Celebration Sunday 2024
What have you celebrated this year? Has there been a big birthday? A big anniversary? A new job or completion of a project? Finished school or uni? Perhaps you have celebrated just getting through - life can be hard and it’s always worth noticing when we overcome something significant.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Whitney Johnson wrote of the importance of celebrating events in a way that encompasses complex emotions including solemnity and poignancy, as well as pleasure and joy. She said,
“Celebrating even small wins stimulates dopamine release in the brain, a feel-good chemical that reinforces the learning experience and strengthens our sense of connection to others.”
It’s been a big year for Nicky and I as we arrived at 30 years of marriage. We had a weekend away with our kids to take a moment to pause, reflect, and celebrate. In some workplaces, Friday afternoon drinks used to serve this function. In some families, Christmas Day or Boxing Day is used as an opportunity to share together about the good things the year has brought. But life can get so busy that we rarely feel like we have time to take deliberate opportunities to pause, reflect, and celebrate. Of course, when you do, you are the better for it - you notice what is going on around you, you see your part in it, and thankfulness grows in your heart.
This is what Celebration Sunday is all about. We are going to pause, reflect upon, and celebrate the work of God in our midst. The gospel has been preached in church and in families and we are going to pause and celebrate the work that God has been doing in the lives of young and old this Sunday. It will be a chance for you to see the significant things that have been going on at church, to see your part in them, and to have thankfulness to God grow in your heart.
Did you know that at least 20 people have become Christians through the ministry of our church this year? Did you know that about that number of Year 11’s are ready to either be confirmed or baptised, having come to a moment in life when they are ready to declare that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour?
These things are worthy of celebrating - and we are going to do it BIG this Sunday 17th November!
We are combining our two morning services into one starting at 9.45am. We will hear the Word preached, we will hear testimonies of the goodness of God, we will hear people publicly profess their faith, and we will see people baptised into that same faith. It is going to be awesome. And Night Church is not missing out.
We will be holding our Confirmation Service at 4pm which will include baptisms and Night Church straight after will also include baptisms and public professions of faith. Again, the Word will be preached and Christ will be exalted through the testimony of new believers as they publicly testify to their faith.
What a day this is going to be. So, spread the word. This Sunday is going to be an incredible day in the life of our church. We are going to pause, reflect. and celebrate the incredible work of God among us this year. I am excited and prayerful and hope you will be too!
