Elevation Outreach

 The Gospel Reflected in Obedience

2 Corinthians 9:13 “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”

One of the greatest ways you can share God with other people is by the way you live your life. You can go to your eGroup every week, study the word, buy all the newest worship albums, use all the right Christians words or spend hours in your prayer closet, but if outside of your Christian bubble people cannot see you as a cheerful giver that serves in love, then you have missed the point.

Jesus was the ultimate giver. While he was on earth he gave more than he ever received. He served people in such a way that their hearts were moved to receive the good news he had to share with them.

Sure, I could tell you to go serve people well and throw in a scripture verse like 2 Corinthians 9:6 and say “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Your mind might tell you to serve so you can reap a great harvest for yourself and again you will have missed the point.

However, it is when you serve and honor people in the most compassionate love you can pull from your spirit that people look twice. Not looking at you, but looking for that thing that provokes you to share such great love. They are looking for Jesus inside you.

Do not settle for just going through the motions of a Christian life. You will miss out on the incredible opportunity to experience God working through you.

LOVE Week is not about us. It is about coming together to serve others the way we would serve Jesus himself. Your obedience to his word will accompany your faith to show the world around you that the King of the Universe is the one that sustains your every breath. You won’t have to work hard to convince them, because they will know with experience. Truth is truth.

By Elizabeth Danko

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In the Charlotte area, and at Elevation Church, we are blessed.  If we’ve never done it before, the very idea of stepping out for the first time to mingle and serve among the poor scares us.

You are not alone if you are afraid.  On this tenth day before the start of LOVE Week 2012, I want to offer you some encouragement from the word of God.

Daniel 10:19 says “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”
When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength.”

Daniel had seen a vision and set out fasting and praying about what he should do.  He was after the heart of God to see God’s vision for his life and that of his people.  An angel appears to him, he is terrified, and the angel tells him to “be strong.”  If you are seeking God, and wanting to know his will for your life so that you may “Live a Better Story,” (our current sermon series) you’re in the right place.  The word of God says if you are afraid of breaking old habits and replacing them with new ones for God’s glory, you should “be strong!”

In 10 days, we launch LOVE Week 2012.  In its third year, LOVE Week is an audacious, active, unifying initiative to show the Charlotte area the love of Jesus through our service.  Together with more than 40 churches, our goal is to serve 50,000 hours.

Here’s an example of a recent story from an Elevation University volunteer who was SO blessed to be a blessing in a stranger’s life.  Elevation University volunteers will serve alongside the YMCA again on February 11, as we kick off LOVE Week.

A Room in the Inn

from Kristi Bezy, Elevation University

“On January 14th and 15th, Elevation University had the opportunity to serve alongside the YMCA with the Room in the Inn outreach. Saturday night, 13 of our local neighbors who struggle with homelessness came to the Y for a place to stay. University volunteers helped serve dinner to the 13 individuals. A movie was shown and all had a warm place to sleep. I had the privilege of helping serve breakfast on Sunday morning. I was able to get to know these people and listen to them. After breakfast, five people decided to stay for the 9:30 worship experience.  One of those people was Thomas. Thomas is a 25 year old man who has had a rough life. He told me about his parents dying of HIV when he was young and the amazing Aunt who raised him but isn’t able to help him anymore. He told me about sleeping on a friends couch but wanting to make it on his own. He explained his dreams and his goals to go back to college. Thomas was at an all time low but was working to get on his feet. After breakfast, we gave Thomas and the 4 others new bibles to take into the experience. I wrote in the front of his bible that God had huge plans for him. That morning Christine Caine preached an amazing sermon about how the best is yet to come and Thomas gave his life the Jesus! I’ll never forget the Tears in his eyes and the feeling I had when I saw him after the experience. Thomas gained new life that day. We met his physical needs so that God could meet his spiritual needs. I’m so thankful that I was able to be apart of his one day! It changed me forever!”

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Proverbs 11: 24
“A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

What is it that causes life to be so exhausting? After school practice, commuting, homework, deadlines, grocery shopping, laundry, family drama, technology, meetings, dirty dishes, late nights at the office, traffic, bills, long distance friendships…this list could go on forever and never ceases to be overwhelming.

It doesn’t ever seem like we have enough time to get it all done. So we are left exhausted and paralyzed beneath the weight of what consumes our every day life. We become selfish with our time. We become blind to the needs of others.

