You’re about to get a look into the chaos in my heart… It’s about to get raw.

Sometimes I wonder if me not drinking really inspires people to be more like Christ.

I wonder whether God cares if we cuss or not.

I wonder if I’m promoting the actual God of the Bible or just some version of God I made up in my head.

I wonder if campus ministries (including my own) really make a difference in the lives of the people we’re trying to reach.

And I wonder if “reaching people” is even a worthy pursuit.

I wonder if God is even real. Or if I’ve made him up in my mind.

I wonder if someone else has come across a better way to live.

I wonder if people even need God… let alone want Him.

I wonder if sleeping with someone I love before tying the knot is really all that bad.

I wonder if it’s possible to live a good life without Jesus.

I wonder if God really hates all the gay people.

I wonder if being gay is a choice… or if one is really born that way.

I wonder if God prefers showing up at big evangelistic gatherings or through conversations among friends.

I wonder if I’m just wasting my time living as a Christian.

I wonder why I haven’t suffered much in my life.

I wonder why others have suffered way more in their lives.

I wonder if being a pastor is really the best career choice for me to pursue.

I wonder if Christianity in America is really Christianity at all.

I wonder if I’m really all that better than the homeless people I see everyday.

I wonder why everyone else seems to be getting along just fine without God.

I wonder if Heaven (or Hell) even exists. Or if it’s just something we made up to ease the pain of death.

I wonder if I’ll be right about God at the end of my life… Or if I’ll have spent my whole life serving a God that never existed.

I wonder why God used to split the ocean a few thousand years ago… and he seems lacking in miracles nowadays.

I wonder why God doesn’t just straight up show everyone that He is not only real… but extraordinarily powerful.

And yet in all that wondering…

There are many, many moments where this whole faith thing becomes crystal clear… If only for a moment.

When a conversation goes from surface-level to a seemingly-spiritual level that’s deep in the hearts of those involved.

When I see a girl go out of her way to love a person who can’t possibly love her back.

When I feel lower than I’ve ever felt… and I turn to the words in God’s famous book… and suddenly a wave of peace rushes into my heart.

When I see grace in action. When I see the joy on the face of a friend when I give them a gift they weren’t expecting at all. Or when I see someone withhold punishment from someone who truly deserved it… When I meet someone who genuinely does not care what other people think about them.

When I get so frustrated with crap that goes on in my life… And I desperately pray to something bigger than myself for rest in my soul… And then rest miraculously enters my soul.

That feeling is one that can’t be put into words.

When I go to a wedding and I see the beautiful bride dressed in pure white grace down the aisle… And a priceless expression appears on the face of the husband at the end of the aisle. And I think… “Now, that’s incredible.”

The word love doesn’t do that moment justice. It’s much bigger than that.

So, despite my doubts… I’ll keep my hope. We’ll see if this whole faith thing works out.

Perhaps the best way to end this piece is with the words of God himself…

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
   neither are your ways my ways,” 
            declares the LORD. 
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
   so are my ways higher than your ways 
   and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow 
   come down from heaven, 
and do not return to it 
   without watering the earth 
and making it bud and flourish, 
   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: 
   It will not return to me empty, 
but will accomplish what I desire 
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:8-11

Maybe one day I’ll have less questions. But for now… I can only trust.

