The Preacher's Wife

#30DaysofThanks

We are wrapping up our #30daysofthanks outreach initiative and I wanted to thank you for making it such a success.  Elevation, by the end of this month, more than 1,000 of you will have served the hungry in our area.  You fed more than 3,000 people.  In a one-day blitz on what we call Turkey Tuesday, you fed more than 600 people alone.

Our family had the opportunity to share in this Tuesday’s event together.  On Monday, it was beautiful to see you streaming into our Matthews location – bringing bag after bag of donated groceries to serve our neighbors.  Then on Tuesday, it was such a joy to personally meet, laugh, and pray with people who came through our doors for a Thanksgiving meal.

It has always been my husband’s vision to make sure we don’t just serve the hungry on Thanksgiving, and sit around and do nothing the rest of the year.  There are people in our cities needing relief and restoration every day.  That’s why our staff is working harder than ever to make it easy for you to find a place to serve.

Any weekend, at any Elevation location you can stop by our orange tent to get your questions answered about serving through our outreach partners.  You can also check out the latest news on our Elevation Outreach site to see where we are serving together next.

In the month of December, we’ll be giving away a house you helped build through Habitat for Humanity.  We will help Crisis Assistance Ministry move their furniture warehouse to a new, larger location to serve more neighbors in need.  Volunteers at Elevation Rock Hill will share Christmasville dreams with neighbors served through A Place for Hope on Blackmon Road.  We will serve a holiday meal to single moms at Christ Our Shepherd in Matthews.  We will wrap Christmas gifts for homeless children through A Child’s Place.  We’re just getting started.  Click here to see the latest opportunities to serve the Charlotte area.

#30Days ofThanks

If you've been on the #30daysofthanks page, and you're discouraged because you didn't get in on an opportunity, I've got great news for you - we're not finished.  Not even close.  The best is yet to come. We are adding new opportunities every day as we head into the holidays.

Next week, you'll find one of our biggest single day opportunities with space still available. On November 21 we're asking you to bring a bag of Thanksgiving groceries to Elevation Matthews.  The grocery list is right there for you.

We're more than halfway to our goal of handing out 200 bagged meals to families identified by Matthews Help Center as needing assistance to put food on the table this Thanksgiving.  I am proud to say that my small group had a great time putting a few together this week.  You can sign up today and go shopping for a family in need.  You can enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner knowing one family is giving thanks to God for his provision.

Want even more?  Elevation is building its first-ever Habitat for Humanity home from the ground up. Staff and volunteers began on November 4, and we’ll be finished in record-time, by December 10.  The goal... so a working single-mother and her daughter can move in in time for Christmas.

Keep checking back in here, I’ll keep you up to date with some of my favorite outreach opportunities and go sign up to serve today! Also you can check out the Elevation Outreach blog to see what else we are doing and how you can get involved as we help people in need this season.

#30DaysofThanks

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - This beautiful Thursday morning, as every morning, there were more than 200 people waiting in line for assistance outside the doors of Crisis Assistance Ministry.

At lunchtime, Urban Ministry Center will serve more than 300 hungry people their only meal of the day.

At dinnertime tonight, a working single mother will weep because she doesn't have enough decent food to feed her children.

Hunger is real in the Charlotte area.  You know it.  You want to do something about it.

But you worry the need is so great, that no amount of effort on your part can make any sort of difference at all.  And especially now, as the holidays are approaching, you're wondering - how can I make THIS season different for my family?

Our staff at Elevation has been working to help you make your holiday season more meaningful than ever before.  Our church gives away 12% of everything that comes in back out to serve the underserved in our community.  But to really change this city, it takes more than our money.  Jesus calls us to a life of service.

This week, we are launched a month long outreach initiative called  "30 Days of Thanks"- 72 opportunities for you, your family, your eGroup, or your eTeam to serve the hungry in Charlotte.

Click here for the list of opportunities.  In many cases, we’ll provide the food, and all you have to do is show up and see how God might work through you.

One of my favorites is shopping with the kids for “Turkey Tuesday.”  For less than $40, you can provide a family all the fixings for their Thanksgiving meal.  Together, our goal is to provide 200 meals to families in need through our strategic outreach partner, Matthews Help Center.  It’s a great opportunity to share with your kids about gratitude and God’s provision, and how he calls on us to share with those in need.

You know can't do everything.  You know you must do something.  Not "one day" - but today.  Sign up now, and let me know where YOU will be serving during #30DaysofThanks this month.  I hope to see you there!

Monday Morning Commentary and Give Away Winner

We had another amazing weekend at Elevation.  During the past 2 weeks, we have seen over 2000 people get baptized.  Wow.

The worship experience was packed full of videos, pictures and testimonies of people whose lives have been changed.  There is also a great clip of my husband speaking at Willow Creek's Global Leadership Summit.  You can watch it at the Elevation Experience.

Also, a big congratulations to Ashley Vogel for winning a copy of This is How We Change The World! Ashley's husband is a youth pastor and future church planter and the documentary has made a huge impact on him and his team. Ashley, I am praying with you that God would use you & your husband to change the world!

