Guest Blogger: John Bishop, Ministries Pastor
Pastor Steven has given us the opportunity to share some of the things that we did this fall to harness and create momentum at Elevation Church. I’m excited to share some of the details surrounding the launching of our first semi-permanent facility (The Matthews Campus).
On August 22nd and 23rd we opened The Matthews Campus as a way to create momentum moving into the fall.
It was an intense move on all fronts:
The construction time-line was insane; we didn’t actually get the certificate from the city to occupy the building until the Tuesday before our launch.
This “up-to-the-wire” move-in meant that we had 3 and ½ days to finish installing and dialing in all of our audio/visual equipment and we saw an “Old Testament caliber, Red Sea parting miracle” in making it happen.
We mobilized hundreds of people in coordinated prayer efforts over 24 hours, we signed up 300 new volunteers and, we witnessed hundreds of faithful, fired-up Elevators serve 3, 4 and 5 worship experiences throughout the weekend without missing a beat!
Some of you reading this post might be thinking, “Why put yourselves through all that craziness?”
Two reasons:
1) God will get ALL the glory for this one! Though we worked hard, there is no way anyone will ever give us the credit for all that God did to pull off that weekend.
2) We knew that God had big plans for that weekend – and as a reward for our faith we watched God do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could have asked for.
Since the opening Sunday of our Matthews facility we have seen over 500 people give their lives to Christ and over 1800 people visit our church for the first time.
We have had one of the most exhilarating rides of momentum we have ever been blessed with and it was all done in a new facility that just screams, “We’re going to reach our city, no matter what!” I wouldn’t trade that for anything.