…

On my deathbed,

It won’t matter

what I chose to wear

how big my house was

what kind of car I drove

if I owned the newest iPhone

how many followers I had on twitter

whether I took a vacation to Europe or not

which fraternity I pledged in college

how popular I was in high school

that I was known to many

which concerts I went to

what movies I saw

which books I read

which college I went to

what bands I listened to

how many people read my blog

or if I became a household name

…

On my deathbed,

It will matter

what name I leave behind

whether my life was spent making it more about me

or if I spent it improving the lives of others

that I had only a few great friends

if I laughed more than I cried

if I spent more time with my family

or spent my days working away at the office

that I was content with what I had

whether my kids look up to me

or despise my very presence

who I chose to encourage

and who I chose to extend grace to

whether I spent my time afraid of the future

or faithfully stewarding all I had been given

whether my life was marked by love

or by a banner of selfishness

whether the legacy I leave dies with me

or if it makes a mark far greater than I imagined

…

On my deathbed,

The only thing that matters is the condition of my heart

It will matter whether I feared death more than anything else

or saw it as merely a short sleep before an even greater life

If you’ve been in Charlotte for any length of time, you know about Elevation Church. You’ve heard someone rave about it, and you’ve heard someone seethe about it. You’ve seen the news stories in the Charlotte Observer, and you’ve seen the bumper stickers on hundreds of cars. You know about this church.

God used Elevation Church to lead me into a relationship with Jesus. Yes, Jesus was the one doing the changing in my heart, but He chose to use this church and its leaders to awaken my heart at the age of fourteen to the amazing message of Christianity.

As of late, I’ve met a lot of people who have a negative opinion of Elevation. Actually, I’m not discouraged by the negative opinions. I’m discouraged because I fear their opinions come from a wrong understanding of the vision of this church.

I’ve heard and read a lot of things that rip apart the church, the pastor, even the people who call this church home. You’ve likely read these things as well, and it breaks my heart that most people will only hear one side of the story.

So I’ve decided to offer my perspective on the church. Nobody told me to write this. This is as unfiltered as it gets.

My perspective is the product of four years of heavy involvement. I volunteered every single Sunday in the production area for four years, often for eight hours or longer. I spent an entire summer in high school serving as an intern, working alongside the staff that leads the church. I’ve had the privilege of speaking one-on-one with every pastor on the leadership team, even building a close relationship with one pastor, who eventually became my mentor during my senior year of high school. I’ve had the privilege of having lunch with a small group of people with Pastor Steven on several occasions.

I don’t share this to boast. In fact, I hesitated to share these details with you at all. But, I want you to understand that my perspective comes from being completely saturated in the culture of this church for four years of my life.

Now, I know it’s easy to see the stickers, the television commercials, the slick marketing promotions, the nice buildings and the huge attendance and pass judgment on the motives of this church. But, I urge you to set aside any assumptions you have about this ministry as you read my story.

This is what I know.

I know without a doubt that this church and its leaders are passionate about seeing people who are far from God filled with new life in Christ.

That’s it. Incidentally, that’s what Jesus was all about too (John 10:10).

That was the vision when the church launched in the lobby of my high school in 2006 when only 200 people were attending. And that is still the vision now that the church has six locations in the Charlotte area and 10,000 people coming every week.

If opening up more locations makes it easier for people to come to church and find a better life in Jesus, they’re going to do it!

If purchasing concert-quality sound systems and lighting arrays will help more people find a better life in Jesus, they’re going to buy them!

If running television broadcasts after Saturday Night Live at 1AM will help some strung-out college kid find a better life in Jesus, they’re going to run those broadcasts!

If giving away bumper stickers gives someone a conversation-starter to invite their friend to church (to find a better life in Christ) they’re going to give away as many bumper stickers as possible! You catch my drift…

You might wonder if any lives really are being changed through this ministry. It is with great joy that I tell you people are meeting Jesus in droves. You can’t sit through one service at the church without wondering if God is changing anyone. Stories of life change are the central force of this church.

You might not think Elevation should boast about its attendance, salvations or baptisms. I’ll admit, this one irks me at times. Sometimes I see what people are saying on Twitter during seasons of growth at Elevation, and I wonder what the pastors whose churches aren’t growing are thinking. If it didn’t think that, I’d be lying to you, and I don’t want to do that.

But when over 2,000 people were baptized this past Fall, my little sister, brother and best friend were three of those two thousand. That’s incredibly special to me.

When 10,000 people attended church at Time Warner Cable Arena in 2010, my good friend Shelby was one of the 800 people who placed their faith in Christ. She went on to lead an event where hundreds of young girls were shown honor and told about God’s incredible love for them.

