Sunday Set List

Solution - Hillsong United
Beautiful Jesus - Kristian Stanfill
Light up the World - Desperation Band
Give me your eyes - Brandon Heath
Go Tell It - Lee Mcderment

Is Jesus recognized in your life and church?

I was reading in my morning devotions today in Mark chapter 6. Jesus has been healing people, feeding people, teaching people, and wanted to get away and rest cause so many people were coming and going. Then the disciples jump on a boat and head over to Bethsaida, Jesus walks on water, calms every thing. And when they got to Gennesaret it says:
"The people recognized Jesus at once, and they ran throughout the whole area, carrying sick people on mats to wherever they heard he was. Wherever he went-in villages, cities, or the countryside(WYOMING)-they brought the sick out to the marketplaces. They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed."

I was moved by the fact that the people RECOGNIZED him, and responded. They brought everyone the knew that needed him, it sounded chaotic.

It made me think, do our cities recognize Jesus in our churches and our lives. Are the "SICK" coming to find life in Jesus. Is there a sense of chaos to get close to Jesus and possibly be healed.

Jesus may your name be so famous in our city, that the hurting, broken, lost, rich, poor, healthy and unhealthy, men, women, and children will flood your churches to "touch the fringe our your robe" and be healed and given life to its fullest. Let us get out of the way and simply provide the place for YOU and them to meet.

Adam

sunday set list 8-30-09

Salvation is Here - Hillsong United
You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
Till The End - Adam Cruz
I Am Free - Desperation Band

I introduced my new song "Till the End" to the band and they knocked it out of the park. Phenomenal job. Everyone added a creative flare to it and I think it connected well with everyone.

Sunday Afterthoughts 5-24-09

Here are my thoughts from the day.

-- I'm tired. Its been awhile since I have felt exhausted on sunday, not sure if its cause I've been sick all week. But man I'm tired today.

-- Worship was powerful. God's name was declared! My team was ON today. Element you guys have a great worship team, PUT ME ASIDE, this team passionately loves Jesus, loves worship and loves to see His church worship. I am so blessed with great musicians that love Jesus so much.

-- Jeff tackled the topic of prayer today! Something we all struggle with. Not "HOW TO PRAY" but "DOES GOD HEAR ME WHEN I PRAY?" We reminisced over lunch about the sermon and what was big for us. It was cool to hear everyone. Great job Jeff.

-- Amber and I are headed out of town to run the boulderbolder 10k. Should be a good time. Our first competitive run.

Set List-
Sing Sing Sing - Chris Tomlin
Let Your Kingdom Come - Adam Cruz
Your Name - New Life Worship
I've Had Questions - Tim Hughes


Adam

sunday afterthoughts

Today we started testimonies in our worship team small group time. I asked each person to share their story of coming to know Jesus. I shared mine and Amanda shared her's. Thanks for being brave Amanda. I am looking forward to hearing everyone's story. There is so much power in our story's. I love the POWER OF GOD in both sides, the one who experienced the party rebel life, and the one who stayed strong. There isn't a boring story when you are talking about Jesus rescuing us from hell. I love you guys. Thanks for your sacrifice in developing a healthy worship team.

It has been a worship filled weekend. Friday morning, I took a few team members with me to Sheridan, WY to lead worship for a big 30 HR Famine city wide worship night. It was a really powerful time. We did an hour and a half worship set and God's name was praised in that WYO theater. We were all beet afterwards. Got home yesturday and got up this morning to continue.

I have been looking forward to today for a while. We schedule out our set lists 6 weeks in advance. I knew that song wise this was going to be a powerful sunday. Partnered with Jeff's message on God's love, it was an intense day. The altar response 3rd service was just awesome. Each service was great but 3rd, there was a presence that took us to a whole new level. Jeff told me of several stories of people who found life today. I never get sick of hearing that.

We all need to be experiencing the love of the father. Love Jeff's line "if we are not experiencing the love of God who's fault is that our's or God's?" We choose to accept the love of God. He has already offered it.

I am so tired after this full weekend. But its so worth it. Wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

Set List Sunday May 10th:
All Who Are Thirsty (just the chorus) - Brenton Brown
Open Up The Gates - PlanetShakers
The One Who Loves Me - Adam Cruz
Indescribable - Chris Tomlin
How He Loves - Kim Walker


resting,
adam

4 Things that Create a Healthy Worship Team (3)

Over the last 2 years of doing worship ministry I have learned a great deal about NON-MUSIC related leadership. When I was in the School Of Worship I remember one of the things they would always say is "WORSHIP MINISTRY IS 10% MUSIC and 90% PEOPLE". Man have I seen that. If you pour into your team and invest in your people, then the experience/music side of it should come naturally. Once again, I am learning this big time right now and by no means claim to have it figured out. You can read my previous 2 posts here and here.

