Easter at Elevation | 2017

It's not just about numbers. However, the reality is that each number is made up of people, each person is a life, each life is a story. People's lives are being changed every single weekend through our church. Constantly. It's incredible to witness. Freedom happening everywhere you turn. 

89 people from our campus began walking in life with Jesus this weekend.

2,243 people were in attendance, packed out the auditorium for 5 different worship experiences. 

446 kids were in eKidz. 

2.5 years ago our campus was 20 people streaming Pastor Steven's sermon over an iPad in someone's house. 

This is not normal. This is incredible. And it's so much more than just "going to church" or "being a good person" or "whatever other cliche you can put here about being in church". This place, the words from Pastor Steven every Sunday truly inspire people to live their best lives, walking in life with Christ. 

There was a special video on Sunday about a couple that is on staff at one of the Charlotte locations, and she talked about how she had always known about Jesus and that it was more of a Believe-In-Him-So-You-Go-To-Heaven-When-You-Die sort of thing. She said it wasn't until she started attending Elevation that she began to understand that we're intended for life change earth side. Jesus changes us here and we experience it here, and he does miracles and changes lives, breaks chains, sets people free. It's here, and it's now and it's happening. And it's real. 

Personally, this weekend was incredible. We attended the Saturday night worship experience (and I had contractions through the whole thing-- bringing me back full circle to Christmas Eve @ Elevation 2014 when I contracted through the whole thing with Lincoln and had a baby four days later). I woke up super duper early for my last Sunday to serve before Emmeline comes and spent the morning shooting as best as I could with a borrowed camera and lenses (because I sold my spare and then my camera died two weeks later) and with the craziest Braxton Hicks contractions that were totally keeping me from really actually focusing on anything. I ended up scooting out early and only shooting a fraction of the day because I couldn't focus on anything except the fully cooked baby belly and needed to sleep a bit. Hanging out and shooting with my team though, was the greatest thing ever. Those people make me laugh, inspire me and love me like no other. True family, for real. 

It's not about me, none of this is about me, but being there days away from delivering my second baby, taking pictures of the most incredible moments of people's lives where they are experiencing God, some for the very first time, doing what I love to do around people that I love and love me like their own family was just the biggest soul hug. Our Father is so faithful, and so sweet and so attentive to the details of our hearts and our lives. Sometimes I still can't believe that I get to be a part of this. I will admit, I took my camera for granted. I took my gear for granted. I took it all for granted even though I didn't mean to, but heading into this next season I'm not taking another moment of this opportunity for granted. Nope. Savoring, doing my very best, thanking God the whole way. I never would have imagined that I'd love getting up at 4am to serve at church all day long. Never, ever, ever. But it's so worth it, it's one of the greatest things I get to do earth side and I hope I get to do it for a long, long, long, long time. 

Find an Elevation Church location near you, watch sermons online and get connected here! 

Jonelle | Just Because + My Elevation Story

I've written some here and on social media about my kind of wacky and unique postpartum experience. It was rough times, and it was late September of 2015, that things started to calm down a bit and I started to reemerge from that season. My eczema had cleared up significantly, our marriage was strengthening, my anxiety and depression were improving and we were on the up and up. We had been attending a local church for several years and had a solid small group of other couples, but we had undeniably been feeling God pulling at us to move to a different church. Some seasons were ending in areas that we had served in, we were new parents and the time felt right for a change. Our small group was gearing up to start a new year and we felt like it was good to pull out of the group before starting a new year even before knowing where we were headed church-wise. It was kind of a fast decision, but one we both strongly felt God was guiding us to make. So, we made a list of churches in the area to visit put them in iCal for the next few Sundays and started the vetting process over again. We both had visited Elevation Church in Charlotte a few times and were longtime followers of their worship music and sermons from Pastor Steven Furtick (I actually blogged about this sermon a few months before Lincoln was born, and this sermon about fear and being brave changed my life a few months later) but having just come from a big multi-site church with many locations, I was pretty skeptical. I felt I wanted less flashy lights, big production on Sundays and just a quieter experience overall. Honestly, I was pretty not excited about finding a church. I felt like no matter what church we went to I was always disappointed in the people, and I think on some level I was just going along for the ride because I felt like I should, not because I felt like I was going to get anything from God. 

During my postpartum season, I had listened to almost every single podcast that Elevation Church put out, so I am not sure why I was so hesitant to visit in real life. We weren't even first time visitors, we had been to the Raleigh location a few times when we were off from serving at our old church, and we even left Lincoln in the nursery there for the first time ever when he was just a few months old (also, we were there on Christmas Eve a few days before he was born when my labor started). Looking back it was so clear that this is where God was sending us to be a part, I don't know why I didn't see it sooner. 

