When I became the Small Groups guy for Elevation in July of last year, it
didn’t take me very long to figure out that I needed a team. For those of
you that deal with small groups, you know what I mean! After months of
struggling through too much work, I went looking for a team. At first I was
looking for two people: one who had great administrative skills and another
who was good with people. Once I found them, we began meeting as often as
we could.

Having a team of three people doesn’t make you three times as effective; it
makes you ten times as effective. The combined effect of having two other
brains on board was much greater than I expected. To give you an idea of
how much more we were able to accomplish as a team, let me give you some
numbers. When I formed the team, we had about 12 groups. As a direct
result of the efforts of the team, we were able to pull off a very
successful GroupLink event. Now we have about 45 groups. This process took
only 4 months. Obviously, there were a lot of other things involved, but
without the team the whole thing would have crashed and burned before it
ever got off the ground.

While we were brainstorming for GroupLink, Holly (the people person) said,
“I was thinking about GroupLink all last night and I wrote out a list of
things that I think might work…” Then she rolled out a memo-pad filled
with late-night scribbles. At the top of the sheet were the words, “Speed
Dating.” In about an hour we had wrestled the concept of “Speed Dating” to
the ground. The actual GroupLink event didn’t look much like “Speed Dating”
at all but having that idea as a starting point vaulted us weeks ahead in
the planning process.

So what kind of person makes the cut? I look for the person that is going
to think about small groups when I’m not around. The one that calls me on a
Saturday morning with the latest thought about how to improve the follow-up
process for the people on the waiting list. I look for the person that is
going to buy-in to the vision and purpose of Small Groups at Elevation
without any reservation. In short; I’m looking for passion! If they’ve got
passion, they can be on my team.

John Bishop, Community Groups Director

Filed under: Small Groups | Comments Off

At Elevation Church, we encourage people to get involved in 4 main ways and we call these the 4G’s: Groups, Giving, Gifts, and Growth.

As a Children’s Pastor, I know that in order for the children in E-Kidz to fully understand the vision of why we exist as a church, they need to be given the opportunity to get involved just like the adults do. I realized that we were offering opportunities in E-kidz for the children to participate in all of the 4G’s except Gifts. Each week, we were putting children in consistent small groups with other kids in the same grade (Groups), letting them give of their resources through collecting an offering (Giving), and encouraging them to invite their friends to church (Growth). We hadn’t really provided any opportunities for children to be using their gifts on a regular basis at Elevation.

A few months ago, we decided to offer an opportunity for any child in grades 3-5 to get involved at Elevation by serving. We wanted the children in E-Kidz to have the opportunity to participate in the exciting move of God that is taking place at our church and to be able to make an impact on the kids and families in the city of Charlotte.

This is how it works: We created a new service team called Kidz ‘N Motion and invited any child in grades 3-5 to participate. We had a brief training meeting at our church office where we met with these children and their parents to describe what the children would be doing. Each child received a special blue t-shirt with a Kidz ‘N Motion logo on it to wear while they serve. The children were given the opportunity to volunteer during one worship service at least 2 times per month to help greet and welcome new families on Sunday mornings. Each child volunteer was trained to stand with the adult greeters at the First Time Guest podium and help new families sign in using our information card. The child volunteer’s goal was to talk to the new visitors and make them feel comfortable and excited about being able to experience E-Kidz for the first time.

After the visitor was checked in, the child volunteer escorts them to their appropriate class. After they have escorted the new child and family, they return to the First Time Guest podium and write the child a friendly postcard that will be sent in the mail the following week. In this way, the children at Elevation have truly begun to feel like they too are a vital part of this movement of seeing people who are “far from God� become filled with life in Christ. In addition, the children in Kidz ‘N Motion are also given other opportunities to serve in Community Outreach Projects throughout Charlotte. These outreach projects are the same ones that our adults are involved with on a regular basis.

It has been so wonderful to see the kids at Elevation feel truly connected to the vision and mission of our church: to see “people far from God filled with life in Christ.�

Heather Bishop, Children’s Pastor

Filed under: Children's Ministry | Comments Off

The following is intended for the church plant that doesn’t have a
congregation, office or an idea where to begin. I’m not a non-profit
attorney and don’t claim the following is by the book. But this is what I
found to be the best way to establish the church as an organization. And my
life would have been a lot easier if I would have had it put this simple.

