Elevate Life Network

What’s Our Mission

Who Are We

What is Elevate Life Network

Where we were as a church

What is CrossPurpose

Where we are now

Where we want to go

What does it cost

Partnership

Philipians

Best illustrates a fruitful partnership between a local church and God’s kingdom work outside the church

first church in europe

largest and healthiest church

only church he never criticizes

highly Romanized

All works in Latin

enjoyed roman rights, law, and modeled their constitution after Rome.

Paul was there 3 times at least

Paul - Out of site out of mind - not for Philipians

The need is so great

what if we worked on partnering together

In kingdom work across the globe, we are small are the need is great

the most powerful force on earth is the kingdom of God

1/3 of the world joins together in worship to our God and savior

and it all started with a little group of 12 guys

The need is great

read the newspaper

***stats on homelessness, poverty, absent fathers, etc.

Compassion crisis

we do not have a housing crisis...

we do not have a homeless crisis...

We have a compassion crisis

Scarcity Mindset

when we see resources are limited, or at least believe that resources are limited, we go into a scarcity mindset.

And there are seasons when we all feel that.

2 days before Diana and I were married, I was fired from my job. We didn’t know what we were going to do, so, thank God, we had support from our parents, a relatively small amount of savings, and several credit cards

By the way, I am not giving sound financial advice right now, this story is for illustration purposes only

So the majority of our honeymoon was spent on setting up a new business. Well, Covid came and everyone moved to working at home - that actually worked out well for us. Business was good and we welcomed our third daughter and I got to be home to see all the great things that happen with a new baby.

Granted most of that was through foggy, sleepless nights because Evie decided she wasn’t going to sleep through the night until she was 3.

And then, the administration changed and the economy shifted - and business went south - and I mean way south.

people tightened up their budget, and since my marketing business focused primarily on superfluous goods, business dried up and I wasn’t bringing in anything.

And let me tell you how good the job market really is.

...

What God did was open up my time to be able to help setup the infrastructure for Elevate Life and teach me new skills to help our family, grow a business, but most importantly, help grow this mission.

What is the solution?

A gospel partnership - a counter-cultural partnership minded church

The narrative in culture today is to divide and isolate. If you don’t believe me, go read in both party platforms - no joke, it is right there in black and white.

Turn on your phones, your TV’s and see and hear every advertisement that tells you why you deserve this or need that - again, I know, I’ve written 100s of those ads.

Even within the Methodist Church, we see the division of what should be our guiding doctrine -

A Diverse Church

(Acts)

Lidia - wealthy asian woman who opened her homes (at least 2 homes)

Converted slave girl - Greek and living in poverty

Phillipian Jailer - Roman citizan, probably middle class

racially and economic diverse, gender equal, all together - spirit of partnership

former prisoners, slaves, right, poor, jew, gentile, roman - all together in the same place in partnership with each other in the name of Christ.

Our mission at Westbrook is to be a source of Christ for Canton, where we have taken a child care that primarily served upper middle class families in Jackson Township to now serving more than 30 families in the Canton area, more than half that were at or below that poverty line

Our Share Canton ministry that provides hot meals twice a month to the homeless and transient as well as clothing and other materials to help sustain them

And of course our monthly food pantry that feeds more than 70 households every month.

And now Elevate Life Network that will bring people from generational poverty to an in-demand, career level job that will bring them above the poverty line - and we don’t leave them there, but our goal is to grow ourselves and continue to serve them by offering services to build generational wealth through home ownership, entrepreneurship, investing and up-skilling

So we can say there is a place in town where the people of God love people from generational poverty to generational wealth in one place and that is a people of God and we want to grow that partnership and grow our neighborhood here together.

those are the ingredients of a gospel partnership

Attitude of Gospel Partnership

it has to be one of working together, compromising, and finding common ground. sacrificing our wills to what God directs us towards.

This is where conflict happens and where we need to be open and listen and find common ground and work together to make this vision work - especially when we don’t agree with each other. It doesn’t mean we’re at a standstill, it means we need to seek God’s wisdom together and that will bring our bond even tighter.

We may not see eye to eye on everything, even theologically, and that’s ok - that leaves room for a lot of growth in a relationship.

When we come together we can form this beautiful partnership and family

Phillipians 4 - you shared in my troubles and you communicated in my affliction

we must stand firm in one vision - side by side

This is what we envision, this is what we want to build - where the community of God stands side-by-side with those who need our help, to build them up and give to them freely and generously.

That is an expensive love - one that requires of us our money, our time, and our service.

It takes action on our part - not just prayers (although prayers are always welcome) It takes us to make the effort to contribute and be an active part in the Gospel Partnership.