It’s a bold statement to say that someone is harming the cause of Christ.
I don’t take it lightly when that accusation is made toward anyone.
However, in this case, I can make it without any doubt.
Elevation Church hurt the cause of Christ.
If you’re not familiar with Elevation Church, they’re based in North Carolina and lead by Pastor Steven Furtick (pictured right) whose star is on the rise in many Christian circles. He authored the book “Sun Stand Still” which I thought was an excellent read with some valuable insight into the idea of tapping into God’s power as Joshua did when he asked for the sun to stand still and it did.
Let me give you the background of what happened with a link to one of the news stories on the matter if you wish to read it.
A woman showed up at Elevation Church’s Easter service with her 12-year-old son Jackson who has cerebral palsy.
From the news story linked above:
“Easter Sunday he got all dressed up, got ready to go, no small feat with a kiddo like him,” she said. But, right after the opening prayer inside Elevation’s sanctuary that Sunday, Helms said Jackson voiced his own kind of “Amen.”
“We were very abruptly escorted out.” Kelly Helms said.
Helms said a volunteer at Elevation took her and Jackson to the lobby to wait out the remainder of the service.
Helms says it was a lobby; a statement Elevation sent to the media after the news story ran stated that “this young man and his family were not removed from our church. They were escorted to a nearby section of our church where they watched the service in its entirety.”
What Elevation’s staff…whoever on that staff wrote that message…doesn’t realize is that the second statement to a family with a special needs child is as insulting as their rushing Jackson out of the sanctuary.
Elevation’s actions and statement reinforce the image with special needs families that to God’s church they’re second class Christians.
What that statement said to me as a special needs parent is “we don’t want anyone to see someone like that kid in our carefully crafted worship performance. We can’t risk them appearing on camera or on the podcast. We can’t risk anyone being slightly uncomfortable with the idea of this kid being around us so we shoved them into an area away from most of the people there.”
And that’s not being Jesus. That’s not reflecting Jesus. That’s behavior that Christ would never condone. You can easily say “well, that’s just your impression.” It is. I know it is. And I promise you as someone who’s had to live the last nine years dealing with people interacting with us having a special needs child I have a pretty good idea how a lot of special needs families will see this incident.
And if what they already said wasn’t bad enough, Elevation told the television station in their statement “It is our goal at Elevation to offer a distraction free environment for all our guests. We look forward to resolving any misunderstanding that has occurred.”
Again, this is incredibly insulting to the parents of special needs children. Rushing them out of the sanctuary and sticking them in an overflow room isn’t a misunderstanding. It was something deliberately done.
It may have been a mistake…but it was NOT a misunderstanding.
I wrote a piece earlier this year for Wrecked for the Ordinary talking about a problem within churches dealing with special needs children (and specifically autism as my son Elijah has that condition.) While Elevation is taking center stage right now in this incident, it’s a problem that goes deep in many churches in America.
The parents of special needs children are marginalized all the time in America. We get dirty looks when we go out in public with our children who act differently or make noises or are in wheelchairs. Condemnation is something that we have come to expect when we have the audacity to actually treat our children like a child and not hide them in our houses so they don’t make anyone uncomfortable.
We shouldn’t be expected to be treated that way in church.
But we are.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a special needs parent talk about not attending church because they were tired of having to care for their child the whole time in children’s church. Their logic, which is pretty sound, is that if they’re not going to hear the service and interact with the believers in the church then why go through the hassle of going to church at all? You can care for them in your own home without being shoved aside.
And Elevation’s actions reinforced that again for special needs families all across America who will read this story.
I’ve been reading blogs and columns from people critical of the mother for going to the press about this situation.
Stop and think about this for a moment from her point of view.
You have gone to a church that openly calls for people to come in and be welcomed on the Holiest day of the year (in my opinion.) You are rushed from the sanctuary and into an overflow room away from the main worship because your son proclaimed an amen after a prayer. You contact the church about a ministry for special needs children and are rebuffed.
Nowhere in here does Elevation Church appear to be acting in a manner that is anything less than dismissing this woman and belittling her son.
She feels powerless. She’s getting no answers. Honestly, no one is showing her Jesus.
And she feels like the next special needs family that comes through the doors will get marginalized as well. Why? Because we’ve seen it before. I’ve seen it.
So she reaches out to someone with some “power” (i.e. the press) in hopes of finding an answer or getting something done.
You can’t fault her for this. Elevation brought that on themselves with how they handled the situation at the outset.
And now it’s in the media.
It’s worldwide.
And it’s harming the cause of Christ more than if instead of just rejecting her Elevation would have committed to training their staff at the very beginning instead of after the TV station became involved.
And there’s one final thing.
She [Helms] was supposed to meet with the church leaders to discuss what happened, but the pastor canceled the meeting when he heard she had contacted Channel 9.
They canceled the meeting after they heard she contacted the press.
Once again, she was dismissed by the church instead of their showing Jesus to her and talking to her.
Seriously…how can anyone claim the Elevation pastor who was to meet with her is showing Jesus by canceling the meeting because he heard she contacted a TV station?
Jesus would have still met with her.
(Note: I’m not saying the meeting was with Pastor Furtick because the article doesn’t say it was him.)
The pastor in question then called a local group to get training for the staff but that’s not the same as meeting this woman face to face. Quietly getting another group to come in and do something is more along the lines of something the pharisees would be doing to control their PR.
I know I’m ripping on Elevation Church a lot in this posting but that’s because they’ve failed on a grand scale in this matter. I’m not passing judgment on anything else they’ve done and I’m not saying they’re some kind of horrible church. I am saying in this instance they have failed horribly and in doing so hurt the cause of Christ.
And I’ve seen no public statement or apology from the church. Pastor Furtick has a blog. He could very easily make a statement there.
Or even easier. He could invite this woman and her son to break bread with him.
That would be showing them Jesus.
BUT HERE’S THE BIGGER PICTURE IN ALL OF THIS.
There are thousands of churches in America right now who are failing the same way Elevation did with this family. They’re making the families of special needs children feel uncomfortable, unwelcome and as if they’re more of a burden than fellow followers of Christ.
AND. IT. HAPPENS. EVERY. SINGLE. SUNDAY.
If you are on a church staff, are you really prepared to deal with a special needs family? If you work in a children’s ministry, are YOU prepared to deal with a special needs child?
We can all make ourselves more aware to show concern and grace and mercy to those around us who could use the love and support.
