Sunday AfterThoughts December 30th

Wow I am really tired! Sundays are a tiring day for staff and our setup team at Element. Today was a great close for "Believe". I don't know that there was a better way to end it then the way we did. Jeff's message was so good. A great way to bring all back around again. His big idea was that Jesus came to take away our excuses! MUST LISTEN!

216 in church today. 10 first time guests. I was really surprised we had that many because it looked way down.

I am pumped about January. We are really stepping things up, stretching ourselves, taking some major risks, doing some cool set designs with tension fabric, and it will be so good. We are starting our series Deal or No Deal about godly finances. Remember we are offering a free financial seminar, so pick up your tickets at church or on our website atwww.elementweb.net.

I tried some new things in worship today. We played with a loop behind us for the first time this sunday during Sing to the king, it was fun, and felt like it added some dynamics. Also, one thing that I really want to be about here at Element Church is training people to do what I do. If all we do is keep our talent internally for ourselves I think we are missing the full picture. God gives us talents to help teach and train others. So I want to help people become confident and use their giftings. Anyways I had our keyboardist lead out 2 of our songs today. She did a good job. I am looking forward to a team of leaders. It would be great if I didnt lead any songs on a sunday because of great worship leaders that God raises up from within. We want to do this in all our areas of ministry. Tech, Graphics, Videos, Connections, Outreach, ect.

Again I thought Jeff did a great job closing out "BELIEVE". We are now going to be offering our complete series sermons for sale in a nicely packaged disc container. Check that out stating this sunday. At the end of each series we will package all of the sermons in the containers and have them for sale.

Alright have a great new year, I will post again later this week after the holidays.

Set List for sunday 12-30-07
My Savior Lives- New Life Worship
Here is our King- David Crowder Band
My Glorious/Sing to the King- H214 Vertical Music
Indescribable- Chris Tomlin
God of Wonders- Third Day

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday AfterThoughts!

WOW I am finally posting on a sunday night.

<>< Another great sunday at Element Church. I love to worshipping God corporately. I want it to be said of Element Church that they are worshippers. God's presence was there today in a strong way. The theme of worship and the message was such a powerful topic. God really moved through the service.

<>< 218 in service. 7 people made decisions for Christ today. Its amazing the people getting connected with Element Church. Their stories are so powerful. I love that we arn't just seeing transfer growth but growth from the lost finding Christ and plugging into church, some of them now 40 and never stepped foot into church, or have waited a long time. So good.

<>< We had a great setup team today. We show up at 6:30am every sunday for setup and our target setup time is 7:45am. The last few weeks it has been like 20-30min over that. Today we we right on time. Made all the difference in rehearsal.

<>< We actually had our first major, can I say, awkward moment here at Element. I was in the middle of a solo instrumental song when the power goes out. So there I am standing in front of 150 people starring, thinking what now. I am not a commedian so there was no hope there. I had to just converse as best I can while our tech team figured everything out. I felt like I had been up there for 10 min. O it was bad. Everyone handled it well and laughed it off. Hope we dont experience that again.

<>< The band really did a great job today. I felt really tight with them. Lee did a jammin vocal solo at the end of our opening song. Check it out online.

<>< Set List for Dec. 23rd 2007:
O come O come emmanuel- Third Day
Beautiful Jesus- Kristian Stanfill
Maker of Heaven - Desperation Band
Overcome - Desperation Band

Alright thats it.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Posting Services online

As many of you probably know, we post our services online at our website, www.elementweb.net. Click on "Watch and Listen" and then click "watch church".

We just discovered a new easy way to post online which has literally saved us hours. If you are a small or new church it really doesn't cost as much as you would think to get your stuff online.

OF COURSE YOU MUST HAVE A MAC! Just Kidding, but really it makes it so much easier.

We run our Canon XL1 with a firewire cable into our Mac Book Pro. (You could do it with any video camera and any mac, thats just what we use). You need to have Quick Time Pro. In QT you can change your preferences to select any audio source and any camera source. We separate an AUX on our soundboard that is designated for recording. We mix the recording using our AUX and then send the AUX to the computer. Then you simply start a new movie recording in QT and make sure you have audio from your sound board and video from your camera and then click record. Its that easy. At the end you save and you post your file online. So simple. Eventually we will do the same thing, only multiple cameras will run into a video switcher and you can select between cameras. It saves so much time because you record in real time directly to the harddrive. So no more waiting while you import all your footage and then sort through it all.

Anyways I thought I would share that info for any groups looking at posting online.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Monday's Sunday AfterThoughts! LOL

This is becoming a usual for me the last few weeks. I should re-consider my title. I really do try to post faithfully on Sunday nights. Yesturday I was so tired. No reason, just really tired and after church I went to bed and got up at 4:30 to head to our Christmas Party for the staff. So anyways I wasn't able to post anything.

Element was great yesturday. I love our church. I really mean that, if I wasn't a pastor here, this is where I would attend. I love how involved IN the community we are, I love the vision we have for our church and city, I love the people that come, I love the people that volunteer. I love element church.

We had 214 people in service yesturday. Its good to be up over 200. Not that you can't do church with less than that, but I love the room dynamics when it feels full. Its seems like people feel more comfortable and they sing out. When I look out it helps me with the energy level.

We finally got our camera back. We bought a Canon XL1 earlier this summer and have not had use of it for several months due to a video distortion problem. We sent it in and just received it back in perfect condition. It was nice to use it again. It shoots at a much better video quality.

This week we introduced a new version of "O come let us adore him" that just simply ROCKED! I thought the band did so well. It opens with a great piano loop and the drums are jamming.

Set List for sunday dec. 16th
Love the Lord - Lincoln Brewster
Gloria - Mercy Me
Glorious One- Steve Fee
Glory- Hillsong United
O come let us adore him- Element Version

Worshipping Him,

Monday's Sunday AfterThoughts

Well another stupid internet issue. I had my afterthoughts all typed up and then posted and the internet went out and so I lost everything so I just decided to not post.

I wanted to apologize for not getting video and pics up of last weeks service on Dec. 2nd. I promise the video goes up today, and pictures hopefully really soon.

We had a fantastic service today. It was great. Our biggest service yet. We had 240 people. God is doing great things here at Element and I am so honored that he chooses me to be a part.

Our worship team was outstanding. They always do great at helping facilitate worship in that place. What a bunch of worshippers we have. Go Team. I am very excited about all that is happening in the Element World. Our team is growing and that is good. We are able to have people on rotations so that they dont have to play each week now. Which has been such a blessing. We added a new vocalist this week, LEE. Lee just moved back to cheyenne about a 2 months ago, and has been such a blessing to the team. We are looking at several new musicians in the work and its a very exciting future ahead.

Good job today team, Good job volunteers, Jeff again preached a great message that will be online quickly.

Thankyou Elementers for partnering with Element Church in making Cheyenne a place that loves God.

Check out Pastor Jeff's blog for more updates on specific things about sunday!

Set List:
Joy to the world - element version (Beatles style)
You, You are God - Gateway
Love the Lord - Lincoln Brewster
God of Wonders - Third day
O come let us adore him- Element Version

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Lessons from a dog

We just got an incredible dog about 5 months ago and she is currently 6 months old. Her name is Cheydan (Pronounced- Shy-Dun). And she is a weimaraner.



