Hi Celebration family,

Each year, our church gives as generously as we can to sending local children with MS to camp. If you would like to give through the church then please contact the church office at 239.649.1588.

Pastor Gene

One Month to Live

We’re starting a new series that we’re calling “One Month to Live.” The idea behind this series is if you knew you had one month to live, what would you value? This question isn’t new. It’s been around as long as death has been here If you knew you had one month to value, what would you do?

One month to live, what would you do? Talk to me.

Go to Israel.
Quit my job.
Spend it with your family.
Eat!
Slow down.
Drink Diet Pepsi. Amen! Amen to that! (But why diet?)
Take a cruise?

I want to hear from you. Leave a comment on what you would do if you only had one month to live?

(Well, for starters, I wouldn't pick the month of February!)

Pastor Gene

Reducing Debt

A few weeks ago, our Executive Pastor, Gordie Mefford, delivered a powerful and timely message on reducing debt. I thought about that message as I came across this devotional so I thought I would share it with you...

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In our Devotionals series, Pastor Rick Warren discusses the Bible passages that inspire him the most. Today's Devotional is based on this passage:

"Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!" (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 NLT)

When you spend more than you earn, you end up in tremendous stress. The Bible says, "Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it" (Proverbs 21:20 TEV).

What motivates us to live beyond our means? Why do we spend ourselves into debt? Why are we rarely satisfied with what we have?

There are three myths that drive us into debt:

MYTH: Having more things will make me happier.

FACT: "Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!...So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!" (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 NLT)

MYTH: Having more things will make me more important.

FACT: "Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be" (Luke 12:15 TEV).

MYTH: Having more things will make me more secure.

FACT: "The Lord is like a strong tower, where the righteous can go and be safe. Rich people, however, imagine that their wealth protects them like high, strong walls around a city" (Proverbs 18:10-11 TEV).

When we buy into these myths, we always overspend. So, here's how to enjoy life more on less:

• Find happiness in helping others. Jesus said, "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" (Acts 20:35 TEV). Just look around you and you'll see this is true. The happiest people are those who help the most, not those who have the most. Misers are always miserable.
  
• Find self-worth by getting to know God. God says, "...you are precious to me..." (Isaiah 43:4 TEV). You matter to God. He made you for a purpose. Genuine self-esteem comes from establishing a relationship with God and becoming all he meant for you to be.
  
• Find security in trusting God, not a bank balance. The Bible says, "Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, 'I will never leave you; I will never abandon you'" (Hebrews 13:5 TEV). Real security must be found in something that can never be taken from you. While there are many ways to lose your possessions, Jesus said God will take care of you if you trust Him.
  
  
  

John Raker

There was a great letter to the editor in Wednesday's Naples Daily News concerning a valued member of Celebration. Here is the letter in case you missed it....

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Editor, Daily News:

Fifteen years ago John Raker, co-founder of Collier Harvest, made contact with the U.S. post office in Naples to help letter carriers distribute the food collected on their annual food drive.
Over the years, 4.5 million pounds of food has been delivered to the agencies of Collier and Lee counties to feed the hungry “without money.”

He indeed should be considered for Man of the Year.
Bert Paradis

Real Florida Eating!

As many of you know, I have this love/hate relationship with food. OK...it is mainly love. OK...it's all love! So, when you ask me, as a Floridian, what is the perfect Florida meal, I respond with one word...buffet! No...the word is...mullet! I was meeting with our pastors last week and neither one of them had ever heard of a mullet? How about you? So, to provide a benefical public service, please peruse the attached photos. That is fried mullet. Those are hushpuppies. You eat the hushpuppies with guava jelly. That is sweet tea in the glasses. What you are looking at (and, in my case, drooling over,) is an authentic Florida supper. By the way, that is my father doing the frying.

"Is Your Church Worth a Second Date?"

Hello everyone,

I came across this article called "Is Your Church Worth A Second Date"? by Rod Arnold of Smart Churches.

Let me know, do we fit well in these four areas? Feedback please???? (you can always be anonymous!)

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Step #1: Like Us

When you meet someone for the first time, you make a judgment on whether you like them. You pay attention to their personality, their sense of humor and how they interact with you. Whether we admit it or not, first impressions really are huge. We make instant decisions, often subconsciously, about whether we want to get to know that person better. In business, a "brand" is a mental image that comes to mind when someone thinks about an organization or a product. What is the mental image that comes to mind when people think of your church? Do you make a great first impression? Does it compel them to want to get to know you better? If you could paint the perfect mental picture about your church for the people in your city, what would it look like?

Step #2: Know Us

If your church makes a good first impression on someone, they will want to get to know you better. They'll want to know what you think and talk about, what's important to you and what you're passionate about.

Step #3: Trust Us

Think about the people in your life who you trust—I mean really trust. Doing a trust-fall exercise on a teambuilding retreat is great, but just because someone didn't drop you on the ground doesn't necessarily mean you're going to trust them to always have your best interest in mind.

One of the keys to developing trust is simply time. The more time we spend with people, the more we see what they are really made of. We see their character and values in action. People need time to see what your church is all about, to see if you are consistent in what you say and do, to believe that you really care about them, and to build trust.

This is especially true for many people who have been burned by church in the past. Unfortunately there are a lot of "de-churched" people out there who have been victims of church politics, gossip or disingenuous leaders. Building—or rebuilding—trust and changing their opinions about church can take some time.

Step #4: Join Us

Ultimately, your goal is for people to decide to make your church their home—to integrate into a community that loves each other, serves each other and supports each other through life's highs and lows. But getting to this decision is the result of a relationship, not a transaction. And healthy relationships are a progressive process of discovery. So what can you do from a practical standpoint to help more people get to know your church?

