sunday afterthoughts

YOU CHOOSE set list was today. I had a great time doing that. YOUCHOOSE was Element Church's chance to pick the set list for sunday. Great job on picking good songs.

It is always so tough to rehearse on sunday morning only. I was nervous about today because we didn't have thursday night. Reheasal is always rough on sunday morning that way. But I had a major heart check today. I really felt like God was saying, just "press in". Get up there and press in. Don't worry about what got rehearsed and what did not, just press in. So I really encouraged the band today to just PRESS IN. If we choose to go there and people see that we are connecting and responding to our creator it will inspire it in their hearts as well. If we choose to get worked up on tempos and perfection, (WHEN WE HAVE DONE ALL WE CAN), the people will see it and it can be more of a distraction than missing a beat. Anyways, big learning stuff for me today. Worship is so much about the CHOICE. PRESS IN and CHOOSE to worship regardless of how you feel. WOW. That is more than an afterthought. lol.

Please be patient with us in our tech area. We have some big decisions to make tommorow in the area of our sound. We have fought this room a little to get it where we need it. We have not been happy thus far. We understand its been louder but full in previous weeks and softer but lacks fullness in other weeks. We are working on solving all that soon.

Great job tech team. You guys sacrifice a lot and learn a lot, thanks for your energy and time.

Jeff really nailed some things for me in my life today. Listen to his podcast, its a good reminder for our change over into the new facility. ITS NOT ABOUT A BUILDING, ITS ALL ABOUT JESUS.

Looking forward to a relaxing week of hanging with friends.

21 is going to ROCK OUR WORLD. Make sure to get in on that series. God will mess you up and its going to be so good. He has already been messing me up and I am looking forward to what he will do thru this series. Make sure to invite some friends.

ROCKIN AROUND THE TREE VIDEO will be up this week. Check back on Tuesday.

Set List for Sunday Dec. 28th (YOU CHOOSE):
Happy Day - Tim Hughes
Counting on God - New Life Worship
Yearn - Adam Cruz
Glorious One - Steve Fee
Came to the Rescue - Hillsong

"this isn't your grandma's christmas service"

last night element church pulled off a christmas event like none i have been too. ROCKIN AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE was a rockin good time. We had so much stinking fun as a band. Every time we transitioned into our next scene we would laugh and talk about how much fun we are having. Again I can't express how much fun i had.

I was so stressed and nervous about pulling this event off. 2 weeks ago I pulled together our set list for the night. Introduced everything to the band. Some of the songs they laughed at me for. We did 3 rehearsals, then last week I put together videos for transitions. Then we had a caotic dress rehearsal and had so much to get done for tuesday night. Then tuesday night happened and I tell you what, it was rockin. Our tech team pulled off an amazing light show, my creative team made snow fall from the ceiling and the band pulled of a drummer boy version that was killer.

Over 500 people came out to worship God thru some rock n roll. Thanks to all who came out. You made it so much fun.

The greatest quote of the night was Curtis Marshall's welcome, "this will not be your grandma's christmas service, UNLESS YOUR GRANDMA GOES TO ELEMENT". The coolest thing is so many do go to element and love it.

I will be posting a link on this blog of the full service start to finish on VIMEO. Stay tuned for that.

Amber and I just flew into Wichita, KS. which is now home again. We had a great time with family and looking forward to a relaxing week.


relaxing,
adam

YOU CHOOSE RESULTS

FAST SONGS:
SALVATION IS HERE
COUNTING ON GOD
HAPPY DAY

MEDIUM SONGS:
YEARN
MIGHTY TO SAVE
GLORIOUS ONE

SLOW SONGS:
THE STAND
CAME TO MY RESCUE
FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Again I will pick 5 of these songs to build a set list with. You'll have to wait till sunday to know which five. Thanks for participating.

You Choose Update

Only 16 hours left.

Here are the Current standings for you choose!!

FAST SONGS:
Happy Day
Salvation is here
Love the Lord

MEDIUM SONGS:
Yearn
Mighty to Save
Hosanna

SLOW SONGS:
The Stand
At the Cross
Came to my Rescue



VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE.

Vote here!!

sunday afterthoughts

Ill begin with, what I thought was the coolest part of the day. Jeff actually did an altar call and 10 people came forward. SO GOOD!

Wow what a week it has been. I want to say thank you to our worship team. They have poured some incredible hours into rehearsals lately. Not only thursdays but tuesdays and several weekends. They sacrifice a lot so that we have good music at element. Thanks you guys.

Rockin around the tree on Tuesday, can't wait. Its going to be a great time.

YOU CHOOSE UPDATE:
I will be pulling the vote at 11:59pm Tuesday the 23rd. Results will be posted christmas eve the 24th. Again I will pick 5 of the 9 songs.
Here are the current standings:

FAST SONGS:
Happy Day - 53 votes
Salvation is here - 47 votes
Love the Lord - 36 votes
Close in contest:
Solution - 35 votes
Counting on God - 30 votes

MEDIUM SONGS:
Yearn - 67 votes
Mighty To Save - 63 votes
Hosanna - 41 votes
Close in contest:
Glorious One - 33 votes
Madly - 31 votes

SLOW SONGS:
The Stand - 57 votes
At the Cross - 53 votes
Came to my rescue - 49 votes
Close in contest:
From the inside out - 49 votes
God of this city - 35 votes

Make sure to grab "21" invite cards, to invite people to our next series. This series has the potential to ROCK YOUR WORLD if you let it. I am already having my world rocked. Please make sure your friends and family get here for "21".

Set list sunday december 21st:
Sing, Sing, Sing - Chris Tomlin
O come let us adore him - New Spring Church Version
God has come - New Life Church
Spring of Life - Kristian Stanfill
Mighty to Save - United
I celebrate the day - relient k

---adam

you choose update

So up until now I have allowed unlimited entries. Due to some people only be able to vote 1 time a day and others having the ability to sit and vote all day long, I am limiting everyone to 1 vote entry per day. This will help balance the EXTREME changing results out. Thank you all for participating, it has been fun to watch the votes tally up and the 28th is going to be a good time.

Adam

sunday afterthoughts

well today wasn't as weird as last week, however I do have to admit it is taking some adjusting with our new facility. I love it and especially love not setting up and tearing down each week, however its just taking some adjusting.

a (-34) degrees was the temp today. It was cold. When we got there at 7 this morning it was 55 inside. I wasn't sure I would even be able to play guitar because my fingers were so cold.

The band rocked it today. We wrote a new version of Joy To The World that was a lot of fun.

Jeff has done a fantastic job with this series, honestly, when we had come up with the series idea I thought it was great but we didn't have 4 topics. We knew a couple issues we wanted to address, but nothing was nailed down. All that said, the topics and delivery has been amazing. Deep issues are being drawn out that I had no idea were going to be so impactful.

We ended todays service with a response time, (so nice to actually be able to do that), we had 3 tables setup with bowls and incense (symbolic of burning). Jeff talked on Family but more than that on forgiveness and invited people to let go of hurts by family or close ones in your life. We had them write down there hurts on paper and place them in a bowl. I sang "Carried to the Table" by Leeland and it was a very special time.

