Let’s Celebrate!

Pastor Jason shared with the church board during his report on Sunday that it was time to plan a celebration.  As a church, we have a lot to celebrate.  We have come to the end of a long journey: we now have a mission and vision statement to be proud of.  We have new pastors.  We have grown our children’s ministry and young adult population.  Let’s party!!

As a whole, the Church (universal) does not always do a great job of celebrating along our journey together.  We have certain celebrations that are set in stone:  Easter, Church Anniversaries, Christmas, etc.  But, what about when our churches have done something great together…isn’t that worth celebrating?

After all, didn’t God celebrate?  Throughout the creation narrative, God created, God observed, “and God saw that it was good.”  After God saw that what God had created was good, God continued to create!

If we sit back and celebrate what we have done together it can lead us forward to continue to create…both in our church and in our personal lives.

Pastor and writer Charles Stone reflected on a celebration that his church practiced by making the following 5 observations:

1. Scripture often tells us to remember God’s blessings (Ps 77.11). Celebration helps us embody that truth.
2. Celebration helps people feel like they are part of a movement that is truly winning.
3. Celebration helps mitigate a message that our ‘success’ culture often breeds that we don’t measure up.
4. Celebration builds confidence in leadership that they are leading the church in the right direction.
5. Celebration taps that ‘made in God’s image’ part of us. God created us to worship and when we celebrate His goodness, we feel most fully alive.

So take time to celebrate. Celebrate milestones. Celebrate big and small accomplishments. Celebrate beginnings. Celebrate endings. Celebrate successes. Even turn your failures in to something positive by celebrating what you learned from not succeeding!

A celebration is not only a time for us to remember what we have done individually and together, but also a time to honor and bring praise to God who has brought us to this place. I hope you will find creative ways to do this in your personal life, your family, at work, and other areas of life.

At Hood, over the coming weeks and months the worship team and other folks in our congregation will be working to plan a celebration.  Let’s remember how God has worked in the life of our church most recently.  And let’s do so together!