Archive for category Family
Here’s what I am learning….how about you?
Posted by tomelmore in Family, Leadership on February 9, 2011
Here’s some of the random lessons that God is allowing me to learn..some are small – some are huge. It’s good to look back and see whats growing inside of you….I recommend you do this for yourself.
Here ya go…
* The loudest boos come from the cheapest seats – quit trying to please people – please God…the rest will come.
* Margin means getting the project accomplished and having the time to celebrate it before you move on to the next thing.
* Big Vision often scares people – give it out with wisdom and with a strategy to reach it.
* God is more interested in my heart before he ever is my success – and all real success comes from truly knowing His heart, so ask yourself – “who am I fooling anyway”?
* Staying authentically connected to God results in an inward confidence and courage to lead – with out it…fear and chaos grows
* Embrace the beginnings! It makes your story that much more compelling.
* When your tired – don’t make big decisions
* You can’t differentiate what you can’t define
* Slow down and enjoy the people you are on the journey with – the goal :they will enjoy you!
* Take the time to encourage others that are about to go down the road you traveled – they will need it like you did!
* Treat your church like a family – period!
* Planning ahead allows everyone time and space to get on board with the plan.
* People grow at different paces – learn to celebrate everyone as they take their next step- whatever it is.
* Continue to Go Public – people need to hear about your church 5-10 times before they even think about coming.
* Be different – Be better – Be original….there are way to many carbon copies out there doing the same thing expecting different results. That’s insanity!
* Let people go that aren’t a fit for your culture – saves both of you future pain…
* Laugh at your mess ups – hand off credit for your wins.
go enjoy your day….
PS – here’s a pic of my Boy the “rock star”
Tom
It’s a NEW year…
Posted by tomelmore in Everything Else, Family, Thrive on December 30, 2010
I love the word “NEW”.
Every 365 days we feel like life is giving us a “do over”, an opportunity to improve on our last years success and learn for our previous mistakes. God created and loves this concept of NEW…
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a NEW PERSON by changing the way you think. Romans 12:2
In Romans we Paul challenges to let God transform our thoughts and through that our life -until we become a “NEW PERSON”, I am excited and challenged by what that means for me in 2011. But before I close the door on 2010 – here are some of my favorite moments / thrive memories from the past year.
1) “I STILL DO” renewing of vows Ceremony during our “I want a new marriage” series. What a privilege to stand with all couples as they renewed their love and their commitment to their marriage. Easily one of the highlights of my year.
2) Baptizing almost 40 people in a horse trough this year. This blows me away…I pray many more to come in 2011
3) Finding out that 225 people have committed or re-committed their life to Christ at our church this year. This is why we started Thrive…to make it easy for people to find and follow God. Thankful and excited that he is using us to spread his love.
4) Leading our Stogies and Scripture group for guys that are wanting friendship and a deeper connection with God. I have truly enjoyed the bond of friendship that have been built with so many of the guys…
5) Watching my buddy Tony Crank step ramp up to launch a life-giving church in Oregon. I remember what it was like 2 years ago when we launched..we are looking forward to partnering with Him. Every new church starts with a person that prays “God if your up to something I want to be apart of it” - This prayer is the launching pad for God to do BIG THINGS people’s lives.
the best is yet to come…
PS – here is one of my favorite 2010 pictures of Cole…as you can see he is preparing to do something big.
Tom
Full Tank (part 2)
It’s becoming increasingly clearer that I have to keep my Tank FULL. Now I don’t know about you but I love to push my gas tank to the limit. When my light comes on telling me that the tank is almost empty, I like to think “how many more miles can I get”. This little game has nearly made me the guy that “pushes his car down the road” many times. It also drives my wife crazy when she gets in my car and has to rush to the gas station. I try to explain my little “man game”. I explain it involves risk, incredible skills of estimation and great courage. She doesn’t buy any of it. I am sure she will go her death bed trying to understand it.
My little game can at times be exciting and exhilarating. It often seems fun to keep pushing the limit- see how far you can go and how much ground you can cover before you break down. I’m convinced after counseling 100′s of people that this kind of thinking doesn’t work with your heart. As a husband , Dad and pastor I remind myself daily that I need a full tank to THRIVE (yes I’m using that word). I want to go for the long haul in ministry and with my family. There are three areas that I need stop and fill up daily and weekly.
1. My Time with my Wife and kids
2. My Connection to God
3. My Clarity of where I’m going!
“God is not cruel, but he is not lenient, He is true! He is not safe. He is unchanging;therefore we must change. We must learn in order to succeed. Our failures do not influence our grades but our unwillingness to learn from them does” -Leading on Empty
Tom
7 reasons your church plant won’t make it
Posted by tomelmore in Everything Else, Family, General, Leadership, Philosophy, Thoughts from the Week, Thrive, Wrapup on October 27, 2010
Just came across this blog and thought you would enjoy it. By the way – all the reasons are 100% true….
Tom
Here are seven reasons your church plant won’t make it.
1. You imported your vision, mission and strategy from another church because you really don’t have a vision, mission or strategy.
2. You’re drunk with vision but haven’t developed healthy systems.
3. You sacrifice your family in the name of ministry.
4. You don’t talk about money.
5. You’re a cheap church planter who won’t spend money on leadership development for you or your staff.
6. You download all your sermons from the Internet because you don’t study, pray or read your Bible.
7. You started a church because, deep down, you have a problem with authority and don’t want a boss.
Michael Lukaszewski is the lead planter of Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia.
Seven things that made me smile (this week)
Posted by tomelmore in Everything Else, Family, Next Right Step, Philosophy, Thoughts from the Week, Thrive on October 16, 2010
I thought I would give you a recap of some of the beset moments of my week.