Remember to go to www.elementweb.net/youchoose and vote for your ideal set list for December 28th. You have until TUESDAY December 23rd. Again we pick 5 of the top 9 songs to build a set list. Here are the current standings:

FAST SONGS:
Happy Day
Salvation is Here
Counting on God
Close Behind:
Let Your Kingdom Come
I will never stop


MEDIUM SONGS:
Mighty to Save
Yearn
Glorious One
Close Behind:
You never let go
Here I am to worship

SLOW SONGS:
Came to the Rescue
The Stand
From the inside out
Close Behind:
At the Cross
God of this city

Please pray for safe travels for Jeff and his family as they travel to the funeral of Sabrina's grandmother.

Our next series is going to be one not to miss. More details coming THIS SUNDAY!

Set List sunday December 14th:
Counting on God - New Life Church
Joy to the World - Hillsong United
O Come let us adore him - Third Day version
Here is our King - David Crowder
Your Name - New Life Worship
Carried to the table - LEELAND

---Adam

YOU CHOOSE UPDATE

Alright votes are coming in like crazy. Just a heads up.... YOU CAN VOTE AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT. SOME HAVE VOTED EVERYDAY. LOL. Here are the current standings:

FAST SONGS:
Happy Day
Counting on God
Salvation is here

MEDIUM SONGS:
Mighty To Save
Yearn
Glorious One

SLOW SONGS:
Came to the Rescue
From the inside out
How Great is our God

sunday afterthoughts

yesturday "was", period. It happened. I felt like I was in an entirely different church leading worship. It was amazing and awkward at the same time.

10 people got saved yesturday. I told my wife, "that is the greatest way we could have entered the new facility".

I love this church and being used by God in what He is doing here.

Remember to go to www.elementweb.net/youchoose to vote for the set list on the last sunday of the year.

Also make sure to get your tickets for Rockin Round the Tree. Our Christmas EveEve service. YOu won't want to miss it. Tickets are almost gone. We are out of first service and half way thru 2nd service.

Set List:
Counting on God - New Life Worship
Gloria - Mercy Me
Glorified - New Life Worship
Maker of Heaven - New Life Worship
Wrap me in your arms - Lisa Gungor
Permanent - David Cook

YOU CHOOSE

Alright the votes are coming in quickly. If you have not voted go to www.elementweb.net/youchoose and put in your choice. A lot of you are only picking 3 songs total. You need to choose 3 songs from each category. You have until the 22nd to vote. We will choose 5 songs from the top 9.

Here are the current standings:
Fast - Happy Day with 8 votes
Medium - Mighty to save - 11 votes
Slow - How Great is our God - 10 votes


Waiting
Adam

We Are IN

WE PASSED INSPECTIONS!!!!!!
WE WILL WORSHIP IN OUR NEW LOCATION ON THIS SUNDAY

excited,
Adam

practice

I have been thinking a lot about my role as a worship leader lately, and how ministry is so different than any other job I have ever had. Its not just something you leave at work after 5:00pm. And its beyond that. Its more than just taking it home. Its not just a matter of meeting deadlines and counseling appointments after 5. Its deeper than that. There is something that has to take place deep in who I am in order for me to be all I can be in my job. I have been thinking about how important it is as worship leaders for us to WORSHIP. I am not talking about sunday morning. I am talking about our personal time. In order for us to lead good worship we need to become a worshipper. Monday thru Sunday. I remember having times where I just turn on a cd and just worship. I get before God and let him pour into me. I think this is so vital to becoming great worship leaders. What happens in private will come out in public. I think its that way for us as christians. I know a lot of times we come to church on sunday morning and get our FIX. We go to this church or that church that has great worship and we get our FIX. OUR ONLY LASTING FIX IS JESUS. I am a firm believer that if we are getting close with Jesus during our week that sunday will be an overflow of what is happening in our hearts. And that is very much the case for us worship leaders. God has really been challenging me with this. You have to practice what you lead. Get alone with God.


thinking out loud,
adam

carving pumpkins

Last night Amber and I rocked out some pumpkin carving. She went with the simple little spider web and a little spider. While I went with the complex CROSS (its supposed to be the element logo, HA). I think its obvious who is a better pumpkin carver. I love hanging out with my wife.

sunday afterthoughts

Sunday was beautiful in so many ways. I took 4 team members from the worship team down to the ENTER worship conference in Colorado Springs for the weekend. You can read all our posts about that below. I told my wife after service today that as we were worshipping I was seeing so many of the things we talked about from the conference take effect, or I just saw why or how they worked. It was a neat experience for me.

We didn't hold a thursday night rehearsal this week which made me very nervous, and yet the band rocked. For not rehearsing you guys did an amazing job.

Curtis knocked it out of the park yesturday. I thought he did a great job on personal evangelism. Make sure to listen to that if you weren't there.

I love worshipping with all of you.
adam

set list sunday
Solution - United
Let your kingdom come - adam cruz
the stand - united
rescue - Jared Anderson
Go tell it - Lee Mcderment

final session

this last session was a stool set format with Ross, Glenn, Paul, and Thomas Miller from Gateway. This discussion was on creating a "PRESENCE CULTURE" in you worship ministry.

-- The presence of God is what we are after when leading worship, nothing else.
--the presence of God is what makes us different that everyone else
-- We carry the presence of God everywhere we go.
-- Convince your people that they carry the presence of God. It doesnt just come from the pastor or worship leader. You bring when you walk into that sanctuary.
-- In order to have a presence culture we must have unity, we must create community.
-- stop coming to church for you, your coming to "come together". Don't isolate when you come to church. (THIS WAS HUGE)
-- God wants to have a conversation with us. Its a dialoge, not a one way conversation.
-- become a worship PASTOR not just a worship LEADER
-- You must pastor your worship team before you can pastor the congregation. WOW. SO GOOD.
-- if worship is not just music then why is it the only model we use

This conference was more than I expected. I can't explain in words how excited I am to implement stuff. Most of what I was challenged with was personal leadership stuff. There was so much that I learned how to be a better leader. I am overwhelmed with such good stuff. I have heard it said to wait 3 months before you implement anything from a conference because after 3 months what still sticks is what really meant the most to you. So I will be evaluating some things over the next months. Your worship team here at element church is so excited for the opportunity they have to lead you and we are excited for what we learned this weekend.

Tommorow is going to be a good sunday. Don't miss it. These next 2 weeks are weeks at element church you don't want to miss. Come ready to meat with God tommorow morning. He has extended the invitation and wants to meet with you.

Adam

revolving door number 2

again this has been, hands down, my favorite aspect of the conference. each speaker is given 12 minutes to deliver their best stuff. This session was in regards to the "FAMILY WORSHIP TABLE". Such good stuff

Ross Parsley -
-- the blended service model is the service model that makes no one happy
-- the next generation "alternative" service divides your church into 2 seperate churches that never cross paths. WOW
-- It takes no skill or expertise for a church to grow older. The challenge lies in remembering to reach down and raise the next generation.
-- church hopping makes you a critic of every church you go to
-- the ONE thing young people want in todays society is to BELONG, and we aren't doing a good job making that possible in a lot of todays churchs
-- we need Abraham, Isaac & Jacob for our churches to be strong and healthy
-- we have sent the kids away to the KIDS table so we can enjoy ourselves. HOLY CRAP!
-- how will each generation learn to serve each other if they never interact.
-- we need the wisdom, experience, and resource of older people mixed with the enthusiasm, zeal, and passion of the youth.

