A Challenge from Elder Betty Rickman

As I mentioned in my last post, life changing words are always going forth at COLC. At the beginning of this year, Pastor Yolanda said, “Declare Faith and Favor of God.” I’ve been standing on this word and praying for a car for my niece, who is in college. The faith and the favor of God allowed me to purchase my own home as a single woman in Christ and the stability to celebrate 20 years with my current employer. On March 10th, through declaring Faith and Favor, my sister and I were able to purchase my niece a new car! God is so good! Check it out!

My favorite scripture is one Pastor Morgan has quoted often recently.

Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and He will act. - Psalms 37:4-5

As Pastor Morgan has explained to us, the word "delight" means “pliable to God’s word." In other words, when you are flexible or adjustable to His will, not yours, specific requests are heard and brought into fruition.

I challenge you to commit yourself and stand with me to declare Faith and Favor over our lives, while reading this scripture daily, to see the blessings of God’s work in your life.

Remember - you have been challenged!!!

Elder Betty Rickman

Meet Elder Betty Rickman

I’m so excited to have this opportunity to share a little bit about myself. I’ve been an active member of Celebration of Life Church for over twelve years and words cannot express how my life has changed during that time. In 2004, Pastor preached a message on faith and how “faith keeps you from being SHOCKED.” Oh, how those words have ministered to me over the years!

I’m a true believer that the word of God that goes forth at COLC will work in your life, regardless of your status - married or single. It’s up to you how successful you want your life to be in Christ. Oh did I mention this? I’m single and sold out for Christ with no biological kids, however, there are many I take pride in providing spiritual mentorship to. This brings me to introduce the ministries I oversee as an Elder at COLC. I'll start the list with one very dear to my heart:

Singles Ministry
Wedding Contracts
Black History Month
Bulletin Boards
Service Receptionist
Words of Inspiration/Marquee
Communion

Here are a few pictures from one of our Singles events!

Before I go, I would like to invite all COLC singles out for night of fun, Friday March 30th! We will meet at Cheddars (in Hendersonville) at 7:00 pm to share appetizers and then go to Cosmic Bowling. Please bring a friend and come ready for a night of Fun, Fellowship and Laughter!

Thanks for taking time to get to know me better!
Elder Betty Rickman

A Personal Invitation for You!

I want to personally invite every woman reading this to join me tomorrow night for our first Extreme Makeover event of 2012! Why do we need a night of Extreme Makeover? Because God wants us to have an abundant life in every facet of our existence. He wants us to have peace, joy, contentment...all of it! So many people live their lives weighed down by the cares of this world because they are not turning everything over to God. If this is you - quit carrying your troubles and give them to God! Turn them loose! He is big enough to take care of all your worries and every part of your being.

I know right now in my spirit that God is taking me places this year that I've never been before because I'm experiencing things I've never experienced before. If you're expecting God to take you to a brand new place you've never been, then I will see you tomorrow night at 7 pm! Let's allow God to make us over from the inside out, so we can be mighty women of God!

Celebrating life!

Pastor Yolanda Morgan

EPIC Students April Fundraisers

April is fund-raising month for the EPIC Students! We will be raising money all month for our students to attend the Forward Conference in June. We have several amazing fundraisers coming up that you DO NOT want to miss out on! Help change the life of a student by supporting these fundraisers!
Thank you in advance,
Youth Pastors Tre' and Shawnel

Pre-order 2 Butterfly Sugar Cookies for your child's Easter basket or for a special gift. These will be specially made by Iris Tarrant and available for pick up on Easter Sunday. Deadline to order is Wednesday, April 4th. CLICK HERE to pre-order our Easter Butterfly Sugar Cookies!

You can also Pre-Order an EPIC Dessert for your Easter Dinner. Desserts are $12.00 each and will also be available for pick up on Easter. Deadline to order Desserts is Wednesday, April 4th. CLICK HERE to pre-order an EPIC Dessert!

Need help with your spring cleaning? Then don't miss the EPIC Clean Sweep Auction on Sunday, April 1st. Students will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Bids start at $50. Students will be available for work on Saturday, April 14th or Saturday, April 28th from 8:00am-12:00pm. Additional hours can be purchased for $10/hour. Money earned will be used for that student to attend the Forward Conference.


EPIC PROGRESSIVE DINNER
Get your tickets for the EPIC Progressive Dinner hosted by Debbie Hart and Angie Cabler. Dinner will be held on Saturday, April 28th at 5:00 pm. Single Tickets are $15 or $25 for a couple. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets. Thank you for supporting EPIC Students!!!

Strongholds

Sometimes we wonder why we are going through spiritual warfare but the truth is - this is when we are closest to a breakthrough. 2 Corinthians 10:3 says, "For though we walk in the flesh - we do not war in the flesh." It's not in our flesh to do things God's way. We have a propensity for disobedience - it's the inclination of our flesh. Our greatest strongholds are often from within and it takes serious warfare to conquer them.