1. Last Sunday and our worship night at Thrive Church – Baptizing the 12 people that said “YES -I’m going public for Christ”….amazing stuff!
2. Slipping out mid day to see the movie ” Secretariat” with my wife…the movie was good – spending time with my wife was better!
3 Sitting in our Parenting 101 Growth group and learning that real parenting should happen between the conflicts – not during them.
4. Talking to my Mom on the phone about her coming down as soon as she gets her new “wheel chair friendly” van – so excited, love her so much.
5. Having the privilege of praying with Tina Martin as she continues to battle with cancer on the brain. You never know how much faith you have until you need it…she has TONS!
6. Seeing my in-laws arrive on Wednesday. It’s a gift to have family in our house (and help with the kids)
7. Thinking about our vacation that starts this Sunday after church, come this Sunday it could be the shortest message yet – Going to be on a boat in the ocean….ready to relax and refresh.
Smiling right now
Tom
Blue Ridge Church Has Launched!
Posted by tomelmore in Family, Next Right Step on July 1, 2010
This past weekend some new friends of mine, Scott & Lisa Obenchain, launched Blue Ridge Church in Christiansburg, VA. .
According to Scott they blew the doors off the place!
Scott is an amazing leader that I got to know through my relationship with East Lake church in Kenosha, WI. I am positive that big things are going to happen in their city.
Here are some highlights from Scott himself…..
“I am still pinching myself to see if this is real! What a day – 151 people showed up… More importantly 4 people used their connection card to indicate they were giving their lives to Christ…Thanks for everything – keep praying for us!”
Wow! I can’t tell you how excited I am to see a NEW-Life Giving church get off the ground. It was less than a year and a half ago that we were starting our own journey as a church. I am looking forward to partnering with Scott and Blue Ridge Church!
I’ve posted some pics below of Blue Ridge Church’s first Sunday. Let’s cheer for them and go check out their website and Facebook page. Hopefully we will see them soon!
Tom
Christmas Gifts I wish I had gotten…
The Elmore’s had a great Christmas this year. Our kids got tons of gifts from all our family – including a Wii, which I have played more than my kids. (By the way try to stop me in Wii Tennis- I dare ya!) We had a great time creating our new family traditions as well as spending time with new and old friends. Looking forward to all that God has for our family in 2010!
Happy New Year!
Tom
P.S. This is what I REALLY wanted!!
Cal and Ron…
This weekend I had a chance to take my family back to my hometown, Peoria, IL for Christmas break. While I was there we had a great time with family, played some texas hold’em (is it hold them or hold’em) and had two encounters that both left me thinking…here’s the synopsis.
encounter 1 – A guy named Cal…
OK, actually he’s not just a guy -he’s a pastor of a pretty large, successful church in Peoria called Northwoods Community Church. I caught them in the middle of a series called “Real Change”. Cal’s message was about how we NEED to position ourself for spiritual breakthrough in 2009. After the message my Mom told me to go down front and meet him. Now, I had been at the church 3 years earlier, but there was something different about it now. It seemed more ALIVE -BOLDER and filled with more PASSION. When I introduced myself to Cal he told me what had changed. It seemed a few years earlier God got his attention at a conference. He asked him this single question, “are the people at Northwoods ready to stand in times of testing?”. Cal said he hung his head low and confessed to God that they were not. Up till then the church had been a purely attractional church – a church that was focused on presenting the gospel – but missing the mark on helping it flow through people’s lives. After our talk – Cal asked if he could pray for us and our new church. When he prayed he asked God to do something unique and powerful through THRIVE Church. What he didn’t know is that God had already started doing it in me -before we even prayed.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t see him around THRIVE as a guest speaker soon.
encounter 2 -A friend named Ron….
Ever had a friend that it was easy to hang out with? You knew that whenever you hung out it was going to be a good time and that you were going to have at least one belly laugh! That’s my friend Ron Ehlers or how he often refereed to himself in high school, ”Awesome E”. (Why can’t those kind of nick names fly when you get in your 30′s?) We had not seen each other in 6 years and now suddenly we found ourselves sitting across from each other at one of our old stomping grounds -Cheddar’s restaurant. After catching up on family and laughing about some old memories (and debating if Stryper is the best Christian metal band ever?) we talked about the the thing that brought us together when we were just 13 years old – church. The part about our conversation that I enjoyed the most was Ron’s honesty about how he felt about God and church. Like so many of us, somewhere along the way of life the religion stopped making sense to Ron (it still does not make sense to me) and ultimately attending church stopped making sense as well. As our lunch finished up, Ron shared with me how he’s recently found a new church that has helped him rekindle his faith. He said I don’t feel judged when I walk in the door and the messages actaully “makes sense”. I laughed inside because- it’s Cal’s church, Northwoods Church.
I beleive that’s the kind of place that God wants Thrive to be- a place that burns bright with passion and helps guys like Ron-rediscover the part of God that ”just makes sense again” .
See you Feb 8 at our first preview service.
Be there or be square (long live the 80′s) -Tom
The Most Important Envelope of my life….
Tonight was pretty cool.
I sat at a restaurant with my wife and daughter and we opened the one of the most important envelopes of my life up till now.
It was not an envelope with a large check in it (although one of those would be nice). It was not one of those envelopes they open for a academy award winner. It wasn’t even an envelope with a sweet, romantic letter from my hot-pregnant wife (I had to throw that in there – the pregnant part)
The envelope had a picture in it. A really amazing picture.
You see today Jackie, Molly and I found out what the gender of Baby Elmore is. The picture had one thing on it that makes every future Dad proud -what was it?
All I can say is -it’s a BOY!
WHOO HOO !!!!
