Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

As a church planter techie I'm always on the prowl for fun / cool / helpful stuff. It's funny how many people aim marketing at pastors these days, it's pastorbait. This website is a fine place for pastor-bait.

ht: Melissa Boose for the link.

Friendly Music has music of all styles and the tracks can be purchased for $1.99. The cool thing is that the music can be legally used on your websites and videos, etc because they are royalty free after you purchase them. Check out Friendly Music.

ht: Kevin P

We found the answer for our indoor baptismal issue.

Portable church means portable baptismal. Church planters note : inexpensive, effective, portable, storable available online at Wallmart. We decided to go with the one without the drink holders :)

Need to be baptized? The plunge is coming @ Elevation on Sunday May 23.

Contact Melissa@elevationSC.org to get signed up.

One of the problems many church planters have to deal with is that if you want to do indoor baptisms (so the whole body can be there to celebrate) you don't often have a lil" swimmin' hole in the facilty you use on Sundays.

...okay, so here's a idea (see below) It even has three lanes, very Trinitarian!

QUESTION: When you think of creative ways to do baptisms indoor, in a rented facility like a gym, a night club, a theater, what would be creative ways to immerse folks?

Baptisms @ Elevation coming again May 23rd - dipping in who knows what!

Ever wonder how church might look and feel to a visiting atheist? Here is an interesting blog by an atheist who visted our good friends at Vintage Faith Church one Sunday night.

Dan Kimball who is one of the pastors at Vintage blogged about this guy's article and I saw it on Dan's site.

How do people who are fully unconvinced about Jesus experience a church gathering - look and see.

When you are planting a church you may find yourself without an office and a few other things that can be useful to ministry... but it's soooo much fun to be broke and living on faith n duct tape! PTL, for our official Elevation Board Room table!

Here's where the magic happens.

Just as after every wedding there comes a marriage, after every launch there comes an ongoing ministry... (unless your launch sux soooo bad you abandon it and start sniffin' glue). We are now officially launched as a church after last weekend's first official worship service. The Elevation launch was wonderful... a great evening. There was tons of excitement and many new faces and Jesus was certainly evident and active around the room.

204 adults and about a dozen kids showed up so we filled all the seats on the floor all the way back to the rear wall -(people always wanna know how many humans show up for these things so there's your number). The added people gave the worship a sense of punch and excitement. The look and feel of the room was excellent - way to go Environment Team. People were deeply engaged during worship and during the teaching time also.

We have our greeting team, kids ministry, coffee ministry and all things tech and environment in order and functioning well.

50 some odd people went out afterwards for AfterHours in our new (old) location downtown. We also went live with our new website last week. Check it out at www.elevationSC.org! So everything is in motion and God is blessing Elevation. Now to steer the ship! Thanks for your prayers!

So the launch was a BLAST! A couple of hundred of adults and a bunch of kids showed up, with big smiles. The vibe was electric, the teams blew the door off the place in hard work excellence and leaning into the wind of God's Spirit. Ill try to get some picture to put up later this week. What a pleasure, big, big fun! So... We're OFF!

??? If you are planting a church what should your first series be about? I was chewing on this and thought duh, how about... Jesus. This Sunday we start our new series called: Hello: My Name is Jesus.

We'll explore Jesus in His own words. What does Jesus have say to about himself, His nature, His work and His feelings about you? Join us as we check out the "I Ams" of Jesus.

This will be a GREAT series to invite friends to especially if they are unconvinced and undecided about Jesus. Be a community of invitation - reach Santa Cruz for Jesus!

A New Year, A New Church, A New You ... a chance to Reset. This Sunday's message as we launch our new church!

This SONday 1.10.2010 --> 6:30pm @ Christian Life Center --> 1009 Mission Street, in our beloved funky Santa Cruz

Yep, Elevation now has a cool brand new website thanks to our friends at Brough Communications and the amazing Kevin P. The new site went live last night, go check it out!

The new webpage looks fab, will have more features and will also allow us to update it much more effectively. This means it will have fresh content more frequently. The new site will be a MAJOR communication station for all things E, so check it frequently to be in the know.

I also want to thank Randy Boose for building and maintaining our original E site (many hours of quiet service in that thing!)

If you visited the old site you may need to hit refresh on your browser or it may lead you to the old one, old habits are hard to break you know.

One way to let every Facebook friend you have know about the Elevation launch next Sunday is to go HERE and become a fan of Elevation launch, then click the "suggest to friends" button on the left hand side of the page. Spread the word as we launch next Sunday 6:30pm at Christian LIfe Center 1009 Mission Street in S Cruz. Spread the word! Then bring a carload with you to the big shindig next Sunday. Belushi approves! ...Pic of John Belushi from a fun moment at a past Elevation service.