Glenn Packiam -
--20 year influence rule, we influence people 10 years on either side of us, thus the reason for multiple generations on our teams.
-- there must be a seat at the table for all generations
-- the songs they are singing in youth, and college should be the same as sunday morning and vice versa. VERY GOOD!

there is lots more, but thats the good stuff

worship with paul baloche

Paul Baloche wrote Open the Eyes of my Heart and several other huge worship hits. It was great to worship with him tonight.

Session 4

This session was one of the most well presented. Glenn Packiam did a session called "Let worship rock and Justice Roll". Wow was this session not only a good reminder of why we do what we do but even an eye opener for how we define true worship. I love element church because I do believe that we do a great job at this. At taking care of people in our community as our number one priority.

Here are some thoughts:
-- does worship cater to us or does it make claims of us?

-- worship has become something we are consumers of and not something that consumes us. WOW!

-- worship is designed to wake up up to the world not insulate us from it

-- do you really want to know what has God's full attention. Worship helps us hear what God hears. The cries of the needy.

-- worship is loving the least of these as if they were Jesus

garden of the gods

yesturday during our 3 hour dinner break, none of us were hungry so I took everyone to the Garden of the Gods. It is such a beautiful place. I have had many conversations with curtis about devo's here and great God moments. So here are some pics.

Enter Session 2 & 3

Ross Parsley and Senior Pastor Brady Boyd sat at a table and did a session together. I didn' even have time to take notes because of all the good stuff. I wrote down a couple of things from there session.
-- In order for this relationship to work you have to choose to HONOR each other. I am not sure I have heard anyone use this word in this context and it was so good.
-- In regards to concerns, TIMING & TONE is everything.
-- "Care about sunday morning as much as the senior pastor does" SO GOOD!!

As I was sitting there I was so blessed because as they talked thru different issues church's have, I was thinking how Jeff and I relate, and thought I really have it good. Even all our worship team made comments, "THAT DIDNT EVEN APPLY TO YOU HUH?". I just laughed. It was still really good. But I am definently blessed to have Jeff on my team.

Session 3.




So far this was my favorite session. They had a huge door with 2 screens on each side of it. It was called the "Revolving Door". They an 1.5 hours and had 7 speakers for 12 minutes. They cut out all the extra and just gave us the RAW best 12 minutes they had. This is such a great concept. It reminded me of our whiteboard conference.

Ross Parsley
--Teams are made up of individuals who have given up their RIGHTS in order to benefit the whole team.
--insecurity comes from comparison of the wrong things. (talking about people who get jealous of other people)
--we're not responsible for the opportunities we don't have, but the one's we DO have. O MY WORD. SO GOOD

Matthew Fallentyne
-- create a culture of trust not a circle of trust
-- do you love the people of your church, if not you shouldn't be the pastor
-- your team is able to sense authenticity

Brad Parsley
-- create a culture of evalutaion
-- life is not fair, ministry is not fair. We have to evaluate and challenge our team
--as a leader you must first, HUMBLE YOURSELF, in order to create this culture
--you must be child-like not CHILD-ISH,

Glenn Packiam pt 1
-- when bringing up conflict issues, if you bring up problems after the set its called criticism, if you do it before its healthy conflict.
-- Seperate the person from the problem
-- focus on interests not positions, THIS WAS REALLY GOOD
--invent option for mutual gain
--Have a standard or system for making decisions
--People will own a decision when they are allowed into the process

The last one I wasn't able to get. but this was my favorite.

Starting our Friday morning session right now. Looking forward to what we will learn. Today are all the break out sessions. We are all torn because there is going to be such good stuff.






refreshed,
adam

Enter worship conference update

expanded! Thats the word of my heart right now. I love it. I love these conferences where I am stretched, encouraged, & challenged.
Things opened up this morning with some incredible worship. A great time of soaking in God's presence. The concepts being presented by each speaker so good.
Session 1 was with Ross Parsley on 21st century worship. Here are some thoughts.
---God is the initiator and we are the responders. God has already extended the invitation to worship, we just need to respond. Our prayers should never be "God come", we often spend time trying to convince God to come to our worship experience. Guess what he has already extended the invitation, he is already here, WE MUST RESPOND. WOW.

---If you are resentful with the team God has given you then why would he give you anyone else. HELLO!!

--- We are called to be multi-sensory. Whole body, whole hearted, whole mind.

--- Skill is a terrible foundation for your worship ministry. WOW!

---Many of our worship ministry flow this way: Skill, tradition, personality, musical style, organizational structure, ministry philosophy, biblical principles. This is opposite of what it should start with.

--- We often believe that worship style is where the annointing is.


So much more, to much to even right down. More to come on session 2. Later tonight. The New Life CD release party is starting now. Its going to rock my face.

LOVING JESUS,
Adam

enter worship conference

I am sitting in our hotel room here in beautiful colorado springs. I brought some of our worship team down for a worship conference here at New Life Church called ENTER. We had a great drive down, I got the AMAZING sampler from T.G.I.Fridays (one of my favorite resturaunts), then we caught a late night movie, GET SMART, which for the 2nd time was gut wrenchingly funny.

I am strongly anticipating our time this weekend. We are going to be encouraged, stretched, moved, and have a great time worshipping God all weekend. I will be posting details from each speaker, I am very excited. Off to bed.

Anticipating,
Adam

its been to long

sorry it has been busy lately, I havn't had time to update at all.

We have had some great things happening around element lately. 496 today. I heard we had 3 chairs left in 2nd service. We really need to get into that next location so that we can continue to grow.

Jeff and I talked after church today and he shared some incredible stories with me about things God is doing in people. AWESOME. Our Launch Anniversary is coming and you do not want to miss it. Talk about some good God stories.

Jeff brought it down today. If you missed his message, you SO NEED to go listen to it. My favorite line that has convicted me: "stop trying to be like someone else, and start striving to look like Jesus and you will become everything you are supposed be". My Paraphrase, but close. Also gave a huge challenge to be in the word.

Halfway thru the series LOST. You will not want to miss our last week. Its going to be powerful.

Alright off to have some dinner with my wife,

Set List - Sept. 14
Not to Us - Chris Tomlin
Glorious One - Kristian Stanfill
O Lord Most High - Joel Hatcher
Better is One Day - Matt Redman
Pleasing to You - Jared Anderson

playing with Big Daddy Weave

this weekend will be a great weekend up in Sheridan wy.
I am taking some of the band to the Wyoming RockStock Festival featuring Big Daddy Weave. We have been asked to play for the festival. YES! Going to be a good time. We are playing stuff off of my previous record "Nights Like These".

mid - week catch up

friends,
the staff of element and wives were able to go up to Estes Park Sunday thru Tues for a Staff Advance. Our staff advance is where we dream up our year for element church, we seek God thru worship and prayer, we plan sermon series, solutions for different areas in our church, and outreach events, and "What's Next" steps for us. It was a great time. Very intense at times and yet so refreshing. I love this team I get to surround myself with. I am so challenged when I am around them.

Looking very forward to what's next for us after this time together. ELEMENT CHURCH, GET READY, CAUSE HERE WE GO.

