A couple week’s ago the BASIC staff watched a documentary about the formation of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. It was incredibly encouraging to see this church’s faith and all that they have accomplished in only five years.
The Lord had spoken to them that they were meant to be a mega church and reach a major metropolitan city, which eventually led to their decision to plant Elevation Church in Charlotte. Since the church opened in February of 2006 they have grown to over 8,000 in attendance and had over 14,000 professions of faith and 2,400 baptisms. Some of you may know Elevation’s pastor, Steven Furtick, as the author of the book Sun Stand Still. One of the things that stood out to me in the documentary was a huge Easter event that the church held when they were just starting out.
They decided to drop thousands of Easter eggs from a helicopter at a local football field as a way of reaching out to the community and advertising the church. The church practically emptied it’s bank account (that takes a lot of faith and prayer) spending tens of thousands of dollars on all the supplies, advertising, and large prizes to go along with the event. One of the ways they advertised was on a top 40 radio station who also broadcasted live from the event. Television and radio stations soon picked up the story and the anticipation began to build. They bought 50,000 eggs for the event – 30,000 dropped from the helicopter and 20,000 hidden on the ground.
The church chose not to use this event as a way to preach. Their main goal was to get the name of the church out and let the community know that they were there. In the end, over 2,000 people attended an event put on by a church of less than 150 attendees. In the weeks following, the church grew substantially as families who had attended the Easter egg drop began to stream in.
So, what is the big takeaway from this? For me, it was that not everything that’s hype is bad. I like doing big events to get your name out, but I usually find myself asking questions like, “What are we doing through this that is pointing to Christ?” If I can’t find an answer to that question I will usually abandon the event, but Elevation Church specifically chose not to use this event as a way to do open air preaching, evangelize (although I’m sure their actions spoke much louder than words at an event like this), and there was no last minute “catch” for anyone who attended, which is very important being that the culture we live in has grown more and more skeptical.
So, as you’re planning big events for your back to school kickoff remember that not everything that’s hype is bad. Elevation Church’s Easter egg drop was driven by hype and ended up being a catalyst for enormous growth in their church and eventually thousands of salvations. If that’s not worth the hype, then I don’t know what is!