Awakening: 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting
By Linda Riddle, Awakening Coordinator
Awakening is right around the corner! If you haven’t already, now’s a great time to register. As of right now, 1007 pastors, churches and ministries from all around the world have signed up to participate, and the number is growing daily. It’s exciting to see all these incredible leaders preparing to pray and fast together as we start this New Year – this New Decade.
Checkout awake21.org to hear what other pastors are saying, register your church or ministry and download several free resources. Here’s just some of what’s available at awake21.org:
- Sermon series ideas on prayer and fasting (including message transcripts, sermon notes ,etc.)
- Informational videos with tips for pastors and ministry leaders
- Awakening 21 day devotional
- Practical information on different types of fasts, fasting calendars, preparing to fast, etc.
- Fasting for kids and youth
- Awakening branding, graphics and media (including blog and website banners)
We hope you’ll join us as we pray and fast together for each other, for our churches, ministries and leadership and prepare ourselves for what we will see God do in our time.
Linda Riddle
Awakening Coordinator
www.awake21.org
Follow Awake21 on Twitter
Celebration Christmas Spectacular!
By Rachel Grogan, Executive Assistant to Pastor Stovall Weems
The Celebration Christmas Spectacular begins Wednesday night at Celebration Church and I absolutely love all the buzz! The demand for tickets has been incredibly high and our teams of staff and volunteers are hard at work to make this a special event!
Having a ticket will allow you to receive priority seating to the ticketed option. Even though all tickets have been taken, we will do our very best to get you in even if you show up without one. God is going to do incredible things as our family and friends come together and Rekindle the Simple Joys of Christmas. There will be creative elements and surprises that will be spectuacular!
Celebrate with us at our Midtown Campus on Wednesday, Dec. 23rd at 7pm, Thursday, Dec. 24th at 2pm, 4pm, or 6pm. If you live near the Orange Park Campus, join us Thursday, Dec. 24th at 4pm, 6pm, or 7:45pm.
Merry Christmas! I can’t wait to see you there!
Rachel Grogan
The Name
By David Branker
Matthew 1:21 “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” NLT
The Bible does not say much about Joseph except that he obeyed God. The angel of the Lord commanded him to do two things. First, he must take Mary as his wife, and secondly, he was instructed to name the child Jesus. Not only was he responsible to care for Mary, the mother of Jesus, he was the only one with the privilege of naming the child. And so he called him Jesus – the one who would save his people from their sins. Though Joseph seemed insignificant in the miracle of the birth, he was no less purposeful or powerful in his impact. His hands wrote the name that today is the most precious name in the hearts of millions of people throughout the world.
We can all feel that our role, our life lacks significance or our story is not as impressive as another. Yet, our purpose – our true impact, can only be realized in being obedient to what God has placed before us.
Perhaps God has placed a name of someone on your heart that needs to know Him. Only time would tell the significance of that name, that life, once in the hands of our Savior. Like Joseph, follow through with what God has placed before you. Bring that name to God in prayer, reach out to them in love, and invite them to personally discover God’s purpose in their lives. It starts with a name…
David
A New Decade…
By Stovall Weems
A new decade begins next month. What if it were to be the last decade? How would you live? Preachers, how would you preach?
Stovall
Awakening 2010 countdown is on!
By Stovall Weems
Things I do leading up to the fast…
#1 – Planning for the Awakening 2010 fast
First, I start planning what my 21 days of prayer and fasting will look like. Identify the type of fast I am going to undertake as well as what days I can get away on personal prayer retreats with God. Then, determine what the 21 days look like for the staff, the church, ministries, programming, etc. I want our staff meetings to have a real prayer and Word emphasis so we get a lot of the practical calendar planning out of the way before the fast. We want to keep things simple and keep seeking God the top priority. It is also important to always leave margin on the calendar for God to bring some new ideas and strategic initiatives to your 2010 calendar as well. God always drops in fresh stuff at the beginning of the year when we align ourselves with Him through prayer and fasting. Many times God will bring what I call “alignment breakthroughs” in your staff, ministry initiatives, etc. God will connect the dots on things that have been on your heart and you will see the strategic big picture for the year much more clearly.
Stovall
A Couple Thoughts on Thanksgiving…
By David Branker
One Thanksgiving season, a family was seated around the table, looking at the annual holiday bird. From the oldest to the youngest, they were to express their praise. When they came to the 5-year-old in the family, he began by looking at the turkey and expressing his thanks to the turkey, saying although he had not tasted it he knew it would be good. After that rather novel expression of thanksgiving, he began with a more predictable line of credits, thanking his mother for cooking the turkey and his father for buying the turkey. But then he went beyond that. He joined together a whole hidden multitude of benefactors, linking them with cause and effect.
