You’re probably aware that last Friday, March 9th, our church experienced a little “Mayhem”.
Elevate hosted our 4th Pineapple Mayhem — and it was fantastic!
We had spent the prior month in a series on Evangelism, called “SuperHuman”. We discussed the reality that Jesus was fully God, and fully man… and then talked about how our friends needed to know this. We taught “Love and Risk” at Elevate weekend services on the weekends leading up to Pineapple Mayhem… and challenged students to think about what “risk” they could take with a friend of theirs. A spiritual conversation? An offer to pray for them? An invitation to Mayhem? An invitation to an Elevate service? It made for great small group conversations.
Although “record attendance” was not necessarily the definition of success for this event, we did end up with more students than ever before: just over 2,900. Our main goal was to provide a place where our Elevate students could invite their friends to a fun night at their church; especially their friends who have no spiritual background. And “INVITE” is exactly what our students did. All night long, our Elevate staff was approached by enthusiastic student after student saying “This is my friend Ally … my friend Tyler… my friend Kayley… my friend Ethan…. They’ve never been here before!” It was fantastic.
We were able to tally the number of students who came to Mayhem who had NEVER been to an Elevate service before… and it was over 1,100. Add to that the hundreds of parents & volunteers who came out to serve… it was a fantastic night.
Now our prayer is that for those students who came for the first time, that night would mark A Beginning. The start of a journey towards God. In the 2 days after Mayhem, we got to see regular Elevate students getting baptized at the weekend service… because they fully realize that there’s a God who’s nuts about them, and who wants to lead their lives. We’re praying that one day those 1st time Mayhem attenders will realize that same thing.
So grateful for a church that values ministry to young teens… even when it means sharing the main auditorium because we wouldn’t fit anywhere else! -Scott and the Elevate Team
