I started blogging back in Feb of 07 mainly to track the story that God was about to take myself and the story of launching The Chapel at Elmwood. It has been over 5 years and what a journey it has certainly been. I would have never guessed that God would have led us to where we are now as Renovation Church. 

I have posted many times about different spiritual milestones and big wins along the way and today is another BIG ONE! 

At the stroke of midnight tonight we will be closing a significant chapter that has allowed us to see God do some amazing things in the lives of hundreds of people and in the community that we serve in. 

Starting May 1 we will be standing on our "own." I say that because we know we do nothing on our own but in the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ. Renovation Church will be stepping out from under the incredible, generous, missional ministry of The Chapel! 

We have been so blessed by the investment of The Chapel... from my pastor and dear friend Jerry Gillis, the godly men of the Board, the loving staff, and the generous and faithful people that make up this amazing church. I know of no other story like the one God has been telling through The Chapel and Renovation and that story is far from over... just a new chapter. 

We started this journey with about 75 people willing to take a chance and trust God in launching The Chapel's first "plant" Easter Sunday of 07. Since then God has allowed that intial 75 to grow to over 700... a church of little diversity to a community of faith full of diversity... we started with the mandate to "go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in..." and that is what we have tried to do.

We started with two rules... inVEST and inVITE... inVEST in people and authentic relationships and then inVITE them into a relationship with Jesus Christ and that is what we are still doing and I pray we will do until He comes back!

We have started the XCEL Leadership Center... partnering with families to grow healthy in five key areas... socially, educationally, financially, physically and of course spiritually. We started with a few and now we hope to invest in developing and unleashing 1500 leaders by 2015 in all shapes and sizes all over our city!

Our relationships with other churches and ministries in our city continues to strengthen and deepen...

Our first global initiative is on the horizon!

I have several emotions and thoughts...

GRATEFUL... grateful that God loves me and choses to use me (crazy)... grateful for the investment by so many in me personally and in Renovation Church... 

INSPIRED... inspired by other people, other churches, other minstires that have paved the way ahead for us and inspired to pave new roads for others to come along...

HUMBLED... knowing that leadership is a stewardship, it's temporary and we are accountable... we must lead well for God's honor and for the benefit of so many.

DETERMINED... to much is given much is required... I want to finsh strong... by the grace and strength of the risen Savior living within me I want my heavely Father to say to me and one day to thousands of others because of the work He will do through Renovation Church... "well done!"

Thank you Father, thank you Pastor Jerry, thank you Chapel Family... love you and will be eternally grateful!

Can't wait to live the next chapter!

Sometimes all you can say is... WOW!

I was saying that a lot today.

Every Sunday for the last 5 years my middle child (Caleb) has gotten up with me and gone in early to get ready for our Sunday Gatherings.

Today was no different.

I took the route that we went 5 years ago as we were about to officially launch The Chapel at Elmwood at the Elmwood Regal Theater. Caleb (7 years old) and I reflected on that day as we drove by the Theater. That was an amazing day... we launched our 1st offical gatheirng with 305! That was a crazy good day and I remember the emotion and the celebration of that day. I remember how scared I was the next wondering if anybody would come back! For the next 20 months we continued that journey at the Regal. Of course I could have never dreamed where would be 5 years later.

Fast forward to Easter of 09 when we clebrated our first Easter as Renovation Church... we were now having 2 gatheirngs instead of 1 and God again blew me away... we brought all the kids together and we saw over 400 gather on that day. During the course of that first year we saw over a 1000 people walk through our doors for the first time. We began to see this incredibly diverse and beautiful collection of people starting to make Renovation their home. Of course just about everything we do at Renovation starts out as an experiment so we did a lot of experimenting that year in a lot of ways. We threw a week long party on the summer of 09 and called it Summer jam and were again blown away as hundreds joined us each night... it was an awesome 1st year as Renovation.

Then 09 quickly turned to 2010 and we celebrated our 2nd Renovation Easter with over 700 people! We saw dozens of men, women and children receive the invitation that Christ offers to us. We celebrated that day like no other and it carried us through another amazing year. We began to take purposeful steps of christian community development. We began to take better steps in our community and for our community. Something beautiful was taken shape and we celebrated God's goodness!

