I went to write this very same post several days ago but I could
not bring myself to publish it. I wrote the post out of frustration and
if I am going to be honest, I wrote the post out of anger. I am so glad
that I decided not to publish the original post. I would have gotten my
point across but it would not have been with an appropriate Christian attitude
and certainly not with a loving heart. It would have caused division
within the church and that is not my goal and should not be anyone's goal who claims
to be a Christian. We ALL pull for the SAME team. We ALL love the
SAME God! We ALL NEED God's love. We are ALL in this Christian
journey to let God use us to bring people to Him to better glorify His kingdom
This post is simply written out of concern for the church as a
whole. What sparked me to write a post as raw and honest as this is going
to be is the "Code Orange Revival" that Elevation church in Charlotte
felt led to do. Let me start off by saying, I love Steven Furtick.
He is an amazing communicator, a captivating speaker, and he has a
love for God that simply radiates off of him when he enters a room. I had
the privileged of hearing Steven Furtick when I was only 13. He was
still in school, not married and he had spiky blonde hair. (I don't think
I could ever forget that hair!) When my sister attended Winthrop
University she attended Elevation Church. When I would visit her, we went
there for our Sunday morning worship. It was an amazing experience
and you could literally feel the Holy Spirit moving throughout that
church.
With all that being said, there are a few concerns that I do have.
I keep up with Elevation Church and Steven Furtick through twitter.
During the 12 days of this revival, they were constantly tweeting about
the amazing things that were going on during the revival. There were a
couple of tweets that really sat with me the wrong way.
Steven Furtick @stevenfurtick
Download ALL sermons
from #CodeOrangeRevival -OUR GIFT TO YOU! I
I absolutely
love that Elevation is being kind enough to let everybody in the whole world to
be able to download all the sermons, but what confuses me is that they say,
"OUR GIFT TO YOU!" As easy as it is to take credit, we have to
remember that all credit, glory and honor goes to our loving most awesome God.
It is God's gift to us that this revival took place. He uses us,
but God still gets all the praise and glory for this revival.
Steven Furtick @stevenfurtick
As w/ all our #CodeOrangeRevival experiences
-there is NO CHARGE/NO TICKET for tonight's event-it's our gift to you.
I have never
seen a church have to clarify that there is "NO CHARGE/NO TICKET for
tonight's event." To me it almost sounds as if we have to clarify
that for this event tonight there is no charge. Since when does a church
have to advertise for a Free Church service? The price for us to go to
church, to worship openly and freely has already been paid.
Steven
Furtick @stevenfurtick
“@ShannonMcgevna1: @stevenfurtick you
have the most amazing staff, complete courtesy & respect #COR is
changing my life”
I know that
this staff is absolutely amazing. I have no doubt in my mind that every
single one of them is wonderful men and women of God. The staff of a
church can make a huge difference in the lives of the members. One thing
as staff we have to remember is that WE are not the one's changing lives of the
people; it is God who is changing the lives. Once again, we need to give
all honor, praise and glory to God. We would be nothing without Him.
As I have
said, I love Steven Furtick and I think Elevation church is amazing. I
believe that this "Code orange revival" was a God inspired event that
took place all over the world. I believe that lives were changed. I
believe that relationships were restored. I believe that God captured the
heart of thousands during this revival. We just need to remember who
deserves all of the praise and glory for this revival. We are nothing
without Him. We cannot do anything without Him.
"You
are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you
created all things, and by your will they were created and have their
being." Revelations 4:11
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