I used to work with a student ministry and one of the games we played at leadership events was kind of a MacGuyver meets Sharper Image meets SNL.

First we’d break up into teams, different sizes, didn’t matter. Everyone would get the same set of props and you would have 15 minutes to come up with a skit of some sort. Only rule, you had to incorporate all the props.

The variety was ridiculous, and it was great to see how there were so many different applications of the same props.

I have a belief that it’s not always about what you can do. Or even about what you can plan. (Don’t get all crazy, those things are still important.

Just because I’m a Creative doesn’t mean I’m wearing a dirty tee and laying on the ground under my desk drinking Sbux in honor of the creative process.)

Sometimes it’s about how far you’re willing to stretch what you think you’re capable of. Or pushing past what you think is a good idea, especially when it’s yours, for a great idea that might come with a little more work, investigation or conversation.

Press on. Work hard. Think bigger than you.

Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

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The Creative Department has decided to make an unprecedented move. And Pastor has approved the shift. Beginning today on Pastor’s blog, stevenfurtick.com, we will begin the Elevation Staff Twitter.

We hope it will shed some light to other church planters on what exactly we do (ie what meeting each staff member is in, how they spend their day, etc.). I think the other takeaway will be just how much fun we have together.

So check it out as we expose the midgets behind the curtains running Elevation Church.

Chunks Corbett, Executive Pastor

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One thing we like to do at Elevation is learn from other churches. This weekend I took a group of men from our church on a marathon Sunday. The guys I took make up the church’s Acquisition Team and they are currently helping us pursue our next facility step.

The goal of the trip was to stretch our vision and see other churches doing ministry with excellence in permanent facilities. Here is a quick itinerary of the day: We left Charlotte at 5 AM, arrived at Northpoint’s Browns Bridge campus in time for the 9AM service and had a tour afterwards. We then headed down to Buckhead for a tour and time with David McDaniel (Genius). We finished the day by stopping at Newspring for some time with their Facilities Director and caught their 5 PM service. We were back in Charlotte at 9:30 PM.

One of the big reasons we wanted to catch the 9AM service at Brown’s Bridge was to see how they do their video campuses. They use a very sophisticated 24 ft. wide center screen that really gives the appearance that Andy Stanley is actually live. They have traditional image magnification on the side screens that are close ups that you spend a majority of the time watching just as you would in a big venue if the sermon was live.

It’s not a magic trick, but it is ministry done with excellence. I’ve experienced it before but couldn’t explain it to my team so they had to experience it for themselves.

So there we were in the center of the auditorium, a little over half way back. The worship ended and a bumper fired before the sermon. The huge center screen came down as the stage was cleared. It was pretty dark so you could barely see the screen coming down. I had a pretty large group with me but when Andy popped up on the center screen the guys closest to me were blown away with how good it looked.

Andy concluded another superb message; I was relieved to see my Acquisition Team finally get what I had been trying to tell them about for months. They finally understood just how excellent we could do video in a permanent facility. That is, all except for one of my guys. He leaned over to another guy with our group as we were exiting the sanctuary and said “Chunks is going to be disappointed that we drove all the way to Atlanta to see the video and Andy was live”.

So there you have it. Nothpoint does video so good that one of my sharpest guys in the church drove all the way to Atlanta to see the “Video Preacher” and was disappointed by thinking that it was actually live. That’s video done “too good”.

Chunks Corbett, Executive Pastor

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Easter Sunday was the most unbelievable thing our church has ever experienced. Over 500 people made a real and personal decision to follow Christ. Any time we experience God’s blessing like this I get asked by many church planters how we count our salvations. This is a valid question because there is no “standardized” way to get a total.

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Most of this post is nuts and bolts but before I get into the how let me comment on the why. We have done “invitations” for people to receive Christ several different ways at Elevation.� I don’t think there are wrong ways to do it but I do think there are better ways. Our goal is to not just get people to raise a hand or stand but to actually get them to take the first step in a lifelong process of being a Christ follower. So, for us, the why is what drives the how. Here is what a Sunday looks like along with our simple counting approach.

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When everyone walks in our auditorium they are handed a worship guide (our version of the “bulletin��?). Inside is a perforated section called the connection card. On that card is a box that can be marked if a person is “praying to receive Christ today”. That is all pretty standard. What makes the difference is how Pastor Furtick drives people to the card.

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Once the invitation is offered in the worship experience Pastor typically asks for a show of hands. From there, he spends several minutes explaining how we want people to let us know of there decision on the Connection Card. This is a time intensive explanation, but has been the key to getting people to take the next step forward in there faith. (If you want to see Easter Sunday’s message, check it out here).

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Once the card is explained, Pastor offers two options:
(1.) Take the completed card to our “Next Level Area��? or
(2.) Place your card in the offering.

The “Next Level Area” is set up in the atrium and manned by a team of people. Here we get contact info and give everyone who made a decision a gift- a great gift.

The gift package contains:

• a new leather Bible (with some Elevation orange)
• a bookmark with scriptures, a card with some scriptures to help someone just getting started reading the Bible from Pastor
• our latest worship CD

The pack costs us almost $14. This Sunday alone cost over $7,000 to do this gift, but it’s worth every dime and then some.

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Our Next Level Team heads up all of our follow up processes. They are responsible for giving away the gifts and following up with a phone call and getting all new believers plugged into a starting point class or another small group. We put our best people on this team because it is so important.

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In the end, we count salvations by the total number of completed cards with a checked salvation box. We always have many more hands that go up in the air than actual cards, but we always go with the lower numbers. We average over 70% of the cards we receive indicating a decision for Christ being turned in at the “Next Level Area��? and getting the gift and bible. The rest come through the offering.

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I’ve heard of churches doing a lot of things to record salvations numbers but this is what has worked the best for us. Our effort and planning are nothing without the supernatural power of God. We know and believe that and take it very serious the responsibility we have at tending His flock at Elevation. And it’s days like Easter Sunday that leave us all in awe of God’s power.

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Chunks Corbett, Executive Pastor

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