Its amazing the short little things you can learn in life in some of the oddest ways. Here is the lesson: (and by the way maybe its the same way with kids, but I dont have them so this is how I learn): We discipline our dog because she is wild and learning so much. Its amazing how I can yell or be mad at her just cause she is jumping on me or bites at me or pee's in the house, ect ect. or I could step on her feet or not feed her in time and she could be mad at me, and then I can leave. When I come back an hour maybe 2 maybe less or more, it doesnt matter, she is so excited to see me. I mean she goes nuts. She spins in circles, she jumps like a bucking bronco, she barks, licks, chews, I mean this dog is besides herself that I am home. Now this is the funny part, it never stops. She did it that way day one and she still does it today. Its like she just lets go of all the attitudes (I know what you all are thinking, "does a dog have an attitude"), she forgets that I hurt her or that she hurt me, she just wants ME. See but then my wife or vice versa, can do the dumbest little things and its like "o no you didnt". or Stay away from me. She comes in the door and we are so quick to remember everything that they did or we just simply say Hi with no true excitement. Its like we just can't let go of it. I dont know why this is, but I see it all the time, not even just at home. I think we need to start spinning in circles, jumping like a bronco, bark (HA), lick (whoa), chew (yes) and be beside ourselves when we see each other and are around each other. You know I am talking about our hearts and for some of us it would hurt to have a little external emotion involved. I want for my wife and I to be madly in love till our death and never stop being excited. For most of us it was like that at day 1 and now it needs to come back. Like Cheydan, I hope that she never stops greeting me like that when I come home. So may I love my wife and be PASSIONATE about her like the day I met her till the day I die. Love you Amber.

Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts

Man nothing more frustrating than typing something and at the end your internet goes out when you post and its all gone. So here we go for try number 2.

Element Church has made it to 2 services. In the office this week Jeff and I were very nervous. I was nervous if anyone would even show up to our 9:00am service, or if we would setup in time, new musicians, new sound guy. There were a lot of uncertainties, but it went over well. Our volunteers were incredible today. We had a huge set up team that came at 6:30am and had the theater setup in 50 min. GO TEAM. They did a great job, and always looking for what's next. We actually got to serve a somewhat real breakfast for them today. Good Job guys and girls.

We added a new vocals/keyboard player, which made a great addition the team, Go JEN. We also picked up a new sound guy who has a great ear, knows a lot, and has a heart to serve. Jeff is finally out of that position which has been needed for a long time.

We had 81 in our first service and 107 in our second. So people came. YES! 10 people gave their lives to Christ today. I love this. This is what we are all about. We are really working on an effective way to get these people plugged into Life Groups and discipled on the decision that they have made.

This week we started something really neat called "what's your story". We set up a video booth in another theater across the hall where we are capturing testimonies from people in the church. On christmas sunday we will play them over the screen during our worship set. This will be a powerful time in our worship. There are so many stories out there of what God has been doing and we need to hear them.

We had a cool set design this week. We bought a star making machine to cast on the screen and the ceiling. Then we built a manger and hung tension fabric behind it to look like the series graphic that we mailed out. If you remember back to our "change" message during our "it" series we built an 8 Foot Lite Brite. So we did it again. We built a lite brite that said "BELIEVE" and then inside of that it said "KING". This was a very cool stage design for our new series. I will post pictures tomorrow and you can watch the video on wed. morning.

Jeff did a great job opening the series today, make sure you listen to the message.

Also we started a thing this month called "Random act of Kindness". Where we will challenge our people on their own time, not a structured event at all, to serve their neighbor or community. So this week remember to shovel your neighbors driveway. Watch this weeks service to see the funny video.

I am so excited for what is ahead for Element Church and love being your Worship Pastor. Thank you for worshipping with us.

Set List for Sunday Dec. 2nd:
Gloria - Mercy Me
Here is our King - David Crowder
Everything Glorious - David Crowder
Maker of Heaven - Desperation Band
Silent Night - Relient K version

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Ready or not?

Yesturday was a ready or not day for me. I dont get stressed a lot and when I am I don't show it, I think that just comes from my parents who arent stressful people. But yesturday I was beginning to get really stressed. I sort of just get a stomach ache and THINK A LOT. This Sunday we are multiplying into 2 services. This I am very excited about. I would like to say man I am not ready. But I have to say to myself ready or not Sunday is coming. Dont get me wrong we will get everything done and it will be good and worth it, its just sometimes you see things right in the middle of the project and they can be overwhelming. We are doing a great set design for this 5 week series and we just are finishing up with that today. Pray for us as we embrace the next path on the Journey for Element Church.

I am very excited about our worship team this week as we add 2 very talented people. I have an ideal size that I think is good for a worship team and we are about to reach that. That excites me. After that we just start rotating everyone. To many musicians does not make better music, worship leaders, remember that. Typically it will muttle the sound. Find a handful of quality musicians and then rotate everyone.

We have a big meeting tonight for our setup/tech team, pray for me that I get all the packets and information down correctly and that I communicate it well to our team. We want everyone that serves at Element Church to never feel like this is an obligation but an opportunity.

Thats it, got to go to work
Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday AfterThoughts 11-25

Well we wrapped up our Thank:Giving Mini Series today. It was actually far better than I was expecting. It was a last minute sort of transitional series from "IT" into our upcoming christmas series called "Believe". But it was really good. I think a lot of people are talking about the two messages. These were the toughest Jeff has done yet, and most challenging because I think they were the most personal.

Due to some computer issues last week, I oppologize if you watch the service online, because last weeks service just went on saturday. This weeks service should be up by Tuesday.

We used a new drummer today who did a fabulous job. I am excited about Bryant and Brian, my two drummers. They do a great job. I am looking for to worship next week. I finally get to add to my worship team more musicians. We are adding another vocalist and a keyboardist. We will also be doing a neat set design with a minor flash back. Looking forward to that.

One of the reasons we exist as a church and the main reason is to show the community of Cheyenne that we are here for them and that we care. To show the love of God in a practical way. So this Christmas season we have adopted 4 moms from the local Life Choice pregnancy center, so that we can spoil them like crazy. Moms that have or are getting ready to make the right decision on keeping the life of their child. These moms are in great need and we are going to meet those needs. So if you are an elementer we have registered their names at Walmart and Target under first name "Element" Last name "Church" so that you will be able to see what some of their needs are and help us as a body to meet them. We are filling up cribs full of things that they need, (diapers, formula, oil changes on their cars, new tires, one months rent). This is what the church should be about. Finding the needs in the community and meeting them, whether they do or do not ever come to 1 service at Element Church. We want them to know the love of God in a practical way. We are all truely looking forward to this outreach towards these mothers.

Going to 2 services next week. Exciting and Frightning. We will be on such a time constraint in order to be out in time for movies. I know we will get it worked out but this first one will be interesting. The new service times are 9:00 and 10:30am. We encourage as many of you as possible to attend our 9:00am service to help fill it up since our 2nd service will tend to fill up faster.

Tommorow I will post numbers as far as attendance goes, not sure right now.

Set list for Sunday 11.25
You, You are God - Gateway
Majestic - Lincoln Brewster
Blessed be your Name - Matt Redman
All creatures of our God and King - Passion Version/David Crowder
Offering - Paul Baloche

Worshipping Him
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts!

Hey all you Element Followers or Elementers (slang for "attenders of Element"). We had a great time of worship this sunday morning. Wow what a time. 10 child dedications today. That is awesome. We dedicated a 15 year old that wanted to be dedicated. That is awesome. We took Elements first communion together. A lot of first time things today at Element. It was great to take communion together and no better way to take it than after Jeff's message. Go Jeff. Everyone needs to listen to today's message. We opened a mini series called "thanks:giving", and he covered "thanks" today. It was good. Worship went great. My band gets better every week. I have a new drummer coming on next week to alternate with our current drummer. Looking forward to getting him plugged in the mix. He is good. I love both of my drummers. Its a privelage to be able to find 2 GREAT drummers in a church.

We are getting ready for Element's first Baptism today at 4:00pm. We are baptizing 2 people. Looking forward to this time together.

We have a very simple stage setup for this series. We are pouring some time and energy into our next series called "Believe". Not that this is more important. Its just going to be really good and we need a lot of time to build some things. Looking forward to that.

