Within our Gospel Communities, or as a family or group of friends, we encourage you to watch this recap video together and answer the following questions.

 

Introduction
At Element we believe there are 4 main things to remember about generosity:

1. Generosity is how we learn the best stuff in life isn't stuff. When we live in generosity, we find out that we really trust in the good and faithful providence of God to sustain us and bring us true joy.
2. Generosity creates humility before God. In the early church, they didn't just give up money; they gave up control. This was demonstrated in other areas of their lives as well.
3. Generosity strikes a blow at our core sin. We are meant to be something more than just consumers. In the early church, the Holy Spirit developed a habit of giving in His people instead of simply getting.
4. Generosity is part of God’s character. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, what we take for granted is that God Himself is the ultimate giver. We see God’s invitation for others to take from Him at the end of Scripture: Rev 22:17 And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. We can't change our clutching hearts to giving hearts, but Jesus can. 

Discussion
How much stuff do you have that simply takes up space and never gets used?

Explanation Read Isaiah 55:1-2
Do you think how you interact with others gains favor for God’s Kingdom or destroys it?
Do you think the lure of materialism and acquisition has gotten weaker or stronger in our day versus Jesus’ day?
How does the lure of materialism show itself in your life?

Application – Read Luke 12:15
How has God been generous toward us? Toward you, specifically?
God first gave us, and our giving is meant to be a response. How does that challenge your views?

Mission
If someone were to give you a nickname based on your financial behavior, what would it be?
How do you want to be known for your financial behavior?
What steps can you take to live more that way?

Prayer
Our city and surrounding communities: for the grace to redeem culture, to share the gospel in all opportunities, gangs, drugs, crime, prostitution, human trafficking, homelessness, under employment, marriages in crises, families/parenting in crisis, racial and economic division.

 

Watch the original full-length message here.

Within our Gospel Communities, or as a family or group of friends, we encourage you to watch this recap video together and answer the following questions.

 

 

Introduction
The researchers Lea and Webley coined a metaphor for American culture and our use of money. They say money is a tool and also a drug. They say, “For a long time economists thought of money only as a tool. We value money because it's useful.” Money does lots of useful things as a medium of exchange. For example, we can pay the bills to keep our lights on and stay fed, but, they point out, if money is only a tool, then why do people who have a lot of it want more? This shows, they say, “Money is also a drug.” Money makes us feel things we would not otherwise feel and gives us a temporary escape from reality with the illusion of wellbeing.  Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

 

Discussion
Give some examples of money being used as a tool and as a drug in our culture.

 

Explanation
Based upon how you use money, would you say money (for you) is a tool or a drug? How?
Do you feel tempted to make money a drug in your life?

 

Application – Read Proverbs 30:15 and 1 Timothy 6:9
When are you most prone to forget that God is the owner of everything?
If you were to die today (I know, morbid thought), what money regrets would you have? What things would you rejoice over?
How can an eternal mindset change how you handle money today?

 

Mission
In what ways do you, or don’t you, equate giving with worship?
What would your kids, friends, and/or family learn about money by watching your life?

 

Prayer
Element as a gospel community of faith: Humble thankful people of grace and goodness, Philosophy of Ministry, Gospel Communities, learning to live on mission, becoming disciples who make disciples.

 

Watch the original full-length message here.

Within our Gospel Communities, or as a family or group of friends, we encourage you to watch this recap video together and answer the following questions.

 

Introduction
There are two simple reasons God gives us money and things:

1. To enjoy them. It is not a sin to have fun with the money you have; as a matter of fact, the scriptures repeatedly tell us that our pleasure and joy come from the right hand of God. It’s fine to sleep in a nice bed, wear comfortable shoes, and eat nice meals with your family. The problem arises when we close our hands and make our pleasure all about us.
    
2. The be generous and share. Some of God’s blessings we enjoy, and some we put into others’ hands. We are to understand that we are not simply receivers, but also givers; God has entrusted His stuff to us so we could distribute and share it. God’s goodness is meant to flow through us to others.

Discussion
Are you someone who mainly focuses on enjoying money or being generous with money?
How do you enjoy what God has given you?

