Elevate to Home
Photos provided by Rampage student photographer Jaxon Bast.
“Elevate has changed its name to Home,” said Bluefield University campus pastor Mason West. But why? West recently spoke about the reasons why the weekly BU student-led worship service, formerly known as Elevate, has gone through this rebranding.
“We think this name encompasses what our generation is going after,” West continued. “In a day and time when the concept of what true home looks like is being lost in our hearts, we try to find it in everything and everyone else, (but during our weekly worship services) we can come together as God’s family of young adults to experience actual renovation in our hearts and be at home in Jesus himself.”
The name change was appropriate for the messaging, West said, considering our “true home is found in an empty tomb.”
“In the finished work of who Jesus is, we find who we were made to be,” he said. “True home is not a place; it’s a person.”
The Elevate worship service was also a Sunday night event that occurred at 7 p.m. West said the Campus Ministries team thought it would be more appropriate for the Home services to be on Monday night so that students who traveled away for the weekend would not feel rushed to get back or miss the services entirely.
Other big changes include the service being in the Student Activities Center (SAC), rather than Harman Chapel, and the addition of a social hour, which happens at 6 p.m. before the actual Home service begins.
“At our Home services we will have vibrant worship, devout fellowship, and dive deep into the truth of God’s word together.” West added. “We believe in the reality of John 15, that those who love him and keep his commandments abide in him. Home is a space where you can find your identity in Christ and in the world today.”
Andrew LaPan, a student and greeter for Home said the changes are great. He said the Home name “ddefinitely fits what wants to be accomplished, and worship definitely feels real.”
West added that it’s more than a name change. It’s a culture change.
“At Home we want to build a culture of true and intimate devotion to God,” he said. “There’s no performance, no agendas. Only the presence of our Father is what we’re after.”