the kingdom in charlotte (#5) - elevation church

This is my 5th blog about the cool stuff God's doing at other churches here in Charlotte. Because for us at Ridge it's all about the Kingdom... not our kingdom. We regularly pray for other churches in our city, by name, to have God's favor in advancing His name. One church that we pray for a lot is Elevation Church.

Elevation is a church I've been to a lot too and am pretty familiar with. There's some great peeps there too. So, Crystal and I have gone to Elevation the past 2 sundays. We went to their Providence campus 2 sundays ago & yesterday we went to the launch of their uptown campus at the McGlohon theater in downtown Charlotte (but at the Belk Theater the next 2 weeks).

I could write a whole lot about the cool things God is doing at Elevation... because He's doing some crazy cool stuff there! but, you should just go HERE & read their lead pastor, steven

furtick's blog about all the stuff that God is doing.

Elevation launched back in February of '06 with 100 people & a passion to start a revolution in Charlotte. Their mission is "to see people far from God filled with life in Christ." I started tracking with them during their 1st year. After 1 year there were about 1,000 people attending Elevation! pretty crazy. They've got some really talented musicians & worship leaders (including steven furtick) so they produced a live worship album (The Sound) on their 1 year anniversary. [I was sitting in the back row, but some security guy took me to the front row right in front of the crowd mics so my singular screaming voice is clearly audible at several points during the album!] 

They also started their 2nd campus during year 2 on Easter. And a few weeks ago they released another worship album - We Are Alive. 

This Sunday they launched their 3rd campus in downtown Charlotte which I think is a really cool thing. Probably the coolest thing is that an insane amount of people have "found new life in Christ" through Elevation. Something crazy like 600 people accepted Christ this weekend alone at Elevation (including a weekend student event & at their 3 campuses on Sunday). Glory to God! This doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary for Elevation! I don't know all the #s but I know that a ton of people have come to Christ and lives have been changed there because there were like 4800 peeps at elevation this sunday. pretty insane for a church that's not even 3 years old yet! You can catch up on all this stuff at steven furtick's blog.

At Ridge, we've been praying for these guys since we began. We've been especially praying for them the past couple weeks because they just started a series called "THE GOSPEL." It started yesterday & goes for 2 more weeks. Furtick says it's their most important series of the year. just plain and simple gospel each Sunday. 

pretty phat when they rocked some Viva la Vida this Sunday too & tied it into "the gospel" theme. Oh, and Furtick is on the main stage @ Catalyst this year, so if you haven't heard about these guys yet... you will soon! Elevation - keep rockin' it for the glory of Jesus boys!

We're pretty excited to be in the same city with these awesome guys & will keep praying God does awesome things for His glory through them. We're on the same team & are both in this city to raise up a banner that says "JESUS"... not anything else.

I am so STOKED about God's kingdom advancing in Charlotte & His fame spreading - not just at Ridge or Elevation... everywhere! Because it's not about individual empires... it's about Jesus' KINGDOM!