Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

"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."

On the iPod: Spoon - "ya ya ya ya ya"

The Official Elevation Launch last Sunday was a blessing and a blast. Omar and the band rocked so hard it knocked the porcelain off the potties in the adjacent bathrooms! Worship happened, people were engaged in the teaching time and there were lots of good vibes, smiles and nods. 167 people turned out for the evening. 26 people came out afterwards for AfterHours to spend some post service time together.

Andrea and her environment team made the tattoo parlor inspired big red environment wonderful. They even went so far as to spray green-soap in the air to give the room the smell of a tattoo parlor as people arrived.

You can hear the message Tattoo: Marked for Life - Marked By Jesus at the Elevation website (we'll have every week's teaching online there and at iTunes). You can get to our site at www.elevationSC.org - look under Media. Also check out the skimboard photo art of Kerry Carpenter in our Media tab.

BUMMER, this week some alien robots from Pluto ( which is evidently not a planet anymore) introduced distortion into our sacred recording devices, it's still listenable but parts are distorted a bit. We will kill all alien robots this Sunday.

This week's message: Jesus, Marked by us...

On the iPod:

"Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" (Foo Fighters)

After months and months of praying, planning, laughing, crying, hoping, dreaming and getting kicked in the teeth by Hell over and over - tomorrow we launch Elevation.

Pray along with me that we will be a blessing to people and that God will be pleased, lean back on His throne and smile larger than the sky.

6:30-8pm Sunday on the morrow in Area 51.

On the iPod:


"Magic" (Bruce Springsteen)

The missing link in most Christian communities is…COMMUNITY.

• In our light-speed mach5 world it’s difficult to find time to just chill with others

.• It’s hard to get to know people in a church because most church services don’t have tons of space for hanging out and talking to other humans.

• Once a church community gets fairly big it’s really hard to get a chance to ask the pastor and worship leader questions or even to get to know them.

• There’s not enough laughter, smiles and play in the world.

• Most gatherings of Christians happen on church campuses or in private homes where people who aren’t Christian can never see how Christian community looks and feels. Christians enjoying life together in public places is a winsome thing indeed!

SO: Every week after Elevation Worship Services end at 8pm I, Worship Lead; Omar Spence and other Elevators will be going out on the town (‘cause our town ROCKS)!

We’ll be chillin’ with anyone and everyone who wants a bite to eat, something to drink, wants to find out how to get involved at Elevation or wants to get to know others in our Elevation community. Maybe you would like to discuss the sermon, or wonder what we believe or why we do what we do. Afterhours is your place to ask questions, make comments, give us input and more that that - make some friends.

Most AfterHours shindigs will happen out on the town so we can comfortably invite others into the fun and where not yet Christian folks can observe Christians having a great time together. For people with kids some in home AfterHours hang-times may crop up to better serve families.

If you;re attending elevation : Live a little, laugh more, become part of Elevation - come to AfterHours. Remember, getting your homework done or getting to work feeling fresh on Monday morning are both highly overrated!

More info on Elevation Ideals @ OUR WEBSITE

Here we go.

We launch into weekly services at Elevation THIS SUNDAY 6:30-8pm in Area 51 (the Santa Cruz Bible Church Student Center). If you're local come celebrate with us at the beginning of the chaos.

Omar is getting the high-energy worship brewing and I'm working on the first message for our launch series - Tattoo: Marked for Life. Come visit our tattoo-parlor themed worship space and hear about the indelible agape of the Master. The brownie bar is being baked, the coffee is being brewed, and there will be signups for our LOST Parties... hmmm what's that??? ...happening next week in the four East Santa Cruz, West Santa Cruz, Felton and Scotts Valley locations.

We'll be going out to pizza later for AfterHours community building time.

Pray for us as we endeavor to love, worship, laugh, pray and engage this town in fresh ways.

On the iPod

"Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" (Foo Fighters)

HUGE thanks go out to Randy Boose: Elevator, website designer, husband of Melissa and all-around generous humanoid for designing and building a great Elevation website is his " spare time" at no cost to us. Randy your rock it bruttha!

Go see our brand spankin new ELEVATION WEBSITE HERE. Our website address is www.elevationSC.org (sc for Santa Cruz of course). Visit us regularly for news, media, bios, what we believe and all thing Elevation.

Right now you can listen to the audio podcasts of our first 2 TestDrive sermons: "Mining for Meat" and "MeteorStrike:Incarnate!"...and get all the latest scuttlebutt.

In the future expect online art projects, free ministry resources to use in house churches and church plants and VIDEO podcasts of all Sunday night services along with many other surprises.

