Taking a little blog break today to spend some much needed time with my beautiful bride on her day off. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!
Archive for October, 2008
Elevation Take Aways (Post #3) – “Be Audacious”
If there is one thing Elevation Church believes with all their hearts, it is that God has called them to reach people far from Him. And in order to reach the people they’ve never reached, they understand that they have to do the things that have never been done before…
This seems like such a simple concept, but again it is one that we in the church world miss more than we make. Instead, we end up looking around to see what everyone else is doing and we try to cut & paste into our own situation. Unfortunately, we never see the same results, if any at all, because God has not called us to be any other church except for our own.
When God gave Pastor Steven Furtick the vision at age 16 to one day start a church in a major city somewhere in the United States, He never intended for this church to simply follow the status quo in planting or leading a church. And because they are attempting things that have never been done before they are reaping a harvest like never before reaped…
God is blessing their audacity because “Audacity” is simply “action-based” faith, and guess what -
GOD BLESSES FAITH!!!
Have Pastor Steven and Elevation Church established relationships with Pastor Perry Noble and NewSpring Church or Pastor Craig Groeschel and LifeChurch.tv in order to gain inspiration into how ministry CAN be done? Absolutely.
Have they learned from leaders like Pastor Andy Stanley, Pastor Ed Young Jr., or even Apostle Ron Carpenter and Bishop T.D. Jakes? You better believe it.
But more than just relying on these leaders in the church world to answer their questions and give them direction, Pastor Steven Furtick and Elevation Church have followed the examples of all of these leaders as they have always referred them back to the Scripture for God’s special revelation to speak uniquely into their given situation! Which is really the best kept secret for successful ministry and the exact mistake too many church leaders unfortunately make…
So Elevation Church has taught us to always answer these 2 questions:
1. Who are WE?
AND
2. How do we do REVIVE CHURCH like nobody else?
Why these 2 questions? Because we are the only ones who can answer them honestly AND we are the only ones who can do what we do the BEST!!!
Why? Because GOD has called US to do it and if WE don’t do it to our very best ability, then NO ONE else can or will…
So what is it God has called you to do? And what is it going to take for you to do it within your very BEST ability?
Whatever IT is, go and DO IT! Take some risks, make some mistakes, and run hard after whatever it is God has told YOU to do.
BE AUDACIOUS for the Kingdom and watch what God does when you actually step out and trust in Him, rather than relying on what everyone else is doing around you or has done before you!!!
Elevation Take Aways (Post #2) – “Sit Down!”
It is crucial for each of us in this crazy world of church planting to realize we are all “on a very small boat.” And the last thing any of us need is for people to start standing up without being told to do so because the water gets very rocky really quick and our little boat is just one shift away from completely turning over.
So what is it your people need to hear more than anything else right now…
“SIT DOWN!“
But what do we as church planters find ourselves wanting to do more often than not? Telling people to stand up, which is completely the wrong approach. Because we find ourselves only trying to plug holes. And all too often it is with the people who have the wrong sized fingers! For example, have you ever found yourself asking these questions or making these statements…
“Well if I could just somebody to work with the kids?” OR “We’ve got to get somebody to do assimilation?” OR “I don’t care if she can’t sing, somebody has to lead worship,” Or “People. Why can’t we just get more people. It doesn’t matter how mad they are at their other church. We can use them here…,” etc.
The problem with this approach is we go chasing after the first person who comes waltzing through the door, never testing them to know whether they have really sold out to the vision, and never allowing God to send us the right people to actually carry out the mission He has given us.
Maybe the problem is we have never been clear enough on who we are and who we aren’t because we as leaders have done a poor job of communicating the vision, if in fact you really have a vision from God to begin with…
So we end up letting just any well intentioned individual stand up, no matter how hard they may rock the boat, and in the end the boat tips over with everybody going man-over-board. All because you were too quick to put the wrong people in the right positions. Doesn’t Scripture warn us about this?
Elevation Church has taken a different approach and God is blessing them for it. If you want to sing on the stage, you had better cleaned the toilets. If you want to teach the kids, you had better parked the cars. If you want to lead the volunteers, you had better carried in the heaviest sound equipment. And if you want to partner with their church, you had better love the city of Charlotte enough to die for it because that is exactly what you are giving you life away to do!
What a process of raising up leaders!!! One where you ask people to pick up the servant’s towel before you let them attempt to sit at the table. Seems to me this is how Jesus developed those He was placing in leadership and wouldn’t it behoove us to follow His example!
So the question you need to wrestle with is,
“Who do you need to tell that it’s time to SIT DOWN?!“
We are learning from Elevation, and we will always be SLOW TO HIRE and QUICK TO FIRE!!!
Again, we say thank you to Elevation Church for teaching us one more lesson on what it means to do things the way Scripture says we should…
Praying the Psalms
A Psalm for you today…
I will praise the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. I will boast in the Lord; the humble will hear and be glad. Proclaim with me the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt His name together.
Psalm 34:1-3
My encouragement to you is to read the rest of the Psalm, allowing the Psalm to become your prayer for your life today. He is worthy of our praise, so let’s praise Him today!!!
Elevation Take Aways (Post #1) – “Easy & Obvious”
Not sure how many of you have been a “visitor” at another church before, but if you have, you understand the intimidation and confusion that comes with walking into a brand new experience for the very first time. It can quite challenging to say the least.
But Elevation Church has gone above and beyond in solving this problem. In fact, their guest services and first impressions department prides itself in giving their first time guests the best possible experience. How do they do this? By following this simple principle…
EASY and OBVIOUS
It doesn’t matter to them how cool it looks or outside of the box it may be; if it isn’t easy and it isn’t obvious, they’re not doing it! Period.
This includes everything from the signage they put out, to the way cars are parked, to how people enter the building, to where parents drop off their kids, to who ushes them into their seats, to which way they hear the announcements, to how they are to respond at the end of the service, to whom they report their first time visit, to how they go back to pick up their kids, to where they now exit the building, to where they finally pull out of the parking lot, and that’s just the beginning…
This in only on SUNDAY MORNINGS!!! It doesn’t even begin to factor in all of the connecting that happens during the week. So if you are wanting to learn how Elevation Church makes it happen, always remember to keep everything EASY and OBVIOUS, and maybe even with a smile on your face…
Now that may be overstating the importance of simplicity in hospitality, but WOW -
What a novel idea so many of us miss!!!
Thank you Elevation for setting the example. 
