Reaching people
ONe church, many locations (Multi-site)
I am so excited about the last couple of weeks and the conversations that I have been having with other church starters that are looking to start churches in Colorado. It is my home state so I have to be honest the more I pray, talk, write, and plan the more I get excited to be back in Colorado. I also get excited because I think that God really has some amazing things planned for Colorado and all the people that are looking to start churches there. In the excitement is that there are friends and family members that I believe are going to come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I also believe that God is going to do that through Elevation Community Church, so much that I felt the Lord press upon my heart to make a church value of replication. That we are going to need to establish more campuses, sites, venues what ever you want to call them because there will be such a need.
I have already had a vision of what if we could start the church with more then one venue? What if we could collaborate with other church starters and work together to make church starts more effective? What if we were able to develop a series of churches in movie theaters that ran along the 470 Highway. Or churches that were in different areas of the state like Ft. Collins, Castlerock, Steamboat Springs, or even Downtown Denver. This is a vision that has been keeping me up late at night, it has been causing me to freak out a little. Why is it causing me to feel this way, because it is a God sized vision and for any of this to happen He has to be the one to get it done. All I know is that I see thousands of people coming to know Jesus and because people are going to be coming to know Jesus we will need to make a place for them to be in church.
I wanted this to be the final value of Elevation Community Church because I did not want people to think that this church is going to be just about the people already in the church. It is my prayer that we will always look to make a difference in communities that need to know Jesus. We will be seeking those that are without Jesus.
How are you making a difference in your community when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Currently reading “Servolution” by Dino Rizzo and it’s rocking my world!
Serving should be Fun
Together we have fun while serving our communities
One of the things that I pray that we do great at Elevation Community Church is serve in the community. That through the community groups that are established through Elevation Community Church in different areas of Aurora, Parker, and Colorado we will have lots of people involved in caring for the people in their communities. That it is about the people in the church being the church and caring for the hurting, discouraged, sick, and lost of the areas without a it being the whole church. That we will have groups of people that are taking the lead in caring for the elementary school that is near their homes. That we will have groups and their families meeting the needs of neighbors. That through these groups people will have FUN! That we all will actually enjoy the time we spend in the community with the people of our community groups. The people watching will wonder what is going on. The people will wonder what is enabling all of them to have so much fun and enjoy taking care of others.
John 13:34-35 (NLT) So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. [35] Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
I love how Jesus says that we are love each other the way that He loved us. You have to think about that He gave up heaven to come to earth and die a painful death for our sins, for what we have done wrong. He gave it all up for us. You see that is the picture that He is painting for us when it comes to loving one another. He also says, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” The way that we care for one another is going to show others about who he is. If I were to ask your neighbors what kind of love they saw in you? Would they be able to identify it as ‘The Love of Christ”?
It is my prayer and the vision that I have for Elevation Community Church that we just don’t talk about loving one another we actually do it. That as we do it we show people how awesome it is to be a part of a community of people that does life together and serves the community together.
Tell me about a time when you were serving others and you had fun doing it?
You can’t out give God
SacrificiAl living means you cannot out give or out do God
Did you know that in the Bible God actually says, “Try it! Let me prove it to you” He only says it once and it only is referring to one area of our lives. Want to know what area that is? It is in the area of our finances, yep that’s right our money. In Malachi 3: 8 – 12 God is telling his people through a prophet that they have cheated him of their tithes and offerings. That they have not been giving God what he had told them to give. He goes on to say that they need to bring in the whole tithe into the storehouse of the God. He says that once you do that then, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great that you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you.”
Now I know many people automatically are saying here we go the church has not even started and Scott is talking about money. See I always knew that the church just wanted my money. What I want to say to that is “If you think that is all that I am about or that Jesus us about then you are a MORON!” Of course the church is going to talk about money. Why wouldn’t we Jesus did and I personally think that the church today is way to soft when it comes to this area. I mean Jesus went so far to say in Matthew 6:24 “That no one can serve two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Unfortunately today a lot of people today make money their God and the God of the Bible is suppose to get the leftovers on Sunday, physically, finacially, and emotionally.
For me this gets really touchy because I really don’t care all that much about money. If I have it that is great, if I don’t well whatever we can have fun without it. But the problem is now as a church leader I really need to set the example when it comes to this area, not that I didn’t before. Michelle and I have always made sure that we were tithing to the church that were involved in. In fact we used to have arguments when we first got married over if we do our tithe or payed a bill. In my mind God always came first and the others would be taken care of. I thought that way long before I read the verse in Malachi, which I have to say was very confirming to me. Michelle and I have been married 17 years on May 16th and we have never starved, all though we were sick of PB&J’s after one season. We have never been without a roof over our head and our kids have always been taken care of in many ways. I say that because Michelle and I have made a commitment to give our regular tithe to the church we are currently serving at and we are going to give another 5% percent to Elevation Community Church. We want to model what Jesus has called us to live, sacrificial lives. It has nothing to do with the exact amount it has to do with giving from our hearts where it becomes a sacrifice. Jesus talks about a widow in Luke 21: 1 – 4 and He says, “but she, as poor as she is, has given everything she has.” This widow was the example that we have been given when it comes to sacrificial giving and living.
When it comes to your life how does sacrificial living play a part?
It takes all kinds!
I love being a part of a diverse group of people I think that it started by growing up in Montbello in Colorado. We were exposed to so many different people, different nationalities, and different lives that it made a huge impact on me. My mom loves to talk about the Hell’s Angels that lived down the street that came and killed the rattle snake that was next to our fence. Or about the guys that moved in the house across the street at Midnight and then in three weeks moved out around the same time of night. Just to have the police show up the next day looking for them. We were on football teams and in church groups that had tons of different people in them, we all just thought that was the way it was supposed to be in life.
