they are leaving the land of Egypt as a free people.  As they were on their way, look at what it says in Exodus 14:1-4:

Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: “Order the Israelites to turn back and camp by Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Camp there along the shore, across from Baal-zephon. Then Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are confused. They are trapped in the wilderness!’ And once again I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after you.[a] I HAVE PLANNED THIS in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!” So the Israelites camped there as they were told.

GOD put Israel in between the army of Egypt and the Red Sea.  God planned a problem in order to display His power.  There would be no story of the parting of the Red Sea, were it not for a problem God had planned.  So, what problem are you facing that may be an opportunity for God to display His power.  And by the way, God’s power is not always displayed in a miracle.  I believe His power is on the greatest display in our moments of faith in Him.  YES, God does perform miracles, but will I trust Him even if He doesn’t?  That, my friends is the real miracle.

You can’t acknowledge the POWER of God without having a PROBLEM to face.  I guess you can, but it really is in our problems that God’s power is most made known.  I’m not asking God to plan a problem, but WHEN He does I’m going to be looking for His power.

Looking,

Jeff





Is it YOURS?

23 04 2013

3 crossesJust because it’s THE Good News doesn’t make it YOUR Good News.

How personally do you take the Good News?  Good News being the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The fact that God SO LOVED the world He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  THAT Good News.  How personally do you take it?    Not, have you experienced it?  Not, do you believe in it?  How personally do you take it?

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 16:25 Now all glory to God, who is able to make you strong, just as MY Good News says.

Not THE Good News, but MY Good News.  Whoah!  That’s awesome!  Paul had personalized the Good News.  It wasn’t just something he BELIEVED in, it was something that BELONGED to Him.  No one says, “Just as MY history book says” or “Just as MY newspaper says” or “Just as MY dictionary, Wikipedia, encyclopedia says.”  But the Good News can be MINE!

I want to have that kind of connection with THE Good News.  So much of a connection that it becomes MINE!  So challenging.

Challenged,

Jeff





Sunday Ruminations (4-21-13)

22 04 2013

SO, SO proud of all the volunteers we have at Element Church.  We were SLAMMED at the Cheyenne campus all morning, parking cars all around to the side of the building and had 50 kids in the pre-school class second service.  Our volunteers stinkin’ rocked it today.  For those of you who volunteer at Element, what you do MATTERS!! You guys are amazing.  Here are my ruminations on the rest of the day.

—  I shared from a heavy heart today.  I had a sermon planned for today called,  “The power of ONE church” but Tuesday morning God changed everything up.  After the tragic violence that resulted in a bombing in Boston, God used His Word to stir my heart about my response to tragedy and that’s what we talked about today.  I preached from Genesis 50:19-21  and asked the question, “How should we respond to tragedy?”  God REALLY used this passage to work on my own heart.  Here are some excerpts?

  • Tragedy can happen in our own lives, and while no one around the world will ever hear and know about it, it doesn’t make it any less tragic to us.
  • Because tragedy hurts so much and happens so frequently, it can dominate our hearts, and if we don’t respond appropriately, it can literally enslave us.
  • When it comes to tragedy, you cannot explain it, you’ll never escape it, but you CAN keep from becoming enslaved by it.
  • The devil would like nothing more than to take a tragedy and overwhelm us with it.
  • No matter who you are; you have before, you currently are or you will in the future face a tragic event in your life.
  • God’s not asking us to deny or discard the hurt, pain, or anguish tragedy brings.  I do believe though, there is a response that will help us from being enslaved by it.
  • Hope is not founded in life always being good.  Hope is founded in the fact that GOD is always good.
  • When Joseph’s brothers stood before him after Jacob had died, instead of plotting his revenge, he told his brothers to relax.  “Don’t be afraid.  Am I God that I can punish you?”
  • Vengeance belongs SOLELY to God!
  • Just because vengeance belongs to God doesn’t mean you can’t be angry.  GOD’S angry at what happened.  We should be angry at sin.  Sin is such a big deal Jesus was KILLED because of it.
  • Don’t let your anger cause you to be against God.  Don’t let your anger cause you to be aloof about who you are.  ALL of us, outside the grace of God, are capable of that kind of violence.
  • When it comes to tragedy, it is not our job to pay back, it’s our job to PRAY.
  • The depth of sin knows know bounds but the grace of God can reach any depth.
  • If we take it upon ourselves to repay, we’ll end up being enslaved by the tragedy.
  • What happened was not good, but we MUST respond, believe and pray that God can take what is vile and TURN it into good.
  • Believing God can turn it into good puts us in a place where we can point people to God.
  • We’re so quick to blame God when things go wrong, but we just as quickly banish God from having any involvement in our life when things go well.
  • God’s love is not determined by what happens TO me, His love was already determined by what He did FOR me on the cross.
  • Joseph knew that to get to the place where God can use you most, you often have to move through the places that hurt the most.
  • Jesus never promised us peaceful surroundings, He only promised us His presence in the midst of the storm.
  • His presence doesn’t keep us from pain, take us out of the valley, or calm the storm, it only gives us the strength to walk through it
  • If we don’t turn to God in our pain, we run the risk of being trapped by it.
  • When things aren’t going good FOR you, it’s time to give God glory for being good TO you.