We have a cool announcement coming up for our next Outreach to the community as Element Church. Not sure if I have the freedom to say right now. But its good. I love blessing people, just to bless them, regardless if they come to Element Church or not. I will announce it next Sunday.
Cheyenne WILL know that Element Church is here for them. That we love them and will never stop serving them. Thats what we are about as a church. Meeting practical needs and blessing their socks off, so we can point them to Jesus and bring them to a place where they might meet.

Set List for Sunday November 18th,
Forever - Chris Tomlin
We Lift You Up - Desperation Band
Open the eyes of my Heart - Paul Baloche
You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
Amazed - Desperation Band


Worshipping Him,
Adam

3 for $10 sale

About this time last year I released my first album entitled "Nights Like These". It was a great experience and the drummer from the "Desperation Band" was my producer and drummer. I traveled a little last year doing different gigs and plan on doing a little around the cheyenne area. Right now I have a bunch of cd's left over and I am wanting to not only put a copy in your hands but into the hands of your friends. So I am offering a deal now until they are out. You can purchase 3 cds for $10. Not $10 a piece but $10 gets you 3 cds. Hand them out. Give them away. Bless someone with them. I have been working on some new material and hope that in the near future I might be able to hit the studio again. I am really looking forward to some of the stuff God has given me lately. One song in which we just did here at Element about a month ago.

The easiest way to get your copies is to go to www.myspace.com/adamcruz and find the Paypal button. Thank you all who have supported my musical pursuits thus far, and hope some of you might join the journey.


Worshipping Him,
Adam

Design and details

We are really looking forward to how we are closing the year out. I love the 2 series we are doing. For Christmas we are doing a series called Believe, and taking a none traditional look at why Jesus came, and why should I believe. Not so much the manger, stars, and wise men. Everyone knows that story but not everyone know WHAT TO DO with that story. So anyways make sure to watch the services online, there will be some good stuff. Here are the graphics I designed for our Thanks:Giving and Believe series. We are also doing a 9000 piece mailer again with the Believe stuff. We design a lot from scratch and use a lot from istockphoto.com as a platform to build from. For printing our rave cards, you can do custom sizing through 48hourprint.com, and for other printing we use psprint.com. Great prices and very quick.

Set design last sunday November 11th

As I said in an earlier post, we had planned this mesage series about 3 months ago and this message. And it just so happened to land on Veterans Day. This was the simplist set design we have done yet. It was good. It was nice to just show up and not be screwing in a ton of stuff, WE ARE SAVING THE GOODS FOR OUR "BELIEVE" SERIES WHICH STARTS DEC. 2nd. So here are a couple shots of the flags we put up.

I love my wife

My wife is an awesome person. I can't imagine who and where I would be without her. I really believe she has a call on her life to write and she really has seen that also. So over the years she has written everything from letters, to a thousand journal entries, full of incredible thoughts. The way she uses words is something only God can gift. So through pursueing what God has in store for her she has decided to connect with Jerry Jenkins the author of "Left Behind" and his writing school. Its all online and she will be set up with a mentor just for her over the next two years to help her delevope her writing. After two years she goes from "The Apprentice" to "The Craftsman", and here they will actually help connect her with a publisher to begin publishing her work. I am very proud of her and going after this. Soon you will read the writings of Amber Cruz, and I am very excited about that day. I don't brag on her enough, but she is amazing. I will try an convince her to start blogging about her journey there. We will keep you posted.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts

Today was a great day. I know that I say that a lot. But there was something very special about today. Things just gelled today. Not that they havnt before but again there was just a great vibe today. God's presence was evident, worship just flowed and there was a great heart beat of worship to the throne today. Way to go worship team. Jeff delivered a great word, in fact, I dare to say its one of his best. A great close to the "IT" series. Several hands were in the air for first time decisions. I am blown away, when you just give a simple invitation people come running. They are ready and just need to be asked and encouraged. About double the hands went up for people reconsidering where they are at with their relationship with God. It was just a great great service all the way through.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: we have maxed our capacity at Element Church in the one theater we are in. So through much prayer and exhausting every option, we excitingly announce that we are going to 2 services in two weeks on Dec. 2nd. Service times will be at 9 and 10:30am. We are looking forward to this to keep reaching people for Christ. God keeps bringing them so we want to continue to make room for them. Our volunteers have been so supportive. In fact many of them have said that they will serve both services if we need them. AWESOME. God is good.

We closed out our first series officially as Element Church, and are doing a 2 week mini series called "Thanks:Giving". And then jumping right into a 4 week Christmas series called "Believe", which I am very excited about.

God is doing some great things around here and we are always blown away that God keeps choosing to use us.

Set design today was simple and clean. Our closing core value today was "allegiance" (which was planned over 2 months ago) and it just so happened to fall on Veterans Day, SO GOD LIKE HA. So we ordered a 10 ft X 6ft Flag that flew in the center of the stage with two smaller flags on the sides. Also during a transitional video we mounted 2 fallen soldier displays on the stage. It was very symbolic of our Allegiance to God. EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO TODAYS MESSAGE. www.elementweb.net then click on "Watch and Listen" (wont be online until tuesday). I will post pictures tommorow afternoon.

Set List:
Awesome is the Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin
Famous One - Chris Tomlin
Beauty of the Lord - Jared Anderson (Desperation Band)
Oh Lord Most High - Joel Hatcher
It's all about you/Jesus Lover of my Soul - Passion


Worshipping him,
Adam

New Music and Big Announcement

Hey for all you mighty church plant worship pastors out there. Here is some great new music out that I am implementing in our services. If you have suggested listenings please post comments. Always open to hearing new stuff.

Steve Fee- Shine
Michael Gungor - All I need is here
Phil Wickam- Cannons
Desperation - Everyone Overcome (just released 2 days ago)
Jared Anderson (has not released yet, but coming soon)
and none worship but amazing:
Rascal Flatts - Still Feels Good

Also a big announcement coming tommorow.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Be patient!

As a worship pastor of a church plant there are so many things you want and yet have to wait for. Let me start by saying enjoy the process and do all that you can while waiting. Through the last few months I have seen a few church plant that have failed because people jumped the gun. As a worship pastor your area is no different. Do it by yourself and wait for good musicians. Dont just put someone up cause they claim to play. One of the most important things for me was to find a good drummer. not a drummer that can keep a beat, but a drummer that was solid rythmically, and creative with how he played. A good drummer understands dynamics of songs, when to play and when not to, what certain portions of the songs need what vs. others. You dont want to have to explain this everytime and how to do it. You want a solid drummer. I found a drummer that has been very beneficial to the worship team. But obviously we dont want him burned out. However God brought us another drummer who I discovered last night. I am looking forward to actually having two drummers. FIND A GOOD DRUMMER. DO NOT MOVE UNTIL THAT TIME. The reason you want quality is because if you function just on who ever shows up you will risk being a distraction to the people in your congregation. When your drummer is off beat all the time and your guitarist can't keep rythm or chords and your singers are all off pitch then it is very difficult to facilitate worship. God is an awesome God and I want to do the best I can for Him because he deserves it. So be patient and pray for God to bring connections your way. You will be so glad you waited.

WORSHIPPING HIM
ADAM

Set design last week

Here are a few pics of our set design last week. Sorry it took so long to get up. We talked about the core value of significance and how we all crave to be significant. So we grabbed some card board cut outs and posters of those in society who are or have been at one time significant.




Worshipping Him
Adam

pray pray pray

As many of you know over the last few weeks, we have grown like crazy. Beyond what we really expected. So now we are in a good/bad situation of what needs to happen next as far as a space issue. We have two options right now that we are looking at. One is a situation that needs to be concluded this week. We are very excited to announce what we are doing next, which ever direction God leads us. However there are a few walls that need to be torn down for some of these decisions to made. We are asking that over the next couple of days you would pray for the space situation for element church. For wisdom for us pastors. And for the necessary hearts to be moved upon by God in order for these doors to open. Thank you all for your prayers and support so far. We will update you on this SUNDAY about the situation.

