Thursday, August 25, 2011

Clovis is the place to be- don't you agree???



Hats off to you Clovis volunteers. You have all done a tremendous job at loving and caring for people that have been coming through our doors. Whether you are setting up a classroom or offering a hot cup of coffee, remember that the hundreds of lives that we are seeing saved and changed is because of YOU. You may not be preachin' up a storm every weekend but by adding your piece to the puzzle we are witnessing God save a city. Thank you!


The bus is moving so make sure you don't get left behind! Here are some events and dates to mark down:


Let's be honest, everyone needs a little "pick me up" in the middle of the week. You may have resorted to Starbucks to fill this need by overindulging yourself with 8 pumps of espresso but how about giving our Men's and Women's ministries a shot! On Wednesday nights, From 7pm to 8:30pm at the Clovis Campus, we will be cramming your little belly so full of spiritual espresso that you won't need to waste $10 on a cup of coffee! These workshops (Men's and Wordworks) will be kicking off on September 7th along with our Jr. High workshops. Don't worry about finding a babysitter either, we have the best children's classes around so that you can focus on building a better you. Help us get the word out, it's going to be awesome!


Cannon Ball!!! Celebration has been known to throw down some mean pool parties and you are officially invited to our next one! Ok, it's not a real pool party but at least at this one you won't have to see your great Uncle Bob's hairy belly.... you're welcome. The pool parties that we have at Celebration involve baptizing tons of people and watching God instantly transform their lives! Come support those who are being baptized next Wednesday night and I can bet you a shiny penny that God will change your life too as you take part in one of the most powerful services Celebration has to offer. 


Unless you are planning to give birth between the hours of 6pm to 8:30pm on Sunday, September 4th you are REQUIRED to be apart of our Sunday night service. Well I can't force you to come but word on the street is Glen Bertou will be bringing the heat so if your ready for an awesome service make sure to get your booty there! 


Inviting people to church is a good thing to do, would you say so yourself? You might not get a trophy at the end of your life acknowledging the fact that you told people about God and pointed them to Christ but when your bones are in the dirt and your spirit is in Heaven, brother that's all that's gonna matter! We want eternity to go well for you so we've got the perfect chance for you to get involved. Next Thursday night, at 6:30pm, we will be meeting at Clovis to pass out Invite Cards to the surrounding area. Coming together as a team we can accomplish great things and advance the Kingdom of God in the City of Clovis, so if you think you've got what it takes we'll see you Thursday on the Battlefield! (aka Clovis Campus) 


Lastly, lets go into this weekend with a focus and a determination that we've never had before. Let's allow our faith in God to go through the roof as we believe for our building to be full of lost souls, hurting people, and nationalities of every kind. We've got a assignment to reach a city and it's not just Pastor Randy's job to get them to Christ, YOU have been chosen and appointed by God to be at the job your at and in the neighborhood you're in to further His cause. Don't quit now, we've just begun to see our best days yet! 


***Check out this blog post by Matthew Barnett- it'll rock your world! 



I Think I’m Going To Quit

People ask me the question all the time, have you ever thought of quitting? I can answer that question in 0.2 seconds with a YES! The first five years of being a pastor, I wanted to quit every morning, afternoon, and evening. In fact, several times, I did get in my car at 10 pm at night and head back home to my mega church in Phoenix down the 10 freeway from Los Angeles. In the midst of this confession, I have found that the desire to quit is confirmation of the calling. Look at the Bible, ever story that we rejoice over is usually the story of someone who faced an unbearable desire to want to quit. The attacks were sometimes armies that were so big it discouraged a prophet. Other times, it was something so simple like a threat from Jezebel that sent Elijah under the broom tree. Life is funny, sometimes we don’t understand the factors that set us off but if we are honest, we will all say that more than once we’ve wanted to quit.
But hold on! Wanting to quit is not a bad thing! Wanting to quit is actually a sign of success because it means that you have something to quit. The fact that you want to quit means that you have something of value that is worthy of being attacked. One thing I’ve learned, EVERY TIME YOU OVERCOME THE DESIRE TO QUIT YOU WALK IN A GREAT LEVEL OF GOD’S ANOINTING. In other words, the greater the desire to quit, usually the greater reward on the other side. I have found that most of the time they go hand in hand. That’s why we have to learn to rejoice when faced with the desire to quit. Are you kidding me? Rejoice? When I want to quit? Absolutely! The Bible is full of the most explosive miracles that came right after someone was faced with a tremendous desire to throw in the towel. Our God is so great that even when we do throw in the towel he always hands us another one.
There are some victories and miracles that only come by crashing through these quitting points. Most miracles are not a product of ONE BIG THING that happened to us but a lot of twenty-four hour victories of just holding on long enough to see the blessing. I encourage you that the next time quitting becomes an option, and it will, think about the reward on the other side of blasting through that feeling and trusting in the long term blessings of being faithful. When it’s all said and done, our Lord will say to us, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” The faithful servant looks quit in the eye, sees the blessing on the other side, and just keeps going.





Tuesday, August 16, 2011


Hello Clovis Owners! I hope all of you had a great Monday. This staff is believing that lions are getting slaughtered this week in your life...those issues and things that have been roaring at you, trying to instill fear are getting KILLED THIS WEEK! If you missed our services this weekend because you were out of town (many of you were) YOU MUST download the message on podcast or get the CD! It will definitely encourage you!

