CELEBRATING 15 Years!

Beloved Element,
 

How can it be that we are preparing to celebrate our 15th birthday?!? It truly feels like just yesterday that there were a few of us kids on a couch, dreaming of a church community that would be something REAL. Something different, something compelling, something that would resemble the church that Jesus asked us to become. All these years later, after experiencing the mountaintops and valleys of our Element story, I still feel that same desire and that same belief about what Element is and is becoming.

We’ve joked a lot about 15 years meaning we are like an angsty teenager, or maybe 15 years being more like dog years, leaving us wizened and experienced. I think the truth of it rests somewhere in the middle.

I think we've grown beyond the worst of our angst. We've endured the refining fires enough times to have been galvanized and strengthened. And I think we have a lot more learning and growing to do. The recalibration work that continues for Element will be a long, slow, deep process that will continue to form us to look like Jesus. I can't wait to keep learning and growing and becoming wizened and experienced with you all.

Today I am resting and reflecting on this beautiful passage from Isaiah, which has guided our church through many seasons:

Isaiah 43:18-19 MSG

"Forget about what's happened;

don't keep going over old history.

Be alert, be present. 

I'm about to do something brand-new.

It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?

There it is! 

I'm making a road through the desert,

rivers in the badlands.”

May we gather on Sunday with curiosity, hope, and joy, alert and present as we embrace something BRAND NEW!!!

It's going to be an awesome day! I'll see you there!

All my love,

Melody