It's not normally within us to see our own flaws. We can be so mired in our own error and reasoning that no light shines on the problems within us. Sometimes our mind is so bogged down that the truth in black and white is not even truth to us. What others can clearly see - we reason away, making excuses and justifying our actions.

So how do we conquer strongholds? Through serious prayer and completely surrendering our will to God. Also, by walking in faith - trusting that He will come through for us when we are pliable to Him. How do we know He will come through for us? Because of what He has already done in our lives! Start thanking Him today for favor on your life and for all the many blessings He has given you!

Pastor Yolanda and I are excited about what God is going to do this Sunday! Join with us as we declare revival over COLC and come expecting miracles to happen!

Celebrating life!
Pastor Joseph Morgan

"Under Cover" by John Bevere

As we told you earlier this week, we have had the great opportunity to be members of Celebration of Life Church for 12 years. Every time we hear our Pastors preach we are amazed at the revelation God gives them.

One of our ministries is "Under Cover" by John Bevere. We feel the lessons taught in this course are some of the most important lessons to be learned in the church today. We will cover these topics....

- Understand and recognize
- God-established authority
- Learn the difference between true biblical submission and obedience
- Discover the right response to unfair treatment
- Find answers to common questions about submission
- Develop a greater level of faith

God's Word teaches us that we are not only accountable to God but to the authority He establishes on earth, and all authority originates from Him!

Many people who complete the "Under Cover" program find that by applying these principles in the workplace they recieve raises and even promotions. We have seen marriages transformed, and children’s lives come into alignment with the word of God and happily serving in church.

Want a life changing experience? Come to the next UC class in April and watch God move in your life!

Meet Elders Fred and Ernie Congdon

We are Fred and Ernie Congdon. We have been married for 36 years with two children and five grandchildren. We were blessed to find Celebration of Life Church almost 13 years ago. We heard Pastor Morgan say, “Give me six months of hearing this Word and your life will never be the same.” He was so right! The Word of God that is preached and taught from this pulpit has changed our lives.

We are Elders at COLC and are committed to the following ministries in the Church:

His Hands, PIC (Political Insight for Christians), Community Involvement, Visitor Follow-up, Senior Visitation, Church Construction and Under Cover

If you want to get more involved at COLC, we would love to help you be a part of any of these ministries. Please comment below if you have any questions for us!

God bless you!
Elders Fred and Ernie Congdon

Pursuing Your Dreams

I've been speaking the past few weeks about pursuing our dreams and making 2012 our year! As we have discussed, we must be flexible, tweaking ourselves continually to the will of God. At the same time, we must be steadfast in reaching our goals. When setbacks come, we must remain resolute.

To make our dreams happen - we can't sit idly by and just hope things will fall into place - we must take action! An action on our part precedes a response from Heaven. Sometimes we think God should just move but He is waiting on us to come before Him. In our weakness - He is made strong.

Psalms 37:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart." The word "desire" here is translated as " specific petition." We petition God through the prayer of supplication - it's like a prayer with a subject line. Ephesians 6:18 says, "....praying always with all prayer and supplication, in the Spirit." So we should live in a constant state of prayer. There are times when we should pray in our own understanding and times when we should pray in the Spirit. Romans 8:26 says when we do not know what we should pray, the Spirit makes intercession for us. What a blessing!

I encourage you to be specific in your prayers and be pliable to God, staying in an active relationship with Him as he moves us to a new level this year!

Celebrating life!
Pastor Joseph Morgan

Forward Conference 2012!

Whether it was Christine Caine encouraging us to carry the baton, Carl Lentz telling us "that girl is poison," or Toby Mac singing "Tonight," there was something for everybody at last year's Forward Conference.

We encourage you to make sure your kids attend Forward Conference 2012, June 28-30. Through the powerful teaching and worship they will MOVE FORWARD and their lives will be changed!

Youth Pastors Tre' and Shawnel

Check out this video!


2012 Speakers and Musical Guests:
Jentezen Franklin
Matthew Barnett
Steven Furtick
Riggie Dabbs
Chris Tomlin
Jeremy Camp
Third Day
Israel Houghton
Free Chapel

Teaching the Value of Prayer

Prayer on Monday nights at COLC is not just for adults. We have been taking our kids, Tristen and ShayLee, and teaching them to pray. Tristen has so much faith, we have told him to pray for anything he wants and he goes in and asks God for everything from giant playgrounds to tour buses and we think it is awesome.

There's no better feeling on Earth than knowing your child has a heart for God. But let's be real...teaching your 5 year old and 2 year old to be quiet and reverent during prayer time for a full hour is not easy!!! You've probably noticed us praying with our kids for the first few minutes of prayer and then taking turns watching them. We have also connected with a few other parents and made a rotation to help with each other's kids so everyone can take turns praying!

There are always options to get done what we value in our lives. We encourage you to do the same!

Youth Pastors Tre' and Shawnel

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6