Unleash 2008

On Thursday, I had the privilege of going down to Anderson, SC for the Unleash 2008 conference. Elevation took 3 buses loaded with 151 volunteers down to New Spring Church for the event. What an amazing day! We ended up arriving at the church right as the event began. A couple volunteers from New Spring met us at our buses, gave us our Unleash materials and led us right in to the auditorium. The New Spring band led us in worship before Perry Noble came out to speak. Perry spoke from Luke 15: 25-31 asking three questions: What is it that God wants to do in my church? What are the barriers that stand in our way? What do we want to celebrate? At one point, Perry recognized Pastor Furtick and Elevation and he had to pause for a few minutes as the 4 rows of Elevators hooped and hollered for our amazing Pastor!

We then had a couple breakout sessions before and after lunch. I first attended the Volunteer Ministry/Guest Services session. New Spring's Volunteer Director led the session explaining how they get volunteers plugged in and their processes. Now, New Spring is kind of Elevation's older brother church, so there were a lot of similarities between their systems and ours. Nonetheless, it was interesting to learn how they do some things differently and think of ways to improve what I do as a volunteer coordinator. During our lunch break, I went to their resources desk and purchased a copy of Simply Strategic Volunteers by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens. As I read the book, I'm hoping to learn even more ways to become a better leader. I'll let you know how it goes!

The second session I went to was Facilities/Campus Development. While this did not directly apply to the work I do at Elevation, it was interesting to hear New Spring's story of starting out renting facilities at Anderson College to, six years later, holding services in their own building with a 2,500-seat auditorium! Walking around their building all day, I could not help but imagine where Elevation could be six years from now. Will we have our own 40 acre campus with a state-of-the-art facility? Will we have multiple buildings throughout the Charlotte area? I don't know what God has in store for us, but I can't wait to find out!

In the afternoon, Perry preached from Exodus 4: 1-7 and focused a bit more on lead Pastors. As staff members, volunteers or attendees, we have no idea the struggles that our lead Pastors go through on a daily basis. Perry reinforced the fact that we need to consistently pray for our Pastor and be the staff for him to lean on. At the end, Perry asked that all lead Pastors in the room stand up. As all of the Pastors stood up, the entire auditorium began a round of applause in appreciation for all that they do for us and our churches. The applause had to have lasted at least five minutes before Perry led a prayer over the lead Pastors.

I am so thankful that we have a Pastor with such a laser sharp vision of reaching those far from God so they may be filled with life in Christ. I am so thankful that he will do anything and everything in his power to see that vision fulfilled. Pastor Furtick is truly an amazing leader for our Church and we are so blessed to have a Pastor that is focused on hearing from God and sharing His word with us each week. Pastor Furtick, thank you for all that you do for us at Elevation. I feel so blessed to have you as a Pastor and to be a part of this revolutionary move of God in Charlotte.