This weekend is going to be an all out party extravaganza at Elevation as we celebrate the release of our brand new worship CD, God With Us.

One thing we really know how to do well at Elevation is celebrate, so in true 4th of July spirit, our festivities will include free hot dogs, cotton candy, lemonade and other goodness before and after each worship experience. We have baptisms going on at some of our campuses, and I couldn’t be more excited about the worship experience we have planned.

Our volunteers even get their own private party on Sunday night, with a special volunteer worship experience at our Butler 6 PM service. We have the best volunteers in the world, so we have some extra surprises just for them!

The reason for all the excitement on Sunday is that each song on God With Us represents what our God has done and is doing in this movement. What we have seen over the past year can only be attributed to Jesus, and these songs are monuments to the faithfulness of our Savior. I can’t wait for our church to have these songs that we have been singing for months as a constant reminder that our God is with us.

To find out more details about how to get the CD, check out the Elevation Worship blog here.

And wait until you hear what we are doing with the proceeds of all the CDs sold this weekend. But you will have to be there on Sunday to hear about that!

Faith is not an abstract theoretical proposition.  It’s not wishful thinking.  It’s substance.  It’s action.

Most of my life I imagined faith as some kind of force field.  And the way we talk about faith dematerializes it.  By most definitions, faith is synonymous with hope.

The more I study Scripture, the more I detect a sharp distinction between hope and faith.  Hope is a desire. Faith is a demonstration. Hope wants it to happen. Faith causes it to happen and acts as if it’s already done.

Faith is not content to want it really, really bad.  Faith consults the drawings and gets busy building.  Hope is the blueprint.  Faith is the contractor.

Some of the things we’re believing God for will never happen in our lives because we stand in hope instead of walking in faith.

It’s natural to want to learn from the best, and to associate personally with the leaders you admire.  And you may get that opportunity-in God’s timing.  In the meantime, the worst thing you can do is become a ministerial skirt chaser.  You don’t want to be that guy.  Trust me.  You don’t.  That guy gets avoided.

Now, pursue relationships with people you want to learn from.  Be proactive about asking for meetings with those who are beyond you in experience and wisdom.  But don’t do it to be part of that circle.  Do it because you want to add to and receive value from the relationship.  And because you really want to learn.

When someone contacts Elevation wanting to meet with me, they’re typically directed to the staff member who could most effectively serve them.  Because 99 times out of 100, I’m not the most appropriate person to answer their question, meet their need, or fulfill their request.  Usually they’re grateful.  Other times they’re highly offended.

And when they treat the staff member trying to assist them like dirt, stepping on top of them in an effort to get to me, it tells me so much about their character and motivation:
They don’t want what’s in my heart, they want what’s in my hand.

Don’t meet with people so you can tweet that you met with them.  In fact, a lot of the people we’re dying to meet with have probably answered all the questions we plan to ask them in a book, on a blog, or in a sermon.

God will open doors of relationship and friendship that will blow your mind.  He’s done it for me beyond my wildest imagination.  While you’re waiting for those doors to open, maximize the relationships he’s already provided, and seek to give more than receive.  If you’re faithful with little, He’ll give you more.

When you’re about to write or say something, I suggest you revise it at least 2 or 3 times before posting or verbalizing.  For example, even if you’re just tweeting about your plans for the night, think of a better way to say it than: Going to dinner.  Gonna be fun. Personally, I think the less interesting the activity, the more you should dig until you find an interesting angle to communicate from.  At least, that’s the kind of stuff I like to read.  Not so clever that you come off like you’re trying too hard.  But focused and measured enough to get my attention.

When you’re about to have a difficult conversation, it’s well worth the investment of your time to rehearse what you want to say mentally, or commit it to paper if necessary.  You owe it to the person you’re confronting.  And you owe it to yourself…a few moments of preparation on the front in may save you hours and hours of explanation afterward.

I can’t tell you how long I’ve thought about certain sentences in my sermons, and how ruthlessly I’ve hacked away at them until they were concise and sticky.  A simple sentence like: Between the promise and the payoff is the process-and the process is the point may take me weeks of on again, off again mental energy to perfect.  But I suspect that my finished product packs more punch than: life is tough, but hang in there. It’ll be worth it.

Whether you’re preaching, blogging, or speaking a hard truth, the principle is golden: If you think it over, you’ll say it better. Everytime.

When God made you, He encoded a temperament, skill set, passion, and anointing in a measured and distinctive combination.  But through the years, that DNA is enhanced and affected for better and worse through your influences and experiences.  And over time, you become a mixed breed of sorts.

Let me come at this another way:
People who stand out as unique aren’t original.  They’re just really interesting hybrids.

Musical styles that are hailed as groundbreaking typically just fuse certain elements of several existing styles in a way that is fresh to us.  Ska is reggae meets punk.  Hip-hop is the bottom of the funnel that started with R&B and rap.  Before that blues and jazz.

There’s no such thing as an original preacher.  Just a preacher who combines all of his influences and inspirations in a way that sounds new to us.  And the richer and more smoothly blended the influences, the more tasteful and flavorful the interpretation will be.
Methodist upbringing + Baptist college +
Interdenominational traveling ministry + Black preacher wannabe=
me.

There’s nothing original about my leadership style (yours either).  I’m a the product of 5 million different influences, some good, some bad, some potent, some barely discernable, filtered through the Holy Spirit, changing every day.

You can’t be an original.  But you have potential to be a really fascinating hybrid.  Internalize and integrate your influences…and see what comes out in the mix.

-Ryan “Bobby Flay” Hollingsworth & Chris “Paula Dean” Brown