Our new facility stuff is coming along. Look to Jeff's Blog for more on that.

We had a great worship time sunday. About 2 weeks ago Jeff asked if I knew of any songs with the Lord's Prayer, my response "NO BUT I'LL WRITE ONE". So thats what we did. We read the Lord's Prayer as a church all together and then sang the new song. I really sensed God moving on sunday. I love worshipping thru music with you all here at Element.

Our RockBand series is going very well. 5 people committed their lives to Christ sunday, and that my friends is what its all about. We opened with "LIVIN ON A PRAYER by Bon Jovi", Good Times. This week's opening song is a tough one, but I have faith in the band. We're going to have some fun.

Back to work,
Adam

Sunday Set List,
Livin on a prayer - Bon Jovi
Spring of Life - Kristian Stanfill
Let your Kingdom Come - Adam Cruz
Center - Charlie Hall
Turn Your Eyes - NewSpring Church

sunday afterthoughts

Its good to be back. I miss when I don't get to worship with you guys. Amber and I had a blast on our vacation last week and resolved that we never want to live in NYC. WOW there is a lot of people. I know you find you nitch everywhere you are and your circle of friends, still its cauos there.

We have finally got a system down for our new theater that we are in and have finally gotten so great volunteers in place. We now have an awesome Road Crew manager who runs all the set up on sunday morning. We also have a guy picking up trailer and loading it so that Jeff doesn't have to be a part of that anymore. Great job road crew. you were on yesturday.

We launched our new series entitled Rock Band. In creative team we decided we wanted to build 2 8ft tall Les Pauls for the set design. So I contacted Mike Greenley to build them and Steve Doolin to paint them and they did an incredible job. Ill post some pictures below.

We opened the service with a group of guys that played ROCK BAND live thru our projector and sound system. They did "wanted dead or alive". It was incredible. They had a ton of fun and it looked like you all enjoyed it too. 1st service the guitar player actually landed a guitar throw over his sholder. 2nd service, well, we'll just leave it at that. HA.

The band really did a fantastic job today. I love watching people do what they do best. They seriously take the songs I bring in and make them what I want. Let it burn is a song I wrote several years ago and was an ok song for me at that time, the band is helping make it quickly one of my favorites.

alright thats it,
peace out, (yeah i just said it)

Adam


set list,
wanted dead or alive - live on rock band
happy day - tim hughes
spring of life - kristian stanfill
faithful - steve fee
let it burn - adam cruz

new york update

wow,
--- got to see some crazy cool things in new york city this weekend. It blows me away to stand in so many spots that I have seen filmed in the movies. Walking thru central park was very beautiful. The bridges are breath taking. Time square is about as insane as I can handle. Its so hot in the midst of a million people surrounding you. The building are so tall, not sure you knew that or not, but DANG. Ill throw some pics in slide show later.

--- Definently missed being with everyone at element this week. Thank Jesus for a guy like Nathan that can run the show and do a fantastic job. I hope I have a job when I get back. HA. I love what I do and never am glad to be away, its a nice breath'r here and there but I hate being gone.

--- Got a few more spots we are going to hit up tonight and then catching a 6:30am flight out tommorow morning. And jumping into the swing of things for our new series "ROCK BAND". We have a sweet set design coming your way.

--- By the way speaking of set designs we had a cool idea gone bad. We had created words out of PVC pipe that were the "MAIN" idea for each week. Opening week was "DANGEROUS". PVC was painted silver and stretched 28ft. Drilled holes in the back of each letter and then shoved rope light inside to give a glow off of the pipe and drape. It was a cool idea, next time we just have to have more thoughts in for the engineering. It had trouble standing and took a while to put together. So if you were wondering why you didn't see anything new, thats why.


Saying goodbye to the east coast. Until next time.
Adam

vacation cont.

Yesturday we found a couple of really cool spots. We went to an restaurant on the beach and then to Mystic Seaport. Pics below.

Ok so I know everyone says this, so in my little pizza world, it doesn't get better than this. This pizza was incredible.


Adam and Amber at Mystic Seaport


The train we are taking to newyork


View from lunch


View from lunch 2


Mystic Seaport


Mystic Seaport

Car restoration shop

Yesturday Amber and I got to go to her Aunt's car restoration shop, where some car have $100,000.00 invested into them. Take a look at all the pics. There are a lot so I think you can just click on the pic and see them all so you don't have to wait for the slide show. Pretty amazing.



Got a sweet jacket I have been looking for a long time.

--- New York City is this weekend, cannot wait, staying two nights, going to try and see all I can.

Relaxed,
Adam

Amber's home town

Wow, it has been such a great time on the east coast here in connecticut. Everything is so green, the ocean is a mile away, so close to so much (I can see long island and new york city from the beach here in connecticut), ambers uncle has 6 INCREDIBLE guitars and is a fine guitar player, we are having a blast.

Started this morning off right with breakfast on the beach!


This is the front of Amber's house that she grew up in!


Amber's back yard growing up. Rough huh?


Back yard again!


Seriously imagine this home being your back yard. Unbelievable that people get to live this way. HA. Sloans lake here I come LOL.


We are having a blast, missing everyone already and going to miss worshipping with you all this sunday.

Going to post some really RAD, YES I JUST SAID "RAD", pictures tommorow of where Amber's Aunt works. Car Restoration Shop. Lets just say there are a lot of cars worth $100,000.00.

Relaxed,
Adam

sunday afterthoughts

Man I am not on the blogging role lately, I am trying to be better. Jeff just stills all my ideas. LOL. J/K

Today was a good day. The band not it out of the park. Great job guys. I hope you all realize how much this team invests into making worship the best it can be. Not only do they give their time on sunday mornings but they have personal practice time and then invest 3.5 hours on thursday night. So go team.

Again we are continuing the search for another electric guitar player if anyone is out there. If you know of someone have them email me at adam@elementweb.net.

Jeff's one prayer was Lord Make Us ALIVE. Incredible message today. This is element's heartbeat and pours through each of us on staff. That God would bring life to the Lost in cheyenne and pour life into every church. Jeff way to go, so proud to serve under you. YOU MAKE ME PROUD, SON. LOL. (inside joke, had to be there).

Man once again we had movie time technicalities. We luckily ended service a little short this week, but if we would have went any longer we would have been interrupted by the amazing theatrical previews.

IT WAS SO HOT TODAY. I thought my face was going to melt away. O MY WORD. When the lights are on and the Haze is going it creates a 110 degree environment. Hope we get that fixed.

Going to miss everyone this week. Amber and I will be in Connecticut and New York City visiting Amber's home town. Looking forward to being out east again. I have never been to New York, so I am looking forward to all that we will get to experience.

Looking forward to getting back to the drawing board. We have some fun SURPRISES for you all in our next series. Can't wait.

Alright off to play ULTIMATE FRISBEE,
See you all in 2 weeks. Follow the blog this week for updates on Adam's first experience in the Big City.

Set List for 7-20-08
Dying to Live - Jonah 33
I am Free - Jon Egan
Marvelous Light - Hall
Here in your presence - Jon Egan
God of this city/Make us alive - Chris Tomlin/Adam Cruz

Excited,
Adam

sunday afterthoughts

yesturday was so much fun. we did church in the park and had a blast. The atmosphere was so laid back and people just enjoyed it so much. The band was incredible. Had a lot of fun.