Organizational Establishment - Part 1

a. Select Church Name

b. Obtain PO Box (address)

c. Prepare and Obtain Federal Identification Number

d. Prepare and file Articles of Incorporation with state

e. Establish Church Checking Account

Organizational Establishment - Part 2

f. Prepare bylaws

g. Prepare IRS 1023

h. Submit and process 1023

i. Obtain non-profit bulk mail permit

j. Obtain state sales tax exemption

a) Church name-make it good! I’m partial to Elevation Church myself.

b) PO Box- It’s important to get a PO Box in the city you are planting.
People giving to a church plant are more comfortable when they know it’s at
least headed to the right state.

* You may have to use a physical address for certain documents (ie.
Articles of Inc.). I would highly recommend using an address other than the
lead planter.

c) The Federal ID Number is also called the EIN (employee
identification number) or tax-ID number. You must fill out an SS-4 form
which can be downloaded at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss4.pdf.

d) Included in your Articles of Incorporation with the state, you must
include the church’s dissolution policy or distribution of assets- They want
to know where the assets are going if you close the doors. This can be cut
and pasted from your bylaws. Some states require other things such as
purposes and duration. Try to google your state + incorporation.

e) Get the checking account with the PO Box on it or the home address of
the church administrator- not the Lead Pastor. It’s wise to set the account
up requiring two signatures for accountability but I will warn you- this is
difficult when you don’t have any offices.

f) Bylaws- Not the easiest step but maybe the most important. Whatever
structure you adopt should be clearly defined in the bylaws. There are
numerous churches in America functioning in a manner not consistent with
their bylaws. Take your time, consult with other churches, and get it right.
I’ll post later on specifics to include in your bylaws.

g) The 1023 Form is the infamous 501(c)3. Download a 1023 form at
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1023.pdf or you can search 1023 on the IRS’s
site. This is the tough one. It cost $500 to file and attorneys typically
charge at least that to file for you ($1,000 total). What makes it so hard
is that they want so much data that you may not have as a plant. I would
tell every church plant to read through the 1023 to see the things they are
looking for even if you aren’t ready to apply. People want to know you have
your 501(c)3 before they give. This is true even though you don’t
technically need it as a church for their gift to be deductible.

h) To submit your 1023 simply follow the directions on the form and pray
it is accepted the first time.

i) In order to obtain a bulk mail permit you have to have your
501(c)3. Download 3624 form at http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps3624.pdf.
The application will need to be accompanied with several pieces of the
churches print material and a copy of your Articles of Incorporation. It’s
all in the instructions.

j) Each state is different in this area. I’d suggest going to your
state’s Department of Revenue website and searching sales tax exemption.
They’ll have a form you can download to get a certificate of exemption.

Chunks Corbett - Executive Pastor

Filed under: Church Planting | Comments Off

We print series specific posters for every series. Many companies require you to order posters in large quantities. Elco Color Labs lets you order single prints of any image. We mainly use their 20×30 poster print for only $10. You can chose glossy or matte, and they usually print the same day you order. They have a wide variety of sizes and are the cheapest I could find anywhere. We buy cheap poster frames at Walmart or from Displays2Go. Displays2Go has many options for displaying posters and banners.

We have used Discountmugs.com for mugs and water bottles. Their quality and lead times have been great. Bottle your brand is great for custom labeled bottled water. They ship the next day and the custom labels look great. We are currently using these water bottles as invites for our next series DEEP.

1stpads.com did an excellent job on our custom mouse pads. Our logo is a circle, so their 8″ circle pad worked perfect for us. Vista Print has a large selection of print items, we use their magnets and business cards all the time.

JM sign service has provided us with some very nice corroplast yard signs. They offer a wide variety of sizes and color options. They usually ship within 48 hours.

We have been blessed with a local vendor that offers us great prices on vinyl banners. We print new vinyl for every series. Most often we hang our banners from pipe and drape by have a 6″ pocket placed in the top. We also use retractable banner stands from Displays2Go for creating an identity for each area. We order empty stands and them get the custom banner printed local. Find a good local vinyl printer that will work with you on pricing, because vendors can vary from $1.50 - $6.00 per square foot.

We have also been blessed with a great local t-shirt printer. We sell our custom designs each week at our resource area. People love to wear the shirts as an outreach tool. We try to make them as cool as possible so others will ask about them. Almost every series we print series specific shirts to help display the series theme. Sometimes we’ll put the greeter team or our usher team all in the same shirts. It helps identify this team and also is one more way to transform our setup into a theme for our series. Give a local vendor an idea of how many you’ll print throughout the year and try to negotiate a price that will work for everyone. T-shirt prices will vary from $4.00 - $6.00 per shirt

Damion Pirolli - Production Director

Filed under: Creative Elements, Marketing | Comments Off