Zach Pippin's Experience

"So here is my take on our recent trip to Elevation Church. Amy has already told a lot of what we saw, so I will take this time to highlight THREE THINGS that stuck out to me during our visit.

1. WELCOMING ATMOSPHERE:
From the time we approached the church on the road we were welcomed by the members. The campus we visited was Butler High School, but there was ample signage to indicate the presence of Elevation there. We had people direct us from the road and through the parking lot to a prime parking location. Then we were welcomed from the time we stepped out of the car and on our walk up to the building by greeters, and this only continued once we entered the building. Despite the large number of greeters, however, they were far from overbearing or over eager. We felt WELCOMED, but NOT SMOTHERED.

2. PRESENTATION
These said greeters were all wearing matching shirts, which matched the theme of the series THE ESSENTIAL JAMES. Everything from the visitor cards to the restroom signs were themed and coordinated. Once we entered the auditorium the set was visually stunning, especially considering they put it up and tear it down every week.

3. DELIVERANCE
The message we heard was not delivered by Pastor Steven Furtick as we had been expecting. It was not even delivered in person. We saw a sermon from Pastor Craig Groeschel via video. This however did not take away from the experience. Pastor Steven and the Elevation church staff did a great job of selecting his sermon to fit into the series.

We had barely been in the car for a minute before we were making plans to trek up to Charlotte again. I hope that more people can join us next time and experience Elevation Church.

You can read more about Zach's experience on his blog:
http://zpippin.blogspot.com/