At Elevation, we place a high priority on naming stuff. Events, Meetings, Teams, Rooms, People who need new monikers, we name them all. It’s part of who we are, and we have fun doing it.

For a season I ate lunch every week with our lead staff. I didn’t just call it Lead Staff Lunch. No siree, I called it XLC. X-treme Lunch Challenge. Our strategy meeting that took place right after lunch was called CN. What that stands for is confidential. Now the meeting is called Preview. Before CN it was called something else, I can’t remember.

Just now, before writing this blog, I spent an hour trying to come up with a tagline for our Code Orange Revival. That was after a whole long segment of a meeting where we banged our heads on about 20 taglines that didn’t work. Coming up with the name Code Orange Revival itself was a whole other, multi day on and off process. I used two pages of research to nail that one down.

Maybe this seems eccentric, but I won’t even commit to doing something until I can figure out what we’re going to call it.

The upside is that this helps me think about an initiative at a vision level before I get all bogged down in the details.
Asking the question: What are we going to call it? helps me make decisions about who is it for? What should it feel like? How big will it be? Before we ever roll it out, and get it in the works.

There is creative power in our language.
Put a little extra thought into naming the stuff you’re responsible for. It might make more difference than you think.

Genesis 2:19-20
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

(It only took me about 5 seconds to name this blog entry, ironically.)

Guest Blogger: Wade Joye, Worship Pastor

At Elevation, we are always looking for new ways to leverage technology to reach people and to creatively present the gospel. Recently, we were inspired by Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir featured in a recent TED Talk, and got excited about the potential to use voices from all over the country in a creative and unique way this Christmas by putting our own spin on this idea. So we decided to launch our very first Elevation Global Choir which will be a main part of our Christmas worship experiences this year. It will be such a powerful way for people across the country and the world to sing the same song, all together at the same time, for the Glory of God.

So we want everyone to participate. If you have ever wanted to sing on stage but were too nervous to get up in front of people, this is your chance! You can do everything right in front of your computer. This is also a great thing for churches and worship ministries to get your teams engaged in as we join together as the global Church.

To make it even more fun, we want to bless the worship leader or choir director whose team submits the most videos. You will win a trip for 2 to the Code Orange Revival in January 2012 for 2 nights and get a chance to hang out with our worship team and experience what promises to be an unforgettable way to kick off the New Year. You have 2 weeks to submit your videos, and the last day to submit for the Revival contest will be Thanksgiving Day! Winners will be announced on Nov. 26.

All details and instructions can be found at
www.elevationworship.com/globalchoir

Don’t miss out on being a part of worshipping with us this Christmas!

I’m so excited to be able to share some great news with you on the blog today.

On November 22, Elevation Worship is releasing its next album, For the Honor. I’ve already had a chance to listen to it and it really moved me in a deep way. I believe it’s going to help countless people connect to God through worship in a life-changing way.

This album is special for so many reasons.

• It’s the first live album Elevation Worship has ever created. The presence of God was incredibly tangible the night we recorded and we’re praying that the people who listen to this album will experience that same presence. In their car. Their house. The coffee shop. And anywhere else they may be.
• It’s the first album we’re releasing with a record label. Partnering with the Essential Worship/Provident record label is going to help us tell the story of what God is doing through Elevation Church all over the country. And it means that in addition to being able to buy the album on iTunes, you’ll also be able to buy it on November 22 in retail stores across the country.
• While we’re excited to release our first live album, we also want to capture the opportunity to be generous with this release. So we’re partnering with Compassion’s Child Survival Program to help support the people in Kamwokya, one of the poorest slums in Uganda’s capital city. On the weekend we release For The Honor to our church, we’ll be giving away Elevation’s proceeds to the women and children of Kamwokya. Additionally, on November 22, all of the sales from iTunes will go towards this program as well. You can find more details here.

For the Honor contains 13 songs, but you’ll also be able to buy a digital deluxe version of the album that will contain 3 bonus songs, 5 music videos, a documentary, chord charts for all songs, and more.

So go ahead and plan on buying a copy for yourself on November 22. Then go out on Black Friday and buy 10 copies for friends. I really do believe it’s one of the best investments you could make into your life and their lives this holiday season as we seek to honor the God who is worthy of the highest glory.

In case you want a little taste of the album and what it was like recording it live, I’ve included a video of the title track and the latest album teaser below.

It’s hard to put words to something that leaves you speechless.
So I’m not going to use too many.

2,158 baptisms. In two weeks.
All we can say is all glory to Jesus!

I taught a few of our staff recently that baptism is a portrait. It paints a picture of Jesus’ death and resurrection and our participation with Him in it through faith. So it seems fitting to give you a few portraits of some of the baptisms we saw this past weekend, and the weekend before that as well. I’ve also included our video recap from the first weekend at the bottom. If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, take four minutes and watch it. I believe it will inspire you like few things can.

Elevation, let’s wildly celebrate all that God has done these past two weeks.
But also remember that the best is yet to come.