After the huge success of their Thr3e conference, Elevation decided to do it again this year and call it Impart. They also more than doubled the registration price for the one day event from $300 to $700. It seems that registration hasn’t been going as quickly as they may have hoped (some might be inclined to say SCOREBOARD), because they have started offering discounts, specials, and even giving away a Kindle per day to registrants. Also, to hype the event, Pastor Steven has had staff members blog about the lessons they took away from Thr3e.
For those of you still weighing your options about going to IMPART, here’s what one Elevation staffer had to say:
John Bishop, Ministries Pastor
The biggest thing I took away from THR3E was the way we took care of everyone who came. And, when I say, “took care,” I’m saying we did everything we could possibly imagine to make their day with us as smooth and memorable as possible.
So, the great lesson he took away from Thr3e is that Elevation is awesome. If that’s worth $700 to you, knock yourself out.
In this very special audio version of his blog, Pastor Furtick and a few special guests from his creative team have a round table discussion about how the sermon series are planned at Elevation. In an act of selfless bravery, I listened to all thirty minutes of this, so that you don’t have to. You can thank me later.
Here is what we learn about the process from this enlightening discussion:
1.) Steven gets lots of really cool ideas. It may come from watching the Foo Fighters, listening to T.D. Jakes, or talking to his kids, but just know, Steven comes up with tons of really cool ideas.
2.) Steven is really cool.
3.) The ideas for sermon series come from Steven’s imagination.
4.) Steven is unique and relevant.
5.) Sometimes, Steven lets the creative team help him to form his really cool ideas, but sometimes he doesn’t.
6.) Steven is a visionary. (Actually referred to himself in this way.)
7.) After Steven shares his awesomely cool ideas, the creative team does things like “build a brand” and “create a buzz.” Not really sure what those terms mean as they relate to church, but they seem to be getting increasingly popular among the seeker types.
Not a lot was said about Scripture, except a couple of subtle jabs towards Pastors who teach eighty-one week series on the book of Genesis, and things like that. So basically, in thirty minutes, we learned that the ideas for the series come from Steven’s “vision”, and everything else falls in line after that. Oh yeah, and that Steven is really cool.
What I found more interesting was the spreadsheet that they use to help for the series:
Note the placement and wording of question number 7. “What Scriptures do you think you’ll use during this series?” Wait…you mean to tell me we’ve already came up with the concept for this series, with how we want it to make people feel, movie tie-ins, target audience but haven’t decided upon Scripture backing for this series yet? Wow.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen multiple times where Furtick and Noble have made great errors in misapplying Scripture, and we’ve wondered how that could keep happening. I think we’ve found our answer. At least in Furtick’s case, he openly admits to dreaming up cool, gimmicky sermon series, and only later tries to come back and tie in Scripture to justify his stance. If you are selective enough, and willing to ignore context, you can make the Bible seem to say anything you want. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, David Koresh, and Jim Jones all claimed Scriptural backing for their whacked-out beliefs. This is exactly opposite of how a Pastor (or anyone else) should approach Scripture. The Furtick model is to decide what you belief and then try to find some Scripture to back that up. We should always approach the Scripture first, and let God’s Word dictate what we believe.
I don’t know who I am writing to…but I really feel like I am supposed to tell someone, “DON’T GIVE UP!!!” …
People hate you just because of what you do…and if you begin to experience any aort of success they will despise you even more. Don’t give up…your calling is not to please them!!!
Once again, the translation department of Pajama Pages offers this service for the benefit of our readers. A translation of Noble’s leadership talk at Innovate on Tuesday:
If you are a pastor in the South, you have to be strapped [own a gun]. BCoop is on the fast track to greatness!!!
I didn’t say ‘What is it that the deacons or the bloggers want to do in my church?’ Of course I don’t listen to them; this whole experiment is a conversation.
You gotta’ be stupid to plant a church. Seriously. If you understand this, you understand me.
God used unschooled, ordinary men to change the world. Paul who? Luke did what?
People say, ‘The music is too loud.’ Well, you’re going to hate Heaven. That’s why we play Highway to Hell. You’ll love it there.
If it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill. That’s what I told the waiter at Sullivan’s yesterday, too, but I don’t think he’s a Christ follower.
Most churches stick their kids and students in the basement with a woman that knew Moses. It’s just as well, because the stupid church planter wasn’t teaching them much.
I thought the food fight in the grave yard was a great idea. That’s why they kicked me out of cemetery before I could graduate.
Here’s how you know you’ve got a vision from God: It makes people mad. God told me I should marry your wife. Hah!
Christians are the meanest people in the world. Especially the Reformed ones! They’re even worse than Nazis and conservative Republicans.
Don’t change things just to change things. You’re better off changing things to keep them the same.
We yell at lost people for acting like lost people. Though my wife hates it when I yell at her while she’s driving. What can I say? I’m working on it.
Because I haven’t forgotten what it feels like to be lost. Now, can someone help me find the closest Cracker Barrel? I’m really, really hungry.
When people are obsessed with your blog and twitter JUST for the purpose of being a critic…they REALLY need… …a perscription for Viagra because…well…SOMETHING AIN’T HAPPNIN’ in their life!!!
For the record, I will submit to any drug test you want me to. I’m clean, man. Totally organic.
I’m no Manny Ramirez.
(At least PN doesn’t take criticism as personally as the other Reformers. He’s good at keeping his arguments above the belt, too. You’ve got to admire that.)
A humble leader will be careful about what they say about other people…understanding that how they speak about others truly reveals the motives of their hearts.
By the miracle of Twitter, we’re again able to plot Pastor Noble’s appetite and his continuing quest to sate it, though these two posts seem to have been posted out of order.
ATL traffic has me really wanting to sat not nice words!!! (35 minutes ago)
Crap–conflicted about where to eat dinner…Fogo or Maggiano’s? (2 hours ago)
At least he hasn’t had to sacrifice any exclamation marks!!!
UPDATE: Upon further reflection, although it’s easy to make fun of such language and the apparent lack of self awareness while using it, when did it become acceptable for ministers of Christ to carry on this way? PN has more than 7,000 followers. Are they all edified by such language?
What should be tragedy has become so common that it’s merely parody.
This blog is mine alone and does not necessarily–or very often–represent the thinking or sentiments of anyone who disagrees with me, my wife, my employer, my friends, my family, my pastor, my brother, my church and, almost certainly, God. After I hit the Publish button, it doesn’t always even reflect my own thinking. It does seem to often reflect the thinking of Tommy F, Twit Conway and some guy in Minnesota, however.
