Elevation Church Donates $300,000 to Fight Homelessness in Charlotte (CP)

Elevation Church Donates $300,000 to Fight Homelessness in Charlotte; 'I Can't Thank You Enough,' Says Mayor

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• (Photo: Elevation Church video screen grab)
  Pastor Steven Furtick meets with Charlotte city officials.

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BY JESSICA MARTINEZ, CP REPORTER

February 6, 2014|12:18 pm

Elevation Church, the Charlotte, N.C. multi-site worship community led by pastor Steven Furtick, recently donated $300,000 towards a $20-million city fund to fight homelessness.

The proceeds will help fight the rise of homelessness in Charlotte through the Social Impact Housing Fund, created to provide short-term rental assistance for families and veterans, and assist residents who earn less than 50 percent of the area's median income.

"I can't thank you enough for hearing my cry on the trail as I talked about how important this subject matter is to me," said Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon to Furtick in a video interview. "$300,000, that's a big deal and you do it with humbleness and without asking for anything back. Charlotte will be set up as a place for best practices, where we can be looked upon by other places in this country, if not the world."

The $20-million housing fund endowment also includes a $10 million dollar commitment from the city of Charlotte over the next five years, in addition to $10 million being raised by the Foundation for the Carolinas, a philanthropic organization and other faith-based institutions similar to Elevation.

"From day one, our motto was partnership," said Furtick, in the video. "We never wanted as a church to create our own ministries but partner with people…Our church is a generous church and the thing I always teach when we hear of needs that are happening in our city, down the street or across the world, [is that] there seems to be three basic responses and the first one is greed then guilt…but generosity is God's answer."

According to a recent report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, homelessness among families in Charlotte rose 10 percent in 2012. The report also noted that area shelters had to turn away individuals due to overcrowding at times. Tragically, nearly 5,000 city children were reported to be homeless. 

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In response to the problem, Elevation Church gives to non-profits throughout the city each year. Furtick also donates 12 percent of the church's giving to support outreach efforts nationally and globally.

Since Elevation was founded in 2006, they have given over $11 million to 84 outreach partners. During LOVE week in 2013, a community initiative to help the underserved, Elevation gave away $400,000 to charitable causes and throughout the year, they gave $2.5 million to efforts across North Carolina and the world.

"Out of what God has given me and has given the church, we hope to live in such a way that if Elevation Church died, the city would cry at our funeral," said Furtick.

Cannon praised Elevation for their help and said it was "refreshing" to see churches respond to Charlotte's growing social issue. 

"At the end of the day, we're all God's children and there should be somebody out there to help those in less favorable situations that we might be," said Cannon. "If others follow that same lead, what a great community we'll be overall."

In addition to making headlines for his church's generosity, Furtick drew criticism late last year when a local North Carolina news outlet revealed that he was building a 16,000-square-foot gated estate. The news promoted curiosity from the community about his salary and how he handled the church's finances.   

Furtick addressed the concerns during a sermon last October and emphasized that he believes in a "ministry of integrity that has not changed, and that will not change."

Over 50,000 Books Burned in Christian Library - The Christian Post

Over 50,000 Books Burned in Christian Library in Lebanon Over Blasphemy Claim; US Leader Says 'Violent Hysteria' Spreading in Muslim World6

BY TYLER O'NEIL CP REPORTER January 7, 2014

• (Photo: Reuters/Hasan Shaaban)
  Lebanese and Syrian Christian Maronites pray for peace
• in Syria, in Harisa, Jounieh September 7, 2013.

American leaders denounced the burning of a Christian leader's library in Tripoli, Lebanon, last Friday night as based on false pretenses and said it's a threat to religious liberty.

"The really bad news is that this is not out of the ordinary," Robert P. George, chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told The Christian Post in an interview on Monday. George emphasized the need to advocate for religious freedom across the world to prevent attacks like this one.

The Friday night fire burned two-thirds of some 80,000 books and manuscripts in the Al-Saeh library owned by Greek Orthodox priest Ibrahim Surouj, RT reported. The arsonists targeted Surouj due to an alleged pamphlet insulting the Prophet Mohammed was found in one of the library books. When Surouj met with Islamic leaders in the city, he stated that he had nothing to do with the pamphlet.

International Security Forces Brig. Imad Ayyoubi also denounced the connection. "Father Surouj has nothing to do with the article and the source of the website is from Denmark and was published on Jan. 7, 2010," Ayyoubi said, The Blaze reported. Hundreds of Lebanese citizens demonstrated Saturday in support of the priest.

"Flames of a violent hysteria against all perceived threats to Islam are spreading rapidly through the Muslim world today," Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, told CP on Monday.

The co-author of Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide, Shea traced the backlash to any perceived insult to Islam back to its sources. She denounced the governments of Saudi Arabia and Iran, and called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to "end its own worldwide campaign of stirring passions against religious insult."

Shea called on the OIC to change course entirely, urging the organization to "condemn the violence that is now waged against the Lebanon Christian library, and, even more critically, against the Christian minorities in all parts of the Arab world."

USCIRF's George touched on Lebanon's history of sectarian violence. "This goes all the way back to the Lebanese Civil War," from 1975 to 1990, the USCIRF chair explained. "If you travel in Lebanon, as I have, you will start noticing security checkpoints. The country is suffering acts of violence, and often religiously based acts of violence."

"Beirut itself was known as the Paris of the Middle East," George explained, hearkening back to a more peaceful era. "It was held up as a city where people of various faiths could live together in peace," the USCIRF chair recalled, listing the different faith traditions in Lebanon: Maronite Catholics, Roman Catholics, Sunni and Shia Muslim, Eastern Orthodox, and Antiochian Christians.

Despite this violence, George praised the country of Lebanon for rebuilding an ancient Jewish Synagogue. Nevertheless, he lamented the loss of the Jewish population, which is now "vanishingly small."

"We see the Middle East emptying of its historic Christian populations," the USCIRF chair explained. George even referred to his own relatives who fled from Syria. "My father's family is Syrian, from the ancient Antiochian Orthodox community," he explained. "They lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbors, they were able to make a life for themselves, and now they have fled."

"It's impossible for them to live in their country – they would be in complete fear," George said. He explained that the mission of USCIRF is to urge President Obama and his administration to make religious freedom a priority in foreign relations.

George argued that the responsibility of any government is to allow for religious freedom and to prevent and punish attacks against it. The government of Lebanon has a responsibility "to bring some amelioration to people who are being abused like this priest was abused," and to punish the perpetrators, he said.

But governments should not do this just to be on good terms with the United States. George argued that the economic and political success of a country depends on how it respects religious freedom. "If you want your country to flourish, you should establish religious freedom," he declared. "that's true for Lebanon, that's true for Syria, that's true for everywhere."

Contact: tyler.oneil@christianpost.com, @tyler2oneil (Twitter)