Sunday Afterthoughts!

Hey all you Element Followers or Elementers (slang for "attenders of Element"). We had a great time of worship this sunday morning. Wow what a time. 10 child dedications today. That is awesome. We dedicated a 15 year old that wanted to be dedicated. That is awesome. We took Elements first communion together. A lot of first time things today at Element. It was great to take communion together and no better way to take it than after Jeff's message. Go Jeff. Everyone needs to listen to today's message. We opened a mini series called "thanks:giving", and he covered "thanks" today. It was good. Worship went great. My band gets better every week. I have a new drummer coming on next week to alternate with our current drummer. Looking forward to getting him plugged in the mix. He is good. I love both of my drummers. Its a privelage to be able to find 2 GREAT drummers in a church.

We are getting ready for Element's first Baptism today at 4:00pm. We are baptizing 2 people. Looking forward to this time together.

We have a very simple stage setup for this series. We are pouring some time and energy into our next series called "Believe". Not that this is more important. Its just going to be really good and we need a lot of time to build some things. Looking forward to that.

We have a cool announcement coming up for our next Outreach to the community as Element Church. Not sure if I have the freedom to say right now. But its good. I love blessing people, just to bless them, regardless if they come to Element Church or not. I will announce it next Sunday.
Cheyenne WILL know that Element Church is here for them. That we love them and will never stop serving them. Thats what we are about as a church. Meeting practical needs and blessing their socks off, so we can point them to Jesus and bring them to a place where they might meet.

Set List for Sunday November 18th,
Forever - Chris Tomlin
We Lift You Up - Desperation Band
Open the eyes of my Heart - Paul Baloche
You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
Amazed - Desperation Band


Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday Afterthoughts

Today was a great day. I know that I say that a lot. But there was something very special about today. Things just gelled today. Not that they havnt before but again there was just a great vibe today. God's presence was evident, worship just flowed and there was a great heart beat of worship to the throne today. Way to go worship team. Jeff delivered a great word, in fact, I dare to say its one of his best. A great close to the "IT" series. Several hands were in the air for first time decisions. I am blown away, when you just give a simple invitation people come running. They are ready and just need to be asked and encouraged. About double the hands went up for people reconsidering where they are at with their relationship with God. It was just a great great service all the way through.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: we have maxed our capacity at Element Church in the one theater we are in. So through much prayer and exhausting every option, we excitingly announce that we are going to 2 services in two weeks on Dec. 2nd. Service times will be at 9 and 10:30am. We are looking forward to this to keep reaching people for Christ. God keeps bringing them so we want to continue to make room for them. Our volunteers have been so supportive. In fact many of them have said that they will serve both services if we need them. AWESOME. God is good.

We closed out our first series officially as Element Church, and are doing a 2 week mini series called "Thanks:Giving". And then jumping right into a 4 week Christmas series called "Believe", which I am very excited about.

God is doing some great things around here and we are always blown away that God keeps choosing to use us.

Set design today was simple and clean. Our closing core value today was "allegiance" (which was planned over 2 months ago) and it just so happened to fall on Veterans Day, SO GOD LIKE HA. So we ordered a 10 ft X 6ft Flag that flew in the center of the stage with two smaller flags on the sides. Also during a transitional video we mounted 2 fallen soldier displays on the stage. It was very symbolic of our Allegiance to God. EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO TODAYS MESSAGE. www.elementweb.net then click on "Watch and Listen" (wont be online until tuesday). I will post pictures tommorow afternoon.

Set List:
Awesome is the Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin
Famous One - Chris Tomlin
Beauty of the Lord - Jared Anderson (Desperation Band)
Oh Lord Most High - Joel Hatcher
It's all about you/Jesus Lover of my Soul - Passion


Worshipping him,
Adam

New Blog Face

I have been wanting to reface the blog a little. Like change some layout and colors. Then I read Jeff's a couple days ago and its a new layout. So of course I had to update, so that mine could remain "THE WORLD"S MOST CREATIVE BLOG". HA. Green is my favorite. Their you go.

Looking forward to this sunday. Jeff's message will be fantastic. I am excited about our worship set, and God is on the move. Not sure what to expect being that we have grown 40 people a week the last 3 weeks. We wont have any room this week if that happens again. Obviously God knows and cares, so we are praying. We have a big announcement coming in 4 weeks. So stay tuned.

We had First Friday last night. I love those times together with the core, the prayer warriors. We come together and seek God through unstructured prayer and worship for an hour. Its a great time to connect on a more intimate level of prayer with our team and God. We had about 20 of us. We can not do any of this without God and that is not a cliche statement. If God does not move and is not here than all this is a waste of time. However we have seen God already move and its obvious he is at work.

More on set design and set list tommorrow.

Worshipping Him,
Adam

Sunday Recap

Well if things went as my dream was telling me this morning we would have had a very sad service. It was weird because last week, Launch week, I had a great night rest, however this week I was a mess. I could not sleep at all along with Jeff and Grant. Not sure if there was something spritually going on or what but none of us slept. I dreamed that Jeff wanted to go and shoot a video for next week at like 7:00am which is usually when we start setting up. I was like "Jeff we can do this later this week, but he insisted." So we got to church at like 8:00 and I was like there is no way we will be able to set up. The dream made me a nervous mess.

However our service went great. I believe God was there and was worshiped. I am learning a lot and still have so much to learn. Worship dynamics and people and all the things that go into worship ministry is so much more than you would ever think. Dont get me wrong there is nothing in the world I would rather be doing, but I am learning a lot.

We were praying this week for 120 and we had 127. God is so faithful to bring the people and call the hearts if we will be faithful to give our all to Him and do all we can. God wants us to dream and it takes a lot of trust and faith to dream as big as He is. If I caught it right from Jeff we had 5 more decisions for Christ this morning. This is what its all about. I am just blown away that God just simply uses us for His glory. And yet its so simple. Just give everything and He gives everything. HA.

Curtis (our Youth Pastor) jumped in on Djembe for a new rendition of "I belong to Jesus" to open up the service. Great job Curtis. Bryant and Morgan and Amber just do a wonderful job every week. It gets better and better.

Doing a couple of really cool songs this sunday. Check out next weeks video to hear them. They will really pull in well with the message. Probably the two most complicated songs we have done yet.

Well thats a wrap up.

Worshipping Him,
Adam Cruz