At first I thought, “this can’t be real.” But apparently, restless youngsters in Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church really are coloring in what is a disturbing message:
UNITY:
“We are united under the visionary.” At the bottom the page states, “Elevation Church is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will protect our unity in supporting his vision.”
That’s not unity of believers around Christ; It’s unity of church attendees uniting around a pastor’s vision that he allegedly “heard” from God outside of Scripture. In other words, a cult. The Roman Catholic Church has said something similar: We will protect our unity in supporting the vision of the Pope, or perhaps the College of Cardinals. The truth is, we should follow only God’s vision as shown in the Bible.
This is part of Elevation Church’s “Code,” no longer on its website but archived here):
-
- We Act in Audacious Faith – In order to dominate a city with the gospel of Jesus, we can’t think small. We will set impossible goals, take bold steps of faith and watch God move.
We Are a Generation of Honor – We freely give honor to those above us, beside us and under us because of the calling and potential God has placed inside of them.- We Lead the Way in Generosity – Our staff and church will go above and beyond to give sacrificially to the work of God in our city.
- We Are United Under the Visionary – Elevation is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will aggressively defend our unity and his vision.
- We Need Your Seat – We will not cater to personal preference in our mission to reach this city. We are more concerned with the people we are trying to reach than the people we are trying to keep.
- We Think Inside the Box – We will embrace our limitations. They will inspire our greatest creativity and innovation.
- We Dress for the Wedding – We will continually increase our capacity by structuring for where we want to go, not where we are. We will remain on the edge of our momentum by overreacting to harness strategic momentum initiatives.
- We Are Ruth’s Chris, Not Golden Corral – Simplicity enables excellence. We place a disproportionate value on creating a worship experience that boldly celebrates Jesus and attracts people far from God.
- We Are All About the Numbers – Tracking metrics measures effectiveness. We unapologetically set goals and measure progress through all available quantitative means.
- We Eat the Fish and Leave the Bones – We will always maintain a posture of learning. We seek to learn from everyone and incorporate a variety of influences into our methodology.
- We Are Known for What We Are For – We will speak vision and life over our people. We will lift up the salvation of Jesus rather than using our platform to condemn.
- We Will Not Take This for Granted – What we are experiencing is not normal. This is the highest calling, and we will remain grateful for God’s hand of favor.
The Code, by the way, is sort of like Elevation’s own Apostle’s Creed, only it’s a creed devoid of what Jesus actually came to do: seek, call and save the lost through His shed blood on the cross.
This is the Tweet that Pastor Furtick sent out when the first edition of this coloring book released:
in a now-deleted video, Steven Furtick himself explains the code to children and why they need to memorize the Code.