Jeff is down in Oklahoma preaching at a camp, so curtis took over for the day. Curtis did a fantastic job. His first sermon ever at Element Church (maybe ever, can't remember). Regardless he did a great job.

Jeff here is your little surprise from your people here at Element.



i thought that would be fun

One Prayer starts this week. Don't miss this series, its going to be so good.

Set List sunday July 6th
Love the Lord - Lincoln Brewster
Open the eyes of my heart - SonicFlood
Blessed be your name -- Matt Redman


Adam

2 opportunities

We have 2 opportunities here in the tech/worship dept. that you or someone you know might be interested in.

1 -- Electric Guitar Player -- I am looking for an experienced electric guitar player for sunday mornings. If you would be interested please shoot me an email at adam@elementweb.net, or post a comment here with info on how to get a hold of you.

2 -- Lighting Tech -- No experience required. Just a willingness to learn. Rotate 1 week on 1 week off. As we move into more of a detailed light system we need committed people dedicated to running them on sunday morning. If you would be interested please email me at adam@elementweb.net.

Set List Sunday June 29th

We had a ton of fun last sunday, mocking up our own "Tonight Show" called "Straight Up". Check that out here.

-- Remember church in the park this week. Starting at 10:30am.

Set List
Happy Day - Tim Hughes
Holy is the Lord - Chris Tomlin
Wholly Yours - David Crowder
How great is our God - Chris Tomlin

Adam

what a day!!

Jeff is gone, party in the office. HA.
Jeff had the opportunity to go and offer his expertise to a great friend who is planting a church in Boise, ID. He is part of a team of pastors that are rallying with Dusty in his plant of Connections Church.

Man yesterday was tough. I recently read a blog about a pastor having a bad experience at starbucks and how they completely took care of everything and apologized for the bad experience, and how many times he should apologize for a bad experience at his church for various reasons. Not sure it was that bad but from staff perspectives we had a rough day. I was very sick all weekend. God gave me much grace to get thru. It was so stupid hot on the stage I felt like I might pass out. In fact I heard several comments after service in regards to weather I would make it or not. LOL. The my pedal board went out and so there was no electric guitar for our entire set second service. Nate did a phenom job stepping up and leading while I tweaked stuff to get something back in my guitar. When the guitar finally came back it was so out of tune I might as well have started dancing and spinning in circles and it would have been less distracting. HA. OK maybe not so bad, but you get the point.

We will have those days and you just learn to push thru.

Jeff has done such a great job with this series, UNTOUCHABLES. Make sure if you haven't listened to each week that you grab a copy online or in our lobby. Also remember to turn in your questions to questions@elementweb.net this week so that Jeff can tackle them on sunday.

We launch our new series coming in a couple weeks which is going to be one you won't want to miss. More details to come.

Superday is this Saturday. Please come help us volunteer as we provide inflatable games and a Baby Station for families in cheyenne.

Alright back to work.

Setlist for Sunday june 22nd
My Reward - Adam Cruz
Beautiful One - Jeremy Camp
Enough - Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Jesus - Kristian Stanfill
Beauty of the Lord - Jared Anderson

set list from sunday

Love the lord - Lincoln Brewster
My Reward - Adam Cruz
Famous One - Chris Tomlin
Here I am to worship/All I want - Tomlin/LifeHouse
Came to the rescue - United

Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts

Here are some thoughts from the day.

Today, 1 year ago, marks the first gathering as element church in preparation for our Launch in October. We met at the holiday inn for a very stripped down approach to a service, called unplugged. We casted vision and developed our core team with these weekly gatherings until oct 7th. Great memories.

Jeff tackled the subject of alcohol today as part of our untouchables series. He did a great job. Quote of the day yesturday for me was, "Changing your behavior does not make you a christian, but in becoming a christian your behavior will change".

We had a full house yesterday, I wasn't sure if 2nd service was even going to be able to contain everyone. Its great to see all of you coming out thru our summer series. Most churches on average decline over the summer with all kinds of various reasons. It doesn't have to be that way.

Last night I jumped in a van with a group of Highschool/College students for a nice relaxing evening of some ROCK N ROLL in Denver, CO. I have never seen Emery or The Almost live, it was very good.

Worship Set for June 8th,
What I want - Chris Daughtry
Happy Day - Tim Hughes
Glory - United
Everything Glorious - Crowder
Glory in the Highest - Chris Tomlin

Untouchables and Frisbee

Untouchables starts tommorow. THis has been one of those series we planned from the beginning where you are like "that is for ever away". Well here it is. The anticipated series of untouchables is here. Jeff will be takling 4 topics often untouched in the church today, ABORTION, DRINKING, HOMOSEXUALITY, and DIVORCE. We are offering a 5th week questions week, where we will be taking your questions about untouchable subjects over the course of this series. You can email your questions to questions@elementweb.net. You won't want to miss this great summer series.
Here is the promo:


Also we began our Ultimate Frisbee tradition last week. It was a blast! So again come out at Holiday Park (across from the church office on Lincolnway) at 2:00pm (NOT SHARP, if your late still come). We have a blast.

I am anticipating our time of worship tommorrow, as I do every week with you all, come ready to meet with our God.

Anticipating,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts

SetList Sunday May 25th:
Everyday - United
We lift you up - Desperation Band
Open the eyes of my heart - SonicFlood
Came to the Rescue - United
Heart of a Warrior - Adam Cruz

Ultimate Frisbee started sunday. We will be playing every sunday at 2:15pm at Holiday Park off of Lincolnway and Morrie. Anyone is welcome, just show up. Here are some pics.



Worshipping Him,
Adam

AGHHH!! (sigh of relief)

That is the feeling I have right now between getting lost on foot downtown D.C., & having an AK-47 flashed at me at the pentagon & the 1 hour car drive lost on 3 different interstates, and now I am in my bed. LOL.

Jeff and I had a great time today running around D.C. getting to see all the history of our nation. Before we left Curtis (our youth pastor) warned us not to drive into D.C. but to find the metro and only use that. Did we listen, NOPE! Should we have, YUP! When we got into D.C. we couldn't find any where to park so we pulled over and asked a traffic officer, he stared at us and said "there is not parking", we laughed, he pointed at our car and said "that was a bad choice". LOL. So we headed back out of town looking for a parking garage and a metro, which we eventually found.

We got to see the washington monument, lincoln memorial, white house, capitol, Vietnam wall of names, and so much more. A funny story is that we were at the end of our tour and decided we should go and see the pentagon. Great Idea I thought. We got out of the metro and there was literally NO WHERE to go. We walked down a side walk and saw four police officers with AK-47's and said "MAN", saw a bus stop and decided to walk around the building. We saw where the plane hit on 911 and so I thought it was a great idea to get my camera out. No later did I get my camera out, a MEAN security gaurd flashed his AK-47 and headed toward me. He said "did you take a picture" I said "NO" he said "DON'T", Jeff said "sorry we didn't know", he said "I JUST WARNED YOU". HAHAHHA LOL! I said "OK SEE YA" and we headed home. LOL.

We got to see so much stuff, it was great. Its hard to believe I am here. This has been such a great weekend I am so tired right now, we walked all over today and my feet hurt bad. There is a picture in this slide show below of an escalator we rode that had to have been like 200 feet NO JOKE!