We will be contacting you shortly!

Have a great Monday!

Life Change Inbox

 We continue in our Friday series, Life Change Inbox.  I am sharing some of the wonderful emails my husband gets, where people share the work God is doing in their lives through Elevation Church.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2-4 that our lives are living letters written so that God might be glorified.  None of these letters have been changed in anyway.

Madeleine's story is a great story from one of the people who was baptized this weekend during Follow.  I hope this story will bless you...

Pastor Steven,

My name is Madeleine and I am a student at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. I have been attending Elevation since the summer of 2008. I wanted to share with you my story of how Elevation and God have changed my life.

During high school I had great friends, played sports and got good grades. I would say my life was pretty great. I grew up in a Presbyterian church with my family and knew the "Christian" way of life. I knew what I needed to act like, say and do to look like I was a good Christian. I always knew there was something wrong with this way of thinking, but I didn’t care enough to change my actions. I slipped farther and farther away from God as I got closer to my senior year. People who I thought were my friends turned out not to be, I started drinking and engaging in physical activities with guys just so I could feel wanted.

From that point on things just got worse. I graduated high school hoping to have a fresh start in college. There, I continued with my bad habits just to try to make friends or to find a guy that would like me for me and not the things I did. When this didn’t work, I slipped into a bad period of depression and anxiety. At one point I even became suicidal. I had to drop out of college and move back in with my parents. I lost everything. I had no friends. In fact, most of my peers thought I was strange. I lost all faith. At that point I didn’t even believe there was a God. I couldn’t understand how I could be at such a low point in my life and this so called "God" would not take care of me. Being home, I had nothing to do and I wouldn’t leave the house for the longest time in fear that someone might see me and start asking questions.

During the summer of 2010 I attended Elevation with my parents one Sunday. There was a series going on called "Christ Alone". I heard Pastor Steven talk about how our identities are not in our accomplishments or failures. Our identities can only be found in Christ alone. It was like a light bulb flashed on. I realized that I was not defined by the mistakes I had made or the depression that had overcome me. It all became clear to me that God had removed EVERYTHING and EVERYONE from my life so that HE was the only one left. I accepted Christ that day and from that moment on I was on a mission to live for Christ alone and no one else. I put my trust in him that he would provide me with friends, the perfect guy or anything else that I would ever need.

After that summer I decided to put my faith in God for the first big decision I had made in a long time. I decided to go to Belmont University in Nashville. I had always wanted to go their but had a fear of going that far away. I knew then that God was on my side and could carry me through anything. I am happy to say I had a great first year at Belmont with no anxiety or depression only by the grace of God.  

Today, August 7th 2011 I got baptized at the Elevation Blakeney campus. I knew it was something I was called to do because I wanted everyone to know that I have committed my life to follow Christ. I wanted everyone to know THAT is my identity. A Christ follower.

I wanted to thank you Pastor Steven and Elevation for all you do and that change you have made in my life. I know I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you and the power of God. THANK YOU.

Love love love,
Madeleine

Give away: This is How We Change the World

In order to celebrate our 5th anniversary, this year, our amazing video team created a documentary on the life of our church.  You may have read when I talked about it here.

Back before we even moved to Charlotte but were meeting with our core team about planting Elevation, there was a short baptism clip from Willow Creek Church, in the Chicago area, that really inspired our team.  I remember crying watching the video hoping and praying God would reach people through our church like He was doing through Willow Creek.

This past Sunday, we baptized over 1400 people at our church. It was an amazing weekend for our entire church but is was especially powerful for me because it was the fulfillment of a dream that we had before our church was even born.  And at the risk of sounding pretentious, I hope and pray that our documentary has been an inspiration to church planters all over the nation.  Not because of anything we have done, but because of the testimony of the power of God at work through a group of people willing to take a risk in order to reach people far from God in our city.

I would love to give away a copy of our documentary today.  If you are a part of a church plant, and think our documentary may be an inspiration to your team, leave a comment today.  We will close comments tomorrow evening and announce the winner some time on Friday.   (And if you don’t win, you can purchase a copy on our church site). We have also made it available to watch online for here for free, this week only! 

Monday Morning Commentary

What an incredible weekend at Elevation!  We had record breaking attendance and saw over 1400 people baptized.  I can't believe I get to do this.  I am so thankful for all of the volunteers who made this weekend possible.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

 

Life Change Inbox

We continue in our Friday series, Life Change Inbox.  I am sharing some of the wonderful emails my husband gets, where people share the work God is doing in their lives through Elevation Church.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2-4 that our lives are living letters written so that God might be glorified.  None of these letters have been changed in anyway.

Amber's story is a great way to end our series, Treatment.  I hope this story will bless you...

My life has been radically altered by God through Elevation Church and my small group leader kept telling me that I needed to share the whole story so here it is… 

I first heard of Elevation at a really low point in my life – I was actually in the psyc wing of a hospital, let me explain...  I was caught up in a whirlwind of addictions - alcohol abuse, bulimia, cutting, shoplifting, and I was on a number of prescription drugs. I had a horrible relationship with my family members (many of whom had written me off), and I was sleeping with a man who not only was not a Christian, he actively spoke out against God.  I was in a place where I couldn’t find a reason to live. 