One of my greatest role models was addicted to porn and cheating on his wife at the age of 40 when someone invited him to Elevation Church. Now, everyone knows him as one of the most joyful, humble men you’ll ever have the privilege of knowing. It’s clear to everyone that God has changed his life, and he’s part of the 15,000 people who have placed their faith in Jesus since the launch of the church.

Hundreds of teenagers (probably thousands!) like me have come out of that church with a new identity in Christ. This church, along with years of watching my parents, taught me how to live my life for Jesus. This church and its leaders called me out of my arrogant and selfish attitude as a young teenager, and reinforced what I was learning at home in a fresh way.

It was this church that taught me how to live a life that honors Christ. This church taught me the value of sexual purity. This church taught me the value of trusting God with my money, my future, and my past. This church taught me how to forgive others.

This church held a series of high school events four years ago that showed me the power of living my life in pursuit of God’s purposes. This church taught me how to lead others with humility.

I hope you see that God is using this church in a supernatural way. But most of the complaints that surround the church aren’t even about the church… They’re about its leaders.

I believe the loudest complaints people have about this church involve Pastor Steven Furtick. I’m aware of this.

But let me tell you some things you may not know about Pastor Steven.

Pastor Steven is the same man speaking to thousands on Sundays as he is throughout the week. He loves his wife faithfully. He is an incredible father to his kids. He is one of the most generous men I have ever met, and this one is personal. Pastor Steven gave the first donation to The Hope Design before anybody even knew about it.

But he would never tell you that. Because he knows it’s not about him.

I’ve heard dozens of stories from people who are privileged to work closely with him. He goes out of his way to love, honor, and esteem people, whether he knows them or not.

He prays harder than anyone that God would make move mightily in the lives of people in the city of Charlotte.

Pastor Steven gives away almost half of his income. He would never brag about that.

At the end of the day, he cares more about honoring God than he does about impressing people. I know that.

Pastor Steven knows the weight of what’s at stake. He bears the spiritual burden of those who do not know Jesus in our city. He carries a weight on his shoulders that is eternally significant. And he takes matters of faith very seriously… Because serving God is serious business.

He loses sleep over details nobody would even think twice about. He cares deeply for the people who God has called him to lead, and he cares deeply for those who God has called to be part of other churches.

I sincerely believe God has given him such an remarkable sphere of influence at his age because of the depth of his trust in God.

In my life, he is one of the three men I look up to most, alongside my dad and my Grandpa. I remember him as one of the first leaders to boldly speak the Word of God to me, and I look to his life and imitate his faith (Hebrews 13:7).

Does he make mistakes?

Yes. He’s an imperfect human just like you and me. If you believe your leader should never make mistakes, the only leader you’ll ever trust is Jesus. Thankfully, Jesus has appointed men on Earth to speak on his behalf in his absence until He returns.

But, I’ll fight anyone who tries to discredit the integrity of this man of God. He is truly a man after God’s own heart.

Now, if you attend another church, and you’re content where you are, I’m on your side. God calls different people to different places. Elevation does church one way, and if you’re called to do church differently, that’s fine!

God uses different kinds of churches to reach different kinds of people.

But, if you spend your time slowly tearing down and speaking ill of what God is doing through this church, I’m asking you to check the condition of your heart. You’re doing more damage to the Kingdom of God than you realize. But, if you have genuine, heartfelt concerns with your church (like I have on several occasions), approach the leadership privately and address the issue with a loving concern (Matthew 18:15-17).

My prayer in writing this is that we will realize that we’re all on the same team. It’s not my church versus yours. It’s not my pastor versus yours. It’s not my denomination versus yours.

It’s all about Jesus. That’s what Elevation Church believes, and that’s what they’ll always believe.

So that people far from God will be raised to life in Christ.

Thanks for letting me share my heart,

Friday Night was incredible.

I shared a post last week that posed the following question:

What if we could pack out The Varsity theatre with college kids on a Friday Night for the sole purpose of glorifying Jesus and presenting the Gospel?