I am truly thankful to Jesus that I have the privilege of pastoring Elevation! Last Sunday night at Elevation we had an interactive station where people could write a brief note for thanks to God for how he has blessed them through His work at Elevation over the last 2 years. Here's what people had to say

Thank you for helping me to see the true light of Jesus. /// I am thankful that Elevation could free me from the stringent legalities and guilt ridden feelings from my old catholic style church. /// I am thankful for God bringing me to Elevation after a long dry search. /// God provided a church home for us, a place he had called us. /// I am thankful for Chuckk, God bless him and keep him. /// Thank you Jesus for teaching me to love people here at Elevation. /// Thank you for giving me hope again. /// I am thankful for bring able to be free to use my gifts at Elevation, and to be free just to be who I am here. /// Thank you for strengthening my faith through many trials in the past two years. READ MORE - CLICK THE LINK BELOW

We have some new Elevation new church plant invitation cards for all your Elevators. They look a little like this.

Idea is, when you start a new church many folks who might not normally attend might come visit to check it out. Invite folks to come be part of something new and fresh from the beginning! Take a packet of Invitation cards next week and give them to everyone you meet, practice being a community of invitation!

Want to know how to be more effective as a Missional Christian? What to know better how to reach people around you with Jesus' love? Listen in to this great message by Ed Stetzer on Breaking the Missional Code. This is part of the application from tonight's message. If you are part of Elevation, you NEED to hear this, we'll be breathing Mission!

If you're an SC Local. I want to specially invite you to the new series starting this Sunday at Elevation. Compass is a series that will explore the seven values that guide Elevation as a new church plant. If you want to know what we value and which direction we'll be heading don't miss this series. Compass will be more than a "church vision series". Compass will be a study in God's Word about how to navigate our own lives as individuals so that we're sailing in God's direction. As always our goal is to grow to be like Jesus in how we live our daily lives and Compass will be focused on personal growth! I also want to invite you to bring unchurched friends to check out this new church we're starting and Compass will be a high energy, fun series for people brand new to Elevation.

This week's message will be on Connecting with God in Worship (btw the worship will be killer this week -do NOT miss this Sunday @E!) Other messages in the Compass series will focus on how to be the church in today's culture, the Bible as transformation for life, the value of authentic community, simplicity in living and reaching people through living the mission of Jesus daily.

So I hope you join us as we explore the direction Jesus is leading us as a church and as indivuals living out His life in Santa Cruz. If you didn't notice, something amazing is happening at Elevation! Join us in planting a new church in Santa Cruz!

YEeaaahhHHH God! We now have a killer location to move to when we launch out in January. After the move we'll be meeting in the facility of Christian Life Center in Santa Cruz.

It's such a God thing, they approached us with the heart desire to bless us knowing we needed a meeting place and they had no one using their excellent newly refurbished facility on Sunday nights. When you see it you'll trip - it's a big trade UP for us. They are charging us tiny rent in the hopes of helping us poor start up church types - it's amazing, muy generoso no?. When I asked if the rent was enough for them to cover costs and could we pay more they just said "we want to bless you guys".

We are blessed, this is what the church is about baby, radical generosity and a desire to build the Kingdom! Here are a few pictures.

Kids Church Main Room (all the kids rooms have jungle themes)

Entry Way / Coffeeshop

The Sanctuary (we'll do the Elevation Environment Team Cha Cha every week so who knows what wild thing it will look like it on Sunday Nights)

We'll continue to meet at our current facility at Santa Cruz Bible Church until January 10th when we move out and have a BIG hootananie of a new church launch sunday! God is blessing us in amazing ways every day. Something is afoot at the circle K! Oh, for the record were renting space from CLC not merging with them.

When you see Ed Tyler pastor of CLC, make sure you say Thank You in at least two different languages.

Ever since we began the journey of becoming our own church we have been looking into what organization we might align with for accountability, support and networking. We have looked into many mission organizations and a few select denominations. After 3 months, we have a winner. The Elevation Board of Directors (Sounds official huh? but it's just Keith, Thud and Chuckk) has unanimously and enthusiastically chosen to link formally with The Missionary Church USA.

The Missionary Church is a great denomination whose doctrinal statement is in alignment with ours. They come from a more Arminian history but about half the pastors are more Calvinist - they see this as a non essential doctrine for people striving to bring the World Jesus. The Missionary Church USA seeks to serve and bless the local church instead of control it. They support churches from beneath instead of rule from above. Elevation will still be Elevation, we will make all our own decisions and fully govern ourselves as an independent church but will have the support and connection of a larger national organization now!

