Easter Weekend Testimonies
Man! This past Easter weekend at Celebration Church was incredible! I was so proud of our staff, serving teams and church members for going over and above to make this Easter flow so smoothly and reach tons of people.
I know our staff put in lots of extra hours, our volunteers served sacrificially, and our members invited friends and family.
All-in-all we saw nearly 11,000 in attendance and over 1200 decisions for Christ! I’ve already heard so many testimonies of changed lives from those who invited friends and family.
If you have a testimony about Easter weekend, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
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20 Responses to “Easter Weekend Testimonies”
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Easter Video
Is there any way to post the easter video on the website or email me a copy. The one with the girl who was angry when her mom died?
11,000 people attended, and 1200 decided. God, you are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I pray for thousands more over the years
The Jesus life change is the only true change. I thank God that all who are truly making the decision are transformed and delivered.
Press On
Jason
Pastors Stovall and Kerri, I just wanted to share with you that when I attended Saturday service with Titus, we sat in the back and saw that practically 50% of the people around us stood up for salvation/receive Christ. It was amazing and so beautiful!!!! The praise and worship ROCKED!!! At one point, the presence of God was so strong I felt that I almost could not contain it. It has been an amazing, fantabulous weekend!!! Much love, Titus & Lisa Gunter
This Easter took my husband and I back to the first time we walked into Celebration Church a few years ago. We were remembering how refreshing the worship felt and how each word from the sermon was filled with life and truth - we walked out so fired up and knew that we had found home…we were for sure “coming back”. This Easter we looked across the crowd and just knew that there were several other hundreds of people experiencing the same thing we felt…..God’s presence just instantly connects us all together. It’s awesome!
Linda
Hey, Pastor Stovall. I’m one of the people that serves at Orange Park and this church has been an amazing thing for me.
My testimony is not identical to yours but close. I came from a very small town where all we did was drink, smoke and surf. That’s what we did every day. I moved out of there and started going to a church called Hope in North Carolina and it was similar, but it just didn’t speak to me I guess is the best way to put it.
I began drinking and smoking cigs again.
Then we moved here to Florida 2 years ago. I began going to another church (which I will not mention) and they basically kicked me out because they said I was too radical!! Crazy right? Well that turned me away from churches for I don’t know a year or so. But during this whole time I kept being told by different people to try out Celebration and I was like no, no, no. I just don’t think I can handle the church thing anymore.
Then I started going to the Orange Park campus. I was like I need something. I was depressed and just a mess. My marriage was suffering, my children could feel the tension that was in the house all the time, so I tried it and loved it.
I slowly started getting involved and then one Sunday you did a message on your life and how you were on the fence for a long time and finally you said God I’m done. I’m 100% for you. At this time I was still going to the bar once a week and drinking one or two and I thought there was nothing wrong with it. Well after the message I went and prayed and said God I’m done being on this fence I’m ready to be 100% yours.
God said to me what took you so long.
I separated myself from my bar friends and stopped going to the bar all together and then I prayed and said God what next? He told me I want you to lead my teens. Now I was like God are you nuts? I was the most screwed up teen ever he said and that is why you will be able to understand them.
Finally I did then God said next CLC. Now this I was really not agreeing with God on, but you know how God is he always wins. Then this Easter I was at the Saturday service and I saw all those people stand I began to cry for the feeling of overwhelming because I had never seen anything like that. It was amazing.
God is so awesome and I pray that God will speak into their lives like he has mine.
Thanks for listening,
~Rei Clayton-Patrick
GOD is truly an awesome GOD. He makes all things work for his glory. I truly believe that was manifested this weekend. I knew the parking lot would simply be pure madness that could only be contained, but God was there in the flow of cars, people and his spirit. I second the great teamwork from everyone. I look forward for the fruit our church’s labor. I feel God is growing us, showing us favor and preparing us for much much greater things ahead. It’s an honor for me to serve at Celebration.
For God,
John
Pastor Stovall,
I usually try to avoid Easter service for as long as I’ve been an adult. I have been in the ‘church” all of my life. I grew up in a Baptist church. Later my family moved to a Pentecostal Holiness church and after I reached the age of majority, I pretty much gave up on GOING to church. I would visit churches here and there. Being in the military didn’t help much. Well my wife and I last year were looking for something more and we found Celebration through the television ministry. You see “TV Church” was my church. I would search the airwaves on Sundays and “go to church”. LOL! Well we found Celebration and decided to visit last year. Well it only took one visit. We were HOOKED! So here comes Easter, I’m thinking; man I sure don’t want to fight the Easter crowds at church. But God said; get up Craig and go. WOW!!! Man oh man, was I glad I heeded the word of God! I invited my best friend and his family and they LOVED it! I loved it! The service was awesome. My friend’s wife was sitting next to me and she leaned over and said; “Is it always like this?” I was like oh yeah, but this one just seems to have stepped it up a notch! Well, she asked if she could come back Sunday with us; I was FLOORED! I’m like are you kidding me, of course! What a blessing that is for me and my wife. This is by far the fastest God has ever blessed me for following his word. Hallelujah! Praise be to the most high God and his son Jesus! keep up the great work!
