Kentucky press outlets are now reporting that Bobby J. Blackburn, pastor of the Elevate Church in Prestonsburg, was arrested and charged with using an electronic communication system to get a minor to commit a sex act.
Blackburn is still featured prominently on the church’s website. And yes, the church does seem to be an attempted knock-off of Furtick’s Elevation Church.
Blackburn owns a pizza restaurant called Giovanni’s, and the young girls with whom he was communicating were his employees.
According to the local news outlets, Blackburn sent messages to the girls to try to arrange a “threesome” with them. The girls showed the text messages to the police department, who subsequently arrested him.
The church has two campuses, with one in Prestonburg and another in Louisa, Kentucky.
Elevate is a charismatic church, that speaks of ‘baptism of the holy spirit’ as a secondary and subsequent event to being born-again, and says that Jesus died for our healing and “not just for our sins.”
The last statement on the church’s belief page says that they hold that marriage is between one man and one woman.