What does being part of the Missionary Church bring to Elevation? They give us accountability to our doctrinal statement, a place for the Body to go if the pastors or Elders are out of order (unlike a non-denominational church), consultation with Godly and experienced leadership, connection to other like-minded missional churches for greater impact and shared resources, care for our pastors, and resources for things like medical insurance, legal assistance, global mission work etc.

The Missionary Church USA came into existence as a result of the spiritual revivals that swept across North America in the late 19th century. The Missionary Church USA has over 206,000 people in more than 1,800 congregations in 35 countries. There are over 400 congregations here in the United States. The Missionary Church USA is an evangelical denomination committed to church planting and world missions. Read more about the Missionary Church USA at their website.

Here's the latest! Lots is happening this week. Be praying for God to lead us to His highest and best.

Location: We meet THIS Saturday with the Elder Board of the church who has offered to rent us space to meet in. We hope to have a decision very soon after that meeting. After a decision is made, if it is a go they will tell their body and then well let you know where the Mystery Spot is. If it's a no go we'll start looking at our other backup spaces and let you know about that. Pray for God to place us in the best spot, wherever it is.

Strategic Alignment: We desire Elevation to be part of something greater than ourselves and have been seeking to network with a missional church planting organization. After months of researching and looking for the best fit we've boiled it down to "The Missionary Church USA". We've met with their church planting team and feel a great fit with who we are, what we believe and how we do ministry methodologically. They are very supportive, spiritual, experienced and truly interested in partnering with us. Partnering with an organization gives checks and balances for our leadership, doctrinal stability in the future, support in the planting effort, ordination for our staff, and a greater network to do a greater work. We're hope to make a final decision regarding connecting with them or not this week. Pray on this too!

Life Groups: We're making great headway in starting new Life Groups so that every Elevation-ist can find community, a place for study of scripture, prayer and a conduit to serving outside our 4 walls. Jenn Smith, Czarina of these new small groups is doing training for leaders Saturday Oct 11th and new groups will be rolling out over the next 3 weeks - contact Jenn --- jenn@elevationSC.org to find out how to find a group or ask about hosting one of your own.

Children's Ministry: Terri Clarke is hard at work getting curriculum and supplies together for our new full Children's ministry! We'll be recruiting helpers for both the nursery and older kids gathering. The new kid's church ministry is gonna be exciting, interactive, fun, scripture centered, and uber-cool. If you have a little one and attend Elevation we'll need you to serve in Kid's church once a month or so to provide ministry for our kidlets. This will be awesome as we invest in the future little elevation-ists! If you would like to be involved in kid's church contact Terri Clarke --- terri@elevationSC.org. We currently need workers in the nursery right away. The new awesome full kid's ministry officially launches Sunday, December 6th!

Budget: We're working hard to finalize a budget for the new church plant and should have one complete in the next 2 weeks. We'll be prayerfully seeking funding for the new church through increased giving from our body @E, plus special 1 time gifts from people to the Elevation Planting Fund and hopefully support from a church or two that may be willing to contribute to a new start up. Our current Elevation giving only partially supports our current budgetary needs (we receive about 40% of the total current budget from Elevation offerings, SCBC provides the remaining 60% until December 31st) After January 1st we're off and flying on our own finances. Pray along with us that God will supply the budget needs for us to launch well. We're seeing Jesus' hand of blessing on every area of ministry at Elevation, He has a plan and we're seeking his provision for funding for the ministry too. It is SUPER exciting to live by faith! Nothing is to big for our God.

Coda: God is at work, we're making excellent headway at starting a new missional church here in Santa Cruz. Be stoked, get on board, let's plant some churches! -Chuckk

If you are a church planter you probably didn't get into because you always wanted to form a corporation and do legal paperwork... If you are planting a church you need to incorporate and probably want to get tax exempt status. Big fun... We are nearing completion of our process with the papers going in the mail this week. We put together our church corporation (The Elevation Movement Inc.) with the help of an excellent book titled How to Form a Non-Profit Corporation. It's a great resource and can be found HERE. Now on to bigger things like finishing the budget and then trying to raise it!

Actually, bigger things = starting a new series tonight on courageous / risky / impact-rich living and serving with the people I love @ E!

