Last week was a terrific time together as a church family!  In the same week, we had a FAB (Fifty and Beyond) Patriotic Event, Mega Sports Camp for our elementary school kids, Mighty Muscles Camp for our Preschoolers, wonderful Worship, Kids Rock and Connection Group time Sunday morning and a church-wide picnic ... and what a week it was!

In honor of Flag Day, FAB had an event on Friday night, June 20 that included a terrific dinner, an inspiring patriotic tribute, 93 participants with many guests, and Chrissy Reck in a moustache!  Many people invested a lot of time to make this a meaningful and enjoyable evening.  It is exciting to see what the Lord is doing through our church to reach out to and embrace new people that are in our FAB target group!

Sunday morning we had attendance in worship and Connection Groups that was astounding considering the fact that this is the summer and the weekend before the fourth of July!  On Sunday, a woman who has been visiting for the last several weeks indicated that she, too, had given her life to Christ Sunday during the time of invitation! With over 650 in worship and over 480 in Connection Groups, we are scrambling to start new Connection Groups and think ahead about the worship space we will need in the fall when everyone gets back in town from vacation!  We need new Connection Groups so each one will remain a place where people can learn God's word and the group be small enough they can know everyone and be known!  Please pray for more leaders to step forward!

Mega Sports Camp was an outreach by our elementary kids to their friends using sports clinics as a way to get to know them.  Mighty Muscles was program for our preschoolers.  Together, they welcomed many new families to Celebration.  Together, we had 234 children and 102 parents and youth involved as leaders.  By the end of the week, 43 students indicated they had made first time decisions for Christ! Yahoo!

Sunday evening (after a massive thunderstorm!) we had a church-wide picnic where an estimated 550 people laughed, ate, talked and then laughed and ate some more.  Bill Crosby's Connection Group cooked the burgers and hotdogs, our FAB leaders cut up and served watermelon, and our families brought side dishes! God blessed us with wonderful weather.  We watched Kathy Walker get multiple pies in the face by the Mighty Muscles class that raised the most money for our Nicaraguan Mission Team and Judy Crosby handed out prizes to the children who brought the most friends to Mega Sports Camp. During the evening, Mike Heisler and Kenny Krey shared their personal stories of how God worked in their lives to bring them to Christ. The kids played on inflatables and dunked their favorite target in the dunking booth while so many of our adults just enjoyed being together and getting to know one another!. 

At the picnic, I met a young woman whose children were invited to Mega Sports Camp; she expressed how much she enjoyed worship that morning and the picnic that evening. She explained that her new neighbors had invited her family and went on to say how  much they had blessed her as a single mother by helping her with a project at her home.  Their practical love and care for her made a huge impression on her and now we have the chance as a church to continue to love her!  That couple who reached out to her are new at CBC themselves and still in the process of membership! It is a beautiful thing to see the sort of people God is bringing together as a church family.  Those without Christ are coming to faith, the broken are finding a place of love, support and healing and the spiritually mature are finding a place to get busy serving the Lord and building His kingdom!

Also at the picnic, I spoke with one of young navy wives who has recently come to Christ.  She shared how she has been praying for her husband who is currently deployed.  She said, "are you ready for a jaw dropper?"  Then went on to explain how she has been attending a Connection Group and gotten to know one of the wives whose husband is also deployed.  They quickly realized their husbands were on the same ship.  This new friend explained her husband has been praying for an opportunity to minister while on ship.  The short version of the story is that her husband (who is also active at CBC) reached out to the first guy and together they are now attending a Bible study!

On Tuesday evening I spoke on the phone with a young mother whose children had attended Mighty Muscles and Mega Sports Camp last week then they attended worship Sunday and the picnic Sunday evening.  She said this was the first church where her children begged to come back and the worship service made sense; she said the people were so friendly and welcoming at the picnic that she was overwhelmed and wants to come back!  

Now friends, this is a picture of a church on mission!

We have so much to give God glory for and to celebrate.  Please join me in praying for the Lord's continued blessing on our attempts to love one another and join Him in reaching the lost for Christ.

Sunday is a special day as we celebrate the founding of our country and honor our active duty military personnel in our worship services.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Blessings,

Pastor Paul