He said, “I thank the checker at the grocery store who checked out the turkey. I thank the grocery store people who put it on the shelf. I thank the farmer who made it fat. I thank the man who made the feed. I thank those who brought the turkey to the store.”
Using his sharp little mind, he traced the turkey all the way from its origin to his plate. And then at the end he solemnly said, “Did I leave anybody out?”
His 2-year-older brother, embarrassed by all those proceedings, said, “God.”
Solemnly and without being flustered at all, the 5-year-old said, “I was about to get to him.”
The reason why we gather around the dinner table is so that amidst all the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, collared greens, and arroz con pollo tomorrow, we are sure, not only to get to Him, but to put the Lord first, as our object of Thanksgiving.
Maybe it’s been a tough year for you. It has definitely been a tough year for me.
And yet, as I come to the table tomorrow, I will also know that it has also been one of the best years of my life – all because of God’s generous grace. This year, above all things, I am forever grateful for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Consider the following:
“Gratitude is from the same root word as “grace,” which signifies the free and boundless mercy of God. Thanksgiving is from the same root word as “think,” so that to think is to thank.” Willis P. King
So this year, let’s come to the table first thinking about God’s amazing grace…
- His unmerited favor
- His giving of what we could never earn or deserve
- His empowering of our feebleness
- And above all else, Him
And together declare, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” Psalm 107:1 KJV
David
Thanksgiving, Christmas & Awakening
By Linda Riddle, Awakening Coordinator
The holidays are fun and they’re full of excitement and anticipation. It’s a time of refreshing, reconnecting, and thanking God for who He is and what He has done. But for those of you who have ever participated in Awakening, you know the excitement doesn’t stop at end of the December – it’s just the beginning.
For several years now, Celebration Church has started the year off with a powerful spiritual experience. Every January, Pastor Stovall leads our church, staff and leadership through a 21 day season of prayer and fasting called Awakening. The spiritual impact is just incredible. There is something so powerful about setting aside this time right at the beginning of the year to pray, fast, seek God, and harness the power of doing it together. It’s like hitting the reset button (both physically and spiritually) and it charges our church, leadership and staff as a whole, with an intense amount of momentum as we head into the New Year.
Seeing the power that Awakening has had in our church, Awake21.org was created to inspire and equip pastors and church leaders all around the world to establish a culture of prayer and fasting in their church or ministry. Last year, close to 400 churches participated in Awakening and the impact was profound. Several pastors and church leaders asked only their staff or key leadership to participate, and because of the dynamic result, these leaders have now decided to introduce it to their entire church in 2010.
If you believe in the importance of prayer and fasting, and want to harness the power behind hundreds of churches coming together for Awakening in 2010, we invite you visit Awake21.org and register your church or ministry today. As we position ourselves to start the year off spiritually strong, we can look forward in anticipation of 2010 being a great year.
Linda Riddle
Awakening Coordinator
lriddle@celebration.org
Dream Center Launch – This Weekend!
By Guest Blogger, Jenny Huang
It’s gearing up to be an exciting weekend – this Sunday will be the grand opening service for our new Dream Center location in Springfield! We’re honored to partner with Bethesda Faith Assembly Church to open the new Dream Center, a place dedicated to restoring hopes and dreams in the community by meeting physical and spiritual needs. Everyone is invited to join in!
Rally your family and friends for the grand opening service this Sunday, Nov. 15 at 600 East Fourth Street. At 3 pm, teams will be distributing clothing, hygiene items, haircuts, bike repair, and more. The extension service will begin at 4 pm. Free food will be served immediately following the service. Come out anytime between 3-6 pm – it’s going to be incredible!
We’re also hosting an outreach at the Dream Center on Saturday, Nov. 14th, 11 am – 2 pm to finalize preparations for the grand opening. Teams will be cleaning, organizing, moving, prayer-walking, and getting the place ready to go.
Can’t wait to see you all there!
Jenny Huang
3 Day Fast / Prayer Night
By Stovall Weems
It is day 2 of our 3 day fast and I’m pumped about what God is up to. Here at Celebration Church, we encourage a life centered on prayer and fasting. Join us for worship, prayer and communion at 7:00 PM at our Midtown or Orange Park location this Friday night – November 13th. These nights are always very powerful. We’re praying and believing for God’s best in your life – hope you can make it!
What is God doing in you during this 3 day fast? Share your testimony.
See you Friday night!
Stovall
Christine Caine – This Weekend!
By Stovall Weems
We are so pumped to have Christine Caine in the house this weekend! She is a long time friend of the Celebration Church family and is visiting all the way from our friends at Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia.
She has an incredible word on her heart that is sure to impact your life.
Stovall
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