After looking at about every possible location in Santa Cruz we're narrowing things down to the best possible location for the new church plant. We've looked at schools, nightclubs, leasable spaces and existing churches. We're looking for a location that will serve our immediate needs and give us both room to grow and run our new upcoming children’s ministry in a safe and compelling environment. We also need some parking and a room that will suit our visual multimedia vibe. The location that seems best suited is an existing church facility in Santa Cruz that contacted us and invited us to explore using their facility on Sunday nights (since they only meet in the morning).

This church approached us with an amazing heart, they said "we have a building and don't use it in the evening and we want to help you guys" "why not here?" and "it seems like a no brainer". That's a Kingdom mindset big time - we're humbled and blessed by their generous offer. And Guess what - their facility is superior to the rooms we've been using to boot! Have you noticed what God has been doing in and around the Elevation church plant? Wow!

Since we are still in discussion with their leadership and their Elders have not made a final decision we need to keep the name of the church confidential until they finalize a decision and tell their own church body in advance of ours (if we all choose to go ahead with this). More details coming early in October but we've narrowed the field considerably!

Keep praying that God will lead us to the very best location for His work wherever that might be.

-chuckk

Children's Ministry Update: God is supplying E with everything we need to be ready to start a new church! Prayer works, ask and receive! Big news we now have a new non paid staff member - a Children's Ministry Director who will help us build a full children's ministry department for ages nursery through 5th grade. As we plant our new church having a full children's ministry program will allow us to minister to a wider variety of families in Santa Cruz and will allow us to invest in the next generation of Christ Followers. God is bringing people resources to us in ways that are amazing! Come find out who, what and when this Sunday at E!

"Smaller Groups" Update: More of God's gracious movement in E = we now have an amazing, talented, experienced non-paid Life Groups Director too as of this week! Life groups will be starting soon and give you a chance to meet with others in smaller gatherings through the week for prayer, the Word, friendship and missional activity. Come Sunday to find out the who, what, why, where and when. Life Groups will revolutionize community and care at Elevation.

Financial Update: Thanks to everyone who have been faithful in giving to God's work at Elevation! As we get ready to plant a new church and strike out on our own we'll need to begin to pray as individuals, families and as a body to ask God to provide for the greatly increased financial needs we will have as our own church. We see God's clear leading and blessing as we move forward and are trusting Him for the finances to plant. Be praying about how you can financially take part in planting our new church. We now have a special fund set up for the Church Plant. You can now make special gifts to the planting fund by mentioning it on the giving envelop or on your check memo. Since we have ongoing ministry costs for current ministry please only make donations to the designated Church Plant Fund after your normal giving otherwise we will not have operating funds for the current expenses.

Location Update: we've had our team look at about every possible meeting location in the city, we're now working through the list to separate out the no- go's , possibles, impossibles, and seeking God's leading. Join us in praying for God to provide the most powerful location for Elevation. Great things are brewing, God is in action, more news soon as we get a little closer and have a clearer idea of where "the where" might be.

We're legit. Our Articles of Incorporation have made it through the powers that be and we are now officially and legally "The Elevation Movement Inc." We're still known as Elevation commonly.

Final work on the By Laws is in the works and the tax exemption status finalization (501c3) should be done by September 7th. Forward movement in the under the surface tasks! We're also culling all the possible locations to begin the final work of sorting out all the possibles, probables, unlikelies and no-gos

Part of the reaction to late 20th century church corporate kha kha is a movement from vision and mission statements to mottos or community mantras that are easier to remember and less business feeling. Guy Kawasaki has had some wonderful thoughts on all this.

Elevation has a mission statement (needed to become an INC for legal purposes) it is... "Elevation exists to worship God, reach the unconvinced and together grow to be more like Jesus".

We also have a motto which we will use as the primary way of describing ourselves as a community and a ministry. The motto is:

Authentic - Relevant - Jesus

If there are three words that describe our pulse, these are the big 3.

What are the Biblical essentials Elevation Church holds to? Here's our Official Statement of Faith - hot off the presses

THE BIBLE We believe the Bible is the fully inspired Word of God, authoritative, infallible and inerrant in the original documents, and entirely trustworthy for faith and life. II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12-13

THE GODHEAD We believe in one God, Creator of all things, Who is personal, almighty, all knowing and perfect. He exists eternally in three Persons - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Genesis 1-2; Deuteronomy 6:4; II Corinthians 13:14; Matthew 28:19, 20

THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST We believe the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is truly God and truly man. He accomplished our redemption by dying on the cross in our place as a voluntary, substitutionary sacrifice. He rose bodily from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father. We believe in His personal and physical return to execute His righteous rule over His kingdom, judging in equity and justice all people who have ever lived, receiving the redeemed into eternal life and giving over those who were unrepentant to eternal separation in hell. John 1:1-2; Luke 1:35; Romans 3:24-25; Romans 4:25; I Peter 1:3-5; Hebrews 7:25, 9:24; Romans 8:34; I John 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.

THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT We believe the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, regenerates man through a new birth, indwells all believers and baptizes them into the Body of Christ, gifts all believers for the mutual growth of the Body, empowers them to grow in holiness, and seals all believers unto the day of redemption. Romans 8:4; I Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4-5; John 16:8-11; Ephesians 1:13-14; John 3:5-6; Titus 3:5.

HUMANKIND We believe in the value and dignity of all people, male and female, because they were created in the image and likeness of God. In Adam's rebellion the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, became alienated from God, and is totally incapable of remedying their lost condition. Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 3; Romans 3:22-23, 5:12; Matthew 19:4-6

SALVATION We believe salvation is a gift of God given to mankind by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8, 9; John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 8:38-39; John 10:27-30; I Corinthians 1:4-8; Ephesians 1:13-14, 2:10; I John 1; Hebrews 12:9-11; 1 Peter 1:18-19

THE CHURCH We believe in the invisible and universal Church as an organism. It is composed of all believers in the Lord Jesus who have been vitally united by faith to Christ, its living Head and sovereign Lord. The church expresses itself locally in separate gatherings, regionally and globally but remains the one church of Jesus. (Matthew 16:18; Hebrews 12:22-24).

Today Andrea and I are celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary. But it's a celebration less about surviving 28 years of married life after a wedding day, it's more about celebrating being crazy about each other for 28 years and wanting MORE.

Find love then be in love as an ongoing way of life, you'll be blessed. If you are a church planter or existing church pastor don't sacrifice the love of your life for a church...it's a disqualification and a fool's errand.

Hi everyone, I KNOW you guys were looking at that abandoned Harley building thinking "how crazy would it be if Elevation ended up in that place". We thought of it too and even looked into it a bit with the thought of possibly sharing the building rent and rooms with others. It was leased last week and is no longer available. So (at least at this point in history) that place is not a home for Elevation. Good things about that Locale would have been LOCATION, visibility, vibe etc. Negatives would have been: high cost, buildout costs, and a lot of focus on a space as opposed to a vision.

Next Steps: Peter Moore has stepped up to head our location search crew and will be contacting people who asked to be part of the team very soon! Peter has a background in things like this,has time to invest, and is a gift from God to Elevation (he also has a cooler than ice English accent)

Anyway just wanted to update ya. Be Stoked foundational work is coming along VERY very well. God is supersonic!

So we're planting a new church and that means foundational work, the kind that no one sees. We're setting up strategic alliances, praying alot, meeting with other pastors, leaders and my church planting coach (and old friend) the amazing Steve Ogne! We're also working on setting up all the legal mojo to be legit like Articles of Incorporation, By Laws, getting tax exemption status in order, trying to finding a lawyer, deciding on a board of directors, beginning to look at our accounting plan and starting to think about locations. Funny all anyone ever asks about it where we might meet - church is so much more than a location on Google Maps...

We've been learning from those who have gone before us; asking lots of questions! We're getting amazing networked help from amazing ministry friends and volunteers with killer gifts and experience - they are starting to come from all over to jump in. Jesus is at work and you can taste it all day long. It's an exciting time; we have only Jesus and a Vision and Calling from Him and that's AWESOME! It is soooooo good to be floating in the air after jumping off the cliff and then smiling because you know Jesus is flying alongside and He's grinning ear to ear. Man, this is good. So pray for E as we lay the groundwork for a new missional and less conventional church here in Santa Cruz.

On The iPod - The Clash, lots and lots of Clash lately.

Yep, it's TRUE we're planting Elevation as a new church in the new year!

Here's a great blog entry on WHY we need to be planting new churches in America. If you want a quick read that will give you even more reason to jump on board with the new Elevation church plant --------then read THIS.

If you have a heart for Santa Cruz and beyond and a desire to be part of something truly exciting jump in with our crew and be part of planting Santa Cruz's newest church - Elevation.

God is already working in huge ways, your faith and life will never be the same, "wanna planta church?"

ELEVATION is planting as a separate and new church in Santa Cruz in 6 months! I'm hearing God clearly and energized fully, we're sooooo stoked and SCBC is too. Find out all about it on our website, hear the initial vision and announcement with some details on last night's podcast at our web site. We're working on this podcast's volume something went wicked on the recording and it's low volume - sorry. Anyways,Something WILD this way comes. I'm Stoked! Watch this blog for developments and updates. Pray for E as it goes from being a ministry in a church to a new church.