Explanation
How do you strike a balance between generosity and enjoyment of your money/stuff?
In what ways would you say money has its “hooks” in you?

Application – Read Matthew 6:19-21
How has money become like a god in our culture?
In what ways do you currently serve that god?

Mission
Where is your treasure currently stored?
How is God trustworthy with financial matters even in spite of our fears?
What would it look like for you to enjoy your money and be generous with it at the same time?

Prayer
Construction: Weather, materials, laborers, inspectors, permits, plans, etc….. Timely management of the project and successful on time completion.

Watch the original full-length message here.

Welcome to week one of our Planting Roots Re-mix. Our goal for the next four weeks is to revisit the Planting Roots Journey on Sundays, in our communities and personally as we seek God in our finances, giving and our future at Element. Click here to download our Re-mix brochure with update letter, next steps and the Re-Mix Commitment card, where we will ask everybody to confirm, renew, modify or make a brand new commitment to our journey.

Within our Gospel Communities, or as a family or group of friends, we encourage you to watch this recap video together and answer the following questions.

 

Introduction
Everybody has a desire to be “rich.” We all think we would handle finances better than other people who are rich, because we secretly see ourselves as being better than them. In reality, if we were rich, we would handle our finances in the same way we do now, just on a larger scale. This is why the Scriptures invite us into a redeemed life that shows us the reality of who we are, and one of the ways that is done is through how we steward our finances.

Discussion
Who would you say is rich? Why?

Explanation
What things do you lack that prevent you from feeling “rich?”
What is something you hold on to that would be hard to give up if God asked you to?

Application – Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19
Do you typically view your possessions as God’s or yours?
Have you ever had the thought that if you just had “more money” you would then become “more generous?”
Why do we tend to think we need to reach or attain the “next level” to do so? How can you find a way to be generous now?

Mission
What does generosity mean to you?
How have others shown you generosity?
How do we model and teach generosity?
How often do you use what God has given you to bless others?

Prayer
Financial Resources: Fulfilled and exceeded commitments, the loan, the sustaining giving to manage the mortgage and maintaining the building while growing in our ability to love and minister to our city and to one another.

Watch the original full-length message here.

The following is a prayer written by Mike Harmon, one of Element’s elders, for reflection during the Planting Roots Re-mix journey. As you pray during the Re-mix we wanted to offer it to you as way to seek God refocus on Jesus.
 
Father, we ask for your good blessing as we continue on this journey of building a facility as a place for Element to gather and to grow, a place to mature and become a community who would love and influence our city with the gospel. We ask that your gospel would redeem and transform our city as you have redeemed and transformed us.
 
We continue on this journey knowing that any facility we would undertake to build is no substitute for Jesus’ rule and reign. A building is not meant to honor us, cause us to feel good about ourselves, or even to somehow contain Your glory as no building built by human hands could ever do so. We don’t do this for You because we think You need a facility, we do it as a mean for You to continue to reveal Yourself and bring redemption to our community. We recognize that it is Jesus who is building a place for You to dwell, purchased by His blood, and we are that house, that dwelling! Teach us to understand that we, as your people, are being built up into a dwelling place for Your presence and power, that we might become ambassadors and representatives of You in our city!
 
Father increase our faith and our trusting You more deeply through this process of building and moving into our permanent “home.” May we grow in Your likeness through it all. Keep our focus centered on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, worshiping and rejoicing with thanksgiving at the gift we’ve been given. Teach us live knowing that a facility is nothing more than a tool to facilitate what You are doing in us individually, collectively, and in our city by transforming it by the gospel lived out in and by us.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)
 
You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 (ESV)
 

Big News for Planting Roots this month! The first is that we have entered a lease agreement with our landlord to rent our current facility one more year (until January 1st, 2018)! This should give us the time needed to build our permanent home.

Here's an overview of where we are with our Planting Roots Journey:

Last week, we were able to submit our plans to the city for the first of two major permits we need, our Planned Development Permit! We are very excited about this milestone and await to hear back from the City. Click here to check out some of the new drawings/plans that we have been working hard on completing!

 

Hello Element, this is your first major Planting Roots update.
 