—  I don’t pretend to know what anyone’s going through or what they’ve gone through with tragedy in life, and I know that mere words do not change a thing.  I do believe though that God had this word for us today, and I pray that it will bring HOPE into our lives.

—  When I face a tragedy, I believe God will remind me of His words to my heart this week.  That I’ll remember vengeance belongs to God, what’s vile can be turned to good, and victory comes from God’s guidance.  I want to respond like Joseph did!

—  I had and heard some AMAZING conversations in the Living Room today.  I met a young man who very bluntly does not believe in God.  I had a great conversation with him and told him I was praying that God would open his heart.  I’m believing God to do so.

—  Another young lady starting sharing some things and God had pre-ordained one of our volunteers to be RIGHT on the spot dealing with some exact same things to minister to her.  SO cool!

—  We set another all time non-holiday attendance high today. UNBELIEVABLE!!  Each service at the Cheyenne Campus was pretty full, along with the out of control 2nd service.  I heard Wheatland was great as well.  KEEP INVITING PEOPLE!! We will do whatever we can to accommodate them and reach people with LIFE!
—  Concerning the space issue.  We have RECEIVED the final construction documents from our architect, the contractor has put out for bids from sub-contractors so progress is being made.  We are now waiting on permits and a few other details before we can begin construction.  There is a construction meeting today that will clarify some more information.  We will be updating the church hopefully again this Sunday!  WE ARE SO CLOSE TO STARTING!!! Keep praying!
—  Got this text from an Elementer who is stationed in Japan with the Air Force.  They are watching Element Church via the app as a home group with 10 – 15 people.  They are watching the “Jesus For President” series right now:  ‘Just finished church.  Listened to Pastor Andy preach on serving like Jesus.  Great sermon.  Our church decided to change our position because God is calling us to serve in our community.  We want to be able to impact our community in  a real, tangible and loving way.”
—  Their group is going to start doing a once a month “parents night out” for some of the “single” parents on base whose spouses are deployed.  LOVE that God is using Element to have an impact all the way in JAPAN.  If only for the ONE!

—  The power of ONE dollar ended today.  Thank you to everyone who participated!  We’re going to pool the money and serve some single moms for Mother’s day.  Can’t wait to update you on what was done.

—  The power of ONE day is coming up this Saturday.  We have a bunch of serving opportunities at both campuses as we join together as a church on ONE day to serve our communities.  You can sign up your entire family HERE.

—  Gonna call it quits there.  LOVE you guys!  Hope you have an awesome week.

Till the end,

Jeff





What The Devil Knows That We Should Too

17 04 2013

hourglassDo we KNOW or LIVE as if we have little time?

I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s just too challenging not to again.  I’m SO challenged by this verse each time I read it.  Revelation 12:12 says about the devil, “But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, KNOWING that he has little time.”

The devil is stealing, killing and destroying with a dogged determination BECAUSE he knows he has little time.  MAN!  Do we live with that kind of determination to FIND, offer LIFE and BUILD UP?

If we truly believe we have little time, we will be LASER FOCUSED on FINDING the lost sheep.  On LEADING the found sheep.  On LOVING the hurting sheep.  We will be determined to live with integrity, holiness and righteousness.  We will seek God with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength.  “God help us!”

The devil is our enemy and adversary.  If he’s killing as if there is little time, we must be LIVING as if there is little time.  Maybe that’s why we see prayers like this in Scripture:

Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”

Psalm 39:4 “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered–how fleeting my life is.”

Do we KNOW or LIVE as if we have little time?

Jeff





Message For Element Church: This Coming Sunday

17 04 2013

Hey Element Church!  I wanted to share something with you about this coming Sunday at Element.  My heart has been moved by the tragic events that unfolded this week with the senseless violence during the Boston Marathon.  A wave of emotions happen during times like this.  Heartbreak, shock, anger and even hopefulness as you hear and see the heroic acts of emergency personnel and civilians.

