Some Moments Just Stick...

We got to be part of a monumental moment for Elevation Church last week. Pastor Furtick was invited to preach at the C3 conference at Fellowship Church in Dallas, TX. He preached on honor (a foundational ingredient of our culture) and did a fantastic job at it. Check out this blog written by Wade Joye for a more complete overview of Pastor's sermon. It was an amazing experience.

Before Pastor Furtick took the stage, the staff had decided that we were going to leap to our feet in celebration at the end of his message no matter what everyone else did...but we didn't have to. 24 minutes into a 30 minute message about 100 people all over the auditorium jumped up and cheered starting the standing ovation.

I can't really put into words how I felt sitting there watching my Pastor receive a standing ovation at C3 so for now I will let the simple phrase, "some moments just stick..." be all I say about it... It was incredible!

All That From a Dove?

I have been studying the first few chapters of Matthew along with a group of good friends recently and this morning I was pretty blown away by some parallels I discovered.

- Noah endured a 40 day waiting period after the flood that God sent to "cleanse" the earth from wickedness. (40 days)
- At the end of the flood Noah sent out the dove to find dry land but she "found no place to set her foot..." (Genesis 8:9) (water, dove)
- After this event, God made a covenant never to destroy the earth with water again, but our ways did not change, our salvation had not come, the law was powerless to make us righteous...

- In Matthew chapter 3 Jesus is baptized - This was a baptism of repentance..."cleansing from wickedness and sin" and Jesus didn't need to do it! (water)
- during his baptism - a dove came out of the sky and "came to rest on him". (dove)
- Immediately following Jesus' baptism he went to the desert and endured 40 days of temptation from Satan himself but did not sin! (40 days)
- Following Christ, salvation has come, He has made a way for us, all who call on His name will be saved!

40 days...water...the dove...I think Matthew might be trying to send us a message?!? Don't forget that Matthew's audience was the 1st century Jew who would not have been able to hear 40 days, water, and dove without thinking about Noah. It would be like someone walking up to you today and saying September 11th...they wouldn't need to explain it, we just know!

In essence, Matthew was saying to his audience, "God tried once to fix us through the flood and had to end his attempt with a contract that He would withhold His wrath...in other words, it did not work fully...the dove found no place to set her feet..." The rest of history leading up to Christ was literally one story after another of how God extended grace to His people and we failed Him and broke His covenant over and over and over and over again.

For Christ, however, the water of baptism was not necessary, the 40 day temptation was ineffective and the dove found a solid perch. God's new plan WILL prevail! He has coordinated all of history to pivot on the days of Christ and the fulfillment of all of His promises are made true and real in Christ.

It's a new day and if you don't know Christ to be the fulfillment of God's plan for all history you ought to meet Him. He is the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Him!

Follow Up on Volunteer Sunday

We did a great job Butler Campus!

192 new volunteers committed to serve this week!!!!

As I walked around on Sunday seeing dozens of people in groups being toured around our campus I was blown away. I was so pleased to be serving at a church where almost 200 people come to tour the volunteer opportunities on a single Sunday.

I also wanted to let you guys in on what I got to hear as I floated around all day listening in to the tour guides.

Here's some highlights:

1) "It is amazing what you get to be part of when you're a volunteer...They even made a 3 song CD for us at Christmas with Chris, Mack and Wade singing Christmas songs..." - Billy Dean - ekidz tour, 11:30

2) "Without set up and tear down volunteers nothing happens here...it's a great time to come in and work behind the scenes...my whole family helps out" - Randy Fuller - ekidz tour, 6:00

3) "Steve, show them your gun-shot wound..." - John Bishop to Steve Tubel, Production tour, 10:00

4) "We get to hear all of the good stories..." - Jennifer Clouser - FTG tour, 11:30

5) "We weren't going to tell them about the requirement of a parking tattoo..." - Joel Langley - Parking team stop on Guest services tour, 10:00

6) "Thank you..." - countless people all day who felt tremendously welcomed by you as they stepped into an uncertain volunteering opportunity...

A big fat thank you to all of you who got there early, stayed late and gave everything you had to make the new volunteers feel welcome.

I love you guys! I'm so thankful I get to see God's plan unfold on our campus with you at my back!

