Audited financial statements show that Elevation Church operates two not-for-profit limited liability subsidiaries in North Carolina. One used funds to buy a building in Winston Salem for a church campus there. Another, Million Little Miracles, permits licensed church employees to act as contractors on internal construction projects. Elevation Church also has ownership stake in a Concord, North Carolina, shopping center.
Protestia: ‘Where Is Everyone Going?’
The website Protestia, which has called Furtick a heretic, raised questions about the new numbers from Elevation Church. It notes that the megachurch reported 22,036 people attending weekly worship back in 2016, plus more than 65,000 decisions for Christ in the past three years.
“Yet almost none of those people have made Elevation Church a permanent home,” Protestia noted. “They’ve baptized more than 7,200 people in the last two years, but where did they all go?”
From its founding in 2005 until last year, Elevation Church was part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Last June, the church announced it was withdrawing from the denomination, without explaining why.
Some people speculated the move was related to the SBC disfellowshipping churches that allowed women preachers. At Elevation Church, Furtick’s wife, Holly, routinely gives sermons during worship.
ChurchLeaders has reached out to Elevation Church for comment and will update this article in the event of a reply.
