Sunday, December 30, 2007

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, December 23, 2007

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

Monday, December 17, 2007

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, December 10, 2007

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

Friday, December 7, 2007

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, December 2, 2007

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