We are heading out in the morning very early, so I am off to bed. More on actual White Board quotes starting MONDAY in a blog series I'll do called "WiBo Quotes", LOL. Really deep I know!

I can't wait to worship with you all in cheyenne sunday morning, come ready to meet with God.



Tired,
Adam

WiBo is done

what a day! My word! This had to be one of the greatest conferences I have ever attended. 8 speakers 30 minutes a piece. They were each given 30 minute time slots to share their one current passion for the church. O my, I feel like I am having a brain over load of great stuff. I don't want to post all my thoughts right now so I will reserve them for later on this weekend. All I know right now is every pastor that spoke had on a "cool t-shirt". So the joke was "we need to find the coolpastorshirts.com website".

I am posting pics of the conference below. Going to see Indiana Jones. I will add more later tnite maybe. I hope you all are ok with all the tornadoes. That's crazy.



encouraged,
adam

lets get there early!

HA. well its friday morning and what a great night sleep I got knowing that DAVID COOK won BABY. YEAH. I thought it was wrapped up in the bag for little ARCHY! I told Jeff I was mad how the judges were ripping on Cook and then he goes and wins and not only wins but slaughters by 12 million votes. yeah.

Woke up at 6 today, ate an amazing breakfast at the hotel and then headed off to the Hyatt where wibo is.



The band is sound checking for worship this morning and it sounds amazing.
Just saw Michael from Oakleaf, LOL, crazy, all these guys that we follow.

Alright I will update you all through out the day on the wibo goods.

anxious,
adam

Do we belong!

WOW! Is the words to describe what Jeff and I are getting to do. We are in D.C. for the next 3 days for a conference called Whiteboard, featuring alot of the pastors that we follow on their blogs. We flew in about 5 o clock and checked into our hotel, which is out of this world. When we arrived here they immediately upgraded our room for no apparent reason. I posted pictures below.

I am so anxious for tommorow. So much good stuff that we will be able to eat up. We walked over to the hotel where the conference is being held and all the pastors were standing right there in the lobby chatting it up, I felt like a little kid in a candy store, LOL, oohh Jeff look there is "so and so", lol. So we sat down close enough to see them and far enough away not to look like we wanted to touch them, HA. Pray for us tommorow that God will download into our hearts His continued vision for element church through what some of these guys share.

Alright here is the pics of the hotel and some random D.C. shots. I will post more tommorow.



anxious,
adam

sunday afterthoughts

Set List May 18th

This week was a lot of fun. We did all hymns. I wasn't real sure how it would all turn out, but it went well. The band rocked out those songs. Great job. We made them very elementish. Its funny how some people are sold on hymns as the only true way of worship and here we have guys in our church in love with Jesus that have never heard a single one of those songs we played.

All Hail the Power of Jesus Name/Raise up the crown - Chris Tomlin
Holy Holy Holy - Steven Curtis Chapman
Come thou Fount - Gateway
Fairest - New Life Church
My chains are gone - Tomlin

Jeff and I will be heading out to D.C. tommorow for a conference. I am very excited. I have never been to the east coast and this summer I get to go twice.

Hey for all of you out there that are ready for some "ULTIMATE FRISBEE" it is starting this Sunday at 2:00pm. If you have never played, COME anyways, it is a lot of fun. We will play this week at Holiday park off of Lincolnway and then we can discuss a better park for next time.

I love being your worship pastor,

Can't wait for sunday,
Adam

Sunday Setlist

May 11th - Happy Mothers Day

Awesome is the Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin
Sing to the King - Billy Foote
For who you are - United
Hungry - Vineyard
One little heartbeat at a time - Steven Curtis Chapman

adam

Set List

May 4th
Open up the gates - Planetshakers
King of Majesty - Hillsongs
Glorious One - Steve Fee
You never let go - Matt Redman
From the inside out - United

Couldn't sleep

Not sure if its cause of a building, not sure if its because of what I see in the future of element church, not sure is its because of how much I love my job, not sure if its because of how much I love the band, not sure if its because of the opportunities we have as a worship team coming up, to play outside of church, not sure if its the songs God has given us since we started this thing, but what ever it is I didn't shut my eyes until 4:00am this morning. I could not for the life of me fall asleep. I was thinking about everything. I was thinking about all the songs we have written through element church, and it got me all excited about releasing them some day. I thought and thought and thought about so many things. At one point I got up to check the weather just to get my mind from racing.

This has not happened to me in a long time, and I am confused weather I love when it does happen, LOL, cause then I get no sleep. I love this church, and love "climbing these mountains" with you guys. I guess it was just one of those nights, where God was just showing me all the ways he has blessed me lately. I love when He does that.

Blessed,
Adam

sunday afterthoughts

Wow,
What a great day today. We are so excited around here at Element, with what God is doing through this people. Today Jeff announced what is in the future for Element Church, read about that here. We are approaching a new facility, where we will be able to expand the ministry of Element Church. This is a very scary and such an exciting time here at Element. As you know, we will never be just about a building, while forsaking the city. We feel this only enables our influence in the city. This enables us to make more of an impact and this make God's name more known in our city. Great things.

Today I did a new original called "The Heart of a Warrior", which was inspired by Jeff 's message last series on climbing the mountain, going where very few men are willing to go. Props to the worship team for making that song great.

Sunday Setlist 4-27-08
Forever - Chris Tomlin
Blessed be your name - Matt Redman
Faithful - Fee
Yearn - Adam Cruz
The Heart of a Warrior - Adam Cruz

Today is a Good Day!

LOST IS BACK!
DO THEY ALL START TRUSTING BEN? IS BEN GOOD NOW? WHO IN THE WORLD ARE THESE PEOPLE ON THE RESCUE BOAT? WHO THE STINK IS PENELOPE'S DAD? AHHH! SO MANY QUESTIONS! AND THE JOURNEY CONTINUES TONIGHT!

Lost,
Adam

Bass Player

Hey Element Church, I just wanted to put a heads up out there for anyone interested in playing Bass with our Sunday morning worship team. We are always looking for new musicians. I like to set up our worship team so that everyone one can have some time off. And so we are looking for another bass player. If you know of someone that would be interested have them email me at adam@elementweb.net.

sundays set list

april 20th:
No One Like You - Crowder
You You are God - Gateway
Love the Lord - Lincoln Brewster
Glorious One - Fee
Everything Glorious - Crowder
Over the sun - shane and shane

Clearing Videos

We will be clearing all of our videos of our services on Wed. If you would like to make sure you get video of a certain message from Pastor Jeff or a certain worship set, you can Right Click and download them to your computer at web.mac.com/elementarts. We will continue to put the video of the messages online.


Adam

1st official gig

Today the Element Worship team was asked to play for LifeChoice's walk-a-thon. This goes down as our first official "out of theater" gig. It was a blast to play today. The band did a fantastic job. This was Chris's first time with us. Great job Chris. Pam rocked the sound today. Thanks to all who came out early to help set up, and to the worship team for all the hard work rehearsing. We were actually asked by a guy to play out for an event in Burns, then we play in Gillette in two weeks. Its fun to get to take our E:sound, HA get it, "E', yeah, anyways its fun to take our sound and be able to bring others into communion with God through worship.

