Guest Blogger: Wade Joye, Worship Pastor

Today is a special day for our church as For The Honor, our new live worship album, releases nationwide! First of all, we are so blessed to have a Pastor who believes in these projects and the power of writing songs that give our church a unique vocabulary to express what God is doing here at Elevation. And we couldn’t be more excited about the songs on this album. I can’t wait for the story of what God is doing here to encourage and bless all who hear this record.

What is even more exciting is that we are giving away all of our proceeds from iTunes sales today to Compassion International’s Child Survival Program in Kamwokya, Uganda. This is one of the poorest slums in all of Uganda, and we are going to make a huge impact on children and families in this community by giving them $25,000 to fund this program for one year through our release day proceeds. So that means just by downloading an album today, you can make a difference in the life of a child in Uganda. Globally, every 3 seconds a child dies from preventable cause like malnutrition and pneumonia. 9 million children globally will never reach their 5th birthday. And while we can’t change the situation for every child, we can bring hope to the children in this part of Uganda. You can read more details about the Honor + Compassion Outreach Initiative here.

So join us today by getting the word out and buying For The Honor on iTunes here.

To give you a teaser, here is a one of my favorite songs from the new album, God Be Praised.

Guest Blogger: Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

There are so many amazing stories from 2010 to remind us of God’s faithfulness at Elevation. If you haven’t put your own list together yet, take a few minutes to create one. Remind yourself of how God showed himself over the past 12 months and use it as a motivation and encouragement to make 2011 your best year yet.

Here are some of our highlights from this past year…in no particular order:

1 – Christmas Eve Salvations and Attendance
It was amazing to see over 13,000 people in attendance and 1,172 salvations. Nothing reminds us of why we do what we do like successful events like this and all the changed lives.

2 – The Gratitude Teaching
This was a teaching from Pastor Steven that transformed my take on gratitude. Check out the podcast for week 3 of The Highest for this teaching in its entirety. Favorite point from the teaching: Gratitude is never silent.

3 – Easter at Time Warner
This was the fulfillment of a dream for us. To see one of the largest venues in our city being used to advance the Kingdom of God, it was an unbelievable feeling. Over 11,000 people in attendance. Over 700 salvation decisions. 18,000 items donated for our Community Outreach partners. One God glorified through it all.

4 – The Release of Kingdom Come
I love the original music God has inspired through Pastor Steven and our worship leaders. The release of this album marked a major breakthrough in how worship music from this house was being used by ministries across the country.

5 – The Release of Sun Stand Still
I got to walk through the release of Pastor Steven’s first book from the front row. I had no idea how involved the process was, but there is nothing more rewarding than hearing a story from across the country of how God is using this church and the message of audacious faith to inspire people everywhere.

6 – 24 Hours of Preaching
The more I think about it, the more I can’t believe Pastor Steven literally preaching for 24 hours straight and having the entire event streaming live…it was insane. He’s a preaching machine.

7 – New Thru 30
It was an aggressive approach to immersing our church in God’s Word, but it worked. We had thousands of people get familiar with the Bible over the course of 30 days by reading through the entire New Testament.

8 – The Opening of Blakeney
Building a new facility from the ground up was a challenge for our team, but the payoff was well worth it. To see the overflow seating being used every single week is a good problem to have. Thank you God for good problems.

It’s been an incredible year. We’ve seen God move in countless ways and the reverberations of all that He’s done are still impacting us. But we believe the best is ahead.

And whether you’re one person, your church is smaller than ours, or twice as big, the best is ahead for you too.

Guest Blogger: John Bishop, Ministries Pastor

This August, Elevation Church will be launching an internship program designed to give participants the opportunity of a lifetime by getting an inside look into, what we believe to be, one of the most exciting, intense, and unique ministry environments in the country. We’re searching for up to 30 of the most passionate and gifted people (ages 18-25) to join our intern experience.

If all you’re looking for is a great paying job with benefits, this isn’t the place for you. But if you’re interested in being a part of an incredible move of God, if you want to see Him use you in ways you never imagined, working here is one of the highest privileges you’ll ever experience.

When most people think of an internship, they have visions of busy work-fetching coffee, picking up dry cleaning, making copies… But at Elevation Church we’re looking for contributing members for our team. Oh don’t worry, you’ll work hard! After all, changing the world is hard work, but you’ll also get to see the Kingdom of God advanced because of your hard work.

It’s a calling. It’s a privilege. And above all, it’s a chance to be empowered. We have no desire to raise up a generation of great coffee makers. We want to raise up a generation of world changers and leaders. People who are awakened to the God-given potential inside of them to make an impact for the glory of God using whatever gifts God has placed inside of them.

If you’re into producing videos, we want to teach you what it looks like to make the best videos for the glory of God. Do you have a passion for leading worship? We want to put you alongside some of the most gifted worship leaders in the country and see what it looks like to take your talents to the next level.  If you’re gifted in administration, we need you to get in here and help us manage the details that make our processes flow.  Maybe you’re great with kids – we’ve got them, and they need to be filled with life in Christ.

To get an overview of the program and fill out an application, click on this link. We’re already reviewing applications, so don’t wait to send yours in. Don’t hesitate and miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

Guest Blogger: John Bishop, Ministries Pastor

At Elevation Church we serve under a leader who sees one of his primary goals as motivating and inspiring the next generation to follow God with audacious faith.

In a meeting at the end of 2009, Pastor Steven looked at me and said, “I want to see every student at Elevation Church in a small group…I’m so passionate about this that I want to lead the charge by having my own student group.” – and so, Generation was born.

Generation is a super-intense student group.  It’s like the navy seals of student groups.  Everything about the group is over-the-top.  The students who were selected went through a rigorous interview process.  The goal was not necessarily to pick the students who were already on track but to find the students who had the most potential.  From an original list of over 100 students we picked 12 who we felt had potential to be great leaders.

Over the next 10 weeks, the students read 3 books (Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis, Next Generation Leader – Andy Stanley, and Integrity – Henry Cloud), they read the New Testament in 30 days, did a 7-day fast together, recorded an audio blog, and served over 250 hours of community service.

To complete this intensive group they were given two weeks to produce a final presentation.  Their instructions were simple, “tell us how Generation impacted you – and don’t suck!”  They rose to the challenge in a big way!  We’re not quite done, they still have 2 more books to read and they will have a BIG role in helping us select the next round of 12 students who will begin their journey in the fall. (If you want more information about generation or if you’re interested in applying or letting us know about someone who should apply, contact our student groups director, Jamie Waldron – jwaldron@elevationchurch.org)

We started the group as an experiment and we weren’t sure if it was going to work.  But these students exceeded our expectations in every way!  We have always believed the best way to impact students is to challenge them more, not less and with this first Generation group we found that belief to be completely true.

To our first Generation Students: You really blew us away with your willingness to plow through 10 weeks of intense discipleship.  You were humble, teachable, determined, consistent and fun.  We’re praying that God will use everything you learned in Generation to give you the boldness and courage to be a rule maker!  We’re proud of you!