Video Blog August 10th..
1st EVER VIDEO BLOG!
Hey guys.. Quick “vlog” with my new iPhone 4.. Looking forward to a great week!!!
Tom
Happy 4th
Happy 4th of July!
Hope you all had a great 4th of July! I know we did. Check out the 2 videos below.
The first one is a silly video with my head and Jimmy Savage’s head on the Founding Fathers video we showed in church this morning.
The second one is a video of how we kicked off our services this morning! We rocked it Jimi Hendrix style!
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
10 Things I’ve Learned about Visioning
Posted by tomelmore in Leadership on June 25, 2010
This a Blog post from a friend and leadership guru WIll Mancini…..it’s all extremely TRUE stuff – enjoy!
The 10 Things I’ve Learned in Ten Years of Visioning
* God still speaks
* If your vision is not stunningly unique, you probably don’t have one
* However clear the leader is, a surprising gap exists between the leader’s vision and the team’s clarity
* Leaders emotionally substitute two things for real vision: 1) simplistic answers (copycat vision) or 2) busyness (more is more)
* The easiest measure of sustained clarity is the ability to say “no” repeatedly, and feel good about it
* Followers need vision because the future is not here yet and their activity today lacks meaning
* The best way to know “what should be” is to do a better job knowing “what was,” “what is,” and “what could be”
* Vision moves through people not paper
* With a little training anyone can be an everyday visionary
* Vision dripping is more important than vision casting (#visiondrip)
Tom
This IS It
Posted by tomelmore in Next Right Step on June 24, 2010
I was watching the Michael Jackson “This Is It” movie the other day and was blown away at how incredible all the musicians and dancers were. I asked Jackie “How good would you have to be to play in Michael Jackson’s band?”
“You’d have to be the best,” she said.
I knew she was right. It would be any musician or dancer’s dream to be a part of Michael’s tour. If you ask any performer how hard they would be willing to work to reach that level…they would say “I’d do almost anything”. 
The reality is Michael’s band actually spent years and years putting massive amounts of work in to get that kind of opportunity. Think about how many tours, practices, and lessons they went through to get to the place where they were playing with “The King of Pop”
So many people want instant success without going through the “forming process”. I’ve learned it’s in the process that our character and heart are really defined.
Think about some of the great people in the Bible; Moses, David, Peter and even Jesus himself. They didn’t reach their status or influence overnight. God had to develop them and they had to be willing to go through the process. When we are faithful with what God puts in our hands, then and only then can He trust us with the next opportunity.
People that get once in a lifetime opportunities don’t get them by accident – they prepare. They embrace God’s process long before the opportunities ever arrive
Then they realize….”This is It”
Tom
Men/Cigars/Church Services
Posted by tomelmore in Next Right Step, Thrive on June 18, 2010
The other night I sat with some pretty incredible guys around a table smoking cigars and talking about God. It was fun, honest and laid back. When we walked away it felt more like a brotherhood than a “bible group”. The conversation was funny, raw, honest and powerful.
It reminded me that we started Thrive Church for men that “HATE CHURCH”
Here are the reminders…..
* Men feel weird when their wives try to lead them spiritually….when a wife tries to “push or nag” a man to church – men run!
* Men like short services – the longer they get the more they never want to return…most men feel like the message could be wrapped up in less than 5 minutes if the speaker just got to the point. (Note: I’m going for a 4 minute Father’s day message this Sunday….not really)
* Men get excited about having FUN! Laughter, off the wall antics and a little bit of goofiness are magnets for guys to attend church. (Note – the Comedy Central Network is almost exclusively viewed by men.)
* Men get excited about a quality service and respect excellence. We do everything in our power not to let our Sunday morning services feel like “Amateur Hour”
* Men like dialogues that go back and forth. Give them a chance to argue about it and it will “STICK”…I guarantee you there will be at least one brawl in our Growth Group as we process scripture together. Looking forward to it!
I get excited when I think about men taking their faith seriously and begin leading their families with strong hands
Can’t wait for Father’s day…
Tom
My favorite moments from last Sunday
* It was week two of our Purple People Leader series and it was great to see so many people get excited while talking about spiritual leadership in the church!
* We talked about an idea called “The Contribution Revolution”. Which basically means that God can do greater things through a church when everyone “steps into their part”. The biggest waste of natural resources isn’t spilling into the gulf right now….it’s everyone in the church that refuses to allow God to use them. The church moves forward when Christians refuse to sit on their God given gifts!
* The closing of the service when we challenged every person to step out and get involved in a TEAM AT OUR CHURCH….the result: 37 new people are “going for it” ….that’s amazing!
* The second most inspiring part of the day for me had to be the live interviews with 3 of our church’s most dynamic leaders:
Corie Squires (Early childhood director)
Nick Spector (Usher captain)
Kirby Dean ( the most real and crazy bass player I have ever met).
I loved interviewing each of these leaders on stage, it was powerful…they are giving away their gifts and God is multiplying them within our church!
* Our band was smoking! They did a version of “Mess of Me” by Switchfoot – it blew the doors off…..
* I realized TIME MANAGEMENT is essential if you want to take on the challenge of multiple services. We ran over our time in both services and the parking team and Thrive Kidz team experienced “momentary chaos”. It will be fixed for next week – I promise!