Well we did it. After just 17 days of planning (and lots and lots of prayer), we witnessed something amazing in that theatre.

This past Friday, God used a few crazy college kids to lead nine other college students to faith in Christ.

One particular story wrecked me in the best way possible. A guy named Jay walked in to pick up a job application for the theatre, saw a few doorholders in purple t-shirts in the lobby, and he asked them what was going on. They told him about The Hope Design and invited him to sit and watch the event. He listened to me tell my story and responded to the invitation given by my best friend, Josh.

Jay came looking for a job application and left with a new life in Christ. Wow.

And this wasn’t a singular effort on our part at all. Lots of people made this even special. It was so inspiring to see the passion and energy of our doorholders as they welcomed their peers to the theatre.

Alec and Chris did a killer job putting together the glowstick-driven Rave that kicked off the night.

Charlie and the rest of the band did a phenomenal job leading us in worship.

Morgan (who put together the Friday Night graphic) and Ashley drove up from Charlotte to help us pull off the event with a great level of production.

Scott made the band sound good by offering his expertise at the soundboard.

Timarie (she doesn’t have a Twitter!) oversaw the Honor Team and McKenzie took some fabulous pictures.

Todd shared his story.

Cameron led the prayer team for weeks leading up to the event, even spending time Friday afternoon to pray over every seat in the theatre. Cameron’s friend, Katherine, placed her faith in Christ that night.

These are just a few of the dozens of people who gave their time, talents, and energy to make Friday Night a success. As I looked around the room that night, I remembered how faithful God has been to us. At the beginning of the school year, I wasn’t even sure if The Hope Design would work on a college campus. God destroyed that assumption this past Friday.

We gave all we had to make this night special, but God is the one who deserves all the honor.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of the event was the fact that students orchestrated the whole thing. We prayed, made preparations, gathered the funds to rent the venue, planned the event, and invited our friends. Simply remarkable.

I believe God is showing off, and Friday Night was just the beginning. My prayer is that He would use a bunch of broke, inexperienced college kids to lead a movement of Christ-centered love all over the world… starting at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The future is exciting… God is so faithful.

The best is ahead.

I’d love to share the story of my friend, Todd, with you today. Todd was the first friend I made when I got to UNC. He walked up to me and my family as we were unloading my stuff from our van, and he asked if he could help me move in. The rest is history…

Todd’s been a huge encouragement to me over these few months. He’s part of an awesome organization on campus called Campus Outreach. Todd’s given me a ton of advice regarding school, faith, campus ministries, girls, and everything in-between.

I hope his story encourages you today… We were able to share this video at our Friday Night event a few days ago, and God used Todd’s story to help lead nine college students to faith in Christ. Unbelievable!

Love you, Todd. I’m so proud to call you a friend!

This Saturday, I spent close to twelve hours in Starbucks, drank two White Mocha Americanos, consumed a total of eight shots of espresso and wrote over a dozen pages in my journal. Why?

I’m a dreamer who’s addicted to thinking about the future.

A lot of college students live in the moment and don’t consider the future consequences. But my problem is that I spend too much time thinking about the future… and not enough time living the moments right in front of me!

That being said, a lot of my time is spent reflecting on “What if?” questions.

What if we saw God move radically in the lives of not just dozens, but hundreds of college students at schools all over the country?

What if we saw 18 to 24-year-olds take a stand for Christ and live bold lives full of integrity and humility?

What if we could see the largest venue on campus packed out with 20,000 college students not to cheer for some guys bouncing a ball, but to rally around the most incredible message in the history of the universe?

What if we could see a movement of real, genuine, unconditional love take root at our school, ultimately flipping the culture of our campus upside down?

And what if this movement overflowed from the hearts of people within our generation who weren’t content with waiting around for some adults to tell them what to do?

I lose sleep at night over these kinds of questions. And I talk about them with anyone who will listen.

So let me tell you why I’m excited.

We get to see one of our “What if” dreams become reality.

