As I sit down to write this I am realizing that this will be my next to last of some 3,000 plus emails or blogs that I have written since 2004. As I think back upon the 20+ years that I have pastored C3, I thought it would be good to look at our history.
After pastoring in Southern California for nearly ten years I moved to Hays in 1993. Without a church to serve here, I took on a job as the general manager of a local radio station and even though I was successful in that endeavor, I missed the purposeful calling as pastor. While speaking to a group of leadership students on the subject, “Living Your Life On Purpose” I heard God speak directly to me saying, “Why are you not doing what I have purposed you to do?” In that instant, Celebration Community Church was born. The vision God gave me was to reach out to people interested in spiritual issues but who didn't think church was relevant to their daily lives.
Through what was at the time an innovative approach to doing church involving contemporary music, drama, multi-media, and practical biblical messages, a remarkable thing began to occur. People throughout the Ellis County area discovered a church that met them where they were in their spiritual lives.
Starting in a storefront with 14 people on a Thursday night in August of 1996 Celebration Community Church has grown to over 1000 adults and children attending weekly in two campuses. On December 8,1996, the first Sunday services were started at Hays High School with 93 in attendance. After 2 ½ years at Hays High School we moved to The Ellis County Fairgrounds Schenk Building setting up and taking down 250 chairs each Sunday morning for the next 2 years.
In 2001 the church bought and refurbished a 13,000 sq. ft dilapidated truck repair garage. That year a full-time church secretary Ericka Pfeifer and youth minister and Brant Rice were added to the staff. Celebration’s full and part time staff has since grown to 17 committed servants.
I proposed to my wife Debbie on New Year’s eve 2001 at the Sonic Drive In and she said yes. (We still go there every New Year’s Eve and I re-propose and by the grace of God she still says yes)
In 2004 the Celebration applied to the FCC for a low power radio station license and in 2006 began broadcasting 98.5 FM “The Truth”
In 2004 Celebration Community Church was also chosen to receive the Church Health Award by Purpose Driven Ministries. My wife Debbie and I accepted that honor in Southern California from Saddleback Church’s Rick Warren.
In 2006, needing more classroom and office space we embarked on our second capital campaign and raised over a million dollars to add an additional 15,000 square feet of multipurpose ministry area.
We have just completed a renovation of that 28,000 sq. feet of space to accommodate VCA (Victory Christian Academy) while building another 16,000 sq. ft. state of the art, 550 seat worship center, gathering space and coffee bar. Over 1200 adults and children worshiped in our new facilities’ Grand Opening on the weekend of September 7-8th.
In the time I served C3 we initiated an Annual Mission Auction that raises thousands of dollars each year to give away to missions and we have sent out hundreds of short term missionaries as well as over a dozen full time ministers and missionaries. Our Celebration Community Church Leadership Academy (C3LA) helps adult students discover their place in the body of Christ.
In my time here in Hays I have also had the opportunity to teach in the Leadership Studies Department at FHSU and write a weekly article on Leadership for 3 years for the Hays Daily News. For 19 years I served as the chaplain for the Tigers Men’s football and Basketball teams. It has also been my pleasure and privilege to have been the President of the Ellis County Ministerial Alliance where each year C3 collects groceries and feeds over 700 people each year at a Thanksgiving Day Feast. In my time as ECMA’s President we also began a joint venture with The Hays Daily News called ONE magazine which continues to this day.
After 21 years of attempting to follow the call God put on my heart to do what He has purposed me to do, I will be retiring from C3 at the end of October 2017 and moving to Ellijay Georgia, where Debbie and I can be closer to our four grandchildren.
Teaching Pastor Brant Rice will become the new Senior Pastor aided by Systems Pastor Derek Mayfield and a tremendous group of committed staff and volunteers of whom all but one of them started as a first-time guest at C3.
I am so proud to the accomplishments we as a church have made in our time together as partners in the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ.
As I have written in each one those previous 3,000 plus emails / blogs,
I sign off the way I always have….
Your pastor and partner in ministry,
Kyle
P.S.
Next week in my last blog I will share what I believe God is leading Debbie and I to do as well as giving a challenge to C3 for its future. PK
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