Celebration Church

Yesterday was my last day at Celebration Church as an employee. In the process of my leaving I wrote the staff a letter just to let them know how much I appreciated working with them...I have copied and pasted it in here, because I think they deserve recognition of their awesomeness to others as well.

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Celebration Staff,

As you know this is my last week working here. Therefore, I just wanted to take the time to write an email to you all letting you know how thankful I am to have been given the opportunity to work at Celebration. Let me start at the beginning... :)

Chase and I, when we first moved here, had a real difficult time finding a church that seemed to actively love God and love people more than the comfort and security of the predictable/traditional/

complacent religion of Christianity. We literally looked every weekend for about 8 months ~ ironically Celebration was the first church we actually "tried out." As time passed I remember us getting extremely discouraged and frustrated with the whole scene -- because this is NEW ORLEANS!...it needs JESUS! and so many that lived here didn't seem to recognize the great gift they had been given through being able to live in this city. The gift of telling others about Him and creating God sized change in the lives of those around them.

In any case, we found ourselves coming back to Celebration every other weekend, or coming on Saturday nights while still checking out others on Sundays (that should have told us something!). One Sunday we were back at Celebration and both of us all throughout the service just sensed the peace of God and basically heard Him tell us this is where we were to stay and serve until He says otherwise. This was a church of diversity, of action, of loving God and loving people for the sake of His glory, and of opportunities to get plugged in. So we had found a church home!

Eventually we got plugged into leading LG's and I began working with the Hope Center as part of my internship. I began working here as a part-timer last year and to be honest I was a bit hesitant about it all because I was afraid that working so closely with the staff would make me see parts of the church that could be hidden from me if I were simply another person in the congregation. Parts that I didn't want to see were lack of quality or integrity or holding the name of Christ to the highest despite the rush/struggles of the days events. However, the opposite was true...

From day one, you each welcomed me, each seemed to live what you worshiped on the weekends, were individuals of quality, protected and proclaimed the name of Christ in the midst of struggles and difficulties, faithfully assumed He would come through when needed, consistently prayed for one another as well as the Celebration congregation and had such an integrity about you -- such that I have never seen before from any other complete group of individuals. I have been blessed to work here and to be a part of a team that truly loves God and believes He is who He says He is. You guys rock!

All that to say, Celebration Church is our church for good...we love it here, we love inviting people to come here (although typically they've heard about Celebration before from some other member!), and we love that God brought us to New Orleans so we could serve with you.

~ Megan

thoughts on the beach

Chase and I went to the beach this past Saturday...

~ The Element's inaugural trip to the beach
~ Sunshine was MIA for a couple of hours, but the day turned out really nice
~ Too many women wearing bathing suits too small for them
~ I got pooped on by a bird
~ A man next to Chase in the bathroom was eating a sandwich while using the urinal
~ Guy in a beer can suit walking around getting high fives from people he doesn't even know ... yeah that's cool
~ Tons of Alabama fans
~ Water is cool and refreshing
~ Saw a dude with arms crossed, not even concerned about holding the handlebars of his motorcycle, flying down I-10
~ Chick-fil-a ... awesome.
~ Didn't get burned, rather "lightly toasted"

what does the Artist see?

Last night Chase and I went to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. We went to their After Hours event, which is held every Thursday night from 6pm-8pm. During this time a local band plays in the main lobby, people can either sit and listen, or walk through the museum enjoying the art exhibits while hearing music all throughout the building.
The reason we decided to go is because our friend Elise interns there as a part of her Masters degree. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Art Administration from the University of New Orleans. We wanted to support her and show her that what she's interested in is important to us.
In any case, it was an awesome experience. When I was younger I can remember going to museums and not being able to wait to get out of them! But last night was just fun. To be able to see all the various depictions of the south; from slavery, to religion (Jesus, Elvis, and Robert E. Lee), to 1950s-60s architecture (the one legged Tulip Chair), to beautiful landscapes of wide open spaces...it was all just sort of consuming. Consuming in the sense that Chase and I spent two hours in the Ogden simply looking quietly at images on the various canvases, not realizing two hours had even passed. Art has a way of making me slow down and take everything in.
What was amazing to me were the different titles given to each piece of art. Looking at the image created on canvas, or through sculpture, I could guess what the artist wanted to get across to his/her viewers, however not until I read the title did I gain a deeper insight into what the artist truly intended to convey. To read the title, and then look back at the image, brought the image to life all the more as well as provided me with a chance to see through the artist's eyes. I could know only so much about the image before me, until I read the name given to it by the artist. I could make all the assumptions I wanted about the art, but until I read the title I couldn't know for sure if what I was perceiving was the point the artist wanted to make. (even still some of the titles left me a bit unsure.)
The same is true about us as individuals. Undoubtedly all we have to do is look around and notice that every individual is a walking piece of art. We can perceive all we want, assume all we want about others... even about ourselves, but until we get to know the person (or ourselves) we cannot truly understand where someone is coming from. There is an Artist that has given each one of us a specific title to convey a specific purpose, and until we take the time to be still, respect the Artist enough to try and see through His eyes, and discover the "title" all we will end up doing is assuming -- and quite possibly assuming incorrectly. What is truly amazing is that we do not have to stop at the artistic creation, but we also have the ability to form a relationship with the Artist. A relationship which enables us to question and wonder and go deeper into the heart of the Artist. In doing so He reveals His purposes, which in turn causes our perceptions to change, our assumptions to give way to knowledge, and our world views to become altered.