I love reading these posts. Thanks so much to all of you for your comments. God is so good. I wish I could post the comments we got back on so many of our connection cards. Dave, Jason, Lisa, Linda, Rei, John and Graig - God bless you all! Thanks for all you do!
What about that Good Friday Service! I wish we could have the 3-pack every single weekend!
Thank you Stovall and Kerri for allowing God to use you to create such an inviting church!
Glory be to God and Jesus who save all of us. The presence of the lord is in full velocity for people who hunger and thirst after him. It’s always been in hovering since Genesis. Our yielding and submitting and praying make us observe new convert heart fickle and people drunk in the spirit. God bless you Pastor Stovall and Kerri and your family. I submit to people of the sovereign lord. Love 4 life!
Father, how wonderful it is to find You so fully pleased with us and eagerly calling to us and causing us to come to You. Thank you, Lord for fulfilling our hearts desire with Your beloved Son, Jesus, our Christ and King. Holy Spirit, we’re in awe of the way you are making us one with each other and intent on becoming one with the Lord and our Glorious Heavenly Father. Thank you, Jesus, for keeping God’s Word and keeping Your promise to make us one with You and our God and Father. Thank you for causing these desires to be born in us and for empowering the completing work, to the praise of Your glory ! We are so grateful to be able to glimpse heaven now, and to taste and see how good You are and how very deeply You love us. Continue to translate and transfer Your love through us to the lost, Jesus. You are so marvelous, not making us wait until we see You to know You and to experience the Kingdom of Heaven here and now on this earth. Help us to love like You love; let us see what You see - Father, form and fold our hearts into Your own, that the world may know Jesus has come in the flesh and that He lives and He’s oh so eager to save us, cleanse us, heal us, free us and fill us with His Holy Spirit. Blessed be the Name of the Lord…May we continue to be consumed with the zeal of the Lord God of Hosts !
I walked into Celebration about 2 years ago and didn’t quite know what to expect. It was the Wednesday service after the first Shine Conference and the lady whose name I can’t remember (she was from Australia) gave the message about staying in your lane and winning the race. Later that summer I went to the Dance Ministry and met my fiancée who also attends Celebration and we continued on. Fast forward to about 8 months ago and for some reason I found myself wanting to see what else was out there. So we went to another church and I kind of liked it, but it was pretty boring compared to what I was used to…it didn’t feel like home to me. So I did the most human thing I could think of, I just quit going altogether. Every Saturday, my fiancée would ask if we could go, I would say yeah, and then I just wouldn’t go. She never got mad at me for it, she said that she was allowing me to lead us even before we were married because that was the right thing to do.
NOW, HERE IS WHERE THE MIRACLE HAPPENED!!!!!!
I have been trying to quit smoking in my own power for almost 3 years now, never really asking for God’s help, never having any success. Over the past 5 months I had been praying for God to just take the desire away. Days went by and I still smoked and it seemed like I God had forgotten about me. I started to feel like it was payback since I had forgotten about God, I mean after all I hadn’t been to church in 4 months, I was getting back into some of my other worldly habits like cursing, bad attitude, expectations etc. Why would God want to help me? What had I done for him lately?
2 weeks ago from today, I was driving back from St. Augustine and I just felt the overwhelming desire to stop smoking. Not only that, it was like I had never even touched the things before. Now I have been a smoker for 17 years (I’m 30) and had tried to quit 6 or 7 times before and it was IMPOSSIBLE. TORMENT. AGONY. Not this time, this time it was a peace that I can’t explain, a peace that even right now brings tears to a grown mans eyes. As I was driving home that night, I heard the still small voice saying, “Peace, be still.” and “My Grace is Sufficient.”
A week later was Easter Sunday and my fiancée and I went to the Orange Park campus and heard the story about the 10 lepers and I immediately identified. I was far off, threw out a request on a whim, God answered. I began to cry during prayer time because I knew that the message was just for me. God was saying that I was healed because of him, but will I come back and be made well? Together, my fiancée and I stood up, hand in hand, teary eyed and said “Yes, we will be made well, we will come back.”
This past Wednesday was just affirmation that I was in the right place and back home. Pastor Brinker talked about Husbands and Wives, Children, Masters and Slaves. I then realized that my fiancée had done what was required of her, she submitted to me even when I didn’t want to go to church. She loved me unconditionally and never “looked down” on me because of it. Well I took her to dinner and asked “What can I do to honor you?”