* I loved hanging out with all of our Team Leads at our monthly Dream Team Lunch – we talked about the most important thing successful teams have and chase after…..”TRUST”
* It was crazy that even though the “summer slump” is upon us – we still are growing….God is up to something!
What’s next? It’s FATHER’S DAY….Can’t wait for you to see what we have planned! It will definitely honor dads in a big way!
Pray for the Celtics -
Tom
Why Leadership is Necessary
Posted by tomelmore in Leadership on June 11, 2010
If there is one thing I that I have learned over the years it’s leaders have the ability to MOVE THINGS forward…..At Thrive that means I can’t (and won’t ) do it all. Our leadership team is filled with people that are taking areas of our ministry and making them better. They are more effective and more people are jumping in to be a part of the vision as the result.
If a church wants to grow Leadership is necessary and needs to be intentional
Here’s what leaders “do best”….
1. Leaders are not afraid of going where no one else has gone – they see fear as their opportunity.
2. Leaders are problem solvers – all ministries have challenges, leaders help navigate a path through the obstacles and to God’s preferred future.
3. Leaders gather people around the dream! The most effective leaders I have encountered have the ability to bring people close to them and help them OWN the DREAM (not just cram it down their throats, but share it in a way that almost becomes contagious).
4. Leaders surround themselves with diversity! It takes people with all different, unique gifts to accomplish God sized dreams….it takes a complete body….each contributing what only they can do.
5. Leaders love to see progress! If lives aren’t being changed, people aren’t growing and being empowered, a leader will lose interest….can you imagine what it was like to be a disciple with Jesus – each day was an adventure and life change was happening….
I am looking forward to our monthly Leaders Gathering this Sunday afternoon; it’s so much fun to be connected to do life with great leaders…
Do whatever it takes not to miss this Sunday…we are a Purple Cow church that is committed to reaching the 70%.
See you Sunday
Tom
Man I love our Church!
I Love our church! Thought I would take a minute and recap some of my highlights from last Sunday….
- Hearing our band ROCK out the song “Futures” by Jimmy Eat World” -it’s two days later and I’m still humming it…
- Loved seeing Chris Goodwin (our new guitar player) lead us on Sunday! The guy is really talented – glad he’s a part of Thrive…
- Kicked off our new Series called “Purple People Leader! Pumped to be taking a few weeks to call out the amazing leader potential in our church…we have to realize the thing that makes us UNIQUE is the same thing that makes us POWERFUL in God’s hands…
- Introducing our new Thrive Intern to everyone- Sam Hardin has to have one of the biggest servant’s hearts on the planet- he’s going to do great things for the kingdom – no doubt!
- Seeing all the new families at Thrive 101 start to understand why our church is all about the 70% of people that don’t go to church…
- Sticking around for ONE youth and watching our Thrive students really worship GOD. They were passionate – raw and powerful….a movement has begun!
- Watching teenagers get on their knees and ask God to “heal the broken places” in their heart – it was amazing…
- Learning how to play the game “Ninja”! All I can say is it makes my generation’s game of “slap” look like sissy play…
- Sitting with our team when it was all over and realizing I am the luckiest guy on the planet to be pastoring this church!
Can’t wait for Next Sunday…see you there
Tom
Huge Announcement!!!
Posted by tomelmore in Next Right Step, Thrive on June 4, 2010
If you missed it, here it is. We are moving locations this fall to Beckendorff Jr High on Fry Road in Seven Lakes. This decision was made through tons of prayer and pursuing Godly Wisdom. After almost two months of wrestling with the decision we have come to the place where we know it’s time to GO! Here is why we are making this move….
1. Parking Spaces = People CONNECTING TO CHRIST!
On Easter we packed the parking lot for two services! There wasn’t an extra spot to be found. We have realized that the more parking spaces we have, the more opportunity we have for people to bring their friends and family. Our new location -Beckendorff will have over 500 parking spots (currently we have just over 100) That means more people can come attend services and not worry about missing a spot!
2. Proximity to more People is IMPORTANT!
Fry road is one of the busiest roads in Cinco Ranch. We see that as a BIG opportunity to impact people. We can put up signage all weekend long. That means 1000′s of people will see our sign, location and service times. It’s also a very familiar location so when you invite your friends – it’s an easy connect for them.
3. Thrive Kidz needs MORE SPACE!
Our 1st -5th grade kids will now have their own GYM! Our vision from the beginning was that Thrive KidZ is the “best hour of your kids week”. Now we have the opportunity to provide a better, exciting learning environment. We are planning on filling it with large Blow Up Events, interactive games and great leaders that really care about your kids!
4. It creates OPPORTUNITIES TO LEAD!
We are actually excited about going portable again because it provides hundreds of volunteers a chance to go “all in” with Thrive’s vision to impact lives. As the new Mobile Team is forming – I can’t wait to see people “get in the game” to serve. Jesus challenged us to serve for two reasons: it changes us and it changes others. We lead through serving….that principle is what Thrive is built on and now we are giving more people a chance to experience it!
We are beyond excited about what God has in store for us this Fall. It’s going to be good!
FYI -We are starting a new series called “Activate your leadership” this Sunday…bring a friend!
The best is yet to come -Tom