I came across this yesterday on Perry Noble's Leadership Blog and I thought it would be very helpful for all of us. Check it out:



                                           Two False Assumptions We Cannot Make!


#1 – That People Know They Can Come To Church

In my personal conversations with unchurched people there are SO MANY of them who think they cannot come to church…they think their lives are so messed up that the church would reject them (and…some of them actually have stories of that happening.)
They don’t know!!! We have GOT to stop assuming that unchurched people know about our church and they will feel welcomed the minute they walk in…going to a church for the first time is HIGHLY uncomfortable…and so rather than work through that many simply choose to not go. It doesn’t mean they are bad people…it just means they just don’t think they can go to church.
So…we’ve GOT to embrace this and purposefully invite people…personally…eye to eye!!!


#2 – That People Know That Jesus Died For Their Sins

So many people (ESP on the west coast) have NEVER heard the Gospel! We cannot assume that people know the message…even if they grew up in church. We’ve GOT to be intentional about not making assumptions…Matthew 7:21-23 tells us about people who were “good people” but never embraced Christ! (AND…before you get mad…those are the very words of Jesus!)
So NewSpring…it begins today (if it hasn’t began already)…let’s do EVERYTHING we can to get people to church this weekend!


Clovis Leaders, let's rise to the challenge of inviting people and make Jesus famous in this city! Our number one responsibility as believers is to "seek and save those who are lost!" Let's be bold. If we all do our part in the "Invite Challenge" we launched 2 wks ago then we have almost 500 invitations go out every week! That is powerful, BUT it's only powerful if WE ALL DO OUR PART. So let's all do our part. We want to hear your stories of inviting people, so post them on Celebrations Facebook or on Twitter @Celebration_C and let's be an unstoppable force of soul winners in this valley!

We Love You All!
Lance & Clovis Staff

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

"Sundaes on Sunday" RECAP

Hello Clovis "OWNERS"!

We hope your week is going well so far! We want to say THANK YOU to all of you that came out to "Sundaes on Sunday" Volunteer Gathering. We had a good time, got some vision, welcomed SE volunteers to Clovis, played a game and ate some ice cream sundaes! If you missed it, you definitely missed out!! Well, we wanted to make sure everyone is caught up to speed and that we're keeping the vision in front of us, so here's a little recap:


** See ourselves correctly. Each and every one of us are a valuable part of this body/team. Regardless of what role we play, we need each other to play our part to do what God is calling us to do.

** We challenged ALL OF US to be "OWNERS" of our campus, to develop an OWNERSHIP MENTALITY. The difference between a member and an owner: members have rights, owners have responsibilities. If we all take on the mindset that it's OUR RESPONSIBILITY, as OWNERS, to make this campus the very best it can be, we will take Clovis to another level of effectiveness in winning our city!

** The 3 BIG "B's" that will make us BETTER!

1) BIG Prayers & BIG Faith
- Reach over 500 more souls in Clovis the remainder of this year!
- Declare our campus is FULL. EVERY seat FULL, EVERY classroom FULL, FULL of teenagers, etc.
- 50% Tithers & a strong healthy base of Volunteers (500 by 09/01 & 600 by 01/01/12)
- BIG, IMPACTFUL Outreaches
- SIGNS, WONDERS & MIRACLES
2) BOLD INVITATIONS
- Don't give up on anyone
- Our greatest opportunity for outreach every week is our weekend service, INVITE Unsaved!
- INVITE CARD CHALLENGE! 1 card/wk/person= 400+/wk= 1600+/mnth= 8000+ by Jan. 1st
3) BUILD COMMUNITY
- Create "small church community" within our "big church campus"
- Participate in church events/outreaches BUT don't wait for "church events" to get together
- Have BBQ's, get together, have park-days, join sports leagues with our church family, etc.
- Get new people connected to our body through community
- Enjoy life together! Acts 2:42-47 is great example of the bi-product of community.

** 3 Things this staff is promising to do for you!

1) BIG PRAYERS & BIG FAITH for your personal life! Our campus staff is determined to see God's blessing and promises manifest in your families! We will fight for you!!
2) We will fight to properly resource you to the best of our ability to ensure that you are the most effective you can be in your role or duty. Properly trained, properly equipped and properly empowered to do the work of the ministry.
3) We will make sure we HAVE FUN advancing God's Kingdom together!

** Believe in what this ministry is doing by getting involved yourself and by being great "marketers" of what we have going on. We will do better at communicating information (through this blog and other tools) and as "OWNERS" we all need to help market what we are doing to get the regular church attenders to get involved.

* Hot Items of Info:
- Back Pack Outreach (see previous video on blog posts or events & outreaches table)
- Celebration Exposed: Monthly event for new families/people. Great opportunity for newer people to meet the staff and find a place for them at our campus. Direct them to Guest Services to signup.
- WW/Men's Workshop starting on Wednesday Nights in Sept! They will be 6wk long sessions and they WILL NOT want to be missed.

Thanks again, EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU, for having passionate hearts to serve God's house and for your commitment to rally behind the vision of this campus to make great impact in our community! We love you!

Lance & Clovis Staff