Posts Tagged Christianity
10 Things You Need to Know about the Ultimate Giveaway
Posted by tomelmore in Everything Else, Thrive on September 8, 2010
Hey everyone
I wanted to let you know that this is a “Can’t Miss” Sunday! We are kicking off our new series called the Ultimate Giveaway. What really gets me excited about this series isn’t the fact that we are giving away over $250,000 in prizes….Yes, we are going to giveaway iPads – Flat Screen TV’s – Kids Bikes – Blue Ray DVD players and even a Cruise for two to the Caribbean.
What it’s really about is PEOPLE! We believe that people matter to God! The goal of this series is to make it easy to invite your un-churched friends to church. When they come our prayer is that God will open their heart to receive the greatest prize- his incredible – life changing LOVE! That’s truly the Ultimate Giveaway – that’s what going to change families, help people overcome their past and give them real hope for the future!
Here are TEN things about the U.G. I thought you should know….
The Ultimate Giveaway
Friends,
The last few weeks I have taken a break from blogging but I’m back in the saddle now.
I’m planning on blogging every day that leads up to our new series “the Ultimate Giveaway“. We’re kicking it off this Sunday. It’s going to be a “can’t miss” series. I’m praying tons
of people connect with Ch
rist and join us for the journey. Oh yeah – We have over $ 250,000 in prizes that we are going to be giving away. (check back tomorrow -I’ll give ya the behind the scenes on it.)
Here’s our Labor Day highlights…
Speaking to some crazy kids in Mississippi
Posted by tomelmore in General, Leadership on August 26, 2010
Last night I had the pleasure of speaking in Picayune, MS at Resurrection Life church for some great friends of mine. Check it out.
I love hanging out with emerging leaders and getting to speak to kids!
Tom
We’re staying at Westlake Prep!
God has decided that Thrive Church is staying at Westlake Prep Academy and we’re super excited about it… Check out my vlog about it..
See ya Sunday..
Tom
5 things I am Looking forward to this Sunday!
Posted by tomelmore in Thoughts from the Week, Thrive on August 20, 2010
It’s Friday! That means Sunday’s around the corner. Here are some of the things that I am looking forward to this weekend at THRIVE.
1. Sharing with you my journey this week as well as some exciting news for our church that has emerged from it! Can’t wait to tell you what’s going on!
2. Hearing our guest speaker Joel Hunter from Northwood Church share God’s truth from the hit movie “Grown Up’s”. This Guy is a great teacher and an awesome friend!
3. Experiencing worship with our TC community. It’s one of my favorite moments of the week.
4. Watching the men of Thrive donate their Flat Screen TV’s and New Bikes that they bought for “The Ultimate Giveaway”. We have over $250,000 in prizes to give away during this New Series-let’s get ready to invite our friends!
5. Eating BBQ at my house with about 50 new Thrive friends! Don’t even try to crash this party!
More to come!
Tom
Showing love to the Fellowship of Love Church
We have our staff meeting for Thrive Church at Panera Bread in La Centerra on Tuesday mornings. We noticed the staff of Fellowship of Love Church having their staff meeting so I invaded their meeting and put the pastor on the spot!
At Thrive we will always love on and lift up our surrounding churches.
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
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
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