Proverbs says, “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” Sometimes, we just need a perspective check.

You should know that it is a blessing to be a part of a sports team to practice with, to have a job that pays your living expenses, to own a car to drive anywhere you need to go, to have family to grow with, to be in school learning, to have friends that want to stay in touch from across the country and to have clothes that need to be washed.

How much more exhausting would life be if you had none of those things that you think cause you so much stress? There are people in our own city that live day to day not knowing where their next meal will come from. There are kids that drop out of high school because of their family’s homelessness. There are people struggling to overcome addictions or be free of domestic abuse. Hope barely seems to even be on the horizon in these situations.

Think about what it means to be refreshed and pray about what it would look like to refresh the lives of those that live in your community.

During LOVE Week 2012, you will have the incredible opportunity to BE the “generous man” that “refreshes others.” We will be working with some of our partners like A Child’s Place, which works to make sure that homeless kids in our city are a supported in school. Urban Ministry Center has lunch for the homeless and gives those people an opportunity to develop skills.

Help us REFRESH our city.

by Elizabeth Danko

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Pastor Steven Furtick preached from Hebrews 12 Sunday to encourage us to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and ask him to become not just the author of our individual stories, but also the leading character in them.  (See that sermon here)

You can write your own “better story” at #MyBetterStory and be encouraged by others who are allowing Jesus to become the center of their lives.

As we wrapped up Code Orange Revival and you began to wonder “What does God want me to do differently in 2012?”  many of you told us you wanted to focus more on “giving your life away” for HIS glory.  As we count down the days before LOVE Week 2012 we’re sharing stories of people who have done that very thing.  This one comes from our strategic outreach partner, Bless Back Worldwide.

Trip leader Gary Welch was concerned.  It was just days before Bless Back Worldwide’s Thanksgiving week MEDICAL mission trip to Haiti.  And he didn’t have any doctors signed up.  None.  So this faithful leader called on his team to pray.

At the very same time, Chris Neuman was searching.  Growing up Jewish, his wife and two boys had encouraged him to begin attending Elevation Church six months prior.  And he was led by a friend to talk with Sam Nadler of Hope of Israel Congregation about how to reconcile his Jewish faith with what the bible says about Jesus, and what he was feeling in his heart.

Two weeks before the Bless Back Thanksgiving trip – Chris committed his life to Jesus.  An emergency room doctor, he also decided to serve in Haiti over Thanksgiving.  That same day, five more medical professionals signed on (including Kristin Neuman, Chris’s wife, who had been attending bible studies and praying for years about her husband’s salvation).

Pastor John Bishop Baptizes Chris Neuman during Code Orange Revival Photos by Autumn Scisciani

God answered the prayers of dozens of people that one day.  Bringing Chris to Christ, moving in him to serve on his first-ever mission trip, bringing other medical professionals to the team.  But notice that God doesn’t force anybody to act.  It takes obedience, an act of will to say “yes” to the work God wants to do in your life.

Go back to the first verse in Hebrews 12 and you see, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us..”

How will you say “yes” today to the work God wants to do in your life?  What good thing will you give up for the BEST thing – Jesus at the center of your life?

We are 12 days to the start of LOVE Week 2012.  Join us as we go LIVE ONLINE Saturday February 4, with all new opportunities to sign up and serve during LOVE Week – February 11-19.

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Be encouraged!

Romans 15:13 says:  “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

We’re excited to hear from so many of you who want to make plans for LOVE Week 2012.

We are 15 days away and have been receiving the best encouragement and kind words and energy from you as you prepare your eGroups and eTeams to serve alongside dozens of other churches and organizations all over the Charlotte area.

We will be honoring, cleaning, feeding, building, painting, mulching, paving, dancing, singing, and every manner of serving we can think of to COVER the Charlotte area with the love of Christ.

Please be in prayer for our team of staff and volunteers as we iron out all the details of more than 350 LOVE Week 2012 events.  May YOU be filled with God’s joy and peace today as you trust in him in your life.

This site will go LIVE with all the opportunities to serve on February 4.  In the meantime – if you’re part of an eGroup or eTeam and want to get in on the action early, leave us a comment below and we’ll get you connected to a volunteer opportunity NOW.

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