TIL THE END -- 2010

I am so excited to announce the release of my newest worship record titled, Til The End. God has done some incredible things thru Element Church and several of those moments have been captured thru these songs. The CD will release on Itunes Tuesday, October 5th. We will be having a CD release party on Wednesday September 29th. This will be a night of worship and story telling with the songs birthed here at element. This is your chance to pick up the cd for a discounted price.

They Need Your Seat

Must read from Pastor Jeff:

Yes, that’s right. It is time once again to ask people to SWITCH SERVICES! I don’t usually post on the blog our attendance #’s for our Sunday worship experiences, but in this case, if you are an Elementer you need to understand what we are facing. PLEASE Element Church, pass the word and do what you can to help us continue to reach more people for Jesus by considering coming to first service. Your seat, could literally be someone elses chance to have their life changed for ETERNITY. Check it out!

This past Sunday we had 913 people in church. First off, THAT IS STINKIN’ CRAZY and PRAISE GOD! Second, we are running out of room…EXCEPT in first service. In our worship center Sunday, we had 174 people first service, 256 second service and 249 third service. We have some more chairs we can put out but we are bumping the 80% full mark (the standard “too full” benchmark for churches) nearly every week. We will never fill every chair, human nature and comfort-ability factors limit that, and the front row just never fills up. Then when you throw in our kids space issue it gets even worse. We had 219 kids on Sunday. 53, 76 and 90 in our three worship experiences. The nursery area alone second service is starting to overflow. First of all, we are starting a short term, physical solution to our e:kidz space issues as we a staff as we speak, but second, it is going to be a comfort issue for a lot of new people coming to our church if we DON’T solve this problem short term, right now. (Part of our September 19th and 26th services here at Element will be unveiling the LONG TERM solution to our space issues. Don’t miss it!)

Bill Hybels says “Empty seats at optimal inviting hours = growth every time!” Our optimal inviting hour is 10 am. It is by far, and most regularly, the highest attended worship experience, AND I GET THAT! 10 AM would be the service I would want to attend if I weren’t the pastor. However, if you are a Christian and you call Element home I want to challenge you to view it a different way. If I told you today “This coming Sunday, there is a family who won’t hear about Jesus unless you come to first service.” You’d most likely come to first service without even batting an eye. But what if I said “There is POTENTIALLY a family, EVERY WEEK, who won’t hear about Jesus unless you come to first service.” What would your response be?

You might think I’m over dramatic or making too much of a big deal about it, but I take VERY seriously the ONE OPPORTUNITY we get each Sunday to potentially offer the Life of Christ to someone that can change their life for ETERNITY. This coming Sunday is our ONE chance to reach that family for Jesus that MIGHT never attend again if we don’t have room. For me, it’s not a big deal, it’s the ONLY deal!

I know not everyone CAN or will decide to move to first service, however, would you consider doing this VERY small thing in an effort to sacrifice your comfort for the sake of someone else’s eternity?

Looking for you in first service,

Jeff

VOTE FOR FAVORITE ALBUM COVER!

On September 29th we will be releasing the brand new worship album with songs that I have written in response to the work God is doing here at Element Church. We are so excited to share these songs with the world. I believe in these songs heart and soul. I live them and breathe them. They are the heart beat of a movement here in Cheyenne, WY. My prayer is that these songs would penetrate the human heart and infuse you with a conviction to chase the dream God has placed inside of you, and to run this race as if everything is on the line, carrying our Cross, sharing the love of Jesus with a dying world, and when its all over we can say I made it til the end.

Here is where you come in. We would like to get your opinion on which design direction to go. Below you will find 3 options. Please fill out the form below with the option you like the best.

A - Black City

B - White City

C -Black Simple

D - White Simple

We are so pumped to put these songs into your hands. Thank you all elementer's who sing these songs with all your heart, and for letting me test songs on you guys.

Til The End,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts May 23rd

If your afraid to take risks you just end up limiting yourself.

Yesterday we took a risk. I had this crazy idea to experiment with electronic music in worship. So we made our way down to The Bakery Studio in Colorado Springs, CO with my friend, producer/engineer, Brad Nyght who made it all magic. The entire worship set was built around a DJ running the tracks, Jeremiah adding tasteful additions with modulations on his guitar and me simply rocking the mic. This was my first time leading with out a guitar. Overall we felt really good about it. It was definently a stretch for us as a church. We have never really attempted anything like it before. Ill post 2 of the tracks here. I don't have copyright to post the other 2 but they were solid.





We also used an element of silence in our service. Completely awkward. Showing a video with text talking about hearing God in the silence. Sometimes we don't hear God because we make too much noise. Silence is a form of worship. Will you choose to be silent sometimes?

Pastor Jeff preached a very good and strong word on Expression in Worship. Click here for the rundown on his message.


