Blessed and Impressed

"Our goal is to bless you – not impress you." This was one of the first statements we heard from Pastor Steven Furtick at THR3E in Charlotte, NC this week. To the credit of the entire Elevation Church team I can speak for anyone who attended by saying "Pastor, thank you for doing both."

The basic concept behind the event was for Pastor Furtick to pour out all he could from Elevation's first three years before they got too far away from the beginning. The very limited audience (capped at 150 participants) was treated to a month's worth of impartation in approximately 8 hours.

I'm not going to use the blog to re-hash the entire conference but I'm sure from time to time I'll unpack the lessons that hit home or I sincerely wish so many guys would hear.

Pastor started off the day with a great lesson on Elevation's Culture and Vision.

Some of my notes:

Audacity- There is a certain audacity to start something from nothing. You are in the same vein as our Creator when you want to start something from nothing.

Audacity is a spirit- not a set of actions.
Pastor spoke of the fact that you can't copy audacity. It has to come from within. Audacity comes from faith.

Audacity has to come long before your logo!
If you can’t talk someone into joining you- you don’t need a logo!
I thought this was a humorous but honest quote. So many planters want to look good before they can articulate their uniqueness and reason for being.

“My primary job is to speak something before it comes to be.”
Apart from the amazing teaching we received, the staff and volunteers of Elevation could not have been more kind and attentive. In our case we were greeted about 40 yards from the front door by a young woman with Krispy Kreme donuts and a gentleman who would act as our concierge for the day. He greeted us with kindness and walked us up to the venue and helped us get checked in. He then gave us a business card with his cell phone number and invited us to text or call him and he'd meet any need we had on the day.

While we didn't call John during the day it was an amazing gesture and we did hear of someone having their concierge bring Kristal Burger for them.

In addition to the great teaching, amazing hospitality and seeing friends, this conference was well worth the price of admission simply by the gift of a jump-drive they gave everyone in attendance. We were given several thousand dollars worth of forms and documents used to make Elevation Church go. The resources on this jump drive are amazing.
Thank you Elevation Church and Pastor Furtick for imparting into the lives of others.