#3: INVEST IN THE VALUE OF THE INDIVIDUALS
This is probably one of the most difficult things for me. Not only are you trying to cast vision, lead rehearsals, pick music, make sure all the administration stuff is done, but also create value in each and every team member. Each person needs to know that they are essential to the team. That without them they would be missed. Now its important to understand that some people DO carry more weight. If you have and entire rock band on stage and your drummer doesn't show, there will be issues. BUT that does not mean that BGV's aren't as valuable. So its important to find ways with each individual to make them feel valuable.

One thing that we have started this year is a quarterly evaluation. Its an opportunity for me one on one to challenge my team members and to help them understand what I want out of them, so that their is never any confusion. It also gives them an opportunity to be heard. Maybe they have some concerns or just need some confirmation that they are doing a great job. Give them an ear.

GET TOGETHER OUTSIDE OF WORSHIP ATMOSPHERES. Do a BBQ together, go to some concerts, hangout, become a community. This will help them understand you are interested in THEM AS A PERSON not as "your just my drummer, or my singer, or whatever".

Check up on your team. Make phone calls and text messages, emails, etc for NO REASON. Just to see how they are doing. Not always wanting something from them. I just received a phone call with a message from a friend that said "I'm not calling for any reason just wanted to see how you were doing, call me later". That meant the world to me!

Again this is something that I am not great at, but I'm learning. EVERY PERSON IS A DIFFERENT PERSON AND WILL NEED VALIDATED IN THAT MANY DIFFERENT WAYS.

When you invest in your team they will invest back into your ministry. When they see that you care about them its much easier for them to care about you and the worship ministry. The goal is a unified team and when there is unity, your worship experience will be that much greater.

investing,
Adam

Sunday AfterThoughts!

"I am tired"!!! - Is what I told Amber around 4:00pm yesterday. We had a very full day with rehearsal at 7:00am, 3 services, and Lead Council meeting. But I can't imagine doing anything else.

Yesturday we mixed things up a little. Pulled out an acoustic set. Very stripped down with some percussion. It was a lot of fun and a powerful time of worship. I stepped aside and had Katie lead us in worship and I got to chill on my acoustic guitar. Katie did a fantastic job leading us. I am blessed with great musicians and singers.

We did a knew song called "I've Had Questions" that Nathan suggested. If you haven't heard it, go download it now. By Tim Hughes. Its a very powerful song.

Our creative team put question marks all over the ceiling above the stage and 2 huge question marks at an angle on the back wall, with tension fabric stretched everyone. It looked amazing. Steve and Christina, you guys are awesome. Element you are blessed with some very creative people.

We launched our knew series called "Life's Toughest Questions", where Pastor Jeff is addressing 5 weeks of real, raw, burning questions inside us all. He really handled "Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?" brilliantly.
-- God assures us of trials and hard times - "LIFE SUCKS SOMETIMES" Jeff Maness - LOL
-- "WHY" is the wrong question
-- "We must turn to the cross... The Cross Proves God's love, The Cross shows God's control, and the Cross reveals God's plan."

We are very excited about worship this week. Going to open things up in a way we have never done. The set really sets up the message. COME WITH ANTICIPATION!!

***I guess its time to make the official announcement that I am no longer apart of the BOYCOTT TWITTER group. I am officially a twitterer. LOL. SWORE I NEVER WOULD. GUESS I NEED TO STOP SWEARING. You can follow my profile using eworship.

Set List:
My Savior Lives: New Life Worship
Sweetly Broken: Jeremy Riddle
Lead Me To The Cross: Hillsong United
I've Had Questions: Tim Hughes

egg drop recap

Here is the 2009 Egg Drop recap.
Thank you to all who volunteered and thank you to all who came out.
Over 5,000 people, 40,000 Easter Eggs, and a Uhual filled with food for the shelters. Amazing!

sunday afterthoughts

"i feel lost" was the text i received from Jeff at 6:30am sunday. lol.
Jeff hasn't preached in 2 weeks. Its been healthy for everyone, but buckle up cause the fire is coming next week. Can't wait.

Curtis closed up our Generations series and did an outstanding job.
Loved his main idea:
"God is not something to believe in He is SOMEONE to EXPERIENCE".

We are launching Life's Toughest Questions next sunday. This is going to be a great series.

We had our smoothest/fastest sound-check/pre-service rehearsal ever yesturday. I think we knocked it out close to the actual set time. It was really good. THANK YOU BAND AND TECH GUYS FOR COMING IN READY AND STRONG. MADE FOR AN AWESOME SUNDAY MORNING.