She said two things, be the man that god wants you to be and take me to church….
Thank you Stovall and Celebration for all that you do, the love that you offer and the open doors.
Sincerely,
The Prodigal Son
Easter weekend was one of the most amazing weekends of my life! I watched my best friend feel Gods embrace for the first time.
My friend, Ronnie is going thru something in his life right now that has made him feel like he has lost everything, his children, his home, himself. He has been so filled with anger and hate that at times you could see him start to lose control.
I have been begging him for a year to come to just one service, no luck… I prayed and prayed. Finally I decided to ask Ronnie one more time, he agreed to come (Easter). During that Saturday service I asked God to stir something up in him…
Pastor Stovall.. he was one of the 1200 that stood up that night! God is Truely Amazing!
Even better, this past Saturday he called me to say “we are going to church tonight, I’m suppose to come back!”
The power of God is something that cannot be put into words… all i could do was lift my hands, take a deep breath and say “thank you”
Thank you Lord for your servant and his testimony. I too have been struggling with the addiction to cigarettes. I am an addict and have been clean. I know the names of the drugs but the only one that has remained is tobacco. I know the name of Jesus is greater than tobacco. Pray with me brothers. In tears I write this. I must clean the temple of the Lord and Pray for his strength to rid me and cleanse and I will fight the good fight so Help me God!
Hello!
Glad I found your blog - I’m glad to see you’re on the list of teachers from LifeChurch’s Pray Series. I’m a Worship Pastor, Musician, and Blogger up on St. Simons Island, and a LONG-TIME friend of Doug Fowler .. so, what’s the chances of getting that love-bug focused enough to blog and share some worship leadership/training for us?
Tell “Doug” (aka, the new stud) “hi” from St. Simons.
For the Kingdom
Fred McKinnon
Worship Director, St. Simons Community Church
www.fredmckinnon.com
Hang in there Jonathan Musgrave. The blood of Jesus is enough to wash us and cleanse us. I remember when I used to struggle with stuff(mostly anger and lustful thoughts). I kept fighting and one day I cried out to Him and asked ‘God how do I live a life that glorifies You, how can I have a testimony that is complete in You when I have things that are not pleasing to you. I do not know what happened next but the power of the things I struggled with was simply
gone! And something else happened too, everyday I am just more hungry for the things of God.
I pray and hope He gives you the strength to fight the good fight.
Jonathan Musgrave, I’ve been free of cigarettes for 5 years, 129 days, 22 hours…and it was 100% God who delivered me. I had been smoking for almost 30 years when I felt God calling me into youth ministry. I knew I couldn’t smoke and minister to teens, so I started praying everytime I lit a cigarette, “Father, I really like to smoke, so it you want me to quit, I need you to help me, because I can’t do it on my own”. Just about 30 days after starting to pray, I was given a word that God was delivering people from cigarettes. It hit my spirit like a shot, I jumped to my feet, cried out “THAT’S MINE”, and that was that. It only took a couple of days for my flesh to fall in line. Just be real with God and he will take care of the problem. I believe and pray that he will deliver you just like he delivered me and John.
Hi Pastor,
When Easter came around I knew I needed to at least have one friend or family member come along. All week I had prayed for particulars and as much as I tried to get in touch with them, it wasn’t happening. I work at Starbucks and I have a friend who is homosexual, but has always been open to what I have to say about God and church. He grew up Catholic and was practically condemned by his priest when he confessed that he was gay. I told my friend that regardless of what that mad said, Jesus still loves you and my church rocks, so you should come. I told him it was like a concert when you come and you cant help but get lost in it. So out of all the people I tried to invite he came with my husband and I. He loved it. He had tears in his eyes the whole time and when you asked for those to “come back”, he bravely stood up! I was so excited! He wants to come back and I know he will. God is so good. Thank you for your faithfulness to the Call!
Laura,
What a great story. That is what church is all about - reaching the lost. Thanks for having a heart for others and being a witness. Keep inviting people!
Dave,
We can get you that video testimony we showed in church.
Pastor Stovall,
Several weeks have past since Easter Sunday, but I’ve been visiting Celebration’s website more and more since. I visited Celebration Church Easter Sunday with a special friend of mine…and I was completely unprepared for the testimony I heard. It broke my heart! You see, though the situations are different, I, too, lost my mom, Joyce. She passed away January ‘06 from brain cancer.
It still stirs me now as I type…God is so incredibly awesome. The testimony reminded me of where I was…I totally related to her words. All one knows is life with your mom and then life without her. I, too, felt like I was in a fog, lost, but praise God He stuck by and hung on to me.
I want to thank you for being such a loyal servant of God! I truly enjoyed my visit to Celebration. I belong to a church in St. Augustine - but I am so excited, I registered for the women’s conference the first weekend in May! Keep rockin’ on for Christ.