Jeff and I are finishing up the conference today. It has been very good. I have been able to meet and talk with several worship pastors to get there view on things. We will leave tommorow for the 10 hour treck home. CRAZY. And jump right into finishing the week for sunday.

Very excited for this sunday. We will be closing our second series as a church called "IT" which is our core values. This weeks core value plays in so well to this sunday's holiday. Stay tuned for details.

KEEP PRAYING! We could not do this without prayer!

Worshipping Him
Adam

10 hours from home

Jeff and I came to Great Falls MT which is about 10 hours north of nowhere. HA. Its a long way from home. We are at a conference here for the denomination. It was actually quite interesting sitting in on the business meetings, which I have never been a part of before due to being non denominational. However I was able to meet some really cool guys today. I was able to connect with another worship pastor here that is part of a 2 year old church plant. It was very good to connect and see that I am headed on the right track and yet also get some insight on where to go from here. Let me strongly encourage any ministry pastor to surround yourself with people and resources that understand the game. It is so valuable to be able to bounce ideas of and steal ideas from other pastors. Blogging has become a great form of communication lately. I have tried to get every worship leader to start blogging, so we can all stay together on topics and issues related. Also we post our set lists and designs here so we can share songs and such. What a great tool.

Not sure whats on the aggenda tommorow however I look forward to connecting with some other worship guys to pick their brain.

I miss my wife a ton and cant wait to see her. We are growing so much right now in our marriage and ministry together. Love her to death.

I also love HEROES. If you are not a fan I am so sorry. But tonights episode was unreal. Still like LOST better but this comes in for a close 2nd. GO WATCH IT NOW.

worshipping Him
adam

Sunday AfterThoughts

Had a great sunday. More new people, which blows me away how God brings them in. 201 was the numbers today. Jeff talked about "significance", our 5th Core Value, for a phenomenal delivery. Make sure you watch the service online at www.elementweb.net.

Tried a new way to do offering today. DIDNT LIKE IT. Ha. But that is what is great about being new is that you can try it and if it doesnt work you dont do it again. Still trying to find the best way to do it and make it feel a part of the worship service.

One more week of our "IT" series. Looking forward to all the upcoming series. Our next series is called "THANKS/GIVING an Element mini series" Then we start our Christmas series which you wont want to miss.

Todays Set design:
2 Card board Cutouts: 1- marilyn monroe 2-Elvis Presley
3 Posters of Lebron James, Tom Brady, Brett Farve
(I will post pictures once I get them)

Todays Set List:
Take my Life - Jeremy Camp
We Shine- Steve Fee
Everything Glorious- David Crowder
Live To Worship - New Life Worship
The Stand - Hillsong United
The noise we make - Chris Tomlin

Worshipping Him,
Adam Cruz

New Blog Face

I have been wanting to reface the blog a little. Like change some layout and colors. Then I read Jeff's a couple days ago and its a new layout. So of course I had to update, so that mine could remain "THE WORLD"S MOST CREATIVE BLOG". HA. Green is my favorite. Their you go.

Looking forward to this sunday. Jeff's message will be fantastic. I am excited about our worship set, and God is on the move. Not sure what to expect being that we have grown 40 people a week the last 3 weeks. We wont have any room this week if that happens again. Obviously God knows and cares, so we are praying. We have a big announcement coming in 4 weeks. So stay tuned.

We had First Friday last night. I love those times together with the core, the prayer warriors. We come together and seek God through unstructured prayer and worship for an hour. Its a great time to connect on a more intimate level of prayer with our team and God. We had about 20 of us. We can not do any of this without God and that is not a cliche statement. If God does not move and is not here than all this is a waste of time. However we have seen God already move and its obvious he is at work.

More on set design and set list tommorrow.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

God is so into us!

As I said a few days ago we had a fire in our kitchen. We have been very frustrated as is not a surprise by the insurance companies and what they will and will not claim, ect. ect. Well we were responsible to have everything replaced in the apt that was damaged. A microwave, the flooring, and paint the ceiling. Well Amber and I were just praying that this would not cost so much and that the Lord would just open doors we couldnt. Well this morning my wife received an email from someone in our church stating that she read in a long letter of stuff people were getting rid of that there was a microwave and she didnt even know the person who owned it. So she informed us about it and said its a shot in the dark. So we decided to call and out of all the microwaves in the world this one was brand new 30in and was a "spacesaver" (specifically for mounting between cabnints) and the best part yet is that she gave it to us for FREE.

God is so into us and involved in our lives. I can't imagine life without him wether he gave us a microwave or not, but it just spoke to me of how intimate God is with us.


Worshipping Him,
adam

Our Little Fire Incident

Last Saturday we had a greese fire in our kitchen. Honestly one of the scariest experiences I have had. Standing there for seconds (which is a long time in this situation), I thought my house was going to the ground. I have never felt so controlled by something else where I didnt think there was a sollution. My wife was folding laundry in the back rooms, so I screamed as loud as I could telling her to get out of here, why I tried to get this fire out. Of course she freaked and started helping. (PAUSE). In our minds we were both just saying NO NO this isnt happening. I had to do something quick or it was going to be bad. So I grabbed the pot of burning oil on fire and ran outside and down the stairs and thru the pot. I fried my hands, with the biggest blisters I have ever seen. Anyways the fire dept. showed within minutes and got everything under control. It was a scary night. It ended up not being as bad as we thought it was however flames in your face are just freakin scary. Here are a couple pictures of the minor damage.

Surfboards and Worship

Here I told you I would post some pics of our set design!
These were 2 12ft tall stained glass windows, with hymnals and candles in front to set the mood of a liturgical service.

However it back fired on us when everyone thought they were Surfboards. LOL. All that time spent painting, and everyone thinks we put surfboards up. HAHA well I guess next time we do a better job.










Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts!

Yesturday, Jeff and I tagged teamed our message. It was a great idea I think. One of the things we talked about is how we can base our worship experiences completely on feelings. Its not just about that. Its funny because Jeff and I both didnt feel it yesturday. It was a weird sunday. maybe God had it that way just to eat our own words. Funny how God will do that.

Amber and I almost lost our home in a fire cause by cooking oil. I burned my hands with 2nd degree burns all over running the pot of oil out of the house to save it, which plays a role in how I felt yesturday. I will post pics later this week.

We had 206 people this week. Unreal. Another 40 people jump from last week. Jeff had really cool connection this week that we will share about soon, for potential meeting space.

God is good!

We built 2 12ft pieces of Stainglass windows. I will post our stage set up in a couple days.

Worship set this week:
LIVE TO WORSHIP - NEW LIFE WORSHIP
NOT TO US - CHRIS TOMLIN
O WORSHIP THE KING - DAVID CROWDER
FOR WHO YOU ARE - UNITED
HERE IN YOU PRESENCE - NEW LIFE WORSHIP
I STAND AMAZED - CHRIS TOMLIN

WORSHIPPING HIM,
ADAM

Stage Setup

Last Week we talked about Change. So we made this Ginormous Lite Brite out of Ply wood that spelled change. Thought this was one of the coolest pictures of it.

We also have a really cool set desing planned for this week.

WHY DO WE DO SET DESIGNS AND SPEND MONEY ON CHURCH?
Great Question Glad you asked!

Because when 8 people give their hearts to Christ and surrender to Him in 2 weeks of services, all of a sudden $50 was well worth it.

