This weekly Vision/Information/Prayer (V.I.P.) thought is designed to inspire, inform and focus Celebration Serve Teams around why we do what we do.

Sunday, August 1 & Wednesday, August 4 (A Teams)

Vision

“He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame.” Ephesians 1:4

Before the creation of the world, God was already busy choosing us, foreordaining, planning mercy and redemption for mankind.  He has already planned whom we will meet and He already knows the situations we will encounter.  As we serve, let’s remember it was His love that brought us to this place…and how fortunate we are that we are here, with these people, at this time!

Information

Christine Caine of Hillsong Church: International Speakers & Founder of A21

• Sunday Services – Georgetown 9am, 10:30am, 12pm.
• Young Adult Service – A no-holds-barred evening with Chris at 6pm.
• Celebration Women – Mon, August 2^nd 7pm.  Pre-register NOW for $12 or $15 at the door.

Prayer

Father, we acknowledge the truth of your Word.  Lord, we are thankful you chose us.  Help us minister to those You bring to us in a way that is “holy and without blame.”  Amen.

This weekly Vision/Information/Prayer (V.I.P.) thought is designed to inspire, inform and focus Celebration Serve Teams around why we do what we do.

Sunday, July 25 & Wednesday, July 28 (B Teams)

Vision:

“For this is what the Lord has commanded us:  ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’” Acts 13:47

A light is bright, intense, goes everywhere and depends on a source to shine.   As a servant who has been entrusted the work of the Lord, bring your best, your brightest light.  Be spiritually intense, without being physically intense.  Go everywhere and be willing to do what no one else wants to do.  But, pray before you go, understanding that the “light” won’t come on without the “power”.

Information:

Christine Caine of Hillsong Church: International Speakers & Founder of A21

• Kingdom Builders Breakfast – Sat, July 31^st 8:30am, open to all, free.
• Sunday Services – Georgetown 9am, 10:30am, 12pm & 6pm.
• Celebration Women – Mon, August 2^nd 7pm.  Pre-register NOW for $12

Prayer:

Pray that God’s light reaches everywhere & touches every single person that walks through the doors.  Jesus, shine Your light in and through us today.  Amen.

This weekly Vision/Information/Prayer (V.I.P.) thought is designed to inspire, inform and focus Celebration Serve Teams around why we do what we do.

Sunday, July 18 & Wednesday, July 21

(A Teams)

Vision

Mark 10:39-40, “Jesus said to them, ‘You will drink the cup I drink & be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.’”

Jesus was speaking to James & John who had caught the vision! They wanted to be at Jesus’ side. Jesus modeled one crucial characteristic of those equipped to be with Him – submission to authority.  As Christ submitted to the authority of the Father, let’s be fully submitted to the leadership of this House.  We do this by avoiding discord, enthusiastically responding to direction, & by having an attitude of gratitude for all they do!

Information

Growth Track, every 3rd Sunday of the month: TODAY July 18th

12 pm Cedar Park • 6 pm Georgetown

• Connect – membership & DNA
• Grow – what we believe & why
• Serve – why we serve the way we do
• Encounter – Next weekend, July 23 & 24. Encounter is a powerful time of teaching & ministry.  Come expecting God to do something, be fully refreshed while you’re there, & leave empowered to do life at a whole ‘nother level!

Christmas in July: Celebration Serves, Celebration KIDS & XL are teaming up during the month of July to host a Christmas in July toy drive for a few area neighborhoods!  Bring an unwrapped new toy by July 21st.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for bringing us together as a Team.  Thank you for leadership with a passion to glorify You in everything they do. Help us to maintain unity & to honor those in authority.  Like James & John, we want to be at your side…

Celebration Church would like to show their appreciation to our troops by providing free lawn care to U.S. military families at home while their loved ones serve in the Armed Forces. This is one small burden that together we can bear during this difficult time.

We need lawn mowers, edgers, and willing volunteers who would like to bless some of our military families around the Austin area!  Military families in need of lawn care assistance during your soldier’s deployment time and volunteers who would like to ease the burden of lawn care for a military family, please contact: Meagan Brantley at 763-3000 or mbrantley@celebrationchurchtx.com.

Here is an update from Pastor Mel Stauber and family over in Mozambique!

We have been here for 14 days and we are still working on submitting our paperwork for our visas! We spent some time in Xai-Xai last week.  After seeing the kids in their real state of poverty I thought you would want to know that what we are doing as a church is a great thing.  Many of our kids don’t even own a pair of underwear and the shirts they have are filled with holes and are thin to the  point of being see through.  We will be purchasing some clothes for the kids in the next few weeks to give away.  Their state of poverty could be overwhelming if one were to take their eyes off the Cross.  Celebration Church is doing a good thing. 

True to his nature, my son Matthew jumped right in there and started playing with the kids and my daughter Rachel had a bunch of younger kids following her all over the property.  Diane was in there also ministering to the cooks.  I won’t lie, there is an incredible amount of work to be done here before the Grand Opening in August and even more work to be done afterwards.  In a humble way, I feel a sense of pride coming from a church that really cares enough to send one of their own to care for the forgotten.

We’ll have a vehicle in the next couple days (woo hoo!)

Please keep us and the Church in prayer.  We learned from a very credible source, that Xai-Xai is like the epicenter of witchcraft in all of southern Africa.  Witchdoctors in training come from all over to train from the mentors in our province.  It’s like being in the midst of a Frank Peretti novel as the spiritual climate around here can literally be felt.  I thought before we left that we would be in the midst of some pretty heavy stuff, but to hear it from a missionary who’s been working there for 13 years takes it to a new reality.  Pretty cool to know that God has trusted our church to be thrown into the middle of the hornet’s nest to bring Light into the darkness of this land.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! We love you guys!

