10th Birthday Celebration This Weekend!
By Stovall Weems
Many of you know we are celebrating our 10 year birthday here at Celebration Church this weekend. I know it’s Labor Day weekend, but trust me – you won’t want to miss this weekend! We are going to have lots of fun. From Cajun food to crazy videos, several surprises and lots of laughs – we have a very fun weekend ahead of us. See you this weekend!
Stovall
Celebration Church - Helping Impact Our Nation
By Stovall Weems
I’ve been attending ARC (Association of Related Churches) board meetings this week and part of our discussion today was about new church plants. There are some incredible pastors and churches across the nation that are part of the ARC Network and some that are very similar in culture to what we have here at Celebration Church.
Can you believe that as of right now, we are planting a new church every 12 days? Isn’t that awesome?
And we – Celebration Church – are helping make that happen! Through your continued support and giving, we are taking part in impacting our nation with awesome churches, just like Celebration Church. Just think about all the lives that represents and how many people are being reached for the kingdom of God, all across our nation!
It’s so exciting to see our accomplishments thus far, but even more exciting is our future. Our goal is to plant 2000 churches by the year 2020, and I believe that with God’s help, we will see that happen.
Theory #2: Small Service Venues Can Work
By David Branker
Small service venues can work with a delegated service, if it is connected to the stability of a larger, grounded church.
Here is the second theory – many people today are nervous about attending a church that is very small in size. They think of that environment as one better suited for a small group but not for a service. After all, who does worship, who plays the instrument and who sings, and how can that be replicated without exceptional, well-rounded and innumerable worship leaders, etc? Another concern is that when you think of small meeting spaces – a club or house come to mind, some may think those environments leave room for unsafe, and perhaps even unbiblical teaching.
We believe Extension Gatherings can be small, provide a great worship option, provide safety in teaching, remain flexible to grow organically, and maintain a healthy connection to a local church. How? By simplifying and delegating the service of a more stable and grounded local church in a format that is more readily duplicated. The service quality of the larger and better-resourced church, along with a gifted speaker, is made available in smaller settings.
Safe Teaching
One of the ways Extension Gatherings mitigate the risk of errant teaching is to provide the tools necessary for a safe service experience. The book of Acts reminds us in chapter 2 verse 42 “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship…” You see their acknowledgment of the role and teaching of the apostles. They recognized the authority and gifts of those called to teach them, and remained faithful to what they were taught.
As a matter of fact, once you mitigate the risks associated with teaching, worship, offerings, and serving – you are now free to empower people with the tools to take the local church to their world. Allowing them the simplicity of focusing on inviting and enjoying fellowship and community with others in their circle, while experiencing a local church service.
Church Cannot Be Contained
We all recognize that the church is and never was about locations, but about people. Yet when we think of church growth, the size of the building looms as a lid over its potential to reach people. Both geographically – that is in that region and physically as our beloved building inspectors remind us that we can hold so much and no more. When you remove the building lid, you can love inspectors and reach people. We can now reach people in nursing homes, bars, prisons, neighborhood clubs, college campuses etc. We’re excited that we are no longer limited to a location or constrained by a building, but can grow in a flexible and organic manner.
Connected to a Local Church
These are not individual house churches but one church with the established vision and mission that God has given to us to steward. This by no means is an indictment against the independent house church movement. Like Paul, we rejoice, “that the message about Christ is being preached either way” (Philippians 1:18). Extension Gatherings are not independent, or isolated, they are connected to a larger church organization that is stable, grounded and tested.
Truth is, what remains before us is that Jesus Christ is the owner and builder of His Church and that can never be contained geographically or physically. The church will exist eternally!
Book update
By Stovall Weems
I just wanted to let everyone know that my first book will be coming out later this fall rather than early fall. We have been working very hard and really want this first book to have as much impact as possible so we just don’t want to rush things. I am finding out that so many things that are easily communicated while speaking (and sound great!) don’t necessarily translate on the page in written form.
We are not sure if the title of the book is going to be called “The God-First Life” or “Awakening”. I will continue to update once a month on the progress.
We Must Go
By David Branker
We’ve seen the impact of multi-services and multi-sites help the church in America reach more people with the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe multi-gatherings will be another such strategy that will dramatically expand our ability to reach many, many more people for the Kingdom of God.
Why Multi-Gatherings?
