If you’ve spent any time at all trying to coordinate all of the data that
comes with running small groups, then you’ve probably checked out of this
entry already because you know the importance of a database. But just in
case you don’t know, let me hammer on it for a little while. You need a
database that connects you to all of the other ministries in your church.

I made the mistake of spending too much time with spreadsheets. In fact, at
the height of my spreadsheet usage, I had about 8 spreadsheets running at
all times. That means that one person could be cut-pasted-and copied up to
eight times on any given day. With hundreds of people being moved around
every week, it was very easy to drop people through the cracks.

So then, I hear about this new technology that looks kind of like a
spreadsheet, but actually does more than store your information… You know
what’s amazing about a database? It automatically updates a person’s email
address in all of the records when you change it on just one little screen.
So instead of cutting-and-pasting someone until he looks like a 3 year olds’
craft project, I can actually track him with a simple left-click. I’m not
saying that spreadsheets are all bad. If you’re trying to organize your
mother-in-law’s recipes you could get a lot of mileage out of a good
spreadsheet, but for Small Groups, I would strongly recommend a database.

John Bishop - Small Groups Director

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Every organization will rise or fall based upon a few basic foundational
principles. As I reflected upon the short history of our church there were
several essential elements that surfaced. The following reflect the bedrock
principles that framed not only our organizational structure, but also
shaped our philosophy of ministry.

1. Build a powerful team. Without it the church won’t make it or will
only make it so far. Most church starts lose 50% or more of the original
core group within a few years. We’ve lost 0% to date.

2. The team needs to be made up of people who will complement the lead
pastor, not compete with him. They must understand their gifts and see
themselves as coming alongside the lead pastor to help implement his vision,
not create their own. Without the culture of submission, unity can be
extremely difficult at best and impossible at worst.

3. Start with a vision of where you want to go. Structure it from day one
like you want it to be at day 1001. It will feel weird but you have to know where you are going.

4. Remain faithful to the church you are at as you are starting something
new. The quickest way to remove God’s hand of blessing is to bring about
seeds of disunity where you coming from. Continue to honor God and tithe to
that church as long as you are there.

5. Pray and fast like mad.

6. Have a simple strategy for ministry. We do two things at Elevation
Church: worship experiences and small groups. That’s it, that’s all we do.
Now we do those two things for children, middle schoolers, high schoolers
and adults. If we attempted to do more than that we would end up doing a
bunch of average things and nothing with excellence. So figure out what you
are called to do and do them with excellence. And as people come along and
think it would be great to start a ministry to “left handed transvestites”
you will be able to say “that doesn’t fit our vision”. We have that
conversation almost daily. People come to Elevation with personal passions
and fall in love with the church and think, “Elevation needs to start doing
what I’m passionate about”. You gotta know what is a “yes” and a “no”
before you’ll be asked. Remain true to that vision no matter how big of a
check that person wants to write.

7. Be a sponge; learn from everyone but “own it”. Don’t be like North
Point or Willow Creek. Burrow their principles and develop your own
practices. Because if you don’t own “it”, you’ll never die for “it” or
fully embrace “it”.

8. There is a difference between “respecting” the pastor and “honoring”
the pastor. Developing an environment of honoring the pastor as the man of
God is essential to the advancement of the vision. Honoring a pastor cannot
come out of a culture where he is everyone’s friend or buddy; he must be
seen as “God’s prophet and priest”.

Larry Brey - Assimilation Pastor

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God has blessed Elevation Church and we want to share some of the things we’ve learned in 14 short months of ministry. The intention of Access Elevation is not to tell anyone how they should run their Church. The goal of this blog is to simply allow the staff members of Elevation Church to share what they’ve learned in their area of ministry.

Before we begin this venture I must throw in a few disclaimers. First, we don’t have anything figured out. God has given Elevation Church an unbelievable wave of momentum that this team of fishermen is simply trying to not screw up. Our hope is that through this blog we will give anyone that wants to know some insight into why we do certain things, how we arrived at those decisions, and hopefully keep you from repeating our mistakes.

It is important to know that as systems evolve we must be willing to change. This means that if we ever decide the way we do things is perfect, then we will confine ourselves to the very system we’ve created. Thus, the innovation is lost and we get stuck. We refuse to do this at Elevation Church. So, as we describe some of the processes and systems of Elevation Church, know that in 6 months we may think a particular idea is horrible and be ashamed we ever posted about it. But we’re not scared. A growing Church is on a journey not headed for a particular destination. Along the way there are many stops that we will be addressing in routine blog entries.

The plan is to post 3-4 times per week with different staff members chiming in each time. Our prayer is that this is a resource for the Church starts, while also ministering to existing Churches. We are also well aware that there is more than one way to skin a cat. This is how we’ve skinned it and continue to skin it. If you’ve got better systems, praise God and stick with them.

Chunks Corbett - Executive Pastor

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…and giving a BOLD invitation!

During my first year as a Children’s Pastor, I hesitated to give an invitation and ask children to respond to the gospel. I know that may seem odd, but I honestly think it was because I was paralyzed by fear. You are probably thinking, “Fear? Why would a Children’s Pastor be afraid to give an invitation for kids to accept Christ?�

Honestly, we shared the gospel with children on a pretty regular basis in E-Kidz, but it wasn’t until one year after our church launched that I actually gave an invitation to respond! I was afraid that some of the children might be too young, feared negative parents’ responses, and I worried that not all the kids would make a sincere decision for Christ.

Pastor Furtick and I were talking one day and he really challenged me on this concept. He said, “You know what, Heather, I felt the same way about giving an invitation to people. I worried that people would accept Christ, but that it wouldn’t be sincere.�

Pastor Furtick reminded me of the parable in Matthew 13 about the wheat and the weeds. Both weeds and wheat grew in this farmer’s field, and a servant asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go ahead and pull the weeds up?� The man replied, “No, because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.� (verses 28-29) Basically, God revealed the truth that He will sort out the weeds from the wheat, and all I need to do is to be obedient by planting the seed in children’s lives.

On Easter Sunday, April 8th 2007, I was obedient to God and decided to give a powerful invitation to all the children in Kindergarten through 5th grade in E-Kidz for the first time. We used a powerful presentation that I got from Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas. The script included three live actors, as well as 2 powerful worship songs. I found the script, as well as several small group activities, on creativepastors.com. It was an amazing day! The children were so attentive during the presentation of the gospel, and the Holy Spirit was incredibly present in the room while we shared with the kids. 28 children ended up receiving Christ as their Savior at our Central Campus, and 25 children received Christ at our Union Campus! 54 children gave their lives to Christ that day in E-Kidz, and I was blown away!

So, how about you? What is holding you back from sharing the gospel with the kids in your children’s ministry and giving them a chance to respond? Over 50% of all Christians accepted Christ as their Savior before the age of 18. That blows my mind! 50%! God is all about children receiving Him! “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.� Matthew 18:5

Heather Bishop - Children’s Pastor

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