Everyone’s weLcome, nobody’s perfect, anything is possible
That is what I see in Elevation Community Church. That everyone is welcome. What I want people to understand is this, I don’t care what people look like, (If you are a person that wears CHURCH clothes you won’t like this church) I don’t care where they have come from (Just so you know we all won’t be the same color), I don’t care what they have done (You can be a CEO or a CON), and I don’t care if you even believe what we believe (Everyone has to start some where). What I care about is that you feel welcome and that you realize that there are going to be “no perfect people” in this church and that starts with the Lead Pastor. Some of the people that are going to be coming to Elevation will be able to share stories about me that will exemplify that. (All family members will sign gag orders, brothers for sure) Why because I am not perfect I have never been and I never will be, in fact I am going to say right now that I am going to make mistakes when it comes to starting this church. But people need to understand that, “Anything is Possible”.
Matthew 19:26 (NLT) Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
I do have to say that I struggled for several weeks with how I wanted to write this value and I talked with Pete Wilson and he said it so I have to give him props for the saying, and yes I used it. May we see that through a relationship with Jesus Christ anything is possible.
What area of your life do you see as impossible? Would love to walk through this with you.
Walking the Values
As we continue you to prepare for the time where we move to Colorado and get the people there together for Elevation Community Church I thought it was a good idea to walk through the values that will make up this church. The problem with most values and things that are written about a church or a business is that it doesn’t mean anything unless there is action put to it. I have been in churches that talk about what they valued but then when it came down to it, that was really all it was TALK. So it is my prayer that as we walk through these values that people realize that it is my goal to make these things more then just talk that these are things that the Lord has placed on my heart and that these are areas that we will not just talk about but that we will do. So today let’s start with the very first value that goes with Elevation Community Church:
EvErything is covered in prayer (Before, During, & After)
One area that gets a lot of talk is prayer. Now many people may take offense to what I am about to say but I think that it needs to be said: “Prayer is given lip service in most churches.” I hear people say that they pray for one another but most of the time they hear the prayer request but don’t pray. That is why if someone asks me to pray for them then I do it right there with them or right there to the Lord. In the book of Acts it says in chapter 4 verse 24 it says; “Then all the believers were united as they lifted their voices in prayer.” To me this verse speaks of worship of Jesus, it shares the unity of the body of believers, and that it calls us to pray together for great things.
In my head and heart this is what I pray and want for Elevation Community Church that we will be a people and a place of prayer. That as we prepare we do it with prayer, that as we walk through life we do it with prayer, that after any event or service or gathering we end it with prayer. So today with that in mind I would encourage you to share something that you want prayer for. That today I will and I pray the other people that read this will then pray for each other.
What prayer request do you have today?
What will Elevation value?
We are so excited about the things that God is doing already in Elevation Community Church that we are already beginning to celebrate the wins in the areas that we see are of value to this church. But for you are to be able to celebrate along with us I want you to see the things that we feel that God has shown us are important and that we are to value.
EvErything is covered in prayer (Before, During, & After)
Everyone’s weLcome, nobody’s perfect, anything is possible
LivE worship & relevant biblical teaching are a catalyst for life change
Everyone is inValuable & irreplaceable in community
SacrificiAl living means you cannot out give or out do God
Together we have fun while serving our communitites
EverythIng is an experiment (Change is constant)
EveryOne needs to grow (leadership development)
ONe church, many locations (Multi-site)
Over the next couple of days, weeks, and months we are going to take the time to go through each one of the areas of values so that everyone can understand how God has put this together. I do want to thank the different leaders that have had a hand in all of the preparation that goes into what we have here now. Pete Wilson, Scott Hodge, Mark Batterson, Ken Jensen, Tad Grandstaff, and Thom Ranier. With out the phone conversations, the talks, the books, and encouragement we would not be at the place we are today as we move closer and closer to launching Elevation Community Church.
How will this church be different?
As we have slowly walked through this last year there have been several things that we have asked our selves. ”How will this church be different?” is one that I have had to walk through in m y mind over and over. The best way that I can explain this is with the different areas of the vision. We are going to do few things and our prayer is to do those few things well. They will include the following things:
- Elevate the name of Jesus through worship gatherings
- Elevate the love of Jesus through community groups
- Elevate the hands of Jesus through serving others
My prayer is that through these areas of the church that will be able to serve and love on the people of the Aurora/Parker area. That by being very strategic and dedicated to the vision of this church that God will allow us to be different, not just in methodology but in spirit and conviction. I am excited to say that we are going to ruthlessly work to keep the church simple and uncluttered so that the Gospel message will be the priority and that the people of the church will be able to be the church. Will this church be different? I can only say that my prayer is that we aren’t different for different sake but so that people will see it is about Jesus and not the program. Who knows maybe this will be different.
Elevation Christian Church
As we have walked through the last year seeking what God wanted for us when it came to starting a church one of the things that I wrote in my journal on October 8, 2008 was the name “Elevation Christian Church”. For some reason that name came to me and I have not been able to let it go, I even jumped off the treadmill one afternoon because I had a picture of logo in my head and how that would fit with the name Elevation.
The definition of Elevation is the height above a location. Let’s see the elevation in Colorado is something that is always talked about. In fact I have been on the step there at the Capital where the brass tag is for the Mile High elevation. But that is not the reason.
Our mission: To elevate the name of Jesus one life at a time.
We named it “Elevation Christian Church” because we want the name of Jesus to be above all other names. That we believe that when His name is raised above a location, a home, a life, a school, that things happen and lives are changed forever.