People’s lives are broken. The local church is their only hope. Many of us are waiting for them to come and hear but they are not coming – Jesus said to go! Instead of relying on marketing strategies and outreaches to entice people to come, we as a church have been given a commission to go. No doubt about it, when we bring the local church to people, we bring good news, and we bring love in action. We meet their felt needs AND meet their most important need – a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The truth is – the most powerful evangelist is the glory of God dwelling in the midst of His people. That happens in the context of the local church. We don’t need convincing of that, we already see large numbers of people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior each weekend at our services. Not to mention in similar gatherings and crusades all over the world. Now we can empower and equip devoted disciples with the ability to take the church experience to their friends. We’ve taken the best of the weekend experience and packaged it in its simplest form, so it can be experienced in many different settings.
Of course we encourage people to be evangelists and to invite others and that doesn’t change. However, there are many people that won’t come – therefore we must go!
Theory #1: They’re Out There
By Stovall Weems
Here is my first theory -that of the millions and millions of people in America that do not attend church many of them want to.
For whatever reason many of those people have decided that attending church is either too difficult or intimidating for them. This can happen for almost as many reasons as there are individuals: illness, work-related travel, shyness, fear of the unknown, distrust, weekend work schedule, distance – you name it and it probably keeps people from coming to church and becoming part of the church life that we all know is crucial for discipleship and growth.
Because people won’t or often can’t come to a facility, the resulting statistics have indicated a decline in church attendance in America. Because of this there is a prevailing idea (bolstered by some polls, which I personally take issue with) that people in America do not want to know God. But in my experience this is just not true. In my experience, people are out there by the millions just waiting for us to bring the love of God to them. But instead of bringing God to them, we spend a phenomenal amount of energy and resources trying to get them to come to a facility and meet God. I want to be clear here that I am a huge believer in the absolute necessity of great ministry facilities and environments. We need them and the vast majority of people have no problem coming to them. They are a huge tool in reaching people and creating an atmosphere for people to experience God and grow in the faith. However our current culture requires so many more options if we are going to see the church become the movement Jesus intended it to be like in the book of Acts. We can’t build enough buildings to contain want God wants to do. I am so excited about our next facility on Baymeadows Rd and 9/A. It will seat 4,200 people and be an incredible venue for people to experience God. But it will not nearly be able to contain all the people God wants to reach here in Jacksonville. Even if we replicated this facility at all of our campuses it would still not be nearly enough to contain all the people God wants to reach and that are open to being reached.
Multi-gatherings are church services designed to reach people not attending church. They are designed for the marketplace and the un-churched. They are designed for those not able to attend — or too afraid to attend — one of our weekend services. Extension gatherings bring a fluid, dispersible option to weekend services and can conform to almost any environment at any time. Some of the extension gatherings in the works right now take place in theatres, on Navy ships, in hospitals, in bars, on the street, online, in club houses, in coffee shops, in dorm rooms, in living rooms, on tour buses, in shelters, in hotels, military bases, other cities, other countries, and the list goes on. As many creative extensions hosts as I have, that’s how many different kinds of gatherings we can have. They don’t replace the weekend services, they just add an option and decentralize, which, in my observation, prepares the way for an explosion in reaching people for Christ and discipleship.
What if we find out that just by adding this component to our current structure we reach 30% or 40% more people for Christ in just one weekend? What if the church doubles in less than a year? I will be excited but I will also be terrified. I will be terrified at the realization that the church in America (and churches like ours) is leaving that many people unreached and un-ministered to every week just because of our service structures — even with all of the technology and resources and man power that we currently have.
Next post: Why extension gatherings are not just another form of the “House Church Movement.”
Decentralization = Explosive Growth
By Stovall Weems
Over the last 30 years the church in America has undergone a series of steps in the decentralization of service structure which have led to explosive growth. They are:
Multi services: I remember when pastors began doing multiple services for different people. As ubiquitous as that is now, the prevailing response to a full sanctuary in the early 80s was not to add a service, but to build a bigger building. Imagine that! The first people to do multiple services for different people (as opposed to a Sunday night service for the same people) were real innovators for their time, reaching people by adding more options.
Mobile church: This movement, mainstreamed in America by Rick Warren, revolutionized the way church was done. The idea that you could start a church and not even have a building was crazy, but it worked – big time! Today the idea of buying or building a facility before launching a church seems backwards at best, but until the 90s, it was the norm. This major innovation is still impacting church planting today, empowering leaders to reach more people with less money and leading to a colossal rise in the rate of church planting in America.
Multi-sites: In the 90s several pastors began to experiment with having more than one location in the same city. They set the service times so that they could drive back and forth and preach at each campus. These churches were now able to reach people who loved the heart and vision of the church but didn’t want to or couldn’t make the drive to the other side of town. Suddenly these people had an option for plugging into the life of the church.