I cannot tell you how humbled, excited, and thrilled (I almost used the word giddy) I am to be on this Planting Roots journey with you. It’s been a little over 9 months now since Planting Roots started with a three-year commitment of $1,100,000.00. So far Element has received $322,935 towards the pledged amount! At this point 201 families or individuals have given towards our future home; a good portion of those didn’t even make a pledge toward the 1.1 million goal. It honestly looks like, at the end of this three year journey, that we will be over the goal (and that is a huge blessing).
 
We are currently having discussions about securing the rest of the funding needed to build. We are in talks with a lender in town and have entered the preparation phase for what they would need to secure a construction loan. This includes going through a financial audit of our books and getting a new appraisal of our land; these two things will determine the amount of “cash injection” we will need to start construction next year.
 
You may keep looking out at our field and thinking it still just looks like dirt, but that is far from the truth, we are we are hoping to start construction the first quarter next year. Our civil engineer and architect are drawing plans that will soon be sent to the electrical, plumbing, and landscape engineers. Our soil samples are done (we passed with flying colors), and we are about to submit many plans/documents to the city for our land use permit and rezoning.
 
I would like to encourage you to continue in your Planting Roots commitments; we still need everything promised (and more). This leads me to my 4 “ifs:”
 

• If you made a commitment and haven’t started giving yet, please notify us if something has changed; remember, you can always change your commitment up or down by filling out a new commitment card. We do not want to be legalistic or have you feel like you are locked into something that God is calling you out of; we are simply trying to budget correctly for the coming future.
   
• If a life circumstance has affected your commitment, or your ability to give at the moment, please also let us know. We want to do everything we can to remain faithful to Jesus throughout the building process. Remaining faithful means always allowing you to revise the commitment that was originally made.
   
• If there is anything that the staff, elders, board members, or I can do throughout the process of your Planting Roots journey, please don’t hesitate to call or email us. If you need prayer or encouragement, please know that we are always here for one you.
   
• If you haven’t made a commitment or are not even sure what Planting Roots is, check out the Planting Roots wall in the lounge or elementroots.org to learn more. Who knows, you might even decide to make a commitment to help us get into the future!

As we continue to point out, none of this would ever be possible without Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior, who reached out and saved a lost people and called us His own. We ask that no matter what circumstances come your way, you would continue to pray for all those who will hear the Gospel of Jesus through the life and ministry of Element.
 
Thank you for being a part of Element with your life and investing in our future home. I am humbled to be on this journey with you.
Aaron 

Part of the Planting Roots journey is about resources.  Specifically, God's resources and our relationship to them.  For much of my personal planting roots journey, which began when I was saved at age 11 and started in earnest when Jennifer and I were expecting our daughter Lauren, my relationship with God's resources has been in total disarray. 
 
Ask my Mom or wife: I can be a bit stuff-obsessed.  When I wanted something as a little boy, I would execute a three-to-four month campaign of wearing my parents down.  Like a siege army, I would deplete their resolve until I had secured the object of my desire.  I would like to say that this has not been the story of my life, but I would be lying.  Compounding matters, I have always been a planner and saver with money. I know how to earn it, save it and amass it.  Thriftiness is typically a virtue. However, I had a relationship with my money and stuff, and as a result it strained my relationship with the One who gave me the money and stuff.  You know WHO I mean. 
 
In my mid-twenties when I began to seek my Savior in relationship, Jennifer and I were involved with a terrific group of Christian friends in a weekly (sometimes daily) small group.  During this time our group -- all of us recent college grads and newlyweds -- decided to take an obedience challenge.  We decided to take on Proverbs 3:9-10.  Money was something I was good at.  Surely I could at least be obedient though giving to the church I attended. 
 