Is Hollywood and MTV and Starbucks allowed to be the only inovative and creative people out there. I serve a God who is far more creative that Hollywood will ever be and Starbucks could ever dream to be. So do I just sit back and say thats nice? NO we get up and we get creative and God pours it through us and PEOPLE get saved. Maybe if some churches stopped wasting money in a trust fund that sits for 9000 years only never to be touched till a RAINY DAY and quit worrying ONLY about a buildings and started applying some creativity to how they reach the Lost, then maybe some churches would start seeing the LOST come around and find Jesus. Which that IS what IT is ALL about, RIGHT? Then buildings and trust funds are all secondary and God works those things out.

There is a little venting for ya.

Worshipping Him
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts (copyright 2007 adam cruz) LOL

af·ter·thought (ftr-thôt)
n.
An idea, response, or explanation that occurs to one after an event or decision.
***Its mine Jeff and Grant*** LOL

God showed up!!! It was awesome. The band just kicked it up a notch a did a terrific job leading Element Church to the throne room where God was worshipped. Great videos. Great Message. Decisions for Christ. Krispy Kreme Donuts. 167 people. Oh my. Yes God is up to something and it rocks to be a part. We had 124 adults in e:worship which is almost 40 up from last weeks 80 something. God is on the move and we are trying to hand on. Ha. With decisions like where do we go from here for a facilty, being that if 20 more show up next week we are maxed, to how do we get people connected, to volunteering, ect. ect. Lots of unknowns at this point. Pray for wisdom for us.

Set list last week was:
What I've done - Lincoln Park (Prelude)
We Shine - Steve Fee
Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall
Mighty to Save - United (didnt get to do because of broken string, LOL)
From the Inside Out - United
Jesus paid it all - Chris Tomlin
The Reason - Hoobastank

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday Recap

Well if things went as my dream was telling me this morning we would have had a very sad service. It was weird because last week, Launch week, I had a great night rest, however this week I was a mess. I could not sleep at all along with Jeff and Grant. Not sure if there was something spritually going on or what but none of us slept. I dreamed that Jeff wanted to go and shoot a video for next week at like 7:00am which is usually when we start setting up. I was like "Jeff we can do this later this week, but he insisted." So we got to church at like 8:00 and I was like there is no way we will be able to set up. The dream made me a nervous mess.

However our service went great. I believe God was there and was worshiped. I am learning a lot and still have so much to learn. Worship dynamics and people and all the things that go into worship ministry is so much more than you would ever think. Dont get me wrong there is nothing in the world I would rather be doing, but I am learning a lot.

We were praying this week for 120 and we had 127. God is so faithful to bring the people and call the hearts if we will be faithful to give our all to Him and do all we can. God wants us to dream and it takes a lot of trust and faith to dream as big as He is. If I caught it right from Jeff we had 5 more decisions for Christ this morning. This is what its all about. I am just blown away that God just simply uses us for His glory. And yet its so simple. Just give everything and He gives everything. HA.

Curtis (our Youth Pastor) jumped in on Djembe for a new rendition of "I belong to Jesus" to open up the service. Great job Curtis. Bryant and Morgan and Amber just do a wonderful job every week. It gets better and better.

Doing a couple of really cool songs this sunday. Check out next weeks video to hear them. They will really pull in well with the message. Probably the two most complicated songs we have done yet.

Well thats a wrap up.

Worshipping Him,
Adam Cruz

Weekend pre-look

I am very excited about this week. I didnt start out feelin this way. In fact I felt very unprepared and not ready. Mentally I wasn't in it like I was last week. Partly because this week in our heads doesnt carry the same weight as last week. WHY? Why doesnt it. 5 people got saved last week. There was no other reason that we launched element church last week than for that reason. Is this week any different. Absolutely not. We want 5 people commiting their lives to Christ again and again, week after week. Our focus should never move from this no matter how cool or creative we get. Anyways I had to have a heart check this week and look at what this is all about.

Very excited about this week though. We have some creative set designs for the sermon. Can't wait to get more and more creative with our set designs.

Worship set this week is:

I Belong to Jesus- Dennis Jernigan (new chord progression and totally acoustic)
Everyone - Desperation Band
O praise Him- David Crowder Band
Let everything thing that has breath- Chris Tomlin
Doxology- David Crowder Band version

Worshipping Him
Adam Cruz

so what is next?

Man I tell you I honestly did not know what to expect yesturday at our Launch service. I really thought we would have some people, but NOT 200. I mean seriosly I went back and forth on what the e worship room would look like. It was stinkin packed. I cannot express what the energy in that room is like when 150+ people are packed in vs. 40-60. Everyone fed off eachother and worships their heart out. And when you look out and people are literally 5 feet from you cause they are packed in on the first row, that is amazing. I absolutely new that God was worshipped in that place this morning. I tell you what people came expecting. 5 people got saved yesturday. Unbelievable. I can't wait to see them plug in and join life groups and get connected and watch what God does through their new lives.

Our band did a fabulous job. Every week they get better and better, I just love it.
Our set list was:
Not to us - Chris Tomlin
Sing to the King - Billy Foote
Glory- Hillsongs United
How great is our God - Chris Tomlin

Jeff delivers such great words. I love it. You can check it out online be wed. of this week.

Here we are

Man its crazy to think that in 2 days we are launching Element Church. We have poured our selves out with everything we know to do to launch well and I feel so good about it. God has given us connections, money, creativity to make this happen. The greatest thing I love about it, is that it doesnt end here. It gets bigger, better, and so much deeper from here out. In Feburary of this year I accepted the job here at Element Church. Its scary to look back at that time and think of saying NO. There is nothing else I would rather do than this right here.

We had an incredible band practice today. Our band rocks. Every week we get tighter and stronger and better and I love it. Bryant is the first drummer I have met that practices when I give him music to work on. I love having him on the team. Morgan has stepped up and done a great job. Can't wait for sunday and can't wait for whats next.

Love it love it love. The emails and people we talk to are just excited about what God is doing. I really see God's hand all over this and here we go.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Preview Sept 16th

Well its now 2 sundays away from Launch. I was very excited about our service today, despite a few issues last week. My worship team did a fabulous job today. Our drummer Bryant has been a great addition to our team. I give him a cd of stuff to listen to and he works hard all week and it pays off on sunday. I love a drummer who has a heart to grow and does the work necessary. So great job today Bryant, Amber, and Morgan.

Since our video didnt work last week we had to show both videos today. I defenently felt like it went well in our transitions. We had several comments about them. If you would like to watch them you can visit www.elementweb.net. We filmed a short film called SEARCH that will be broken into 5 episodes. It suspenceful and good. ha.

Jeff once again did a fantastic job delivering a relevant message about how God views us. I played the piano for the very first time in a worship service. We did the song "can anybody hear her" by casting crowns in the middle of Jeff's message and I felt like it delivered well. Atleast I didnt mess up any chords which I was nervous about this morning.

I will post some pictures, but a guy in our church built Jeff one of the coolest podiums I have ever seen. Go Nick.

Again we could not do this without all of our volunteers. Our volunteers show up at 7:00am every Sunday and they have huge servant hearts. Thank you to all who help. Cant wait until we kick this thing off.

Worshipping Him,
Adam Cruz

Worst Nightmare

Had the worst dream last night.

We were at launch. 300 People showed up. I dont know what happen up till 10am but at 10 I remember vividly. We were getting ready to start the first song, only I forgot what it was. So I turned around to my band and they didnt know because I forgot to give chord charts out and and a song list. So I just picked one and we started playing open the eyes of my heart and everyone went crazy. In the dream there was like 5 feet of flat space in front and everyone came up there. People were singing loud, jumping, going nuts. Then after that first song, I couldnt remember what was next. So we took about 5 minutes of pause time to figure out another song. People were talking and excited to be there, they were cheering. It was nuts. I kept looking at Jeff in the recording studio (ha) cause I knew he would be mad. But he was laughing. OMG. I know this is nuts. For some reason there was this really big stuffed animal covering my microphone and when I took it off there was no mic. So no one could hear me. Then they brought me a mic, but between that time I sang a song accapelo. YEah this is not how I thought service on launch would go. Then after all that my in ear monitors didnt work. So after finally getting through a few songs I remember we forgot our brand new Canon XL 1 video camera. But then I saw some dude out in the crowd floating around with one.

there you go thats all i remember.