Looking forward to the week ahead. Got some creative juices flowing in my head for upcoming series graphics, videos, set designs, possible NEW ELEMENT T-SHIRTS, new videos and random graphics. I really feel like I am headed to the next level in some things.

Alright out to lead team,

Worship Set for Sunday April 28th:
Counting On God: New Life Worship
Marvelous Light: Charlie Hall
The Glory of it All: David Crowder
My Glorious: Delirious

Sunday AfterThoughts!

Im always interested in the week after easter. Who comes back? What sticks the most? How many come back? Churches always see an increase on easter sunday, the catch is what sticks and causes them to WANT to come back. Not sure what the percentage is of post easter attendance but i was amazed.

We saw 960 people come to element church today. A non easter record for element.

Today Jeff was on vacation with his wife Sabrina, so he handed the pulpit to Andy our student ministries pastor. Andy did a fabulous job.

A funny story today:
We started doing a Life Group time together as the worship team during 1st service. So the entire team was over in the office meeting while Andy was preaching. First mistake was not asking Andy what his que was to come back up. And I wasnt sure how long he would preach for. But after 20 min i received several texts saying, ITS TIME! LOL. I heard "WHERE'S THE BAND" like 3 times. Funny moment. Next time ill find out how long the message will be.

Set List:
My Savior Lives - New Life Worship
Glorified - New Life Worship
Reign in Us - Starfield
Rescue - New Life Worship

Adam

easter

this easter was one of those sundays we will never forget. PRAY DANGEROUS PRAYERS AND PARTNER WITH GOD AND THEN WATCH.

We really sensed God was urging us to pray some specific prayers for easter sunday! God exceeded all those prayers in incredible ways.

1217 people came to element. 2nd service was out of control. I was finishing our closing song and they were still trying to pack people into the worship center. LOVE IT.

35 people STOOD to their feet, giving their lives over to Christ. AMAZING. SIMPLY AMAZING.

We built a 24 x 8 foot Flannel Graph and told the easter story. It was a very creative and powerful approach. STEVE AND CHRISTINA, thanks so much for all your hard work on the creative team side of things.

I am really excited about our new series starting May 3rd called LIFE'S TOUGHEST QUESTIONS. We will be answering questions that all of us rassel with from time to time. You can email your questions to questions@elementweb.net.

Set List:
Happy Day - Tim Hughes
Sweetly Broken - Jeremy Riddle
Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin
Salvation is Here - Hillsong United

loving jesus,
adam

WWW.ELEMENTWEB.NET

Alright we have launched the new website. However check back periodically. We had to launch pre-mature due to our billboards and mailers being up. There are some graphical things still to update and our media center should go up today! Check it out, we are very excited, let us know what you think!!

men's advance

Tonight we headed up somewhere between Cheyenne and Laramie to a great retreat center for the first ever Element Church men's advance. This is a very cool location, and a beautiful setting. Tonight an associate pastor from Calvary Chapel shared on the big picture of life. He did a great job. And we just ended the night with the one and only BRAVEHEART. That movie never gets old. We are called to be on the OFFENSE not the DEFENSE. The kingdom of God is ADVANCING. Love it that we titled it the Men's Advance. Grant, Bob, and Ryan did a great job getting this thing set up. I walk in and there is table of automatic 10lb weight gain. lol. They brought so much food. Good thing I worked out everyday this week.

I am very excited about what God is going to stir in our hearts as men this weekend. Its a great time to get to know each other also.

Looking forward to sunday to worship with you all and close our Wild Goose Series.

Advancing,
Adam

new post already

its been a while. Life has seemed to be majorly busy lately. I feel like i barely have time to read let alone write.

My latest blog was actually as a guest blog on Jeff's. You can read it here.

Sunday was tough. My mind was heavy and I felt like i was under some sort of attack. Worship went solid, but we had to push thru.

Something exciting on the tech end of things, is that we will be launching our new element church website next week. It has been a long time coming but very much worth the wait. The look and feel will be similar with a much upgraded build and flow. Look for that in the middle of next week. Some cool new aspects of the site will be a detachable video player on the home page of each weeks sermon. In the coming months we will be posting our entire service, worship and all. We are also adding our forms and blogs accessible directly at the site. Ways to join life groups and to volunteer here at element. So, look for that announcement on my blog in the coming months.

Adam

Sunday AfterThoughts!

Yesterday was wonderful.

Jesus was lifted high and people are finding financial freedom.

Joe Sangle ended our series 21 on the topic of finances. Helping people become financially free. He did a great job and we have already heard stories of people making steps into financial freedom.

This series really really has the potential to change our lives forever. If we will apply the 5 weeks, then our lives will not be the same. It does us no good if we don't apply the principles. I encourage everyone to pick up the complete "series in a can" of 21. Re-listen to it and make some life changes. So Good. Great job Jeff on putting those messages together and not being afraid to challenge.

