Elevation Archives - Tiffany Joy

God Shows Up At Elevation

by tiffanyGod Shows Up August 11, 2020August 18, 2020No Comments

I currently work for a church in the Santa Cruz Mountains called Elevation. Elevation has been around since early 2009, and I joined the church family in late 2009. Throughout the years I have seen how God shows up at Elevation. This will be more of a background to what Elevation is rather than specific stories of God showing up.

It was the second church I went to as an adult with my friends, and we quickly became a part of this wonderful church. After a few major life changes with me, I became the admin for Elevation in 2018. That is not where the story of Elevation starts, though.

The story of Elevation has to start with the pastor, Chuckk (yes, spell check it has 2 k’s). His openness to share his past, personality, and love is one reason everyone involved with the church feels safe to be themselves.

It is a beautiful thing when a group of people can be authentically themselves as they journey towards a personal relationship with God the creator. When there are no walls or barriers to break through, you can then learn and grow with people on the same journey as you.

What makes Elevation, Elevation?

The quick answer are the people. Like every church, those involved and belong to that church makes the church what it is. Church is not about the building or even the weekly service. The church is the people who make up the community of believers we hang out with.

The skill of musical people and other creative people are part of the culture of Elevation. This is also one reason I fit into this church. We are weird creative people who love God.

We must be cool because we meet at a nightclub. The actual location of the building doesn’t matter. We just need a space to meet. Plus, more people may be all right going to a nightclub and not a cathedral or other church building.

I’ve learned a lot from being part of Elevation and see God show up a lot throughout the years of being part of Elevation. It is such a beautiful group of God-loving people.

Want More?

For more information about my amazing Church, you can go to Elevation’s website.

For more blog posts in this series, you can visit my God Shows Up page. I also have a YouTube series that goes hand in hand with this written series.

Church

by tiffanyGod Shows Up, Life October 27, 2019October 10, 2019No Comments

Intro

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, just like going to a rock concert doesn’t make you a musician. Still church is an important aspect of the Christian life. Finding your church home and being part of a community helps you grow spiritually and can strengthen your relationship with God. A church family also can support you and give godly advice.

The Story

I’m not sure which one of my 4 close friends found Elevation or suggested it first, but we all went one Sunday evening. After attending only a few times, we were invited to come early for dinner. I was uncertain about going. I thought we would be out of place and not belong, but the gang went.

We soon would start to go to ‘after hours’ and spend more time with the church people we had just met. I then started helping out, along we the others. We became part of the family of Elevation.

As we grew spiritually Elevation felt more like family. We were home when we were around Elevation’s people.

For a few years I did move away and had to find a new church. It was hard feeling alone in my journey and not among my church family. In a way that grew my faith and moved me along my spiritual journey. It showed me how to follow God alone and what truly blocks me from following Him closely.

Once I moved back to the area it felt as though I filled a new void and fit into the family again. Sometimes I even forget that there was a time I wasn’t seeing the Elevation family weekly.

Yes, we can be weird and easily distracted. We are not perfect, but we love God and follow Him. The Elevation family helps those in need and loves all. We do our best with what God gave us and work towards being closer to Him. Our church helps each one of us do that.

For more information on my amazing church you can check out our website.

For more information about how God has shown up in my life you can check out the other posts in this series.

Elevation

by tiffanyother updates, random ramblings August 27, 2015One Comment

After my layover chat with the Mormons I realized I never write in detail about my church. I love it yet I’ve never wrote about it. It is so unique, authentic and loving that I believe our story should be told.

The story of Elevation has to start with the pastor, Chuckk (yes, spell check it has 2 k’s). I believe his openness to share his past, personality, and love is the reason everyone involved with the church feels safe to share and be themselves. It is a beautiful thing when a group of people can be authentically themselves as they journey towards a personal relationship with God the creator.

When there are no wall or barriers to break through you can then start to learn and grow with people on the same journey as you.

Chuckk’s wife, Andrea, of course needs to be spoken about. She is there every week setting up environment and loving people. She is encouraging and a strong Christian woman. She has become my mentor and one of the ladies who I look up to. She leads by example and makes sure everyone feels welcomed into our church.

I could go on about ever single person that is important to the church but that would fill a book and I am not up for that right now. I would most likely forget to mention the middle school leader or the grumpy guitarist. I’ll just leave talking about each awesome person for another post. Or maybe it would be another series.

I really want to focus on what makes Elevation, Elevation. The people are what is important and what gives Elevation the unique feeling but that is not the only thing. People where I start when I think about Elevation.

We believe that Church is not about the building or even the weekly service. The Church is the people who make up the community of believers we hang out with. And most do hang out either after service, during the week, or at random events. It seems like lately there are a bunch of events that people are going to and inviting other members. Elevation also organizes events, because we know that there is only so much that can be learned from Chuckk and it takes community to really grow and help others grow.

We do have service each week which is important. This is where we can worship and learn about God from a smart dude who very obviously knows God and has a deep relationship with him.

We also get to express our love for God through music which, Jeremy leads. He is also a pretty great dude. I mean he was willing to leave his home in Colorado to move to an un-churched area for the worship leader position that can only pay him as a part-time position. If that isn’t trusting God I’m not positive what is. HE also has a wonderful talent for finding great musicians.

The skill of musical people and other creative people are part of the culture of Elevation. This is also one reason I fit into this church. We are weird creative people who love God.

The mission statement of Elevation is, “Elevation exists to worship God, reach the unconvinced and together grow to be more like Jesus.” The 7 guiding values are, “Scripture-centric Teaching, Cultural Relevance, Missional Living, Engaging Worship, Authentic Community, Transformed Lives, and Focused Simplicity”

Oh yeah and we must be cool because we meet at a night club/ bar. You see we believe the actual locations doesn’t matter. We just need a space to meet in regularly. Plus, more people may feel alright going to a night club and not a cathedral or other church building.

For more information about my amazing Church you can go to Elevation’s website.

Let me know if you have any questions about Elevation or church in general; and all feedback is welcomed.