Video multi-sites: People really criticized this idea at first. The idea that you could get the same quality of ministry by watching the message on a video screen seemed almost heretical. But people found that the community of believers they connected to was what made church, church, regardless of how they experienced the message. By adding video multi-sites as an option for a Sunday gathering, churches experienced phenomenal, sometimes exponential growth, reaching so many more people for Christ.
I believe the next wave of decentralization in the church in America will be the movement of multi-gatherings. I believe it will ignite the biggest, rawest, closest-to-the-book-of Acts-experience we have seen yet. On Friday, September 5th, Celebration church will launch 200 extension gatherings.
Over the next several weeks I will be sharing on my blog what we are doing and learning as we embark into completely uncharted territory. I have about 10 -12 main theories and ideas on this concept. I want to share these and invite your feedback.
I am sharing these ideas and theories in the context of the church in America – not China or Korea or any other country where a form of this has been already been happening for decades. I know that some of the theories might challenge traditional philosophies of ministry. Some ideas may even be a little bit controversial or challenge your way of thinking. Feel free to share or disagree and I will try to answer as many questions as I can.
Announcing a New Initiative: Multi-Gatherings
By Stovall Weems
It’s been an incredible weekend at Celebration Church! As you may have heard from Pastor Stovall this weekend, Celebration is launching a new initiative this fall we are calling multi-gatherings.
Multi-gatherings are designed to bring the Celebration service experience (worship and message) out into our community. For those people in our world who are not coming to church for whatever reason, we are taking church to them.
We are launching over 200 extension gatherings the weekend of September 5th. These gatherings will be added to the current weekend services at Celebration Church and none of the services already taking place will go away.
These extension gatherings are church services that are held anytime and anywhere. They are not small groups or just video messages. They are hosted services where people can participate in worship, receive the same weekend message shared at our campuses, and connect in with the community and life of the local church – just like they do at any of our current venues. These gatherings can take place both locally in Jacksonville and globally around the world.
Extension gatherings will range in sizes from 10 to 300 people and can include but are not limited to gatherings at college campuses, nursing homes, prisons, coffee shops, community club houses, workplaces (with permission of course), hospital chapels, military bases, theaters, bars, clubs and neighborhoods. People have already expressed interest in many of these locations and are ready to take church to those they hope to reach in their circle of friends, colleagues, and to their family members.
We are believing for 3000 souls to be added in a day (weekend) just like we saw in the book of Acts, and that’s just the start!
As Pastor Stovall said this weekend, Celebration Church serves to empower people to live the God-first life. He is simply giving permission to those who are fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, to take church to their world and reach more people.
We’re also pleased to announce two new campuses kicking off the weekend of September 5th in the cities of St. Mary’s and St. Augustine.
Look out for regular postings on this initiative as we believe something special is taking shape.
Since this is unchartered territory for us, we welcome any constructive feedback or questions. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Innovation
By David Branker
I enjoy reading Popular Science . . . the magazine all about innovation and discovery. What starts as an idea over time matures into greater discoveries in science, health, transportation, living and the list goes on . . . This past June featured a Motor-Unicyle. I plan to get one!
Innovation is something we are drawn to because God made us to be creative and to love creativity. We were made in His image and in His likeness. The most innovative idea ever brought to realization happened in the early church.
Jesus Christ chose 12 ordinary men and through these men, the entire world turned upside down, or for that matter right side up with a message of Good News. We know it as the Gospel. It started in a small upper room and the book of Acts tells us it unfolded through waves and waves of large numbers of people believing and turning to the Lord.
The Bible records . . .
Acts 11:21
The power of the Lord was upon them, and large numbers of people were brought to the Lord.Acts 11:24
. . . And large numbers of people were brought to the Lord.
Notice, twice in just four verses, the phrase is repeated . . . “And large numbers of people were brought to the Lord.” If numbers were not important – as so many assert – this would not even be mentioned once. But have you noticed, throughout the entire book of Acts how often it is mentioned?
Why? Because numbers are important to God. Numbers represent people. Numbers represent souls, and large numbers represent momentum!
Some of us were so dead set against anything that hinted of tradition, that now our untraditional ways have become a tradition unto themselves!
It’s time to ask God for new and innovative ways to continue to reach large numbers of people. The local church should be the “poster child” for creativity as we are the children of the Creator.
So, as I put down this month’s Popular Science book and pick up my Bible, I am looking forward to seeing Pastor’s innovative idea unfold this weekend. Yes – if this is of God – get ready to believe for large numbers of people coming to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our hope is that the momentum we see in the book of Acts continues to unfold in our day!
David