We officially launch Elevation - one week from tomorrow. After next Sunday I'll be back into weekly teaching ministry again. I realize that much of my joy and ministry-energy comes from the weekly task of spending time with Jesus in His Word preparing to communicate it to the Body and then coming on Sunday to share what He said to me during the week. I am wired for this and feel His joy when I am doing this. I haven't had the privilege and duty of weekly teaching since September so this will be good for the soul!

Prayer Answered: We needed a part time Administrative Assistant for Elevation and one of our Core-Dreamers; Melissa Boose has been hired to fill the role! Melissa is a wonderful gifted minister with a great heart and sweet personality, Elevation is doubly blessed to have her! Thanks to God for every good and perfect gift!

Pray for the Spences , the Booses and the Gerwigs as we prepare for launch, the enemy has been very active in making our lives very difficult as we start this new dealio! Something is brewing.

On The Pod:

"This Desert Life" (Counting Crows)

hehehe. Trunk Monkey makes me laugh out loud.

Oh yeah...Please pray for Elevation as we prepare to officially launch into weekly services in 11 days! - Sunday Jan. 27th.

On the iPod: "Transatlanticism" (Death Cab for Cutie)

Originally uploaded by harleystrat

This Christmas I got to be Santa, S Cruz style. We had Christmas caroling on the cliffs overlooking the bay at the lighthouse at Steamers Lane. We invited our town to come sing, have hot chocolate and candy canes and take pictures with Santa.

The waves were crashing, people were singing and little kids were excited to see Santa. I want to do this every year now! Merry Christmas

-Santa Chuckk

Here is a letter our new elevation Worship Arts Director, Omar Spence wrote to his friends regarding his move into Area 51 / Elevation... feel his Kardia.

Dear friends and family, I am writing to let you all know what God is up to with me. I apologize in advance for the length of this letter, but those of you who know me know I am usually only long winded in person. Please understand the importance of this letter to me and my family and please forward this to anyone you feel may need to hear this or that can pray for me and my family. I have been "called" to a new adventure serving my Savior, Jesus Christ in full-time ministry with the church family at Santa Cruz Bible Church. For the last eight years the Lord has given my heart an incredible desire to use my musical gifts in His church to glorify His name (actually about 12 years if you consider "drumming" to be a musical gift...most do not!). What a tremendous journey it has been. Having been encouraged to live "the great adventure" by guys like Chip Ingram, Steve Clifford, Tom Randall, Tim Beverly, and being hounded (in love) by one of my best friends, Paul Sampson, who would not relent on telling me that this was something God had created me to do??? I thought he was flat out crazy! Anyone who has a similar background would think the same...how could God use me? My prayer is that this letter would be an encouragement to anyone struggling with that thought. All of us have been created by God and have been specifically gifted by Him to be used for His purposes. And yet all of us are sinners. Do not be afraid. Don't do what I did for so long, delaying God's will for me, out of fear of failure. God does not give us the spirit of fear. If by faith we take the opportunities in baby steps God promises to show up. He says, "come unto me like a child!" Fully dependent on Him!

Things really started to change for our family about two and a half years ago when we visited Calvary Chapel of Santa Cruz. I was so blessed. So many cool things about this church in it's simplicity just blew my mind. We were reminded of how deep and inexhaustible God's word is. To realize again the importance of the study of His word and that it is all there (OT & NT) for a reason! I fell in love with the Word of God again, but I realized that I was not exercising my gifts for God there, just being fed. I was concerned and began praying about this, I had forgotten what it was like to go to church and not serve God. It didn't feel right and I began to question whether or not this is where God had called us to serve. In a circumstantial situation only God could create, the worship pastor at Calvary was suddenly challenged to care for his father with Alzheimer's and immediately had to adjust his priorities and his commitment to leading worship to honor his earthly father. The opportunity to lead worship was presented to me, and that's when I really knew the Lord was definitely calling me to serve Him this way. It has been a blast to be in the center of God's will serving in the exact position in the body that I was designed for. Not that I did it all right, I failed regularly, but what a joy to see people affirm you in what God created you for. The recent turn of events this last couple of months and the decisions we have been faced with have been so hard for us as a family. Dave Johnston is not only one of the best communicators and teaching pastors I have ever been blessed to serve with but, he has discipled and absolutely surrounded himself with an entire team of "awesome" teachers. Whenever he couldn't preach (which was not very often) it seemed like any other pastor who stood up to teach was also a phenomenal teacher of the scriptures. Most of them have never been to seminary! (ouch) I have never felt so equally yoked with so many people in such a small church before (especially my pastor) and was content to serve there as long as the Lord would allow. (learned that line from Chip!) Pastor Dave has great vision, and I am learning that I love men who are visionary and have an agenda for God! I am fairly simple in my vision. Since accepting Christ as my Savior and watching Him transform my life, I love seeing people get saved. I long to be available to tell people about Jesus anywhere I am, or to be any part of any outreach designed to see people open up their hearts to God and believe Jesus died for their sins. One of the hardest things for me to do as a lead worshipper is sing a song after people have prayed the sinners paryer...I'm a mess. Since coming to Calvary a few years ago Pastor Dave has encouraged us to pray fervently for the lost in Santa Cruz County. That has been my passion for years.