Looking forward to worshipping with you all tomorrow, come with anticipation to meet with our amazing God, to soak in His presence and let Him change us all!

I love being your worship pastor!

Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts

Elementers. What a beautiful day it is outside. This is amazing. I am so ready for spring. Amber and I are huge frisbee fanatics so bring on the nice weather. Which by the way starting within the next few weeks we are going to start a 2:00pm Sunday Afternoon ULTIMATE FRISBEE tradition. If you are interested send me an email at adam@elementweb.net with your name and phone number so we can put this thing together, we're very excited.

We had a great day today at Element. Jeff did a wonderful job talking about Hell, today. The reality and finality of eternity is so heavy. We carried Jeff out in a casket as a sermon illustration, that was really powerful. Watch the video once I get it online.

Worship was good today, which, ha is so weird to say cause I lead it, but I really felt you all engaged in the songs and God's presence was heavy in the room. We busted out a little AC/DC to open the service. That was fun. Jen great job on vox this week, you sounded great, Morgan, nice work on rockin the bass lines, (morgan had a tuff bass line in our opening song, but rocked it), Bryant nice work rockin the set. Picking up on my rushes of chorus and verse lines, HA, and Nathan, nice work on electric this week. Nathan typically plays acoustic, and by the way is a great guitar player, but today I had him rock some electric on his new VOX amp.

We will be adding a new musician this week, Chris, who plays electric guitar. A very solid guitar player, you will all enjoy having him as an addition.

Alright I'm out, we have friends coming into town.

Set List for Sunday April 13th
Hells Bells - AC/DC
Salvation is here - United
Faithful - Steve Fee
Mighty to Save - United
Jesus paid it all - Kristian Stanfill
Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Lead when you don't feel like it!

Today was a great day at Element. We had a record attendance of 502, which is unbelievable. Seriously there is a little inside thing between us pastor at element, when 2 years ago Grant wrote down in his journal 500 by may of the first year, he really felt like God put that number on his heart. Jeff and I laughed, like man I'm not sure. God is so faithful to continue to bring his people home, home is not Element, home is life in Christ, and Element gets to be a part of bringing them home. Thank you Jesus.

However today, I really felt attacked. I am going to be a little honest here, but this morning during rehearsal I felt like not being there. I felt like we werent clicking as a band, my drummer was on call for work, which meant at any moment he could have to leave, and my attitude was just wrong. Sometimes we don't feel great, or feel like giving our all, but I think its in those times we eat it, and say its not about me, its not about my songs, my band, my feelings, its about a God who saves, and wants to use me as a vessel. So thats what I did, I prayed with Jeff and I got up there and gave it everything I had. God does great things when we get to that place of surrender and we just get out of the way, and give it to God.

We had some fun with a song today off a record by an old band I used to play in. We struggled with how to make it fit element, but I think it went pretty well.

Set list April 6th,
Beautiful Jesus - Kristian Stanfill
Maker of Heaven - Desperation Band
God of wonders - Third Day
I can only imagine - Mercy Me
Have you seen God yet - Dusty Taylor


Worshipping Him,
Adam

HOME

What a great Easter we had at Element Church. It was a little nerve racking at first when our Theater Employee that lets us in did not show. So we had to practially break into the theater so we could get setup.

528 in church easter sunday. That is incredible. I do not believe it when I think about it. If someone asked me where I thought we would be after 5 months of church I would have said, um I hope we have a good solid group of 50 with the possibility of maybe reaching like 150 or so. 528 NO WAY!

27 salvations on sunday. Everytime people ask how the church is going, I say people are finding their way home. It blows me away that over 70 people have come into relationship with Jesus at Element Church. WHY DO I GET TO BE A PART OF THIS!

Jeff did a really cool illustration this week for his message. It will be online probably at the end of the week.

Amber and I were able to come back to sheridan for a few days and it has been so relaxing, just seeing some old friends.

Short but sweet,
Peace out element,

Set List for Easter Sunday,
My Savior Lives - New Life Church
Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall
At the Cross - Hillsongs United
My Chains are Gone - Chris Tomlin

Worshipping Him,
Adam

UPDATE

WOW sorry I have not blogged for a long time. With a Volunteer Banquet, Dropping 25,000 easter eggs from the sky, going to 3 services, and buying a house that I painted every night for the last 2 weeks, I have not had time to blog.

We launched 3 services last week, which went phenomenal. We have an incredible Road Crew who set that whole service up.
Our e:coustic service was a good feel. It was actually a really relaxing service.

Our egg drop was unreal. You can view the video here. Over 2000 people showed up, 60 some volunteers and 2 helicopters. I was great.

Easter is this sunday and I am nervous if we will have enough room. I am praying that we pack that place out, all 3 services.

I still need to post pics of our new house, its coming together. If anyone likes to paint, feel free to come paint. HA.

I don't do this often but I just loaded my itunes with a bunch of new stuff so here is a music update if your looking for something new:
Jared Anderson - Where Faith Comes From
Lee Mcderment - A matchlight in the dark
Jon Foreman (lead guy for SWITCHFOOT) - Acoustic EP (Fall and Winter)
Pillar - For the love of the game

Set List for Sunday March 16th,
Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Jesus - Kristian Stanfill
Nothing But the Blood/I could sing of your love forever - Element arrangement
Hosanna - Hillsongs United

OH and one last thought, LOST is taking a 4 week break but this next episode is going to out of this world. We find out what happened to Michael. There you go LOST fans.

sunday afterthoughts

Hey e: peeps and e: followers, here is the update from sunday.
Woke up at 5:30am in our NEW HOUSE. Yes Amber and I are official home owners. We are very excited and cheydan loves having a back yard now. We are in the process of painting and some small construction but it will be a very nice place for Amber and I to call home. I will post pics soon.

366 in service yesturday. I think we have maxed out our facility. We are really hoping that our 3rd service "e:coustic" will help us continue to reach more in the cheyenne area. 5 people gave their lives to Christ today. I just cant get enough of that. People are making the greatest decisions they will ever make in life and its so exciting to be a part of it.

We opened our new series HEROES: ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Very excited about this series. Jeff opened with the story of Esther. "Perhaps we were created for just such a time as this", I love that. Our theme song this month is "God of this city" by Chris Tomlin off the new Passion cd. It is the heart beat of Element Church. We truely believe that God is not finished with Cheyenne. There is no God like our God and Greater things have yet to come. Love it.

I had some fun with our set design this month. I will post pics next week. We all want to be the city Hero and God has called us to be heroes of the Kingdom. So I built 2 skycrapers and 2 basic building that had light shining through. and some chain link with traffic light to create a city feel. It was a lot of work but well worth it. We thought they turned out good.

Cheyenne Egg Drop is going to be huge. 2 weeks away, 25,000 eggs and a ton of kids. Thats how we roll. We meaning all of you have to promote this huge. We ordered 2000 rave cards. This sunday seriously grab a handfull of 50 if you can. Give them to your kids to hand out at school. Leave them everywhere. We want to rock cheyenne.

I loved our worship set this week. We have had the privelage of having Nathan join us on guitar which has added a lot to our sound. One MAJOR problem this week was at 5:45am I got a call from BRYANT our drummer that day and he informed me that he would not make it due to a search and rescue mission with the AF. I was freaking out. I told jeff when I got to the church "I have bad news" lol, but BRIAN our other drummer came out with out rehearsing and rocked the set. Way to go Brian. I was really excited about Bryant playing this week cause he was ON. He hasn't played for a few weeks, worked hard this week and then got called in. Total bummer.

