Backstage Elevation....

Because of what God has done through Elevation we have churches from all around the county wanting to find out what's going on in Charlotte. There are more emails and phone calls coming into our office than we ever imagined. To meet the need and provide the best possible experience we've created backstage:elevation. It's an opportunity for churches to spend a Sunday with us and get a behind the scenes look at what we do. We limit the number of churches coming in so we can spend ample time with each to make it a great experience. Today we three great churches spend time with us:

1. Melissa Nadlman, First Impressions Director - Flamingo Road Church, Copper City, FL I think we learned just as much if not more from Melissa than she did from us. She is part of a great multi-campus church in Florida that is aggressively advancing the gospel.
2. Scott Mayo, Executive Pastor - Harvest Outreach, Virginia Beach, VA Scott and his guys came in asking great questions...I truly believe as they continue to add structure they are preparing for God to blow them up and bring them more people than they could have ever imagined!
3. Justin Abercrombie, Children's Pastor - Carpenter's Church, Anderson, SC Justin spent most of the day with our children's director, Jessi Welch, and observed our children's ministries. I think he and his wife Jordan walked away encouraged about some steps he can take to move his churches children's ministry forward.

Pastor Steven Furtick wanted us to add the backstage experience because he wants us to be a church that gives everything away and blesses other churches. Although we've grown rather large, it's been in a short time. We remember what's it like when you're starting and you need some wisdom on how to get started. We know what's it like to be a church of 800 and realize that the "mom and pop" systems that have got us here won't get us to where we know God has called us to be. We've been in the place where we've had to restructure for 5,000 and now we're in a whole new world of trying to prepare a structure that will grow and flourish at 10,000.

The backstage:experience allows us to share principles for how we do ministry, but we usually learn as much from the churches coming in as they do from us. Pastor Steven is constantly challenging us to think beyond ourselves and remind us that we're a part of Kingdom movement that's bigger than the city of Charlotte.