2011 came in a with a bang as we went from 2 gatherings to 3... it was a big step up faith for us but we had some great new team members get involved to pull it off. We rolled into our 3rd Easter with high expectations that many would vist and many would come to Christ on Easter and that is exactly what happened! We saw just over 800 on Easter last year and we celebrated once again the way God was working in the hearts and lives of so many in our community. 2011 blew by as new things like our XCEL Leadership Center started to take off in awesome ways and we celebrated God's continued favor.

2012 came in with Joshua and the Renovation Station launching our 3rd experience for kids during the 12 noon gathering. This was a huge step of faith and engagement for many of our folks. We new it would not be easy but of course nothing worth while is! So we launched that 3rd environment in Feb and we celebrated that win! 

We went through 40 Days In the Word where over 400 people engaged in small groups, and spending time getting to know the Word, love it and to begin to live it out. Many began to give financially in ways they never had before and we celebrated all of it at the end of those 40 days!

We began to look toward our 4th Easter with great anticiaption. We talked about how Easter is the best day of the year to invite people to come to Church and it is the best day for people to come to Christ! So we did a little tag team... we began to pray for those to invite and that they would come... I promised that we would do our best as a leadership tean to share the transforming message of Jesus Christ in a clear, compelling way for both kids and adults and so we got ready for today...

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night because I was so internally amped up for what could happen today...

I got to thinking yesterday that we needed more chairs in the auditorium so I drove over to ABC rental and loaded up my car with some stackable chairs just to make sure... I said God if you provide the people I will make sure they have seats!

Patrick and a crew of people spent the last 2 Saturdays getting our campus as beautiful as we have ever had it...

Then waking up to a beautiful sunshiny day Caleb (now about to turn 13) and I did our normal routine and headed to church!

Once there our teams of people started showing up getting everything ready... I had a sense that God was going to do something special in our mindst today...

We had a great 9.00 gathering... 250 plus adults and 70 some kids in Renovation Station... and about 40 hands went up when I asked for those who prayed to receive Christ to lift their hands!

The 10.30 gathering was nuts... the most people we have ever had in the Aud... so gald I got the xtra chairs we used everyone of them... another 50 plus hands went up... Renovation Station packed...

I didn't know what to expect at noon but we had almost the same amont @ noon that we did @ 10.30... and had a hundred plus hands go up saying they had prayed that pray of savation with me!

Joshua told me that they had lots of kids also pray to recieve Christ... and they had almost 200 kids total in Renovation Station!

All total we had right at 1200 men, women and children come to Renovation today to celebrate not a religious holiday but an event... the greatest event in human history... the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! Not only did they come but possibly a couple of hundred men, women and children were welcomed into the family of God and that is defintely worth celebrating!

For all of you who helped, contributed in same form or fashion to the success of our day I say thank you! I am so blessed and blown away to serve with such an amazing collection of people. 

In closing... I had a 85 year old grandmother who came up to me after the noon gathering and said... I have been going to church and teaching religious classes most of my life and today I finally understood what it meant to invite Jesus Christ into my life and have a personal relationship with Him... she told me "thank you!" I said to her... no thank you! thank you for coming and thank you for sharing that with me... Renovation great job today... let's celebrate what God has done... He alone is worthy of our praise!

It was great getting to "look around" this past Sunday!

I had Joshua Dean our Family Pastor @ Renovation speak on one of our 5 Orange Startegies... Fight for the Heart!

He did an awesome job communicating this very important strategy for our lives. It was a great reminder to us parents/caregivers that is hard to fight for our kids heart if we aren't starting with fighting for our own heart.

We got to see 5 families dedicate themselves as they brought their young babies before our community of faith and commit themselves to train up their childern and to see them grow in stature and in faith before God and others.

It was a beautiful sight to see and experience...

