Is Elevation Church Poaching Members? Controversy Explained

[@reachright]

Have you heard of geofencing before this controversy? Share your thoughts about this issue.

[@JRLightstein]

Yes. Many small businesses will use it. For example if there is a sporting event going on, a local restaurant could offer coupons to the people attending the event for dinner after the game, etc. that sort of thing. We have actually used it in the past on Facebook for our church to target people at local events and we have been able to get it under 1 mile by also doing negative targeting (this is where you eliminate areas), but we have never done it to target other churches before.

[@rangerwez3167]

As a person involved in Elevation here in Charlotte; there are 2k - 3k people in Ballantyne every week (not counting the dozen and a half other locations around the Charlotte area; there also is an Elevation campus in Winston Salem too). The church may be the weekly "experience" but on a Sunday, it's literally a worship concert with a good speaker; the church is really in the small groups. I attend a group that USE to be an "official" e-Group, be we spun off to just a group of guys from different churches that love Jesus and want to grow together. Elevation is just trying to draw PEOPLE in the area, but I wouldn't use the word "poaching" others. BUT I don't see a lot of situations where Elevation is partnering with established smaller churches in cities, I think it would be beneficial for them to start doing that (or at least doing it in a more visual way).

[@reachright]

Thanks! Great to get a boots on the ground perspective.

[@jackfairweather6978]

I think it is important to note that there are ways to specifically target individual churches. Facebook only allows 1 mile radius but there are ways around this. A big church like elevation with over 100m dollars of income can easily hire a geofencing agency to target people within 25 feet of any location.

[@reachright]

While geofencing can be a powerful tool, it's important to remember that the goal should always be to build a genuine community and foster spiritual growth. We hope all churches, big or small, focus on reaching out with love and integrity. Thank you for watching our video and sharing your thoughts!

[@larrygrant1574]

They are obviously only about the numbers. We visited the Ballantyne campus , it was awful . Stuck our family in a fold out chair to watch on a screen in the foyer. Nothing personal about this event center.

[@reachright]

We’re sorry to hear about your experience. We hope you still enjoyed God's message on that day.