As Pastor always says, "the best is yet to come..."

Plugging in New Volunteers This Weekend...

Last Sunday we had 1486 people sign up to volunteer!!!

This Sunday we are hoping to take just under 800 of them through their first experience.

The problem is our current systems were never intended to handle the volume of people that will need to get plugged in this weekend.

What do you do when the container is too small to hold all the oil?

We see this principle illustrated in 2 Kings 4 when the widow needed something to sell in order to pay her debts and all she had was a single jar of Oil. Elisha told her to go get more jars. Once she had increased her capacity for the blessing of God the oil began to flow and didn't stop until she ran out of jars.

The principle: INCREASE YOUR CAPACITY!

That's what we've done for this weekend. The old way wasn't working so we found a new way.

If you're content maintaining the level that you had the last time, you probably don't need to know this principle, but if you're interested in seeing ALL that God can do in and through you, you should always be ready to get more jars!

The Importance of Testing

Our Leadership Team read an article out of Harvard Business Review recently called How to Design Smart Business Experiments. (This link takes you to the right page but you'll have to wait a few weeks for the February issue to come out...)

The crux of the article can be summarized in the question, "Do lobster tanks increase lobster sales at Food Lion supermarkets?"

The article challenged the grocery store manager who might ask this question to quit wondering. There are tests that can be done in controlled environments to answer that question once and for all.

We have our own version of these questions:
- Does series length affect attendance?
- Do video announcements decrease the number of first time guest information cards we get back?
- Does the placement of our "Information Kiosk" in the lobby affect the number of people who get connected?

I'm sure you've got your own questions:
- Is "time out" more effective than spanking for my rambunctious 20 month old?
- Would I spend less if I stopped using a credit card?
- Does my spouse (kids, friends etc...) want more time or better time?

In agreement with the guys who wrote the article, go ahead and design an experiment and find out. Put the credit card in a drawer for a month and check this month's spending with last month's. You may feel like you don't have the time or energy to figure it out, but I would say you don't have the time NOT to.

Jesus or Immanuel

I was reading in Matthew this morning. In Chapter 1 verses 21 and 23 we see that Jesus was intended to have two different names.

Joseph was told to call Him Jesus (Save His people from their sin) - Matthew 1:21.

Isaiah said He would be called Immanuel (God with us) - Matthew 1:23 & Isaiah 7:14.

For the first time in my reading of this passage I wondered, "why the two different names? And, why have I never wondered why there are two different names before? And, why has no one ever gone out of there way to explain why there are two different names given? Should I be concerned that no one seems to be concerned about the fact that there are two different names here???"

For those of you who are now wondering along side me here's what I discovered.

Jesus is both! When Isaiah prophesied about Him in Isaiah 7:14 He was Immanuel. In a season of great turmoil in the history of Israel it was important the Jesus was Immanuel (God with us).

In Matthew, He had already come down to earth...He was actually "with us". That freed Him up to reveal Himself in another way as the God who saves!

Brilliant! God seems to have things under control. My job as chief inspector of God infinite wisdom has, yet again, been put in check...

If you didn't follow my thoughts check it out yourself in Matthew.

The Scripture is VERY rich and there is a lot to learn, even from passages you have read dozens and dozens of times before.

Superbowl 43

So I have to confess, I watched about 20 minutes of the Superbowl last night. To all 30 of you who fought the temptation and stayed true to your convictions I apologize but I just couldn't resist the urge to fit in with the other 100 million people who were watching it.

Why only 20 minutes? When Bruce went into a full back bend and held it for like 5 minutes I thought he might have broken his back...the stress was too much. Fear for the boss's health was too much to handle for a Superbowl rookie so I got up and read the instruction manual for how to play bridge.

With that confession out of the way let me get back to more important stuff...

I was so blown away by the crowd that attended "THE 6" last night. I would never have guessed that over 400 people would crowd into our night service at the Butler Campus on Superbowl Sunday. At some point, I will stop being surprised by the momentum that has been created around "THE 6" but for now I am still dumbfounded!

All around, yesterday was an amazing day. If you missed it, be sure to check out the link to Pastor's sermon. Can't wait for this coming weekend. It's our 3 year anniversary and we are planning a party!