Stay tuned for more updates from Pastor Mel Stauber and Celebration Xai-Xai!

Mentors Needed for Children: An Opportunity to Show the Love of Jesus!
Making a difference in the life of a child can be fun! Mentors are needed for children in foster care. As a mentor you have the opportunity to be a role model for a child by spending time doing fun activities, helping with homework, teaching life skills and being a positive person in their life! if you are interested in becoming a mentor for a child in foster care please contact Traci at Family Link at 512-233-6464.

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God our Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress…” James 1:27

This weekly Vision/Information/Prayer (V.I.P.) thought is designed to inspire, inform and focus Celebration Serve Teams around why we do what we do.

Sunday, July 11 & Wednesday, July 14

Vision:

Colossians 3:23-24 NLT, “Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ.”

Our motivation matters!  Do we serve out of obligation?  If so, we’ll do only as much as we have to just to fulfill a duty.  Or do we serve as unto the Lord?  When we work with Him in mind – without selfishness or disguise – we please both God and man. God wants us to see that (ultimately) we work for Him. Our work is sanctified when it is done unto God.  That’s the motive God rewards!

Information:
Motion Conference: this Wednesday, July 14, is the last day to register.
High School Students & Young Adults are taking a road trip to Birmingham, Alabama!  Thursday, Jul 29 – Sun, Aug 1, $250.

Encounter: Mark your calendars, July 23 & 24. Encounter is a powerful time of teaching and ministry – come expecting God to do something, be fully refreshed while you’re there, and leave empowered to do life at a whole ‘nother level!

Growth Track, every 3rd Sunday of the month: July 18th
12 pm Cedar Park • 6 pm Georgetown
Interested in becoming a member?  Attend CONNECT to find out more.  GROW & SERVE also happening!

Prayer:
Pray that each of us examines our heart, purifying our motive and serving God heartily and cheerfully.  Pray that the Holy Spirit strengthen us and, as a team, we give it all we’ve got!

Attention Celebration! We have an incredible opportunity to serve our community this coming July 17th through a community event called Fitness Feria!

FITNESS FERIA™ is an innovative, game-changing approach to health, wellness, and prevention for America’s fastest-growing population. It’s designed to accomplish three things:

1) Give thousands of Spanish-speaking parents the “know-how” to navigate their children and families onto a lifelong path of practicing a healthy movement lifestyle from cradle to adult

2) Inspire life-changing healthy behavior by igniting their passion to pursue the American dream of fitness and sports achievement

3) Mobilize the non-profit infrastructure to scale to serve the health needs of the community and to better target this burgeoning populati

Fitness Feria is a community event taking place in the Burger Center (3200 Jones Road, Austin, TX 78745) from 8am to 12pm, they are in need for bilingual and non-bilingual volunteers to serve setting up on Friday and during the event on Saturday. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/26jvynq to register entering “Celebration Church” on the “Organization/Affiliation” field.

There are 2 volunteer training sessions…

SESSION 1: Wednesday, July 7

6:00 – 7:30pm

Dell Children’s Medical Center – Sig Auditorium

(4900 Mueller Blvd, 78723)

SESSION 2: Thursday, July 8

6:00 – 7:30pm

Austin-American Statesman

(305 South Congress, 78704)

They will have an extra training session next week if needed.

Get involved, let’s SERVE THIS CITY!

Fitness Feria – Call for Volunteers

Fitness Fiera on YouTube

Last week the youth of Celebration Church had an event called XL Fest! Hundreds of kids gathered up on the hill to hear incredible messages from both Pastor Joe Champion and Pastor Jonathan Bowles. We had DJ Tiberius and a break dance crew in the house as well! We had fun, worshiped, relaxed, and got a little dirty! We also sent teams out into the city on several serve missions!

There were four different outreaches available. We sent a team out to San Gabriel Park and handed out water bottles. Another group went down to the Blue Hole and cleaned up along the river, picking up trash and making the area a better place to be!. We had a group that went to nursing homes in the area, including Wesleyan Retirement Home in Georgetown and Fairway Vista Nursing Home in Round Rock. Both the students and the residents thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each other and spent some wonderful quality time together. Another group went to Brushy Creek to do a clean up there as well!

I Peter 4:10 says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

Christmas in July is coming!

Celebration Serves, Celebration KIDS and XL are teaming up during the month of July to host a Christmas in July Toy Drive for a few area neighborhoods! We will be collecting toys at Celebration starting July 7th, with the final collection date of July 21st! We are hoping to collect close to 400 toys for area children that we will then wrap and deliver on July 22nd at 1pm!

On July 22nd we will be having 3 simultaneous parties at Cypress Creek Apartment Complexes (both in Cedar Park and Georgetown) as well as a party at the Boys and Girls Club of Georgetown. At the Christmas Party we will have sugar cookies to decorate, the toys and of course Santa!! We are expecting this outreach to be tons of fun and to see many young lives touched by the Love of God!

Here is how you can help:

1. On Wednesday, July 21st after service we are going to gather all of the toys and start WRAPPING!!! We will then mark them based on gender and age so that they are ready to deliver on the following day.
2. We need donations of wrapping paper, bows, etc!
3. We need donations of cooked (but not decorated as we want the kids to be able to do this) sugar cookies!
4. We need donations of frosting, and sugar cookie decorations!
5. If you would like to come serve and volunteer to give out presents we would love to have your help. Please contact MBrantley@celebrationchurchtx.com or call 763-3000.