I think we visited on September 19th, on the way out of the worship experience Marshall was like "I want to go here for a while" and I agreed (again, not totally on board but he seemed convinced so I went with it). We signed up for E101 the next week to learn more about the church (except thats where you sign up to serve-- we had no idea) and then I found an eGroup that met on Friday mornings at Jubala (hellooooo my favorite coffee place!) and that's where I met Jonelle. 

I thought her eGroup had been meeting forever, but it turns out I invited myself to the first meeting ever. My first impression was what an answer to something that I had really been longing for but not really said anything about to God, or anyone else. I had an overwhelmingly large and supportive community of moms already. Our previous small group, local friends, my sister... I had a ton and I was kind of mommed out. I was growing tired of spending time with other moms, conversations completely dominated by nap schedules, breastfeeding woes and nighttime baby sleep. I was craving real conversation, about what was going on in my life and in theirs, things they really struggled with (not related to baby sleep) and coming out of one of the hardest seasons of my life, I was just really lonely. Sitting around the table was women in a variety of life stages and it was glorious. Jonelle is a mom of girls that are teenagers (and now with one in college) and of the other women some were moms of elementary, middle or high school kids, some were single, some were college girls themselves and it was just as my heart had desired. 

Another thing that literally took my breath away for a second, was the fact that out of a group of maybe 10 ladies, I was one of I think three that were white. After the UMC shooting in Charleston, Pastor Steven preached an unforgettable message titled "It's In Your Hands" about racism that changed everything for me. I've had black friends, Hispanic friends, Asian friends, Muslim friends throughout my lifetime, but at that current season in my life literally everyone I knew and interacted with on a regular basis was white-- just like me, and just like Lincoln. My heart was not comfortable when I realized that. In the sermon he talked about that it is OUR JOB to raise the next generation without the racism of our previous generations. It ends with us. It changed everything for me. Our neighbors were black and we didn't even know their names and had lived beside them for years. Our church was majority white, our small group was 100% white. Every kid that we were friends with at the time was white. How could I teach my child that other people maybe different colors but are the same as us-- loved, chosen, wanted, and valued by God-- if we literally never interacted with anyone that looked different from us? I couldn't imagine waiting until he was in kindergarten for him to meet a diverse group of people. Diverse immediately skyrocketed to the top of my list when we decided to look for a new church. So, when I got to eGroup and I looked around the table I knew that God was with me there, and this is where the future was for us. Our big mighty God that created all the things shows up in the tiniest of details in our prayers, hearts and thoughts and it is the greatest. He wants great things for us, for us to do great things and it is never too late to get started. 

So, back to Jonelle. We hit it off immediately, and after talking to her some the following Sunday at church we discovered that we both had been dabbling in the paleo and autoimmune paleo diet (literally I had not met any actual person in real life at that point that had either heard of it, or wasn't a total skeptical about the whole "gluten free craze") for a variety of conditions, one of which was eyelid eczema that I really thought I was the only one in the world that had that! Talk about a me too! moment. The more we got to know each other, the more it became clear that we were family through and through. This woman is so special to me! And being in her eGroup was such a gift and the doorway to what would become a seemingly endless stream of blessings flowing from this church into our lives as sermons, people, serving opportunities, the stories we get to witness and be part of.. it's unreal how we see God moving literally on a daily basis through connections we've made at this church. As Lincoln got older it got more difficult to get to eGroup (and to stay the entirety of the time) but I still consider myself to be a part and I honestly doubt I'll ever leave... 

This woman's beauty is breathtaking inside and out, I am beyond grateful that we get to share in this season together! We met one chilly day at Sola in Raleigh for some fun headshots for blog things to come for her (she's an avid and talented writer, in addition to all the other things that she rocks at....) and it was a total blast standing on stuff and climbing around the tables like we were the only people in there (we weren't). Thankful barely covers it. So thankful for this family. 

