Elevation Church members and ticket holders, also known as Furtick Fanatics.
By Norm D. Guerre
Charlotte, NC – According to sources such as Outreach Magazine and the Charlotte Observer, only 400 of the 1,200 seats at the Elevation Blakeney service were made available to congregation members. “It’s the hottest ticket in town,” associate Pastor Josh Blackson reported. And it took just 15 minutes to sell out all 1,200 of them Monday morning.
“It’s very strange. I’ve never seen a stranger situation in my whole life,” Blain Powell, who works for Bank of America during the week and volunteers as fog machine operator for Elevation on Sundays told Ungrammared.
The upcoming Sunday sermon has been scheduled for months, however Pastor Steven Furtick had yet to commit to one of the 13 Spirit Venues until last week, which stalled the ticket creation and distribution process.
Elevation Church logo.
Once Furtick committed to the Blakeney service, ticket prices were announced at face values ranging from $500 to $750 in contributions. Only 400 seats were made available for sale to congregation members by the ticketing company, and the rest were given to Furtick and another organization known only as EEntertaiment, LLC. According to inside sources, Furtick and EEntertainment will work out their own deals to sell their portions of the tickets.
Across secondary markets, tickets were listed for as low as $2,000 for balcony level seating to $10,000 for floor seats. This angered longtime fans of Furtick, who claim that bandwagon looky-loos have priced them out.
“This is great for business,” said one Charlotte-area ticket scalper. “My margins just went up, big time. My phone’s ringing off the hook and the calls are almost all coming from 704 and 980 (Charlotte) area codes.”
Elevation Church sound mixer and technician Jeff Pharr is reportedly happy with the outcome. “Our usual clientele, er congregation has a way of annoying me,” stated Pharr. “They like to try and place drink orders with me or worse, put their drinks on my sound board and tell me how to mix the sound. These high rollers won’t do that.”