So? Are we doing things right? Could be doing things better? What do you think?

Pastor Gene

Happy Earth Day?

I want to be honest with you up front. I have never been very excited about Earth Day. In the past, I have always associated Earth Day with work. Whatever club or group that I was a member of would send out a flyer telling us where to meet on Earth Day where we would celebrate by picking up 50,000 cigarette butts. Happy Earth Day. Whee!!!!

A Christian environmentalist will care for creation, the creation that God has made. Not just to look at it but care about some of the things that are happening. Some of you do. Some of you are making a difference. You need to do that as a believer in Christ.

I am responsible for God’s creation. Does that include people? Yes. Children? Animals and plants? It includes everything that has to do with our purpose in God’s creation. We’re responsible from the very beginning. In Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, over all the creatures that move on the ground.” We are responsible as stewards.

And from the very beginning in Genesis 1:25 Adam and Eve carried out that responsibility. God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it.

Just look at His creation. Even things we’re familiar with. The honeybee. When one bee finds pollen it has a problem; it’s got to tell all the rest of the bees where the pollen is. They don’t talk! So the bee goes back and through an intricate dance, it shows the other bees where the pollen is to be found. It’s absolutely amazing. They make a circle and the number of circles they make shows the distance to the food source. They also show the distance by wiggling their abdomen or their bellies (belly dancer bees). The greater the distance the more slowly she wiggles. The direction of where this flower or group of flowers is, is revealed by how the bee cuts across the circle after this dance. The exact angle that the bee makes tells the bees exactly what angle to take from the sun.

The creation that’s around us is something to be fought for. It’s something that you and I need to stand up, as believers, and say, “It’s God’s creation because it expresses who my Father is” Sometimes in all the argument about global warming and PETA and creation that point is missed. We’re talking about the who. That’s the key. Creation expresses the very character of God.

And of course, when you meet outdoors each and every Sunday, it is not too hard to make the connection between creation, creator and worship!

New Message Series -- Hitting the Reset Button

You know, I was thinking about these old commercials they used to do years ago. I think initially it was for a laundry detergent, where if a company really believed in what they were selling, they would actually offer a challenge. They would come up to folks, generally women in those days, and take whatever laundry detergent was in their grocery cart out of the cart and then put their brand in and say

"We're going to give you a challenge. For a limited period of time we want you to test our product. We want you to try things our way. We know there's a resistance. Maybe you're afraid. Maybe you're kind of stuck in a rut, so don't take our word for it. Think about this as kind of an experiment. You try this yourself. You judge the results. You decide, and if you do this, your life is going to be different. Your laundry is going to be better. Your whites are going to be whiter. Your reds will be redder. Your blues will be bluer. You will smell better. People will want to date you more. It will change your life."

Then this idea, kind of, spread, and not just for Tide. I was online earlier this week and they have all kinds of these challenges. There is a Purina 30-day challenge…switch your cat's food for 30 days and see if your cat is not happier. Quaker Oats 30-day challenge…switch breakfasts for 30 days, and see if your cholesterol doesn't go down and you're not happier. One organization online has the husband 30-day challenge…which I guess is, you know, switch husbands for 30 days and see if your marriage doesn't work better or something.

So today we want to offer you a 30 day challenge. These past six months have been rough. I was trying to think of a great theme song for this series and this one song would not leave my brain…from the BeeGees…Ah Ah Ah Ah staying alive, staying alive. Sing with me….for these past six months or more everyone has just been trying to stay alive. Just survive. Like we said last week you have the choice to panic or pray and most people have chosen to panic, well almost everyone. One Sunday morning, everyone in one bright, beautiful, tiny town got up early and went to the local church. Before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews and talking about their lives, their families, etc. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from evil incarnate. In a panic …Soon everyone was evacuated from the church, except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew, not moving... seemingly oblivious to the fact that God's ultimate enemy was in his presence. Now this confused Satan a bit, so he walked up to the man and said, "Don't you know who I am?" The man replied, "Yep, sure do." Satan asked, "Aren't you afraid of me?" "Nope, sure ain't," said the man. Satan was a little perturbed at this and queried, "Why aren't you afraid of me?" The man calmly replied, "Been married to your sister for over 48 years." But for most of us, we have been pushing the panic button. Well, here is what we want you to do for the next 30 days. Instead of hitting the panic button, we want you to hit the reset button.

These economic times are causing all of us to Press the “RESET” button. Not the EASY button but the RESET button. So, for the next 30 days…

RESET what is important in your life:

Time to get off the acquisition treadmill - ‘Things’ do not equal happiness. People with few worldly possession are just as happy (or happier) than people that have loads of ‘things’. He who dies with the most toys, still dies.

Instead of spending money, spend time with the people you love and the things you are passionate about.

Get back to basics. Simple is better. The less you have, the less you have to lose/worry about.

And then…

RESET your definition of security:

When you’ve lost everything you thought you had, or half of everything you thought you had, where do you turn for that sense of security? Is money really security? The ultra-wealthy guy who lost his health couldn’t buy one more day with all his money. Life is full of uncertainty; uncertainty is part of God’s plan. Our security comes from our relationship with God.

RESET what you thought your future/retirement years would be like:

They may be different than you thought, not better or worse, just different. There are opportunities in the change that we would not have considered otherwise. Grieve the loss, then start being grateful and filled with joy for what you do have. If you have friends, or family, and God, you have everything you need for a fulfilling future/retirement.

So, we will give this a 30 day free trial…things, money, jobs, and retirement. Your whites will be whiter, reds redder, smell better…all those things.

(Thanks to Valerie Pike for suggesting and researching this topic).