We have some sweet stuff planned for launch, lets hope it goes way better that this.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Element Preview Wrapup

WOW, We made it. Had a great service today. Made some great connections, didn't break any strings, worship went smooth, Jeff preached an incredible message.

--- However, I was very nervous at 7:30 this morning. We were so far behind in setup (which only prooves to have lots of volunteers before you try and plant a church), we couldnt find mics, stands, and light stuff. Then after a stressful week of figuring out our presentation software, the videos loops decide not to work. Needless to say I was stressed.

--- We didnt start rehersal till 9:00 which made for a fast practice, and quick sound check which wasnt producing what we wanted but thanks to great musicians and sound guys it got to where we wanted it.

--- God helped us pull it off, I don't understand how it happens sometimes but it did. Thankyou Jesus.

--- Looking forward to next time and getting smoother and better with everything we do. I am so glad we do preview services before launching. It will make all the difference. Love our team, love serving Jeff, Love Jesus.

--- Look for the video coming Wed.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Once Again.

Hey everyone, probably just Jeff and a couple of others, haha, anyways. Its here again. I have been so anxious today because our Second Preview service is tommorow morning at 10:00am.

---We found a drummer. Praise God! I was getting very nervous, because we push our Preview services as a much larger production than our Unplugged, so I wanted the full band feel. Anyways Bryant is the new addition and a great addition he is.

--- I am very excited about tommorow. The service layout is really good. A great worship set to open things up followed by a creative monologue drama and I am very excited about Jeff's message. It will be great. We will post the service on the site or this blog by Wed. Please pray for us that things run smooth, that new faces show up, and that God's presence is there and brings change to peoples lives.

--- We couldnt pull of what we have for tommorow, or be as calm as we are with out our priceless volunteers. We have a great crew of people that have stepped up and said yes to serving at Element Church and we thankyou so much. You make the service happen.

---Again I probably wont sleep tongiht, we will see. I am just so excited.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Addition to the family

Hey everyone that wants to see the addition to Amber and I's family can go to:
www.flickr.com/photos/adamambercruz


Worshipping Him!
Adam

Worship in Spirt

As I was studying today for my message on Sunday, I came across a concept I havn't seen this way before. In John chapter 4, in the story with the Samaritan women at the well, Jesus tells her the kind of Worshippers that the Father is seeking. The kind that will worship in Spirit and in Truth. So we often think about what Jesus is saying here. What does that look like for me to be a worshipper in Spirit and in Truth? So flip over to Romans 12:1-2 you have Paul explaining here what worship should be in our everyday life. The NIV version says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your SPIRITUAL act of worship". Offering our bodies completely is how we worship in Spirit which is the kind of worship the Father is seeking. The kind that will take their everyday, ordinary life- their sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering. When we get our minds off of ourselves and onto Him then our spirits connect with His and God heals us, and frees us, and gives to us everything we need. So to worship in Spirit and Truth is to give our bodies to him, everything we have, everything we do to knowing him more through his word and prayer and giving him our time, attention, and affection. This is true worship. I love learning and seeing new things in the scriptures.

Worshipping,
Adam

desperation update

Hey everyone, Its a beautiful morning here at the base of the Rockie mountains here in Colorado Springs. My wife and I have had the privelage of being able to jump on the bus of our old youth group as they passed through. Last night was the first night and what an incredible night it was. God was moving. Worship was intense. John Bevere spoke on something really powerfull for all of us at all ages. How a lot of people use the excuse of grace as a cover up to continue sinning vs. the empowerment not to sin. 5 of our students and 1 of our leaders made REAL first time decisions for Christ yesturday. YEA! The heavens are rejoicing. I love it. We were out late and we are up early, are bodies will be tired but God is going to be praised with our lives. Pray for us and the continuing of God igniting a fire inside the hearts of these students that lasts forever.

Loving Jesus,
Adam

Life can be fun!

We had a great life group tonight. We were missing a couple of couples. ha. but we gain a new one. we have been doing the Nooma videos by Rob Bell, which are great discussion starters. Tonight we talked about needing things and really needing things but trusting God to give us what we really need. And only letting Him satisty our hearts desires. But then we had a great discussion of just life. One of the guys in our group brought up the fact that he knows guys that party and live this care free life and how many of them so often have great friendships that develope out of the partying together and such. They look back years later and reflect on the crazy things they did together or camping trips or whatever just being guys and how those times hold a lot of value in their friendship. So we started talking tonight about how as christians we so often make life so serious or always are having these hidden agendas but loose the spark of just good fun and life together. Nothing profound here but we get caught up in doing the right bible study and being at church to fulfill my duty and you know try and bring Jesus into every conversation or event instead of just literally living out our lives for God in everything we do. Every thing we do is for God. And so we can have fun and go camping and serve and read the bible and worship and rock climb and everything we do is for God but we can have fun and create lasting relationship that contain great stories, through lives of integrity and morals. There is a balance but I think that we can have fun for no other reason than having fun together while our lives spill the things of God everywhere we are.

Just a thought.
Adam

Where is the Pastor?

Today we had an almost scare that was saved literally 2 min before we started. It seems every time the pastor leaves things just don't go the way they should. And being portable brings on a whole new set of potential problems. Jeff went to Montana with his family to speak at a Jr. High Youth Camp, so I got to the Holiday Inn at about 8:45 to get an early start on setting stuff up for our Unplugged service. Luckily we dont have a ton of stuff to set up but the most important thing is what wasnt working today. Our projector was not getting the signal from the computer for whatever reason. So we spent till about 9:40 messing with it, trying all sorts of connections, restarting the computer and projector several times, and actually went and borrowed a projector from the holiday inn. We were desperate for something to work because it contains all our lyrics for worship and points for the message. So finally we gave up, of coarse Jeff in unreachable and he usually sets this up. (ONE MORE REASON NEVER TO OWN ANYTHING BUT A MAC)! So I actually changed the entire worship set to songs that everyone would know without having lyrics up on the wall. And then finally about 2 min before service Jeff calls and of coarse its something easy, but we get it working and we were saved. But man I hate these scares that always seem to happen when the Pastor leaves. All in all the service went great. We had new faces, God was worship, His presence was there, Grant did a great job teaching and we all ate lunch together afterwards. We are going golfing in less than 2 hours. Its a good day. We learn something new everytime we do this.

Oh by the way God is so good. I almost bought a djembe the other day and we dont even have someone to play it so we decided to wait. And no kidding this morning, Curtis, a new commer to element church said to me, "would you ever be interested in a djembe player for unplugged". HAHA how cool is that! He owns his own instrument and knows how to play, God is always looking out for us. Love doing this.

Pray for Jeff and his family this week that they would have a great time together and for energy for doing a full week of camp.

Loving Jesus and loving you,
Adam

Preview Service Video

Here is the VERY ROUGH CUT of our first service!