Exciting times around here at Element. I am sorry for all of you who don't live in cheyenne and attend Element cause "God is doin it, God is doin a nu thang, YO..." lol

Worship Set March 2nd 2008,
Open up the Gates - Planetshakers
My Savior Lives - New Life Worship
Love the Lord - Lincoln Brewster
God of this city - Passion
Faith Like That - Jonah 33

Sunday Afterthoughts and a new office

Hey friends,
Well I am sitting here in my new office recapping yesturday. We hired a receptionist (PAM) and so Terri was getting moved out to the garage for her office. So I decided that wasn't cool and that she should have my office. So a few came into the office and moved all my stuff out to the garage and painted Terri's new office some really BRIGHT colors and moved all her stuff in on Friday night. Saturday she came in and was completely surprised. Loved it, cause I was at a conference with my wife and Terri all day Saturday and she had no clue. We love you Terri. We honestly could not survive as a church if Terri wasn't here.

Yesturday was a great day. The weather was amazing. God's presence was all over our service. People worshipped and were set free from life long struggles. God is so good.

4 people made decisions for Christ and let me say again that is what this is all about. God really moved in our service.

371 was our attendance. We are excited to launch our 3rd service starting March 16th. We hope this will enable us to continue to reach more people for Christ. E: coustic is going to be an acoustic service, but that doesn't mean it will be a boring service. Its going to be done well, I am really excited about it.

We finished Satan's Sex Ed this week. What a series it was. We were all nervous going into this, but God has just pulled through in a huge way. People responded well and really engaged and enjoyed this series. I hope it was a help to all of you. We will have the complete SERIES packs available this sunday.

We finally got our tshirts and sweatshirts in, so if you missed sunday make sure you come this week to get your free tshirt and the sweatshirts for $15.

We had a huge announcement about our big easter outreach. This is still contingent on city code and a few things but we hope it goes through.

YES you see that right. We are dropping thousands of eggs from the sky via a helicopter. Its going to be out of this world. 15,000 easter egg hunt. Cheyenne will not want to miss this.

Heroes starts this week. We are really excited about this series. "Ordinary people living Extraordinary lives". If we pull off the set design its going to be fantastic. *BY THE WAY -- WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR CREATIVE PEOPLE. IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN HELPING WITH OUR SET DESIGNS EACH SERIES, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT adam@elementweb.net. WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SOME HELP IN THAT AREA.

Set List for Sunday Feb. 24th 2008:
Open up the gates - planetshakers
Glory - United
Holy is the Lord - Chris Tomlin
Yearn - Adam Cruz
Jesus paid it all - Kristian Stanfill

Worshipping Him,
Adam

NEW SERIES PROMOTIONS!

Since Jeff already spoiled it then I guess I have to also! Our next series is going to be sweet. My all time favorite show right now is LOST (I HAVE A SICK ADDICTION TO IT), however 2nd in running is HEROES some of the best TV ever. Anyways that is our next series, talking about "Ordinary People living Extraordinary Lives". These are the graphics I put together. We are working on a really cool set design for this series. You'll just have to wait 2 weeks to see it.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Element Resources!

This week I got all of our videos that we have done here at element church up on the site. Transitionals, promo's, and our SEARCH MINI SERIES we did for our Preview Services. Any church that wants to use them has our permission. If you are an elementer and havn't seen our Search Videos you should. They were a lot of fun and was our biggest video production we have ever done. I will be adding all of our series graphics to the site also, to use for print and such.

You can click this link as a direct access to the site!

Worshipping Him,
adam

Sunday Afterthoughts Feb 10th, 2008

OH MY! I told Jeff today back at the office while we were unloading, "what now"? God obviously and most definently knows more than we do but man do I hope he shows us soon! 372 today, YEAH, 372. I told Jeff last week in the office, after having 313 last week, that in a FEW weeks when we hit 350 we have a problem, cause we would literally max out the theater. HA didn't realize that would be the following week and 20 some over that. 2nd service people were standing along side of the theater and sitting all over the floor on the sides. We had over 200 second service and the theater maxes at 180. So I guess you could say God has a plan. LOL. It's just the toughest part when you are waiting!

We had some fun today as a worship team! It seemed to be a struggle to get anything to go right. We added a new guitar player "NATHAN", who by the way is a fantastic guitar player and I feel like it really solidified our sound. Made it bigger, more professional, just made is well done. Back to the struggle, the opening song I forgot to put the capo on (which around here is an often experience, HA), and "B" (our drummer) had already started playing but I wasnt ready so yeah he just STOPPED. AWKWARD! Then the second song AGAIN I forgot my capo and so I made a big strum on that first chord and WOW did that sound pretty when the rest of the band was in a different key. I could have walked off stage then but I new I had to finish HA. THEN, yeah THEN, Nathan started the next song and his guitar was completely out of tune. OTHER than all that worship was GREAT! HAHA. Seriously it was good. We just had to laugh it all off and try better 2nd service, which by the way went fine. It was funny though cause my prayer this morning was "God help us focus on you and not being perfect on stage", I guess he answered that one.

Jeff again, preached a phenom message on SEX targeted towards our teens, however it applies to us all. Again this series has blown me away at how God is using it to set people free. It was great to have a youth group of about 6 come and visit us today. I love having a church that teens enjoy coming to.

A new CD just came out for all of you WORSHIP FANATICS out there: PASSION: GOD OF THIS CITY. Make sure to itune it this week. Its great.

Well I guess we keep this thing going, PLEASE don't stop inviting people. We will find a place for everyone. Also we have some room in first service so if you can, come join us for 1st service to free up some room in 2nd.

Continue to check out www.elementgivesback.com. There are some great stories on their.

Worship Set 2-10-08:
You, You Are God - Gateway Church
O Worship the King - David Crowder
Maker of Heaven - Desperation Band
Hosanna - Hillsong United
From the Inside Out - Hillsong United

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Element Church Sunday Afterthoughts 2-3-08

GO GIANTS! That had to be the best superbowl I have ever seen. I honestly didn't think they had it in them but I am so glad they stuck with it.

We tackled one of the toughest subjects in the church that I ever had. I felt for Jeff cause he was the one that had to stand up there and present it. ELEMENT we are so blessed to have Jeff leading this church. Working next to him on a daily basis I get to see how passionate he is for you and offering LIFE to everyone who comes through those doors.

We tackeled Satans 6 biggest sex lies, to expose him for who he is. People are finding freedom. 2 people found LIFE, making decisions for Christ. And several people raised their hands for freedom.

I will post some pics this week of set design and series graphics.

313 in church today, which means contiuned growth which means we are looking for our next location here at Element Church. Very excited about that. More to come.

SET LIST FEB. 3rd:
I will never stop- Michael Gungor
Blessed be your name- Matt Redman
The Stand/Mighty to Save- United
Wrap me in your arms- Lisa Gungor
Come and Rescue- Adam Cruz


Worshipping Him,
Adam

NOISE VIDEO

Here is the video from the end of last weeks service. We had some fun!