We stayed up all night on Saturday. Since Chris started working at Blockbuster, we had made it a habit to stay up pretty ridiculously late watching movies (needless to say, we’ve watched a LOT of movies). On this particular Saturday night, at around three or four in the morning, the suggestion was made (I forget by whom… most likely Chris) that we just stay up and go to the early service at Elevation Church. The suggestion was accepted instantly… I mean, why not, right? Seemed like a good random idea. We had been talking about Elevation Church over the past few months, anyway. We had watched the worship videos and read up on what they were doing there. And it was a road trip, which is always an awesome idea. So we did it.
{Now I’ll just take a little aside here and say that I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this trip. I fancied myself a “church expert,” since I had grown up my entire life in churches and had been on Act 2. [For those of you who don’t know, Act 2 was a traveling drama team at North Greenville University.] Over the course of the two and a half years that I was on the team, I had visited tons and tons of churches all over South Carolina, so I thought that I had a sort of inside look into the workings of the church at large… mistake number one. I was expecting to go into the church and analyze it for creative potential, since, in my mind, no one was sufficiently doing any sort of legitimate creative work in the church worthy of attention… mistake number two. Yes, I’m often a smug little expletive. Hubris is more readily seen in hindsight. Ok… back to the story.}
Chris and I were driving down I-85 in his car early Sunday morning at around six-thirty. We were discussing the plans for the day. For both of us, this would be the first time at Elevation. Chris especially wanted to see two of the four worship leaders, Chris Brown and Mack Brock, but since Elevation had three campuses over which they spread their worship leaders, we were going to find out where they were both leading and then drive to each campus to check them out. Chris was just mentioning how he couldn’t seem to maintain a constant speed on hills when we got pulled for speeding. Of course we were. Three miles from the North Carolina border. Bummer.
We finally made it to Matthews, North Carolina almost an hour too early for the service. This was the main campus, located in a strip mall about fifteen minutes outside of uptown Charlotte. Compared to architectural behemoths like Brookwood Church or Marathon Church, this location was so understated I had a little trouble mustering up all the enthusiasm I wanted to… I was honestly hoping for something a little less cave and a little more obelisk… mistake number three. They had large flags and bright tents that clearly showed it to be a church… which was cool… but still. A strip mall? Ok… I could go with it… We ended up going to Hardees while we waited. Did you know that they give free coffee on Sundays? Well… this Hardees did, anyway. It was a welcome surprise after the ticket incident.
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Upon arrival at Elevation Church, a first-timer is asked to turn on his blinkers so that he can get priority parking. Once parked, the visitor is, for lack of a better term, bum-rushed. A greeter meets the guest in the parking lot and asks if it’s their first time. If yes, the greeter introduces him/herself and escorts the visitor into the building. He/she then explains the mission of the church, shows where everything is located, and talks with the visitor about things until the visitor is settled into the whole church-thing. Then the greeter returns to the parking lot to start the process over again, leaving the visitor feeling warm and very greeted.
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Our greeter was Charles. We met him mere seconds after emerging from the car. We were given a little folder that explained that we were VIPs and contained a sample CD of some of their worship team’s original songs and a welcome message from Pastor Steve Furtick. It was well-designed (something I’ve been more prone to notice recently). Charles escorted Chris and me inside and showed us around the facilities.
{Aside number 2. Having established my initial distaste that Elevation met in a strip mall, I will say that their facilities were very well thought out. Their worship space had a large stage, but the seating layout was small enough to still have an intimate feel. Overall, the church felt very warehousey, but I kinda like that kind of thing. Sort of highlights the temporal aspect of the whole church thing, in that we’re only here temporarily. But I take this aside to mention something small: the bathrooms. It’s said that the devil is in the details… which I suppose makes it an apt allusion in this case. It kind of snuck up on me, the bathroom did. I wasn’t expecting the little table at the exit door. This little table was humble enough, but spoke volumes about the priorities of the church. On this table was a basket of mints, hand lotion, and Kleenex. And it was well stocked. Call me crazy, but the fact that someone, first, thought of this table and, second, made it important enough to keep full kind of cocked my head to the side in surprise. And it made me feel appreciated, which is something I did not expect from a bathroom.}
Chris and I were there early enough to be there for the opening of the doors post-sound check. We sat in the first row to be as close to the action as possible. The anticipation was pretty high. We had just finished speaking with John Bishop, the campus pastor. Cool guy. He actually stopped to have a conversation with us, and, believe me, we didn’t look like to the cool guys that stop traffic in the church foyer. Well, at least I didn’t. Chris might have, and probably did, the beautiful man that he is. (On yet another random note, I just now recalled my freshman year at Cedarville University where my roommate said, “You know those guys that you see, like across the room or something, and you just think, ‘I really want to be friends or hang out with that guy’? …You are not that guy.” Good times. Thanks, Dan Harder.)
I was busy filling out the first-time visitor questionnaire as the lights dimmed and the worship service started.
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