February Goal Type Things 2017

• set up and start bullet journaling 
• I have the most wonderful undated monthly/weekly/daily planner from Target that I discovered was a one time collaboration and it sent me spiraling into the depths of the internet to find a new one. I'm super duper not interested in paying more than $20 (even that's more than I'd want to pay...) for something I will scribble on, spill coffee on and that potentially has features I do not need, care about or plan to use. Per the recommendation of my sweet friend Marie, I finally Googled some bullet journaling tutorials and that is TOTALLY how I already run my work flow/schedule-- except I was using a pre-made undated planner. Amazing. I'm excited to try it, and am looking forward to having a central location for lists too. I have a running tab of lists in my phone and legal pads about and the idea of having them all in one place gets me so excited. I found a cheap-ish one on Amazon that will arrive tomorrow and now I just need a good black pen. Hit me with your favorites. 
• start teaching round 2 of Financial Peace University
• It's starting February 19th! We've partnered with Elevation Raleigh to offer this course AGAIN with free childcare, coffee and no rush hour traffic. We will meet at Millbrook High School on Sundays during the 9:30 worship experience. The course runs for 9 weeks and you are free to come check it out without investing in the kit-- it WILL change your life! Register here: https://fpu.com/1036068
• go to Ikea (FINALLY YOU GUYS) 
• I get paid on February 10th and we have quite an Ikea list. Several house projects are in the works and we are borrowing a mini-van and plan to fill 'er up! Yippee! 
• assemble king bed + move queen bed to the Big Boy Room + move crib into the Baby Girl Room! 
• We're playing musical beds! We're getting a memory foam king bed (adulting, so much adulting) and our queen mattress is going in Lincoln's room and his crib (now toddler bed) is getting moved into baby girl's room. 
• make a nesting to-do list and clean out, organize and start preparations for Baby Girl's Room!
• We've already gone through the clothes, downsized tremendously and have a ton of NB through 3mo stuff washed and ready, just need to get it in the room, put it all away and hang stuff on the walls. Post coming soon with inspiration for her room. EEEEEEP. 
• complete Foto February Challenge
• I came up with this photo challenge for the month just for funsies. I've only done one so far, and it's really fun! And really challenging to let go of the pretty image ideal... jump in! There are no rules! 
• finish reading Respect Dare
• This book has been pivotal in this season of transition. We're not quite newlyweds, we're preparing to transition to two kids, we've been in our house for five years.. it's an interesting place to be and this book has provided such a shift in perspective for me. It is cheesy at times and the lil' feminist in me sometimes screams and wants to stop reading it, but I'm finding it important that I challenge my thinking on all front and see things from other perspectives.  I'm slated to finish it in the next two weeks (I'm a bit behind) and there are already quite a few "dares" that I haven't really done full out and I'd like to do again. Perhaps this fall will be a good time to do that, I think! Regardless, I totally recommend it if you're looking for some guidance in approaching marriage biblically. Men speak respect, women speak love and it's a really great combination of these ideas with some practical tips, "dares" and reflections. A great "quiet time" piece and has sparked some wonderful conversations between Marshall and I. Highly recommend! 
• maintain existing + continue developing good habits
• I've upgraded my water bottle to a 1L and am drinking 2-3 liters a day. Want to keep that up! 
• I've been getting up early to work in the mornings and it has been a game changer for my stress level! Finding such peace and joy working in the wee hours of 5 and 6am. I don't even know who I am anymore...
• I lowered my step goal to 6k a day, and some days it's easy to hit and surpass, others not so much. Get back to walking every day and yoga 1x a week once I hit 30 weeks. 
• enjoy at least one Lincoln + Mama day each week
• I'm getting all nostalgic about only having ~13ish weeks left of this pregnancy, and the transition to 2 YEARS OLD hasn't been too bad, but there are definitely a few more tantrums than there used to be. It's getting more difficult to wrangle him in public when he decides to not obey, BUT-- it's worth it. We've been going to Marbles a lot, would like to maybe go to Pullen Park and ride the train one day, go get special donuts at Levant... and also, would like to document one of these with my big camera. 

Matt, Dana, Ethan, Ava + Judah | family

Oh, I love this family. They are headed to Charlotte this week to begin an AMAZING adventure as part of the 2k2 program at Elevation and I really can't imagine what it's going to be like not seeing Dana every Sunday. Kinda makes me want to cry a bit. I'm so glad that Lincoln is little because I don't know how I'd explain sweet Judah's absence for a few months. He loves that kid! 

They have become dear friends and I can't wait to have them back in Raleigh. A couple of weeks ago we met downtown to take some Raleigh love family pictures and it was such a blast. It was a chilly day but they came out dressed all fly like they do and we had a blast, jumping and frolicking through the streets and alleyways. Dana and Matt: It was an absolutely joy to take a few pictures for you guys during this special season! I am so excited to see what will come from your time in Charlotte, we love you so much! And Dana, super thankful God had it in mind to have our paths cross during this season of 90s comeback and #momdiaries. We will see you soon! 

BEYOND Week 4 Highlights

Not a lot of words to say except that I love taking pictures. I love this family. I love being part of this. I love having a front row seat to the life change that happens CONSTANTLY in this place. Thank you, Jesus.