Christmas Eve at Belk....

Last Night Elevation Church held Christmas Eve services at Belk Theater in the heart of uptown Charlotte. We filled this beautiful 2,100 seat theater three times and saw the largest attendance in our history as we had 6,006 people worshipping God. As amazing as that was, something more incredible happened. Pastor Steven preached the gospel and 414 people responded and gave their life to Christ!!! Words don't describe what took place last night, but there was a shift that happened...something changed. I've never seen our people leverage their relationships like last night. Mothers did everything they could to get their sons who were far from God there to hear the gospel. Teenagers brought their friends. Daughters brought their dads.....people leveraged their relationships and their loved ones walked away transformed through the power of the gospel. Talk about an amazing Christmas gift!!!

Praise God for last night and hold on Elevation Church because something broke loose....2009 is going to be amazing.....the best is yet to come!!!

Our Faith Defines Our Suffering....

One of my favorite series we've done at Elevation is itunes. During one of the sermons Pastor Steven talked about suffering and I was recently reminded of a powerful statement that still resonates in my spirit is "our faith defines our suffering....suffering does not define our faith." It was an incredible creed of the christian faith. Where's my faith in troubled times? Is God still great in tragedy? Is God still good in the midst of struggle? Is He still loving when your world is falling apart?

Elevation has lost a wonderful part of our family. Danny Kellas, one of our volunteers at Butler and a close personal friend passed away yesterday. I'll share more about Danny later. Below is a photo of my friend when I had the privilege of baptizing him last February....this Friday I'll have the privilege of preaching his memorial service...

Does your faith define your suffering or does your suffering define your faith?