Life Expressed Digitally

Extravagant Simplicity in Worship

“How much is much admission?” my brother, Brent jokingly commented as we were waiting for the doors to open. He had heard from people that compared the worship services at Elevation Church, in North Carolina to that of a concert.

I had the privilege of attending Elevation Church Sunday night with a few friends, and family at their newly built Matthews campus. This campus of the church was built in an old abandoned strip mall. When you think of church in a stip-mall you don’t usually think of over the top production, lighting, audio, etc. Well, Sunday at 6:00 at night Elevation Church proved that wrong.

As a guy with a passion for technology, and the like I keep a close eye on media related things and productions that churches are doing. Tonight was no different. Several rows of moving fixture lights, 2 huge screens for video playback, a backdrop also for video/lighting, Elevation had it all. I didn’t get to look at the A/V booth, but I am sure that their sound board and everything else back there was top notch. I am not saying that you need all of this to have a worship experience, but in order to reach people for Christ sometimes you have to do things a little different than other churches. 

The thing that really amazed me throughout the worship service is that the songs that were played were lyrically simple, but at the same time musically extravagant. At Elevation the worship leaders at their various campuses write original songs, something that I really like because it shows that they are not just copying what other people are doing, but really using their gifts to truly lead. 

Every song I sang was simple. 

Easy to understand.

Memorable.

How many times do you come out of a worship service forgetting the songs you just sang minutes ago? I do not know about you, but for me it happens all the time. I would like to challenge you to think about how you can keep your worship services simple, yet extravagant at the same time. I know this is a tough thing to balance, but it’s possible. Elevation proved it.

I didn’t pay anything for admission. I felt overwhelming welcomed and at the end of the night it was NO concert at all, but rather an inspiring, uplifting of the Holy Spirit. Props Elevation!

 I hope that this blog encourages you to not only think about how you can make your church service extravagant, but also simple at the same time. If you have any comments please leave them below.