I think most people would agree it’s not anyone’s goal to simply stay the same for as long as possible. It’s not very many people’s goal to maintain the status quo; that’s not inspiring, that’s nothing to get excited about long-term.

Something to get excited about is breaking new ground in your ministry areas. Something to get excited about is discovering people are falling in love with Jesus in a deeper way. Something to get excited about is people becoming the church they were intended to be.

One of the greatest challenges we face is trying to figure out how to make progress in the midst of just trying to stay afloat. Unfortunately, things don’t really ever change. When we were a church of 500, now that we’re a church of well over 3,000 and even churches we talk to with sizes closer to 20,000 all experience the same challenge. We all feel like there is so much to do, but we all feel the pressure of trying to push everything we do to new levels at the same time.

We’re either all crazy, or we’re facing the million-dollar question…together. I believe it’s the latter, and here’s my answer.

The only way to consistently innovate in the midst of all the maintenance is to expect what’s coming. We have to know that we’re going to feel overwhelmed, but we also need to believe that there may be no greater thing we can do than to stop in the middle of the chaos to evaluate processes, details, results.

The evaluation process typically gets pushed to the backburner because it just doesn’t produce the results we all love quickly enough. But, the truth is, without evaluation, we’ll never push ourselves to those next levels we’re longing for. Simply because we’ll never have a point of reference to start with.

Evaluate everything. Make the time. We can’t afford not to.

Then, when the evaluation is done, go do something about it. When you realize your camera shots aren’t communicating the moment very well, change them. When the lobby doesn’t get anyone excited, do something different. When the production team is getting burned out, find a way to bring new people and inspiration into the mix.

Don’t aspire for the status quo, it’s way too small for what God wants to do through you.

Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

Filed under: Creative Elements, Growth | Comments Off

One of the concepts that Pastor Steven has challenged us with lately is approaching ministry with an “in the box�? mentality. With this approach, we accept the limitations that we can’t change, such as portability, and use them to fuel creativity and thus leverage what could be a weakness into strength.

There are many ways that this concept manifests itself in our worship ministry. There are elements of our box that we can’t and sometimes don’t want to change, such as the schedule of our services.

Each worship experience is programmed down to the minute because every second is valuable and we want to maximize the time given to the preaching of God’s word. If one service gets out late, than there is a ripple affect that throws the rest of the worship experiences off schedule.� Therefore, at Elevation, we will never be able to have extended, spontaneous times of worship.

In order to prevent the 4 song set that we have every week from becoming stale, we must think in the box. By planning ahead and seeking God during the week, we are able to creatively come up with new ways for the service to flow that allow for different elements of worship such as having a video in the middle of a song, having an extended prayer during a musical transition, or putting most of the worship songs after the sermon rather than before.

In other words, worship should never feel like it is in the rut of 2 songs, announcements and then another song before the bumper. Work within your box and use that to fuel moments that take worship to a new level.

Sometimes we might put ourselves in a box in order to foster greater creativity. During our current series, My Generation, we have picked songs that we have done a lot and forced ourselves to do new arrangements.

Make a fast song into a slow song, change the key so that you can tag it with a great ending chorus from another song, or use the bridge of a Coldplay song as the bridge for your worship song. What I am finding is that when you breath new life into a song, it actually causes people to re-engage with lyrics that may have become routine. By putting yourself in a box and giving yourself limitations, you will come across some great ideas that help your people’s heart engage with God in a new and fresh way.

Wade Joye, Worship Pastor

Filed under: Worship | Comments Off

Buzzwords come and go in every industry or line of business.� The church world has not only embraced this philosophy, it has overdosed on it.� A concept is thrown out there and it takes off like wild fire.� People start claiming the new tag line and running with it.� Churches will implement a statement without ever really understanding the principles behind it.� The most effective thing you as a church leader can do is to burrow the principle and develop your own practices.� Gain an understanding of the “why” and than develop your own “what”.

Let me give you an example.� A big buzz word in the assimilation world is to “close the backdoor.”� It’s a series of practices developed around the premise of how we can keep people.� Retention is a great philosophy, but the way in which the “close the backdoor” philosophy is applied is anything by a great practice.� In many ways it can actually be an extremely devastating practice in church wreaking havoc on its culture.� This theory states that you should have a big front door and a small back door in an attempt to keep everyone who shows up on Sunday mornings.� At Elevation we don’t want all people who walk through our doors to join the team; we want the “right” people to join the team.� When I say “right” people, I mean those that line up with our philosophy of ministry, those who believe that being a part of a church means rolling up your sleeves and engaging in the life of the church.� The “right” people are those looking to put their faith into action and become part of a body of believers who labor to create an experience where those who are far can be filled with life in Christ.

Don’t get me wrong we have a huge, I mean gargantuan, front door for those who need to experience Christ.� That’s the mission of Elevation!!!� That’s why we’ve seen over 1,300 people give their lives to Christ in the past year.� But when it comes to allowing people to become a part of the ministry through actively participating in the life of the church, we have a small door because it’s not for everyone.� It’s for those who whole heartedly believe in the vision of Elevation and desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves.� People who want to show up every week and take up a seat and “get fed” will fall by the wayside.�

Our philosophy is - the best way to close the back door is to keep some people from getting in the front door.

As you evaluate your own church and assimilation strategy ask yourself a few questions.�

What is the vision of your church?� What do you want the culture of your church to look like?� What does it mean to be a part of your church?� Who does Sunday morning exist for, is it for the exhortation of the believer or is it for those who are far from God?� Based upon how you answer the questions will tell you a lot about what your doors need to look like.� Don’t just burrow a practice, understand the principles behind it and develop your own practices.� So what ever you do with your doors be intentional, become what God has called your church to be.

Larry Brey, Assimilation Pastor

Filed under: Assimilation | Comments Off