Preview Sunday

We had our first preview service this Sunday. It went over well. As of Monday it was going to be just me leading worship. But we wanted the feel of a band but had no one. But our intern Kyle knew a guy that was a part of the OWU ministry team that was coming in (which by the helped a ton) who was a drummer. So saturday night we set everything up ran through a practice with a full worship team and they did a great job. So to Blaine, Morgan, Kyle, Amber thanks for putting in the time, great job. I broke a string first song, which is always the fear as a guitar playing worship leader cause you can't exactly go do anything about it. But luckily we had put Jeff's intro slot right after the first song so I was able to change it fast. Fun Times. The stage was extremely small, the lights were really close and hot, our sound engineer had never seen a sound board before, we had lots of reasons to prove the need for doing a preview service. Its PRACTICE! But for our first service we felt like it went really well. Jeff did a great job with his message. He had a great opening cliff hanger story, then had props for each point. It was well presented. Our volunteers were priceless. We couldn't have set all that we did up in the time we did with out you. And greeters and children's workers, you were all essential to what happend Sunday. We had 75 people that attended with a few of them being from HPCC in Gillette (thanks for coming down). We had our first comments/critic write in on Monday morning, didn't see that coming (haha). But its good. Its good cause it challenges us to get better but it also challenges us to stick to what we know we are supposed to be doing. I think its timely cause Jeff just last week talked about people and their ideas but staying focused on what you know God has called you to.

So here we go. Back to Unplugged and casting vision. And preperation for our next preview on August 5th and then launch October 7th. I will post pictures and the service video later today.

Is A Plumber in Ministry!

The other night I was asked if I was ever looked down upon when asked "what I do" and my response being that "I am in the ministry". Personally I have never encountered a situation where somebody vulgarly rebuked me for being in ministry. But I asked him the same question of course to him it was different because his title doesnt declare him "in ministry", so he didn't see it that way. So what is ministry? Is ministry a title we hold over our heads cause we got some sort of education that persuades us to think a certain way based on the school you went to. Or is ministry just volunteering in positions of need in a church, or is it just what happens on Sunday Morning. There are a lot of people that believe they are not in the ministry because I don't work for a church. Let me tell you, if you are a Christian (a Christ follower) regardless of occupation you are in the ministry. You are in the ministry of loving Jesus and loving people. In fact most pastors of church staff will never influence the amount of people that you could. I sometimes struggle with that, because I am not out with people as much. (However, thats what I love about Element Church, as staff, we arn't just sitting around. We are out serving, getting in the community, loving and serving people, making an impact). So I told him I feel one of my passions as a staff "ministry" person is to help infuse life in people so that they are out making an impact in their culture and as they live life well, with passion and integrity, they begin to influence people for God's kingdom weather they are saying anything or not. And that my friends is in fact ministry.

Update

Wow... Its been a long time.
So here we are. Amber and I are in cheyenne. We have finished getting our apartment looking like its livable. We absolutely love it here. I love my being a part of element church and working for Jeff. Jeff truely is amazing and gifted of God, I have learned and enjoyed so much from being apart of his life. Element Church is beginning. Its great when vision starts to unfold. When what has been in your heart for so long starts to take shape.

Amber, today actually, has started working at a great dental office here in cheyenne, actually one that was not hiring until they saw here resume (what a suprise)! She is so excited cause this is where she wanted to work. It reminded her of Eagle Summit in Buffalo.

I will start posting more consistently from here on out.


For the Lamb's reward,
Adam

I had a feeling about you guys

I love our God. I love how His people are everywhere and we can just sense things about eachother in the spiritual realm with out even knowing eachother. This weekend Amber and I led worship for a World Hope conference in Buffalo Wyoming which went really well by the way for all of you that were praying, thanks. So in the afternoon before rehearsal Friday, I went and sat down at Deerfields coffee shop and was going to work on my set list, drink a Peach smoothie, and hand out relaxing. When Amber and I got there we were greeted by the 26something year old manager who just seemed like a really cool guy. After a few questions we discovered that we were both christians but not only that, we were both youth pastors. He said "I had a feeling about you guys", crazy. I love that. So that sprung all sorts of conversation for the next 1 1/2 hours about music and youth stuff and life and culture. We both were so identical in hobbies and other things it was crazy. Anyways I locked in a gig with him at his coffee shop, and a couple potential things with worship, which was pretty cool and was able to encouraged eachtother in some things. We knew similar people which helped with the concert stuff. He is new to the area and doesn't know anyone really, so he is going to get connected into our ultimate frisbee games we do every sunday as well as getting connected into our college ministry here. I love meeting people and helping them get connected like this, especially in the public places.

* also a side note: we had a hangout night last night over at some friends house with a bunch of friends in Buffalo and Amber invited her co- worker and husband who have been very dissatisfied with life and opposing to the gospel and church. They have been saying weird things lately like "I want to read the Bible", or "I don't feel alive inside", so we have got her reading the Bible which she has been doing faithfully daily for like 2 weeks straight and also she has been reading Purpose Driven Life, and says "I can't put it down". Don't know what God is doing here but they don't have a lot of friends in the area and they never come when we invite them to stuff, but they showed up last night and stayed late and had a great time, I hope this is the beginning of great things to come. Isn't God good.

I just love how God works, nothing profound that I am writing just was thinking about this and how much I love to be a Christ follower and see how he connects all his people. I love meeting new people and it really sparked a fire in me for whats going to happen in cheyenne. Its going to be a lot of coffee shops and meeting new people, some believers and some not, but just meeting people and thats what I love.



for the Lamb's reward,
Adam

culture relevance and biblical depth

I have read a lot of blog's today, its jeff's fault. For the last year I have been thinking and processing this thought. In August last year I went to Belize for a mission trip. I know that all of us when we get out of our comfort zone and do missions or something we come back all fired up about what is important. Then often times it fades till the next time. Anyways, this thought hasn't faded from my mind. One night after our youth service here in wyoming, I was thinking about how cool and creative it was, how much fun the kids had during the game, how powerfull our time of worship was, and I really felt like the kids had connected with the message. And I remember thinking about the kids in Belize who had no youth pastor, no worship leader (they worshipped with cd's), no fun games, and no fancy lights or comfortable chairs and yet they connected with God. So I thought what would happen to our youth group if we took all the posters down, took out the sound system and just had the guitar and vocals, took away the projector and creative videos, and took out the comfortable couches. What would happen after a few weeks, the first few weeks the kids would love it cause its different, something we have never done. But after a couple weeks they would stop showing up. Now maybe they wouldn't but I did have to think would they really keep coming. Are they coming to connect with eachother and God and really listen to the message and small groups, or do they come just for all the fun, glitz and glamour. Now listen, I am not pushing for a dull boring service, cause you have to connect with them where they are. Kids and for that matter all of us want to have a good time. But sometimes in our entertain me generation I wonder if we just come to church to be entertained or do we come to connect with God. Now understand that I believe every culture is different, we couldn't take american ways and expect some remote tribe in africa to respond to our style, we have to learn their culture. And so this is where our culture is, lights, loud music, rock worship, creative videos, creative stage set up, relevant topics, donuts and coffee before service. So to reach our culture this is where we have to go, but I just want to know that we remain biblically sound and deep. I know a lot of people who loose focus of this and are concerned week to week with being culturally relevant and being the coolest new thing out there, with our 6 different services all with a different style, all that but let biblical and relational depth fade. I am not saying to do away with all this, and not to be culturally relevant. Trust me I love the New Life Church style and the Desperation Conferences, but the flashy experience isn't going to keep me on fire for ever. It will be a relationship with Christ that is vibrantly growing day by day that keeps me on fire.

I met a young pastor who told me I needed to watch mtv at least 1-2 hours a day to know what was relevant among teenagers today. lol. Hogwash. I think thats crap. This is the kind of heart I am talking about.

I am all about being professional in presentation and doing it well cause otherwise you risk being a distraction.

Anyways there is a balance and I just found myself asking and checking am I connecting and really hepling these people connect with God or are we just entertaining them on a weekly basis. Cause in the end I want people that are experiencing the depths of God and not just surface christianity.


for the Lamb's reward
Adam

I love to worship!