I also got a chance to zip down to Village Church which is a new church plant being birthed in the Elmwood Village. Gloria and I got to go down and worship with the Village crew and it was awesome! We have been able to partner (along with many oter churches) with them to help them launch successfully. They are one of our Love Revolution partners. We have a vested interest in seeing Village Church not just to get launched but to actually gain momentum and to begin to thrive in a community that desperately needs Jesus. 

It was great seeing some of the folks that had been at Renovation...helping us and being a part of our leadership now being a part of the core launch team and helping the Village Church grow and mature! 

My pray for Renovation since day one has been that we would be a launching pad for people to grow up and out for God. We have been blessed to see many people who came to Renovation for a season and while they were here had a real impact on us but as God has raised up new church plants in our region we have been able to send folks with those pastors to help them launch new churches. 

What is pretty awesome to look back and see is the contribution that not only Renovation has made but how the contribution and generosity of The Chapel has now been passed on to 2nd, 3rd generation church plants and beyond...

The Chapel bought and resourced us as The Chapel at Elmwood with a trailor full of equipment... we used it hard for 20 months until we moved into our new and present location at Renovation Church. We took some of that same equipment and sent it along with some finances and people to help launch Restoration Church and then did the same with NorthGate Church and then some of it went to The Well and the same can be said about the Village Church...

I can't wait to see where it will go next!

The intial investment that The Chapel made in us has now been invested in 4 other church plants where collectively some 1200 - 1400... more people are hearing and seeing the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a weekly base! 

That is awesome to see!

I truly believe that the Gospel Tide is rising in our region and we must be active in bringing men, women and children to Christ while their is still time!

We had a great celebration as we celebrated what God has done in so many lives over the last 40 days! 

When I look back I am sure 40 Days will be a real spiritual mile-marker for us as a church. 

I believe that when you get 75% of your adult/student population involved in small groups, reading scripture, praying, memorizing scripture great things are sure to happen! And happen they have...

It has been so cool to hear how the Word is coming alive in the hearts of so many... "for the first time I'm really getting something out of my devotional time" has been a repeated statement over the last 40 days... prayer request answered, 

I had one lady share that she was 52 years old and had never really tithed but her and her husband decided to jump in and try it for 40 Days and low and behold she couldn't believe they had not trusted God in this way before!

We got to baptize yesterday and heard some great stories of God's rdemption...

We have had our most consistant and largest offerings over the past 6 weeks! 

Seeing missional behaviors come alive in the lives of those at Renovation is an awesome thing to see! Blown away that God has allowed me and our team to be a part of it all. We are all learning, growing and responding to the wisdom of Scritpure and the power of the Holy Spirit!

As we turn the page we are getting ready for Easter weekend!

Our prayer is that we would see over a thousand men, women and children gather together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. We will be handing out tickets (free) for each of our 3 gatherings as an invite card and also letting us know how many to expect at each!

More people will come to church on Easter than on any other day and potentially more people will come to Christ in a personal way on Easter. We want to prepare for that day by praying for it and for those we need to invite and praying that God will move in the hearts of many of our friends and family to come and be with us on that special day. 

I wanted to share with everybody what one of our Renovation Strategic Team Members is helping us with during these 40 Days... Terri has been a part of Renovation from almost the beginning days and has contributed in many ways but we asked her to be our Prayer Coordinator for the 40 Days In the Word initiative and so she has been writing and encouraging our facilitators and team members each week... here is this weeks words of encouragement. (awesome job Terri!)

Dear Faciltators and Connection Teams

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ...So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. - John 8:30-31, 36 ESV

I have heard many praise reports of the time spent in prayer and bible study blessing individuals both inwardly in their relationships with Christ and outwardly in their families and work lives. On the other hand I have also heard accounts of the frustration that many are facing with creating new habits in their lives. Collectively as a church body, we are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, and grabbing a hold of a vision of what Christ wants to do in our lives and how He wants to use us, but yet in many cases we are not yet obtaining the promise, the abundant life in Christ and the answered prayer that we are seeking after.