What if we could pack out The Varsity theatre with college kids on a Friday Night for the sole purpose of glorifying Jesus and presenting the Gospel?

Well, we’re doing it. This Friday, February 24th at 7pm, we’re gathering at The Varsity on Franklin Street. If you’re anywhere near Chapel Hill, we’d love to have you join us.

We may or may not have a short rave with glowsticks, a killer band, and a bunch of smiling people clad head-to-toe in purple.

Click here to watch a video, read more information and find directions.

God is faithful, and our team is praying with all of our hearts that God that would turn our “What if” dreams into new realities.

The best is ahead!

I spent my first few weeks at Carolina taking in everything I saw. The new faces, the big smiles, the beautiful campus, the exciting nightlife and the fall football games.

During those early weeks, I remember having one thought more than all the others… “How in the world are these people so happy all the time?”

My transition to college was a bit harder than I expected, full of some long days and some pretty awful nights. So you can imagine my frustration when it seemed like every person I ran into was getting along much better at college than I was.

Over time, a simple, yet dangerous conclusion entered my heart…

“These people are getting along just fine without God.”

I tried to shut it out at first, but the thought kept getting louder and louder. And I started to believe it.

As an aspiring pastor, I can tell you for certain this is the most terrifying lie one could believe. Imagine a cook being told that the whole “eating” thing was a fad. Or a painter being told no one likes to buy art anymore. It’s a frightening statement with massive implications.

It was during this time that the foundation of my faith was strengthened more than ever. Suddenly, I wasn’t believing because someone was telling me to… I was believing because I wanted to.

As more time passed, I began to see the other side of the smiling faces. I talked to people with all kinds of beliefs, asking them hard questions about the origin of the universe and the meaning of life. And through this, I started to see a common thread in the language of every single person I talked to.

We all want to be loved.
To be accepted.
To be happy.
To be wanted.
To be important.
To be successful.

We all want our lives to matter.

It is with this common thread that I concluded that all of us are more similar than we realize. These threads traverse every single world-view, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, race, age and personality type.

The most spectacular discovery I’ve made this year is that following Jesus is not divorced from this common thread. In fact,
to my joy I’ve found that it’s even more wired into our DNA than I initially realized!

However, this understanding of humanity removes any right of Christians to make it into an “us-versus-them” situation.

You’ve probably done this at some point. I know I have…

“I’m free, they’re not.
I’m loved, they’re not.
I’m saved, they’re lost.
I’m right, they’re wrong.
I’m forgiven, they’re not.”

But it’s not us-versus-them at all. The fight is not between Christians and non-Christians.

We’re all broken.
We’re all hurting.
We’re all in need of redemption.

We’re all the same.

Everyone needs God. And if someone isn’t convinced they need God, then I’m convinced his or her view of God is terribly wrong.

If you look only at the lives of self-professed Christians, often God looks like an angry, loveless, joyless dictator who is out to rob us of any real joy and happiness.

If you ask them about God, they’ll tell you hates sex, hates alcohol, hates good music, and hates R-rated movies (among a million other things…).

By the way, if you haven’t noticed… College students are quickly abandoning the churches that believe in THIS God by the droves.

The reality is that God is a loving, patient father who has generously given us a means to a greater life.

If God is everything good in the world,
everything beautiful,
everything glorious,
everything righteous,
everything wonderful,
sitting higher than everyone and everything,
the very victor over death itself…

We all need Him.

So if we’ve determined that we all need God, a far scarier question to ask is “Do we want Him?”

That question is one I can’t answer right now. I know in my experience, I’ve had to make some big mistakes a few times to realize how screwed up I am without Jesus.

Regardless of how many times someone told me not to touch a hot stove, I didn’t fully understand until I got burned myself.

We can only hope that God would open the hearts of more people to the reality of this better life.

There’s so much more I could say about this… But, this post is already too long. Maybe another day.

Thanks for reading.

With respect,

A friend of mine shared this video on Facebook the other day, and I have to admit I was a little upset watching it…

Upset that I didn’t come up with the idea for this video first!