More recently, God has placed a tremendous burden on my heart for real unity in the bible teaching churches in our area. Not just saying it with our lips, but living it by our works. We need to pray for each other, and reach out to one another when we are in times of need, and to really serve God as "one" church. Like the apostle Paul did when he traveled between churches, always unifying them, bringing gifts or money to a church in need from another church that was in abundance. It is crucial for the churches in Santa Cruz to be supportive of each other, not tearing each other down. Now I see God giving me a burden and a purpose! What an awesome season of growth for me!

In June of this year a very close friend of mine told me about a "missional" vision God had given Him for reaching out to Santa Cruz and truly seeing Santa Cruz as a mission field! (red flag # 1 = guy in Santa Cruz with a vision). I had never really thought of Santa Cruz in that way, I thought the mission field was in Mexico, Philippines, India, Africa, China...or somewhere far away. I just began praying for him, his family, and about how (maybe) I could somehow be a part of what he was up to, until months passed. Chuckk Gerwig if you don't know him, is a phenomenally crazy, guitar shredding, Harley riding, monster of a bible teacher like few men God has created. You can fill a website with what this dood has been up to , and he has, www.sacreddigital.com <http://www.sacreddigital.com/> . His visionary and missional thinking penetrated me, and caused me to look at what he was up to. I began meeting with him regularly to see what the progress of God's new ministry was. The Holy Spirit took over from there. God has been at every junction of this process, because frankly I wasn't interested in going anywhere. When I learned of Chuckk needing a full-time worship pastor to make this church service happen, I thought, "well God, it is on Sunday nights, so I could still serve at Calvary on Wednesday nights and Sunday morning then go to work full time with Chuckk and serve with him on Sunday evening?!!!" God was tugging on my heart but I avoided saying too much to anyone anything until I spent time with God and finally prayed and fasted. I felt God telling me to take the next step and actually applied for the position in October. This was the point when the reality that things might be changing came. I called Pastor Dave and let him know, and he was so supportive and loving. I got all the emotions, nervous, scared, doubtful of my calling, but I just kept pressing into God through His Word and through prayer. Throughout the scriptures God is so consistent, but for some reason we let our humanity to trick us into thinking that we should find a place, make it nice and comfortable, and serve God in a way that works out well for us. All of the scriptures reveal the exact opposite! How comfortable was it for Jesus, or for any of His followers in the Bible? When He told the disciples to go ye therefore unto all the nations and share the Good News, He knew they would be martyred. He absolutely did not mean for us to sit on our butts waiting for people to come to us, or to our church so we can "bless" them. People are going to hell not knowing that I am their neighbor, and I know the cure for sin, it's Jesus. I need to challenge myself daily, am I really doing all I can? We (the church) need to be all about getting outside the walls of the church, going into Matthews house (the world) and making relationships with people, showing them Gods loving-kindness so that they would see Christ living in us. To see people receive salvation. That is what Christ has called me to do, and no, I have not done it too well. I have friends that I am afraid to talk to sometimes, mainly because I don't want to say the wrong thing. But I beg God to help me, to teach me how to listen to His voice when He tells me to talk to someone, or reach out to someone, to love someone, or hug someone? Or maybe to go and serve him in another location that looks impossible, but might glorify Him more. All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me. Living for Jesus is sometimes hard, but it's way harder living without Him, trust me I tried it. When I am prayed up and prepared and it feels like God's Spirit is flowing through me, and we hit a home run, get it right on, and people are changed, and He is given the glory, there is nothing greater! I'm hooked!

I have a long way to go to be anything great for God, but He has opened a door for me to grow in the art of worshiping Him as a full-time lead worshiper at one of the greatest churches in Santa Cruz! To hopefully bring much fruit to His kingdom. This truly is the next step for me in "God's great adventure". I know again that peace that surpasses all understanding having been approved for this position, but the days ahead are going to be difficult, please remember me and my family in your prayers...and know I do not ask for this often, for my family yes, but not for me. I need your help.

love, your bro in Him...Omar

on the iPod:"Wintersong" (Sarah McLachlan)

First Things First : It's official big screen Hobbit's are on the way! YES!