I told Aaron last week that I am reluctant to give people my testimony about tithing, because I think they will get the wrong idea.  He told me I didn't have a choice.  As the story goes on you will understand what I mean. 
As I said, I thought I was pretty good with money and I had sufficient income that making my tithe would be an easy first step in obeying God more fully.  Jennifer and I started with a decision to tithe, but we ended up where we should have started...with prayer.  Our decision was to give the full tithe (old testament style). For those not yet following, that meant the first tenth of every dollar we made, would now go to Bandera Road Community Church.  Our next step was to make a budget, which we had not had to this point in our marriage.  It was at this point I discovered my relationship with stuff was preventing me from growing in the relationship with the One whose resources I spent on the stuff.  Jennifer and I had two new car payments, a mortgage, and a new baby.  What we didn't have was ten percent of our income to pay a tithe.   
 
It was at this point we regrouped and circled back to where we should have started in the first place: prayer.  From our budgeting, we knew that we could give three percent, but we wanted to give ten percent.  We agreed that all that we had belonged to God.  So, it occurred to us that if we wanted to serve Him with what is already His, perhaps we should just ask Him for an assist. (Matt 21:22)
 
That month we gave three percent.  After more prayer and a harder look at our budget, we cut out some luxuries and found that God had provided enough in our budget to not only tithe, but cover all of the obligations which we made before we considered financial obedience. By the second month of the challenge we paid our full tithe. I had not yet read Malachi 3:10 (read it now), but I am convinced this was God's answer to our obedience. Also, this is where things took a turn for the weird.  That month I received a check in the mail from my Military Travel Credit Card reimbursing me for multiple overpayments I had made during overseas travel. Apparently, I benefited from the exchange rate and my math had been conservative.  Here is the thing though -- the reimbursement was unexpected and more than the amount I tithed by roughly ten percent.  I know...makes the hair on your neck stand up. 
 
Needless to say, I kept tithing. I will admit this hasn't happened every month since we started tithing.  Though unexpected money has shown up at critical times of need since then.  But more than that, out of our tithing God put us on the path of stewardship and budgeting that allowed us to pay off our car debt and build a rainy day fund.  Through steady obedience in this small way, God has shown us that we cannot out-give Him.  The best part has been that He has matured us on the subject of resources.  I know now that God does not want me to be dogmatic about some percentage; He wants 100 percent.  It is His.  He wants us to experience the joy of being generous as He is generous. What is funny is that He is so generous that He allows us to give away His stuff! (2 Cor. 8)
 
Having tested and seen that God is good in the area of resources and money, Jennifer and I resolved to set a dollar amount to give to our local Church.  We felt this is important for two reasons.  First, God faithfully allows me a paycheck twice a month; I should acknowledge His generosity.  Second, I believe it is important to give at the place where you are serving and being served.  Since I have five members in my family, I require a lot of service, so this turns out to be a real bargain for me. 
 
The best part about this is that God wants you to bring the tithe into the storehouse.  He wants you to fill up the storehouse, so that there will be plenty to feed His Kingdom.  This means giving is wide open.  When you give, ask yourself, "Is this for my glory or God's glory?" If the answer is that you are giving for God's glory, then sign the check.  If you are worried that it felt too good to do something nice for another person with the money God gave you (i.e. you think you might be glorifying yourself)... STOP WORRYING!!!  Think how much more God is smiling that you gave to a person in need so He could be glorified. 
 
I believe in giving to my local church, but if given the choice of dropping it in the offering box or meeting the need of another person who is hurting.  I choose the person every time.  Seldom do I have to make a choice between the two. God has made a way to do both.
 
If you are new at Element or a Military person who will likely move in three years, you may ask, "What stake do I have in the building program?"  Perhaps none.  Perhaps everything.  As a nomadic Christian, my roots have been planted in the community that I have found at many churches.  In Christ's eyes, we are one body of believers. It is no different for me to give to build a building in Santa Maria or Timbuktu, so long as it houses a body of believers who exalt Jesus Christ. 
 
As Jennifer and I transitioned from California to Maryland, God allowed us a wonderful gift of generosity.  Without a Church home, He allowed us to give our full tithe to serve people whom we know and love.  We even got to give a few months to a building fund for a group of believers whom we love, but may never get to worship with again. 
 
As you give from the resources that God blesses you with, you get to experience your Father in Heaven in one of the best ways.  You get to feel His generosity.  Someday when we experience the full measure of His lavish generosity, it will seem strange to us that we ever held back, when all we had to do to know Him was give.