The other night my wife and I were driving home from Gillette after visiting some family. On the way home she was working on a resume and so I decided to grab my ipod and see what I was in the mood for. I cycled through all my normal rock stuff I listen to and landed on some old Dennis Jernigan stuff (if anyone even knows who that is these days). lol. Anyways I was inspired by some of my old favorites and there driving home with the sun going down, it was a beautiful moment. I love to worship God. I love that it doesnt have to be Saturday to do it, I love that the songs don't have to be the right style, I love that it doesnt have to be perfect, I love that I don't even have to sing, but my soul can just connect with God. I love that. So from there I found some United, then Desperation, and just worshipped my heart out and felt so revived. I needed this. I love that we can worship God where ever and when ever, for example Grant's most recent post. I felt so alive and thats what I love about worship, its not that its just about music although that is my favorite element in worship, but I can connect with the heart of God and be fueled to fight the fight. Ahhhhh! Yes, I am getting excited just typing this. Anyways just thought I would share.


For the Lamb's reward!
Adam

Transition

Like I said in a previous post, Amber and I desire to leave well and to transition smooth. Please pray that God would give pastor Tony and I the wisdom in finding the next guy as Youth Pastor. Ideally I would love for him to be here for the last couple of weeks that I am here so I can hand off the baton so to speak. The reality is, that is probably not going to happen (not saying God can't if he wants) so just pray that we would be able to find someone quickly after I leave. We have some leads but nothing solid right now. I know that if God has called us on then He has someone else moving in. We trust that and hold to that, but we have to be faithful on our part to and do some of the work in finding him. So just pray for the process and the wisdom to do it right.





...for the Lamb's reward

Adam

A successful life

...is often thought of as someone who has made it to the top of a corporate ladder, or someone who has enough money to do what ever he wants with, or someone who becomes a celebrity or who writes the newest hottest song. We are painted this picture everyday by what this world pursues as success. As if success is determined by the eyes and hearts of people.

I asked my Dad one time "what is success to you, how do you know you have been successful in life", he said "if I can come home and lay down for the night knowing I obeyed God, worked as hard as I could to be a faithfull business man, and loved my family the best I could, then I was successful today". I thought wow that is completely opposite of what our world teaches us as success.

As a worship leader or really any kind of leadership position in the ministry we are tempted to have everyone's approval in order for us to feel successful . So many become addicted to a crowd or the eyes of people that they forget why they are doing what they are doing. And yet at the end of the day this is not success. But like Prov. 27:21 says, "the crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives".

Let us strive to make God huge like it says in John 3:30, and not become addicted to our positions and being in front of people but to realize that success is found each day in loving Jesus with all you are and obeying him, being faithful in the areas that we are called to serve "positional ministry" or not, and loving our families above all else. Here we will find true success, leading a mega-church or just being a faithful painter who loves his family.

One last thought. This is a story of a man who is a gifted worship leader and songwriter. He said one time God was speaking to him through his children. After a long day's work he came home, walked in the front door and was takled by his three young children who were excited that he was home. Admidst the love and kisses they poured on him, the Lord spoke to him, "this is as famous as you'll ever need to be." I love that, if we could all just learn it."

Thanks to my Dad for being such a great role model.
This is just some thoughts I was having today, thought I would share.




...that the lamb would receive the reward of His suffering

Adam

My hearts on Fire!!!

Here I am Tuesday morning in my office in sheridan wy trying to get ready for High School Youth Group. I love what I am doing but I am on fire for where we are going. I am trying to stay focused but all I think about 24/7 is Cheyenne and loving the people there and serving them. My heart is on fire to see God be huge in that community through our team. I know God wants that here also but my heart is in cheyenne now. I can't wait to learn and serve under and alongside with Jeff, Grant, and Keenan. I guess this is how you know your headed the right direction when God burns in your heart this kind of passion. I want this fire to never seize. I hear of pastors that come into a community to do great things and after so long of being there it just becomes inward focused and no longer about seeing the lost saved, but about the right colors going up in the church walls and such. I want to never become lethargic in my pursuit for God to move, regardless of how long I have been in a community. If we have the right focus and our eyes are on Jesus we won't go there. So Jesus keep my eyes on you and my heart ripped open before you that you may keep the fire alive inside.

Element Team- only 7 more weeks. I am praying for this weekend wish I could join you!

...that the Lamb would receive the reward of his suffering
ADAM

essentials to an effective worship arts ministry

Mac computers and Taylor Guitars and you will do well!



lol

How it came together!

In October of last year I had been praying and feeling like God was stirring a heart for leading worship. Worship and Music is my passion, its my heartbeat, what I love, and feel called too. So when I started feeling this I thought, what now, because I wasn't going to take over DeAnn here at Cornerstone. I thought maybe I need to ask her if I can lead more on Sunday mornings, but still that I didn't know what to do I just knew I wanted to worship God. So that month my wife and I started a thing called Noon Worship that we did once a week over lunch for people to come out and worship and pray for an hour. If nothing else I just needed an outlet to worship, I had to do it. Well, 2 weeks had passed and a guy comes up to me at church on a Sunday morning and shared with me that God was saying "I am about to open your music ministry". WHAT! Ok. Then I get this call from Jeff that week and he asks, "have you ever thought about leading worship instead of youth ministry". I was like um YES! lol. God's timing of everthing is just awesome. So Jeff and I began talking about this whole church plant idea, theology, business stuff, everything. Amber and I felt like yes, this is it. This is what we have wanted to do and felt called to. But the youth ministry is strong, growing, and we didn't feel released. So Amber and I went to gillette and met the team, Grant, Keenan, Jeff and the awesome wives and had an incredible time dreaming and getting to know eachother. My heart was there, I wanted to say yes right there, but I felt like I couldn't. So after a week, I actually told Jeff to look for someone else that I didnt think the timing was right for us. So Jeff said ok, well lets stay in touch. The whole time this was in the back of my mind and heart so we kept praying and I knew what God had put on my heart and it just made since that this was it but I didn't have a peace, or I was just letting fear keep me back instead of taking a step of faith. Then in December 2 different people at 2 different times in my home church spoke words into my life that they felt like God was speaking. These words were timely and exactly what Amber and I needed to hear about God doing a new work and that we needed to push forward, (they had no idea what we were even dealing with). So I felt like I needed to talk with Jeff again so Amber and I started praying hard and moving forward on this. We met once more in Cheyenne for dinner and it felt like if we don't do this we are disobeying God. We prayed all week and God gave us such a peace about it all and we knew this is it. So here we go.
God puts desires in our hearts for his purpose's and if we submit and follow Him he will lead us.

Its not about a new church, its not about fun ideas, being creative, or just that sounds like a good idea, cause thats not enough for me to join based on those terms, but the fact that Element Church has been established for an appointed time, and a specific people, that there is a purpose in going down and a calling to fulfill is what this is about.

More on my local church transition later!

Adam

Leaving Well

I heard it said very well a couple months ago and I have been trying to stay focused on this. "The way you leave one place detemines the way you enter the next". And for Amber and I it has been very important to finish strong. We are announcing that we are leaving to our Home church today. Already we have had so much support and backing. Its great to be in such a healthy family that will bless you on the way out. Its important to us that we are blessed out as we go and thats just what Cornerstone Church is about. Reach Them, Teach Them, Tend Them, SEND Them. So thanks you Cornerstone Family for being a healthy family.

Just remember as you leave one place give 100% and say "thank you" to a lot of people, (you can't say this enough), to people that have invested in your life and you will LEAVE WELL.

Element Worship

Welcome to Element Worship,
My name is Adam and my wife and I are the Worship leaders at Element Church here in Cheyenne. Element Church is a new church plant in cheyenne. You can view Pastor Jeff's blog about Element Church at http://www.elementinsider.blogspot.com/ or you can view our website at http://elementweb.net/ .

We will be moving there on June 1st. We are very excited and can't wait. We are jealous of the team that is already there, but we are on our way soon and look forward to connecting up with them.

I have become a blogger, I blame Jeff .

I will share a little bit of our story, and what were learning on here in future posts.

Thanks for stopping by.