Set List:
Breaking Free - Adam Cruz (arranged by Adam Cruz & Brad Nyght)
Glory To God - Steve Fee (arranged by Adam Cruz & Brad Nyght)
Til The End - Adam Cruz (arranged by Adam Cruz & Brad Nyght)
How He Loves - Kim Walker (arranged by Adam Cruz & Brad Nyght)

This Sunday

We are super pumped about this Sunday at element church. I wanted to give you a little taste and see for this Sunday. Don't miss it. I hope you enjoy.



pumped about Sunday,
adam

Sunday Afterthoughts May 9th

If you missed Element Church yesterday, I'm sorry.

God's presence was so strong and moving.

As you know we like to mix things up all the time around here. So we did just that. We stripped it down to a full acoustic worship set. It was beautiful. We rocked 4 acoustic guitars across the frontline with huge harmonies and moving creative elements. Added a new tag to the end of Nothing But The Blood which was a powerful moment. We opened and closed with the AWAKE MY SOUL tag from Mumford and Sons. Such a cool song.

The kicker of the day was having Jenna LaPierre paint throughout the entire worship service. The theme was Awakening. Check out Jenna's facebook for more information on purchasing the painting that came out of that time. They are auctioning it off for there missions trip.















There was such a specialness about meeting with Jesus yesterday.

But we won't stop there...this week we are busting out more Jesus Creativity. haha. This weeks worship set is brand new to Element. Never been done before. Don't miss it. Jesus is creative. Don't put Him in a box and say "there is only one way to worship". Great moves of God from all of history have happened with so many musical styles. So we want to still press the envelope on style. There is a huge culture out there that still have not heard of Jesus and His love for them. Don't ever settle. Be creative.

Pastor Jeff delivered a great word on Routine in worship.
Check it out here.

Set List:
Awake My Soul - Mumford and Sons
Your Grace is Enough - Chris Tomlin
Nothing But The Blood - Old Hymn
Hallelujah Our God Reigns - Hillsong
Awake My Soul (re-visited) - Mumford and Sons
Communion - Third Day

Til The End,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts May 2nd

Yesterday we kicked off our new series called "OPEN" - Noisy Hymns, Ego-Music, and How God Sees Your Worship. I am pumped about the things God has laid on Pastor Jeff's heart for this topic. I think that it is timely especially in today's culture of "church shopping". We have made worship so much about ME and MY "preferences" as if THEY EVEN MATTER, that we have replaced TRUE "HANDS AND FEET" worship for a "time of singing", in-which afterwards has no affect on the way we live our lives in our work place, our schools, families and communities . I know that my heart is going to be stretched on this topic as your worship pastor and I am asking God to do a brand new work in me thru this series.

My creative team knocked it out of the park for our set design this month. We put in many more hours than normal but the end result was remarkable.















Leeland's new song "Follow You" is exactly what this sermon series is all about. It will be song several times this month for sure.

I challenged our team yesterday to leave it all out on the stage. Give it everything you've got, and they definitely did. I love this worship team. Their passion to see God lifted high. I love watching each one of them worship their heart out and be moved by God during every service. Its contagious. But it doesn't stop there. When they worship God, they are moved beyond the song and they live it out. Love you guys!!!

Sunday Set List
Open Up The Gates - PlanetShakers
Glory To God - Fee
I Surrender - Kim Walker
Follow You - Leeland/Brandon Heath



til the end,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts 4-25

///Today was a great day at element. Pastor Jeff was on a much needed/deserved vacation to cancun. So pastor Andy filled the pulpit. He did a fantastic job and spoke boldly on Loving God with all our Strength. A great challenge to step into action with our faith.

///There was a great authenticity about worship today. The "energy" of worship in 3rd service was electric. So huge. Each service was a great time of worship though.

///We are absolutely loving the newest song by Corey Asbury called So Good To Me.

///I can't express how excited I am about our upcoming series in MAY called "OPEN" (noisy hymns, ego music, and how God sees your worship). We have some creative elements planned for the month. Jeremiah and I spent the last week in the Bakery Studio nailing down creative elements for one of the weeks. Pastor Jeff will be bringing the word strong. I'm very excited about the direction we are taking on worship. Buckle up!

Set List:
Rise and Sing - Fee
So Good To Me - Cory Asbury
Stronger - Hillsong
The Same Power - Hillsong

Sunday Afterthoughts April 18th

It has been a while since the last post. 5 months in fact. I am not promising that I am going to be more consistent, however due to the increasing interest in our elementer's wanting to know the names of the songs we sang for the last Sunday, I will be posting our set list here consistently each monday morning. And periodically some thoughts on worship, and my family. Amber and I are now only 14 weeks away from having a baby girl. So I am sure this will be used a lot more.

Set List:
The Time Has Come - Hillsong
So Good To Me - Cory Asbury
How He Loves - Kim Walker (version)
Yes You Have - Leeland