I love that as a church we are not afraid of any topic. There are so many REAL LIFE issues that REAL people are dealing with and they are finding freedom in Jesus every week. As Tim Stevens said, "the church is providing answers for questions the world is NOT asking". I love that we get to partner with Jesus in helping people life and becoming free in REAL areas.

Our new series WILD GOOSE CHASE starts next week. Invite people thru this video below. Email it, facebook it, myspace it. LOL.


The Wild Goose Chase from Jeff on Vimeo.

Grab a bunch of rave cards and invite your friends.

May we continue to make HELL less populated!!

Set List 2-1-09
My Savior Lives - New Life Worship
Glorified - New Life Worship
Enough - Chris Tomlin
Pleasing to You - New Life Worship
Everyday - Hillsong United

Let the chase begin,
Adam

Sunday AfterThoughts!

it was a great weekend around here at element church. Brad and Danielle Nyght rolled in late friday night in preparation for the worship team auditions. Saturday we had an eventful day with rehearsals for sunday and rehearsals for auditions. I must say that for our first time doing auditions, it went pretty well. We had a good group of people show and they all did a great job. Thank you to all who came out. It means a lot to me that you would be a part of what God is doing here at element church. Brad and Danielle were an incredible contribution to the audition process, for flow, structure, evaluations, etc. It was a blessing to have them apart of this. I am looking forward to the additions we will make here at element worship.

WOW has it snowed. It started friday and is still going today, monday. Probably a good 6 - 12 inches on the ground. It has been a blast. I love when it snows like this.

We really had a great worship time yesterday. We have made huge headway in our sound. I really feel like its very close to what it needs to be. Brad and Danielle were able to join us for worship, which always a good time. I asked for them to do a complete evaluation on me as a worship leader, and it was so good. They really pushed me in some areas that I feel like are going to help take element worship to that next level. I love learning. I read 1 kings a couple of days ago, which has become a common phrase around here, but this weekend I really felt this. Chapter 3 vs 7, "Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn't know his way around." I have a long ways to go but I am humbled to be a part of this team.

Jeff really did tackle probably one of the most uncomfortable topics in the american church. We almost opted out of it, but Jeff pushed thru and delivered well. We had great response, "that's just what I needed to hear", "thanks for being bold", etc. Glad he chose to stick it out. He tackled the issue of self-control, living disciplined PHYSICALLY, mentally, and spiritually and how they all relate.

Brad and Danielle decided to stick around one more day. We had so much fun yesturday afternoon. After eating at Guadala-HOLL-A (curtis's tag for the mexi resturaunt), lol, we hit up walmart for some ingredients. Brad Nyght actually made ice cream out of the freshly fallen snow. I must admit i was blown away. Never knew you could do that. I was a really fluffy version of icecream but tasted amazing. I have a new thing to make now. After watching some office episodes we sat down and introduced the world of LOST to Brad and Danielle. We popped in the first disc and watched 4 episodes. They are hooked, SO GOOD TO SEE!!!

Thats it, we had a great weekend and now its time for a huge monday and a good week of planning exciting things here at element.

Set List,
Counting on God - New Life Church
Sing, Sing, Sing - Chris Tomlin
Sweetly Broken - Jeremy Riddle
Let it Burn - Adam Cruz
At the Cross - Hillsong


Loving life,
adam

big day tommorow

1 more day until element church does its first worship team auditions. We are looking forward to all the talent that will pour in. Brad and Danielle Nyght from the Desperation Band in Colorado springs will be sitting in on our evaluation team. They both have such a strong passion for Jesus and worship, along with being extremely talented. Looking forward to hanging out with them this weekend. They will also be joining us on Sunday morning for worship.

If you are a worship leader looking to do a studio project or looking for someone to create loops and programming for live use, Brad is the man. Check his studio out at www.thebakerystudio.com.

Got to get house ready for him within the hour. See all auditionees tomorrow. Looking forward to worshiping with you all on sunday. Come with expectation and your hearts ready to receive from God.

Adam

sunday afterthoughts

awesome day yesturday. 2nd week of 21.

-- Jeff talked about our devotional life in a very challenging way.

-- "why do we call them devotions if we aren't devoted" - so good

-- 670 people today. Lots of new faces. Full room. SO GOOD!

-- You need to know how blessed you are to have such an awesome tech team and worship team (not boasting of myself). They put in so much time to provide you the best worship possible. We have made some huge headway in our sound for that room.

I love being your worship pastor.

Set list from Sunday:
Solid Rock - New Life Worship
We Lift You Up - New Life Worship
Hungry - Vineyard
Better is one day - Matt Redman
Everything - Lifehouse

"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

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