Frustration in our spiritual lives can take many forms, whether its temptations we can never seem to overcome or an addiction that always seems to get the best of us or even a struggle with having that discipline to pray, study the bible, and live out the scriptures you are reading. The apostle Paul in the bible expressed this same frustration in the book of Romans.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ... So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. - Romans 7:15, 17-19 ESV

Now contrast this with what Paster Brek talked about this past Sunday. We looked at John 14 and talked about our lives producing fruit when we abide IN CHRIST.

What then does it mean to abide in Christ so that we can produce this spiritual fruit? And how can we possibly get past the frustration and sin that we recognize is still in our lives even though we do not want it to be?

We can take comfort knowing that we are not alone in our frustration, every believer, even the apostle Paul had this same process going on in his soul that we do today. We can praise God that He does not change and that the answer to this struggle is found in the word of God.

3 Key Truths that relate to abiding IN CHRIST and gaining victory over the sin in our lives are as follows:

1.       I am crucified with Christ

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. - Rom 6:6 ESV

è Just as Christ was crucified, we too, our old sinful selves are crucified. Why? So that we will no longer be slaves to sin and trapped by sin. This part of us needs to die so that the next truth can take root.

2.       I am resurrected unto newness of life – in the resurrection of Christ

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. - Rom 6:4 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Gal 2:20 ESV

è This is the new life that we are then given. In this new life we no longer serve sin, but now we are able to serve God because Christ lives in us.

3.       I am seated in heavenly places IN CHRIST

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, - Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV

è When we are seated in heavenly places in Jesus Christ, we are positioned “IN CHRIST” meaning all of the power and holiness available to Jesus Christ is available to us. This is what we need to have the life of God being evidenced in our lives, or the fruit that we talked about in service.

These concepts definitely are deep truths, so I encourage you to put into practice the bible study methods that we have been learning by reading & studying Romans 6 line by line so that this makes more sense.

Once you know and understand these truths, how then to you turn what is in the bible, the seemingly impossible life that God has called us to, into practice?

You can think about it as 3 Steps:

1.       Knowing the truth: Intellectually understanding these truths

2.       Reckoning the truth: Believing it is not only true, but true for you individually

3.       Presenting your body: Presenting your life to Christ, surrendering your old life in exchange for a new one

It is my desire and prayer that each one of us will go through the process of believing these powerful truths for themselves and as a result experience the fruit, answered prayer, and abundant joy that comes from truly being IN CHRIST and freed from sin.

Praise God for His Truth that sets men, women, and children free from the stronghold of sin!!!

Terri

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terri Zelasko, PMP 
UB Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2012

Statistics PMBA TA

VP of Business Development, Buffalo MBA Consulting

Bond-servant of the Lord Jesus Christ
275 Jacobs Mgmt Center , (716) 645-5236 
Buffalo, NY 14260               

e-mail: terrizelasko@gmail.com 

It is day 5 and it has already been an absolute incredible week...

We have had some great feed back from our off campus groups that are mostly meeting in homes!

We had our first Wednesday night BRIDGE Experince last night which for the next 6 weeks is all about our 40 DITW small groups! 

We had 140 adults show up... not just show up but excited, passionate about jumping into God's Word. It was crazy cool seeing all of our tables with people engaged in studying God's Word using the Devotional Bible Study method... PRONOUNCE IT!

We also had 70 students from 6th to 12th grade int he basement doing the same thing!

So we had over 200 people on campus last in small groups!

The facilitators did a great job hosting each of their groups at individual tables... had some nice snacks allover the place... i only ate the veggie snacks!

If you missed or did not know about this Wednesday experience then mark your calenders for the nest 5 weeks... from 6:00 - 8:00 pm every week in the Aud!

Hey just so everybody is aware of the daily resources that you have at your disposal...

If you have your small group workbook there is some great tools in their for your daily devo's (devotionals)

If you go to page 8 the heading is Living On Purpose... which you know is what we have been talking about...living life Permanentaly on Purpose!

So read down that page... it gives you a 7 day overview of each verse you are going to dig deeper in for the next week...

Then if you go to page 11 it has space for your journal entries... Pronounce It, Apply It, then Pray for It... this is great very user friendly. I have been using it this week and I love it.

