Love in the auditorium.....

Each week hundreds of volunteers labor 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 free 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 it, they 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 at Elevation.

One of the areas where the whole thing becomes a little sticky is in our auditorium. It’s the place where our ushers help people find their seat. 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 there shouldn’t have to sit next to anyone. Well that’s the exact opposite of our philosophy at Elevation. We seat people from the front of the room to the back squeezing everyone toward the middle. Our goal is to have as few as open seats as possible to create a level of excitement in the room. 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 the child becomes a distraction they will be asked to leave. 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 a seat in the back of the auditorium when they return.

Sounds kinda 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 what 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.

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 do you love on Sunday mornings and how do you love 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.