Testdrive #2 Update - We had a blast: loud worship, smiles, communion, and people were deeply engaged in the message about Incarnating into the world as a lifestyle of sacrifice, a Meteor Strike... 167 adults showed up to party with us last Sunday at the TDrive.

Afterhours was a fun heartburn-fest of late night tacos downtown at Vallarta, their Salsa Rojo is Sex!!!

Pray along with us as we finalize the details and decision on who we will call as the Director of Worship Arts for Elevation. A big announcement will come very soon right here on S Digital.

On the iPod: "Natty Dread" (Bob Marley & the Wailers)

We party loud at SCBC's Area 51 (aka the Student Center) This Sunday Night 6:30pm --> TestDrive #2 Meteor Strike: Incarnate!

Come check out our guest worship leader and candidate for the job: David Ruybalid live with the Area 51 Band.

Check out David's original music HERE.

Those of you who attended TestDrive #1 (and who know me) know I really care about visuals, so here's an article that I resonated with and want to pass on for your reading pleasure. See, I'm not the only one who is projection obsessed :).

Better yet check this guy's design gallery out!

BTW: Testdrive #2 = next Sunday 6:30-8pm!

ht: Cynthia Ware

on the iPod: "Charles Mingus Finest Hour" (Charles Mingus)

A friend sent this article about Evel Knievel over this week.

Somewhere in Heaven there's a maniac trying to jump a red, white and blue Harley over the Pearly Gates! Read Evel in Heaven.

Ht: Dan Kimball

Here’s the official Elevation Worship Arts Director update. We have looked at 78 resumes from all over the US. We now have 3 excellent, gifted and Godly guys we are looking at formally; Omar, Aaron and David; last names withheld because all three are in the FBI Witness Protection Program and are being hunted by the Soprano Mafia Family… well not really.

We will be listening to the two out of towners LIVE thusly:

• Aaron will lead worship at Celebrate Recovery Friday Dec 7th 7pm in the SCBC Student Center
• David will lead us in worship at the next Elevation TestDrive Sunday Dec 16th 6:30 in the SCBC Student Center.

--We are still firming up Omar’s dates and times to come to SCBC to lead.

Come join us and listen in! We plan to make a decision on who God’s man for this position is before Christmas – what a great Christmas present for us huh? Pray along with us. God is doing something great @ Elevation.

On the iPod "Little Voice" (Sara Bareilles)

Higher quality YouTube is on the way, be thinking how you / we might utilize this new higher quality distribution system for ministry / art. What could we do with greater video quality that would have been useless and artless on OldLow FiYouTube?

On The iPod:

"Sawdust" (The Killers)

What does 200 pieces of cut Beef Jerky - Foo Fighters - Taboo - a pickaxe - 5 video projectors - great rockin worship - 8 tv screens - 7 computers - 1 ukulele - Coldplay - Proverbs 2 - Settlers of Katan - visual distortion - a new lighting system - 4 rusty nails -Logos Bible Software - communion - and a cookie tasting zone have in common?

The elevation TestDrive number #1 will be this Sunday 6:30pm-8:00pm at SCBC : come find out.

elevation AfterHours this week = boardgaming, U2 7 screen Video Concert , hang time and caffeine poisoning at 8pm

On The iPod: "Unplugged" (Alice in Chains)

Over the last 2 weeks we've now looked at over 50 applicants from all over the US to fill the role of elevation worship arts CZAR. There are some amazingly talented Jesus-loving people who have a big heart for the kind of expression we're engineering at elevation - BTW, that's great news for the church in America!

We've got 5 men who are now in our sights as going to the next level of interviews, one is even a local guy and good friend who has superpastor MOJO! We are truly committed to finding the man that best fits what God is doing at in and through elevation. Pray along with us as we interview these excellent men!

On the iPod - surprisingly... "Magic" (Bruce Springsteen)

COUNTDOWN!!! - 10 days till our first elevation TestDrive worship service
Sunday Nov. 11th 6:30pm -8:00pm @ SCBC.
If you're local bring everyone you know.

Dave Mats and his band Kokua will lead worship, all the new video screens will be installed for a fresh new shock n awe retina massage, the too loud iTunes pre-party playlist includes: Mute Math, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Matchbox 20. I'll be sharing the how and why to get a deep earful from God's Word when you open the Bible on your own.

Plan to stay for elevation AfterHours - - - 7 screen U2 concert video, homemade cookie-tasting, caffeine pollution and board-games tables are in effect after the service for community building and calorie collection.

U R loved. -chuckk

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