December 19, 2007

Dear Celebration Family,

“Merry Christmas” to each of you and to each of your families. Jodie and I and the girls praise God with you that we have a Savior to adore this Christmas. We all need to imagine our lives without the birth of Jesus so that we don’t lose the incredible joy we have in knowing Him as Christ our Savior. What a great way to end the year and begin a new year remembering the true meaning of the season. Please allow me to communicate with you some of the exciting happenings for Celebration Church at the end of 2007.

1. Last Sunday Celebration Community Church made the historic decision to acquire the property at 1260 Sherman Blvd. as our next church home. We have made this ministry decision with great excitement, but also knowing we have made a decision that is way beyond our abilities and control. We will need to pray like never before, sacrifice like never before and we will have to trust in God’s provision that has always provided for us! We can now begin to plan and dream about having a grand opening at the new facility that will get us off to rip roaring, Christ glorifying start in 2008!

At the meeting many challenging questions were asked that helped us all see the magnitude of the challenge before us. I want to personally say that every question had merit and value. Many asked what specific costs were behind the need to raise $100,000 for Phase I of the facility. Dick DeBoer has a spread sheet that will be in mailboxes this Sunday that details all the estimates from contractors who have given bids. Knowing with clarity the magnitude of the step of faith that we have taken will help us see the need for us to pray and work together as one. Celebration’s council met the next day and has begun working hard to address many of the concerns raised. The year 2007 ends with an exciting and great opportunity to go out into the Muskegon community “Determined to make a difference we will boldly reach out with love to our neighbors and celebrate our relationship with God together!”

I personally would like to thank the asset management team (Ed Staley, Bob Dunning, Roger Doctor), Dick DeBoer, Jan Koens, and the Council (Linda Workman, Rog Doctor, Patti Lacy, Tom Dunning, Mary Beth Ramos, Gary Wybenga, Robin Harper, Geneva West, Ed Straley) for all their hard work. There was a great desire by Council and Asset Management team to consider the property before the end of the year for property tax purposes. Because of this push to meet this deadline not enough prayer and communication preceded the meeting. As the Pastor of Celebration I guide our ship as best I can and as I truly think best for ALL of us. In this case I made some errors. I am truly sorry that our meeting didn’t have adequate prayer and communication before hand. Please don’t allow these errors to dampen the joy of serving Christ and reaching out to seekers.

2. Last October the Celebration family met at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. for a vision presentation by the church council. A great time of pie, coffee, worship and fellowship preceded the meeting. The council asked the church to work on two things: First, help develop the Sunday morning ministries to an even higher level by focusing our efforts on worship, fellowship, and children’s ministries for a 6 month period. Wow! Since that meeting many new gifted volunteers have stepped up. These ministries are now fully staffed, more organized, have identified leadership, and a new team spirit. In the words of some visitors from last Sunday, “Wow it is really exciting at this Church!”

Second, we asked for everyone to help take the atmosphere on Sunday mornings to an even higher level. The need to see Sunday’s through the eyes of visiting seekers was discussed and 15 little things we can all do to raise the atmosphere were identified. Wow! Again a great response and effort has been made. People are arriving earlier to church and helping to create a warm and inviting atmosphere for seekers who visit. Last Sunday several people asked me if they could take the membership class. This will mean more members who help live out the vision of Celebration Church…now that’s exciting!!!!

At this meeting it was announced that we had applied for a grant from Home Missions of the Christian Reformed Church to fund a part-time worship leader. On December 9th Robin Harper announced to the church that we had received the grant and we can now start a hiring process. A hiring team has been formed and they will start seeking applicants in January. Yeah God!

3. Last September the annual Beach and Baptism Service was held. This is always an exciting service, but this year really reminded us of the joy and purpose of our ministry. The day saw 12 adults profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The worship service then proceeded down to the waters of Lake Michigan where the baptisms took place. Not only was it exciting to see so many people baptized and make profession of faith, but we doubled our worship attendance as we rocked with praise and worshiped God by the lakeshore. A real live pirate was on hand to help the kids find a buried treasure. The day ended with a feast of a picnic that gave us all a chance to sit together and enjoy a truly beautiful day.

Let me use this letter to communicate to you that we will be using our budget from 2007 for the months of January and February. On February 20th we will meet and have a congregational meeting to approve a budget for the rest of 2008. The finance team now has clear picture of our vision and can help us focus our finances on ministry development as we prepare for a grand opening that will bring many new faces to Celebration and staffing a part-time worship leader with grant dollars provided by the denomination.

We go into the year 2008 with the joy of working together to glorify Christ as His church. Let me close with a few ways we can glorify Christ in 2008:
By having a grand opening worship celebration at our new facility filled with people who are far from God!
By each of us not giving equally but equally sacrificing as we seek to be a more public presence of Christ in the Muskegon community.
By having a Beach and Baptism service that once again sees many making Jesus their Lord and Savior.
By having great fellowship together that shows the depth of Christian love to the world around us.

I praise God that He has given us the challenge and the honor of glorifying Him through the church. I praise God that he has brought us together and given us this life together to enjoy Him richly together. Merry Christmas Celebration family and I look forward to our new year.

In His Exciting Service,

Pastor Greg