Well here is our verse to Pronounce today...

... I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Philippians 3:12b (NIV)

Ok Renovation we are into day 3 of 40 DITW!

How is it going? 

I hope it is going great for everybody... but I am sure that some of you might have missed maybe day 2... it is hard for us to retrain our rythm for something new when we haven't made something a regular rythm like spendin time with God in prayer and Bible reading and studying. 

So if you already "blew it" not to worry... just jump back in today!

It is our great enemy that is the great accuser and discourager not the Holy Spirit. Our Father is excited to see His children wanting and desiring to know Him more so don't be discouraged if you forget a day just get back into it the next day and live in victory not defeat!

Just got some really awesome news from Michelle as she has updated all of our groups and people participating in 40 DITW... are you ready?

We have 409 currently involved in a 40 Day small group! 

Yes you read that right... 409 and growing!

that breaks down to...

in Homes... 122

in Wed night in the Aud... 177

On campus other (students)  nights... 104

our Kuwait group... 6

WOW!

I am drawing prayer circles around all of those who have coveted together for these 40 days... around our children and students... our college students... our young adults... 

Pronounce the Word today... 

What a great way to kick off our 40 Days In the Word! We had such great energy in all three gatheirngs and I felt great anticipation for what was in store for us not just today but the next 40.

We had 647 total which I think is an all time high for a non Easter Sunday... we had 121 in our 3 Renovation Station environments... we kicked off our 12 noon RS where we had 21 kids which was awesome...

It was really special to see all of our Group facilitator's in their very cool t-shirts in all of our gwtheirngs! We have sold over 200 workbooks with another 150 waiting to get their's this week! Just think we are going to have 350 plus men, women, students engaed in a small group learning how to study God's Word over the next 40 days!

Just so you know if you visit our website... www.therenovationchurch.com you can watch the weekend gatheirngs...

Make sure you post different thoughts and things that happen during htese 40 days along with prayer request on our Facebook or our twitter.

Make sure you go to 40DITW to get your daily devo's and scripture...

It is going to be a game changer for us all over these 40 days and I can't wait to see God do amazing things so Renovation here we go!

40 Days In the Word starts Sunday! We are about to launch into something as individuals, families, and corporately at Renovation that I suspect none of us have experienced before. At least that is what i have been praying for. 

Speaking of praying let me recommend a great book to read as you begin 2012... The Circle Maker by Pastor Mark Batterson. It is fantastic! I have been reading in preperation for our 40 Days In the Word series and it has encouraged me, convicted me and taught me, reminded me... in so many ways. 

We have over 200 people who have coveted together to be in corporate worship together for the next 6 weeks, join a group for the next 6 weeks, read the Word and study/pray for 40 days, to give a percentage of their income for the next 40 days... we have some where between 50 and 60 groups from teens on up!

What if... what if God truly wants to do more than we could imagine... I think that He does and I believe that the trajectory of our church, our families, our community will forever change because of what God is going to do in us and through us over the next 40 days!

We have had an incredible start to 2012 at Renovation. 

We continue to experience growth in so many ways...

strategic service volunteers who are stepping up on all of our teams... gtting ready to launch our 3rd Renovation Station Environment this Sunday... it was a year ago that we launched our 3rd Worship Gathering and now we get to celebrate that our children get an awesome experience each Sunday designed with them in mind!

We have been seeing our Renovation family give generously...we have met our budget for the last 4 months! That is a indication of the maturing our community of faith as we give to support the work that God has called us to do in ad through Renovation... so thank you!

We are seeing growth in our student environment called Renovate Live which is each Wed evening from 6.00 - 8.00. The culture that our kids are growing up is alarming. I thank God for Joshua and his awesome team that are investing in our teens lives in powerful ways.

Lets continue to pray that God would just blow us away over these next 40 Days... what if hundreds came to Jesus Christ... what if marriages start to be re-united... what if people found jobs... what if people were healed... what if sons and dsughters turned their hearts back to their earthly and heavenly Fathers... WHAT IF? 

Renovation can't wait for Sunday... see you there!