Anyone who has spent time around me knows that a lot of Christians get on my nerves. What they do… what they wear… what they say… how they say it…

I promise I’m never a huge jerk to these people, but I will tell you unashamedly that I make fun of them when they’re not looking.

And it’s not like I’m the only person making fun of them anyway…

I’ve talked about my frustration with silly Christian tactics before, but I wanted to open up the floor to you.

What is the stupidest thing you’ve heard a Christian say?

My hope is that if we take a step back and call out some of the ridiculousness… we might see Jesus as the world-changing revolutionary that he was, and not the subject of some lame-ass t-shirt.

(This is one of the few times I will use the word lame-ass… because it really is the only word that describes the shirt below.)

Here we go,

This piece was originally shared on the Hope Design blog. You can find it here

re·mark·a·ble: (adj) notably or conspicuously unusual; extraordinary

I love the remarkable.

Remarkable is the reason the story of Steve Jobs captivates me like it does. There are hundreds of computer companies that make products like Apple does, but the passion for excellence and the attention to detail that went into creating my iPhone astounds me every time I use it.

It’s the reason I love going to Starbucks. Not just for the cup of coffee, but for that special moment when a barista will give me a free cup of coffee for no reason at all. I love that.

When I worked at Chick-fil-a, I picked up on something in the language of our store managers that captivated me. They truly saw the potential of making every customer experience worthy of remark.

Remarkable things are worth talking about. The moments that you weren’t expecting make life a little more wonderful.

The people that are a little different from anyone you’ve ever met.
The words in a song that seem to make their way down into the very core of your being.
The scene in a movie that captivates your emotions and makes you forget you were even watching a screen.

I want to spend my life in pursuit of the remarkable.

When it comes to this movement, my dream is that everything we do through The Hope Design would be deemed as remarkable.

It would be remarkable for a girl to come to a gathering not knowing anyone… only to leave having met an older girl who reached out to her, genuinely glad to have met her.

It would be remarkable to see a gathering of passionate college students who love Jesus take place on a Friday night in the heart of our campus.

It would be remarkable to be known on campus for the way we love people, not in words of hatred we shout through a megaphone.

It would be remarkable for a vision to love, honor, and serve our friends birth out of the hearts of a few bold students on campus.

It would be remarkable to see hundreds of people unite under a banner far greater than any one person, church, or campus ministry… The banner of Jesus.

It would be remarkable to see a few radical students lay their reputations on the line in hopes that God might use them to be a part of writing a far grander story.

It would be remarkable if the love of God created a seismic shift in the atmosphere of our university.

At the core of all that we do, we desire to be remarkable because God deserves it. He is the only thing truly worthy of remark. He is the reason we have the hope that we do. And He is the one that changes hearts… not us.

So our prayer is that God would use the faith of a few crazy students to make His name known to every single person that walks the grounds of this university.

In the end, we’re here to make it more about Jesus and less about us.

Because Jesus is remarkable.

“Look at the nations and watch— 
and be utterly amazed. 
For I am going to do something in your days 
that you would not believe, 
even if you were told.”
- Habakkuk 1:5

Nobody is fine.

We all want to be loved.

People want just one real friend.

People want you to be human to them… before you are Christian to them.

Everyone is deathly afraid of something, and most people are afraid of being alone.

Everyone is selfish. Not one person on earth is completely selfless inside and out.

Every story, every face, every person matters in the eyes of the God who created everything.

You were created to do wonderful things with your life.

We all want our lives to be part of something bigger than just us.

Words hurt. Words heal. We make a choice every single time we open our mouths.

People just want you to know their name.

College is just four years of your life. The previews before the movie. The opening act before the headliner. It’s not everything.

Faith, family, friends, and fun are quite possibly the best four things you can spend your life pursuing.

Nobody likes you because of any sense of religious zeal you might have.

They like you because when they look into your eyes, they see right into your heart…

And your heart is free.