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.