Monday morning, before any of the events came to pass, I read about Joseph in the book of Genesis for my quiet time.  Joseph’s response to tragedy in his own life (thrown into a pit to die by his own brothers, sold into slavery to a foreign land, put in prison for doing the right thing) was once again SO challenging.  How could he respond the way he did?  How would I have responded?

To be honest, I didn’t think much about that passage after that, even through the days events, until Tuesday morning.  I had gotten to the office early to do some reading, was checking out some news articles about the bombing.  I read about the 8 year old boy that was killed after welcoming his dad across the finish line and my heart was crushed.  How does his dad walk through this?  How would I walk through this? I cannot imagine the pain.  In that moment I lifted his family, and all the families affected, up in prayer.

That’s when God brought the passage of Joseph back to my heart and downloaded a sermon to my heart on our response to tragedy, and that’s what I’m going to be sharing this Sunday.  I didn’t have this sermon planned, but God did.  How should we respond to tragedy as Christians?  Not just widespread tragedy, but personal tragedy?

This week is going to be heavy, but I believe it can be SO helpful to us.  I pray God will fill our hearts with HOPE this week as we talk about the power of ONE response.  How should we respond to tragedy?  If you know someone that needs to hear a message of hope, bring them.

Heavy hearted,

Jeff





A CELEBRATION Report For Element Church

16 04 2013

BH2wvDMCAAAWIakYou’re not responsible for the answer, you’re only responsible for the ASK. 

That’s what I challenged our church with on Sunday, April 7th when I said:  What would it look like if EACH person in our church invited ONE person to attend next week?  Each ONE invite ONE?  We wanted to see the power of ONE invitation.  And church…WE DID!!

I wanted to write this blog specifically to Element Church and let you guys know how PROUD I am of our church.  I asked each of us to invite ONE person to come to church this past Sunday as we presented a clear Gospel message and offered a chance for people to receive LIFE in Christ.  I want to let you know the results of your invitations.

This past Sunday, 49 people responded to the Gospel and opened the door of their heart to Jesus.  WOO HOO!! That is UNBELIEVABLE.  We saw more people respond to the Gospel this last week than we did on Easter weekend.  This is literally living out our core value of, “If only for the ONE!”  That’s WHY we invited people to attend.  AND it’s why we should CONTINUE to invite people to attend.  What if we each invited ONE person every week.  WOW!!

This past Sunday, 18 people went public with their faith through Baptism at the Cheyenne campus.  AND, we had one person spontaneously get baptized following our 6 PM service in Cheyenne. (Picture posted)  There is something SO special about seeing people get baptized.  LOVE it.

This past Sunday we had 1362 people attend across both our campuses.  That is UNBELIEVABLE!! That shattered any previous non holiday attendance number by over 100 people.  This due in LARGE part to YOU asking people to attend.  I fully believe that God used YOU to be a participant in His drawing people to Himself.  SO good!

If we don’t celebrate those things, WHAT do we have to celebrate?  Every number has a name, every name has a soul and every soul matters to God!

Element Church, I’m SO proud of you guys.  If you invited someone and they didn’t come, do NOT be discouraged.  As far as I know, the people that I invited did not attend.  We need to remember: We’re not responsible for the answer, we’re only responsible for the ask.  KEEP INVITING, keep sharing, keep being a LIGHT to our community and keep BEGGING God to draw people to Himself and USE us as He sees fit.

BLOWN AWAY,

Jeff





You’re Not God’s Priority

11 04 2013

For those of us who are FOUND, it’s not that God doesn’t love us anymore, it’s just we’re not His FIRST priority.  The LOST are.

I know some people, typically “found” people, are saying “WHAT?  I’m not God’s priority?”  We struggle with that in our American, civilized, selfish, I want it MY way mentality.  But when you look at the life of Jesus, specifically His parables in Luke chapter 15, it is CLEAR that God’s priority is the LOST!  The shepherd LEAVES the Ninety Nine to look for the ONE.  The woman turns over her home looking for ONE coin even though nine were safe and sound.  The Father was watching down the road for the ONE prodigal son to come home.  Jesus said of Himself, “I came to SEEK and to SAVE the LOST.”

God taught me this lesson through a personal life experience.  We shared it via video this past Sunday.  It only confirmed our core value at Element Church of If Only For the ONE!  We do what we do for the glory of HIM alone and to reach out to THEM alone!  By the way, the BEST way to feel connected to God is to join Him on HIS mission!








Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 325 other followers