Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

Most churches are invisible to folks who aren't already churched...

A few years back a friend of mine, who is now with Jesus mentioned what a good idea it would be to make one of those theater ads, you know, the ones that run between the movies at theaters... for a church. My pal Dan Snow always had great ideas about how to let not so convinced folks know about what Jesus was up to. Man! I miss Dan.

So we're doing one for ya Dan. Elevation will have a multimedia ad at the local Theater 9 in Downtown Santa Cruz. The ad will run on all 9 screens 7x a day everyday for the next 6 months in the hope that we'll let a lot of folks who don't do church know what we're up to, and yes it will have that Elevation vibe... If you're local keep your eyes open at the theaters in May as the summer blockbusters start hitting the screens.

I'm fascinated that most churches "advertise" only in places where Christian people look like Christian radio, newspaper religion sections and the phonebook. I am committed to making us visible to the eyes of folks who aren't especially looking for a church.

...at Elevation last week:

yes, last week Omar rode his Harley into the room during the sermon - accompanied by smoke machines (some sermon illustrations just have sound and fury).

yes, this Sunday night will be a special interactive multisensory experience

yes, people who don't do church are showing up and smiling

yes, bring your unconvinced friends to Elevation - never come alone

yes, Jesus is working in people's hearts

yes, I love this stuff!

Thank Jesus for being willing to hover above the Jerusalem dirt on a cross! Here's the audio from the Good Friday message that I shared at the main services at Santa Cruz Bible Church a few weeks ago, as we reflected on Jesus' cross. This message has a different, more quiet tone from Elevation service messages but I wanted to pass it on for anyone who is contemplating the Cross. -chuckk

Last Night we had a great time at Elevation. Kenny Green and his crew from LUMINA lighting blessed us by bringing over some wild lasers and foggers and turned our worship space into a unique place to hang out with Jesus. Kenny you rock buddy thanks!

The room was alive with lasers, extra l.e.d. lighting, mucho fog and the people were alive with interactive worship: dropping sin stones in water, writing words of thanks on the video screens, taking communion, meeting with the prayer team to share needs and reading Psalms into a live mic over a warm sonic backdrop. Omar and the band led us into everything from loud rocking songs (watching about 120 people physically spin around during Marvelous Light is something to see) to gentle reflective pieces like Heart of Worship. As usual, a ton of us mobbed Woodstock Pizza for community afterwards.

I'm starting on this weeks next series launch right now; "Free" : Balancing Christian Freedom With Responsibility. Should be fun!

On the iPod: Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

ahhhhh away at Lake Tahoe for a few days of rest with family and friends! Phone no workeee here thank you Jesus!

This is my new friend Diego, a buddy's Chihuahua -we both HATE snow (he shivers alot).

I'll be back rested and full of NRG before Sunday for the start of the new series: FREE.

Studying God's Word "deeper" for many Christians... well sadly it rarely happens. Some churches even offer Bible studies many of which seldom seem to take people much deeper than they would hear in the average sermon. Many Christians who spend a while in church never learn much beyond what they learned in their first 5 years of church attendance. Over the years I've met many people who wish they could learn more and go deeper, some folks have said they wish they could go to seminary to go deeper and grow wider in their understanding of the Bible.

Technology is our friend and this is an amazing time to be alive! Did you know you can audit full seminary courses online and free at that... and free is GOOD! Reformed Theological Seminary is a good school (disclaimer: no I don't consider myself to fully follow a full Reformed theology even though I am in alignment with much that is Reformed) ANYWAY they offer many full Master's degree courses online for free and they can be downloaded to iTunes and listened to on your computer or iPod. Maybe you could gain some seminary level education during your daily commute...or during your backyard cigar sabbath time... or during your daily run?

Download the wonderful RTS courses at iTunes or get started at the Reformed Theological Seminary website if you are iTunes challenged. I'm currently taking their course on church history as a brush up and it is AMAZING ( I just listened to 4 classes in one sitting. Go deeper.

About 100 years or so after Jesus' death the following words were written down by an early Christian and have survived to this day

The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus was written somewhere between 130-200 C.E.

—The Relation of Christians to the World.

"To sum up all in one word—what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world."

Chuckk thinks...DISPERSE - INCARNATE - BE Soul-FULL.

We'll, off to Elevation to explore the connection between Romans 6: 1-14, Walt Disney's Pinocchio and the meaning of Trust in The Divine One.

The last two week's of Elevation Podcasts from our new series; Free are now up online after a slight delay.

This coming week the Harley's will be rolling into the room for in an exploration of our Freedom from Legalism; sum thoughts from Galatians.

A worship-pastor friend of mine was musing about how many people that come to one of the services at his church seem to feel like worship is a chore, "one said they like going to that service to get it out of the way for the weekend". Jesus must be PISSED these days. When church gatherings become a chore it is:

A. time for a new church gathering for you

B. time to admit you never really did love Jesus

C. time to reassess heart and move towards God

D. a good thing to just keep attending and prove to the younger folks in the church that it's all b.s. in your opinion

E. a sign that new fresh church gatherings are needed

Here's an idea. If you lead a church, church plant, church in a church or ostrich wrestling club here's new a way to update your folks. If you have a Facebook account add the Pieces of Flair application to it, design a "button" and send it to your friends with a note updating them about happenings in your community.

Example: tonight at Elevation we are hosting a Harley-Davidson themed evening planned so I made a Piece of Flair with a motorcycle engine on it that matches our screen images for the meeting. I then selected all my Facebook friends that come to Elevation, sent them the Flair and invited them to bring friends who might enjoy a biker -gospel night. I plan to send of Series-Themed Piece of Flair for each new series now. So there it is an idea, for good or evil.

A scene from last week's Elevation Gathering. Finally a proper podium for teaching the Bible!