The Birth of a Church

Wow...what a week!  Sunday was the culmination of a flurry of activity in Millvale, by both the launch team, and by APEX, the young adult group from Allison Park Church.

APEX spent most of Thursday serving Millvale, and I can't say enough thanks for all that they did to help with our efforts in serving this community!  The day started with them hosting a party for some of the residents at the Personal Care Home on Evergreen Road.  Then after lunch, they made way to the future site of the Millvale Library to help with some demolition work on their new building.  (I really love the vision the leader of the library, Brian has for this project.  Millvale Matters & Element Church will stay involved in helping them as they move forward!)  

After working all afternoon at the library, APEX spread the word about our first service by hanging door hangers on 1,000 homes in Millvale.  Thanks to Dave Santistevan & APEX, for all of your efforts to show Milvale that they are important to our God!

While APEX was distributing all of the door hangers, the Element Church launch team was holding our final weekly meeting before our first monthly Sunday service.  Friday and Saturday consisted of worship band rehearsals, and last-minute planning meetings to make certain we were ready for every detail of our Sunday service.  

Then came Sunday...

The band met at the church at 7:30 AM to get set up, while the rest of the team arrived at about 8:30 AM.  It was so great to see the way everyone worked together to be ready for our guests.  Older members of our team worked side-by-side with the young, to create a welcoming environment.  EVERYONE did such an incredible job!

At 10:30 am, after a brief opening video, the band exploded onto the stage in worship, and Element Church was live!  I don't know how long it had been since a church occupied that building in the past, but what I do know is that in that instant, God flooded the room with His presence!  

I must say that one of the most rewarding things was seeing all of our teams working so well together to make yesterday a success.  Everyone from our greeters, to security, to the band, to the tech team, to our incredible KidsRock staff worked so hard to be ready for our guests.  Major props to Katie and all of Mr. Small's staff for their assistance, as well.

I will post more of the photos and some videos from yesterday on here later, but I wanted to at least get something out there to show what happened.  

Lastly, all of this would not have been possible without the support of our friends from Allison Park Church and our pastor, Jeff Leake.  It was the vision God gave Jeff to reach Pittsburgh through the vision of planting and helping to support churches throughout our region that gave us this great opportunity.  What a "Kingdom-minded" man of God!  I am so blessed to call you my friend.

In summary, the events of the past week require me to ask a question:

"What happens when people take seriously the call to serve our world by doing whatever it takes to love God, and love our neighbor?"  

The answer is simple. God shows His face in the faces of those we serve, and this week, it looked a lot like the people of Millvale.

I love Element Church and this community, and I love sharing Jesus with them.