A few nights ago we had our first official Baby Dedication service for Elevation Church. We’ve had a couple of other dedications as a part of services but this is our first full-blown “Baby Dedication.”Â

The whole idea of baby dedication is a little odd when you first hear of it. I’m sure for most people they get images of Catholic christening ceremonies. That is not what this is.

Baby dedication isn’t even really the right name for the purpose of the service. In truth a baby dedication is more for parents than anyone else.Â

It’s a moment for parents to publicly declare their intention to raise a child up in a family that is pursuing God. It’s not a statement of belief or perfection as parents but an indication of intent.

The trick to these kind of services is to make sure it’s an event worth the time and effort of the families involved while being careful to make the length bearable for the small children included.Â

One of the ways we’ve been able to do this is by saying “no.� We’ve had to say no to some really good ideas. The knee jerk reaction for any specialized service is to produce ideas that don’t fit into a regular worship service. But for a service like this we’ve had to make sure only the great ideas make it through the filter. As a matter of fact, we’ve even said no to some great ideas.

Baby dedication isn’t a time to show off how creative your team is. This is a time to create a personal experience for a family. And there in lies the most difficult task of a service like this. Our goal is to create an experience for multiple families while giving each individual family a feeling as though this night was tailor-made for them. Â

Here’s how we chose to give our families a personal experience.

• Each family was introduced on stage to light a candle.
• A picture of the individual child was displayed on a screen when introduced.
• Families were seated at a table with prayer partners who were people personally selected by each family.
• We included a personal prayer time for families near the end of the service.
• A photographer was on location to take pictures of each family.Â

As our church grows it will become more difficult to provide personal experiences for individuals or families. That’s where the creativity has to flow.

Phillip McCart, Family Pastor

Filed under: Children's Ministry | Comments Off

Our volunteer staff is incredible at Elevation. You hear almost every time we post anything. The truth is, we’d be sunk without them.

This past week, we had a casualty of war when we lost one of our 42� flat screens in an epic battle between a TV stand and a volunteer.

It went a little like this…TV was placed on the TV stand, but wasn’t completely secure. An innocent volunteer walks by and bumps the TV. Not being fully secured, it fell about 3 feet to certain death onto the stage. We tried to revive it, but realized there was no hope once we actually pushed the power button. It looked like we might be able to recover it after just seeing a few large scratches, but once it was on it looked like someone had taken a bat to the screen.

Lesson learned: there are going to be casualties along the way.

I wish I could say we didn’t ever have to reorder, replace, redesign or remake anything, but the truth is, it happens. In the business world, you hear, “that’s the cost of doing business.� Well, the same can be said of what we do.

When budgets are being built, build for the reality, not the ideal situation. TVs break, picture frames crack, batteries die and VGA cables go bad (a lot).

The specific things we burn through like water in our production: ProCell 9V batteries, gaff tape, VGA cables, BNC connectors, DVCPro tapes and power cords (don’t know what they’re even called, but the kind that you’d run from a monitor to an outlet…square with 2 corners cut off…someone tell me what those are actually called).

Plan for the casualties, it’ll make things a lot easier down the road.

Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

Filed under: Creative Elements | Comments Off

Each week hundreds of volunteers labor in guest services to create an experience where people are welcomed in a way that makes them feel accepted and loved so that by the time they sit in the auditorium they are freed from distractions. We work so hard because we want people relaxed so that their entire focus is on the gospel being preached. It is accomplished through smiling greeters who are actually glad people show up, parking guys who are the first face of Christ for many and our ushers helping people find the seat where their life has the potential to be changed. I truly believe our volunteers get the connection between what they do and people coming to faith in Christ. They see the fruit of their labors when hands go up in response to an invitation or when they hear a story of someone’s life that was changed through Elevation.Â

One of the areas where guest services become a little sticky is in our auditorium. It’s the place where our ushers seat people so they can enjoy our worship experiences. There is a mind set in many who have a history in church that they can sit anywhere they want on a Sunday morning. There’s an expectation that they shouldn’t have to sit next to anyone.Â

Along with that we do allow children in the auditorium, but if they are under the age of 5 they need to sit toward the back in reserved rows and if they become a distraction they will be asked to leave.Â

Lastly, if someone gets up from their seat and leaves the auditorium during the sermon they will not be allowed to return to their seat. They will be graciously escorted to sit in a seat in the back of the auditorium when they return.

Sounds kind of harsh doesn’t it? The fact that we don’t let people sit anywhere they want or if someone leaves during the sermon we don’t let them return to their seat can sound down right mean, but it’s actually the most loving thing we can do. All it takes is one crying child for someone who needs Christ to be distracted. All it takes is one person walking down the isle for someone’s focus to be taken off of the gospel. The most loving thing we can do is to remove all distractions and allow people to experience the love of Christ. Most churches wouldn’t dare do some of the things we do because they don’t want to offend anyone. At Elevation, the most offensive thing we could do would be to see someone far from God come to a worship experience and leave unaffected because of the distractions going on around them.

Most of the people who are offended by what we do in the auditorium are people who have grown up in church because they have never seen it done our way. The people who are far from God usually have no problem with way we do because they don’t have a history entrenched in churchianity and are used to concerts where you’re assigned a seat not expecting much elbow room.Â

The most loving thing we can do on Sunday morning is to passionately and uncompromisingly run after our vision of seeing people far from God filled with life in Christ. Who are you loving on Sunday mornings and how are you loving them? For Elevation it’s simple, we’ll always be more concerned with who we’re trying to reach than who we’re trying to keep.

Â

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Church planting is no secret practice nor is it an exclusive club. In a city like Charlotte, it’s hard to find a school that doesn’t have a church plant meeting there on Sunday’s. Areas that have less church friendly school systems do portable church in the theaters.Â

And for those that have defied the odds and not disbanded after a few years, what is the timeline for getting their own building?

When does the “church plant� meeting in a portable location make the jump to a permanent facility? Is there a certain attendance or financial goal that you have to reach before you “get your own place�?

I’m no expert but we’ve tried to learn from other churches that have made the transition both successfully and unsuccessfully. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any secret formula for transitioning to a permanent facility. But I can tell you the top priorities that drive Elevation Church’s decisions on facilities (in order of importance) and some important questions to ask yourself:

1. Vision- How big is your vision? It all starts here. It sounds basic but this drives the rest of the factors for us.
2. Goals- How big are your goals? Numeric goals, for us, drive the direction we look for facilities.
3. Density- How dense is the area you are looking at? How many current attendees are in that area?
4. Capacity- Pastor teaches this all the time. God is an unlimited God whose blessing never runs out. Our capacity to receive that blessing is the limiting factor. We love full rooms at Elevation but the goal is to have (some) empty seats. Empty seats means we have more capacity to reach people. Our facility decisions on adding capacity.
5. Access- You can only reach as many people on Sundays that can access your building at a given time. This requires some forward thinking. This is also a lot of the reason why a lot of churches do multi-site.
6. Money- Probably number one on a lot of church’s lists.  Â

In the end, if money is the number one factor driving our facility decisions then I’ve just cut myself out of finding anything with good access in a dense location near our current attendees with more capacity to meet the goals that the vision drives. And I’ve also limited God from being able to do what only he can do.

Making the shift to a “permanent� location is a complicated process. Multiple campus strategies make it even more confusing. But I love it, I love thinking about it, and I love researching what’s out there. And if we don’t continue to factor in the above priorities and make facility changes, then we will stop growing which is not an option.

Chunks Corbett, Executive PastorÂ

Filed under: Being Portable | Comments Off