We have recently begun introducing original worship music as a regular part of our worship experiences. These songs have been received well, and have been inspired by the seasons we have gone through as a church over the last few months.

The desire to do original music is pretty common among worship leaders, so here are some guidelines we use at Elevation for whether or not a song makes the cut.

1. Would we use the song even if we didn’t write it? Just because you wrote the song, that doesn’t automatically mean it was meant for corporate worship. It may be a good song, but one that is meant for your personal time of worship rather than one that enhances your Sunday worship experience.

   We apply the same standards to our original songs that we do to any other worship song. If it can’t hold its own between the best Hillsong United song and Steve Fee tune, then we won’t use it. It has to be a great song regardless of who wrote it.

2. Does it faithfully give voice to what God is doing in our church? One of the reasons I believe God has blessed the original music we have done so far is it has given our people a specific way to respond to the distinct moves of God in our midst.

   During Dominate, we did a song called Undivided about putting everything on the table before God, which was one of Pastor Steven’s main challenges to us during that season. Write songs that are born out of what God is doing in your context, not out of a desire to write the next huge worship chorus.

3. Does it pass the team test? At Elevation, we are blessed to have three worship leaders on staff. We have a weekly writing meeting on Thursdays were we work on our original material. We won’t do a song unless the whole team feels good about it.

   We also submit all of our original material to our Pastor for his approval before we introduce it. We pay special attention to our lyrics, because we want to make sure that everything we write is Scripturally sound.

   If you don’t have a team, find people that you trust who will be honest with you about your songs. When you find those people, be willing to listen to their critique. There is a good chance it will make your song better.

Wade Joye, Worship Pastor
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Student Ministry has been done. We’ve seen everything from simple home meetings to multimillion dollar, high-energy production driven experiences. In my time as a Student Pastor I’ve had the privilege of being a part of almost the entire spectrum. So as we begin to discover what Student Ministry will truly look like at Elevation Church we aren’t interested in having yet another ministry environment. We want to see students who are far from God become filled with life in Christ.

That is our goal. That is our motivation. That is our vision. If that means we create an incomparable worship experience in a flashy building we’re okay with that. If it means we wipe out student specific worship experiences and focus our energies into getting students serving and connected with each other, we’re going to make it happen. Either way we’re not going to spend a lot of sideways energy creating something that works for a small percentage of the students of Charlotte and will only be “cool��? for the next year and a half.

There is no formula for a revolutionary Student Ministry. There is however a formula for seeing students changed by the revolutionary love of God. Our vision will push us to introduce as many students as we can to that love. As Pastor Furtick said, “Our Vision remains the same but our Strategy will be fluid.��?Â

Phillip McCart, Family Pastor

Filed under: Creative Elements, Student Ministry, Worship | Comments Off

Imagine me going to work last week only to find out that our Internet was down all day, for two days. That’s what I said, ALL DAY!
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I’m not sure that has ever happened to me since the Internet was in diapers.
I haven’t actually gone a whole workday in the last as-long-as-I-can-remember without being able to access anything online.
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The funniest thing about the whole experience was me trying to figure out what to do all day. It’s not like I couldn’t use my computer, couldn’t use the phone or couldn’t talk to people in the office. But because one part of my daily routine was thrown off, because one of my regular resources was taken away, it was like I went into a functional coma.
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This probably happens to us all the time, whether we realize it or not.
Something in our comfortable routine gets thrown off and we’re left standing there trying to figure out what to do. I think one of the things that sets the Great Ones apart from the Good Ones is the ability to adjust quickly.
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The Great Ones move on quickly, look for new options and think of ways to produce results. The Good Ones move on eventually, don’t really consider new options (usually because it’s easier) and don’t always think in terms of results, but in terms of what’s fair or what they’re entitled to.
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Be better than Good, a lot of people are Good. It’s really not that hard to just be Good every once in a while. It’s really hard to be Great, and Great for the long-haul. And we were all created to be Great in some way.

Larry Hubatka, Creative PastorÂ
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