And so after trying to commit suicide I ended up in the hospital. I know that’s a crazy place to hear about a church but that’s what happened to me.  I met a girl there named Melissa. She said, "hey, if we ever get outta here do you wanna go to church together?" I said, "Why the hell not, I’ve tried everything else". That is literally what our conversations were like.  We exchanged numbers and after we were both released we met at a restaurant a few days later.  Melissa told me about this new church she was going to and how it was unlike any other church she had attended. I was skeptical because I hate fake people and thought all churches were full of hypocrites and was not thrilled about going. But I agreed to meet her on Sunday. What I experienced at Providence High School in Nov. of 2007 was amazing. I instantly felt at ease. I felt like I could be myself and not be damned for the parts of my life that were out of control at the moment.

Needless to say, it felt odd being in a church knowing how messed up my life was.  But Elevation didn't feel like just a church to me.  The people that seemed to love and accept me for who I was just blew my mind. I didn't understand it, but I knew that I felt accepted there and wanted to return. I actually started to ask for prayer and help. I still struggled immensely in my personal life and I bottomed out a few months later with another suicide attempt that landed me in the ER & ICU for 4 days before being transferred to 2 more psychiatric facilities over the next few weeks. 

But in all this, God still hadn't let me go & after listening to some great advice, I went to rehab for about 4 months.  While in rehab, they would let me watch Pastor's sermons online every week. It was one of the things that kept me pushing forward during my hardest days.  It was comforting knowing that I would have Elevation to come back to.  When I graduated from rehab in March '08 I immediately joined an eGroup because I knew I needed to get connected to the church that had already helped me so much. 

I've now been a part of Elevation Church for the past 4 years. God has healed and delivered me from those parts of my life that used to be my deepest darkest secrets. I'm not perfect, I still struggle with temptation at times but I now understand what it feels like to be fully & unconditionally loved by God. He gets all the praise and glory for His story of transformation in my life. Thank you Elevation Church!

Amber

Life Change Inbox

We continue in our Friday series, Life Change Inbox.  I am sharing some of the wonderful emails my husband gets, where people share the work God is doing in their lives through Elevation Church.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2-4 that our lives are living letters written so that God might be glorified.  None of these letters have been changed in anyway.

I hope Courtney's story will bless you today...

I moved here from Buffalo, New York and I feel like Elevation has changed my life completely. In New York, I was leading a terrible life where I was dependent on weed, alcohol, and sex. I grew up with an alcoholic father and right before I moved here he kicked me out of his house and I was homeless. My mother and myself didn't get along. We used to be a happy family until my parents divorce then everything went bad. My mother had hit me and my father was committing adultery. I went to a Christian private school and after graduating I turned away from God. I led a horrible life until my sister called me and told me to move down here with her. My neighbor brought me to a service and I just balled my eyes out. Elevation was the only thing that saved me. I was numb, I couldn't feel, I let the drugs take over and I couldn't get back. Elevation brought me back. I used to get high everyday, now I'm getting high off of God's love. I gave my life to Jesus during the Easter service and I never want to go back to the way I lived before. I want to thank you Elevation, for giving me hope when no one else gave it to me and I had no reason to even live. You gave me a reason.

I love this church!

Courtney

Courtney sent us this letter back in April.  When we called her this week she told us that although she is working a lot, she is still attending our Uptown campus and currently in a relationship with someone who is helping her stay accountable.  Way to go Courtney!   God has an amazing plan for your future!

Life Change Inbox

We continue in our Friday series, Life Change Inbox, where I am sharing some of the wonderful emails my husband gets, where people share the work God is doing in their lives.  Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:2-4 that our lives are living letters written so that God might be glorified. 

I hope Bethany's story will bless you today...

Elevation,

After hearing last weekend's sermon on anxiety, God has inspired me to share my story in hopes of both helping myself as well as others that may be dealing with a similar situation. Since I was a young girl, I have had severe anxiety. I have dealt with various episodes throughout my life where it was worse, but in 2009 I hit rock bottom. I became very insecure with my body, and I constantly worried about how others perceived me. I let it get out of control, and in December 2009 I was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. My world kept falling apart from that point, and by March 2010 I weighed 75 lbs and almost lost my life. My worry about my body turned into worry that I would not wake up one morning. That fall I began attending Elevation Church, and I had a new hope in Christ. I realized that my value to God was greater than anyone's opinion of me. I prayed constantly, and God pulled me out of my anxious situation. I am back up to a healthy weight, and I am proud to be living today to share my story. I am an example of someone who let worry and anxiety get the best of them -- almost. Attending Elevation was my turning point, and God even opened my eyes to new perspectives after hearing Pastor's sermon last weekend. I realize now that I went through this situation in order to learn from it and hopefully help someone in the future.

Thank you Elevation for all your support. I love you, Church.

Bethany