Celebrate! Family Church

Experiencing a service at Celebrate! Family Church may be different from what you are used to.  It might be helpful if we explained a little of what happens here. First, we're not a very religious group.  If you are used to a lot of pomp and ceremony, we don't have much.  Our worship is not based on performance but participation.  We like to get everybody involved to the level they feel comfortable.

Secondly we're excited about God, Jesus and the Bible.  We express that excitement much the same way people do when they are excited about anything.  We clap our hands, sing enthusiastically, shout and even occasionally jump up and down.  It's kind of like visiting a sports game with a big fan of the winning team.  When their team scores, pandemonium breaks loose.  If you are not a big fan it can seem like people are getting too excited over just a game.  Well, we're big God fans here and when you first visit we can seem a little excited, too.

Thirdly we seriously believe that God's presence can visit us during our service.  That makes worship very personal.  People will look like they're really feeling something and they are.  Sometimes they will lift their faces or hands up to the Lord in adoration.  Often many people will begin singing spontaneous songs to the Lord in English or another language that God gives them.  Each will sing their own song but it will all blend together into a beautiful harmony.  Occasionally a person will sense a special encouragement from the Lord that they feel to share with the whole church.  They will just speak it out loud at an appropriate moment.  It's great to see so many people involved.  All this can seem confusing at first but often things we aren't familiar with can seem confusing.  After you visit two or three times the order of it all will be apparent to you.

Lastly we're a Bible-centered church.  All of these various forms of worship we've described are in the Bible.  If you're interested in checking out for yourself what the Bible says about worship, here are some good scriptures to start with: I Timothy 2:8; Psalm 47:1; 150:4; I Corinthians 14.

If what you see and hear in our service is a new experience for you, we hope you will not feel awkward.  We want to help you understand this unfamiliar experience and we also want you to know that we have a place for you... just as you are.

Our Story

A rich past ... An exciting future

We trace our beginnings to a small group started by Mr. Thomas Nelson in a home in Mt. Morris in 1974. The fledgling family of God soon grew, meeting at a local funeral home. In 1979, as Community Gospel Church, we purchased our first church building, our home for the next 17 years. We became affiliated with Elim Gospel Church of Lima in 1990, taking the name Elim Gospel Church of Mt. Morris. Mr. John Scorsone of the Lima church was invited to pastor the Mt. Morris congregation, and the church continued to grow and prosper. Two years later, in May of 1992, Pastor John was promoted into the presence of the Lord, and Eric Scott was invited to lead the church.  Pastor Eric and his wife Deby have now overseen over a decade and a half of grounding and growth in the church.

As the church continued to grow, it moved to a new location on Main Street, Mt. Morris in 1996, its home for the next 11 years.  And in 2007, the church moved to its current location in Leicester (formerly Peter’s Party Complex), and took the new name of Celebrate! Family Church.

"Live Life... Give Love... Share the Lord!" is our motto, and we take seriously our mission to provide the hope of Jesus Christ to this generation by growing Christ’s followers. We pursue the task of nurturing lasting change in His believers, so that they can take the Word out and impact the world.

We rejoice to see that impact affect people not only in Leicester, but as far away as Rochester, Mexico, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. The support of established missions ministries and participation in short-term missions efforts is very important to us because a commitment to the Great Commission is central to who we are at Celebrate! Family Church.

We believe it is essential to make Christ real to this generation by focusing much of our energy on vibrant, life-impacting, Bible-based, application-centered programming for teens and young children. Community outreaches, as well as offering van pickup for Sunday services and special events, have been successful means of reaching kids and youth, enabling them to take part in our dynamic programming. All who attend our Sunday worship services enjoy a contemporary and relaxed style. The Holy Spirit continually moves in these services in fresh and powerful ways through healing a prophecy. The preaching of the Word of God at Celebrate! Family Church places a strong emphasis on faith, and Pastor Eric is well-known for his very down-to-earth approach. Special community healing services, as well as excellent guest speakers such as Dr. Mike Brown, Dennis Cramer, and Dr. Leon van Rooyen, often usher in a fresh touch from God.

Our church family enjoys continual interaction and growth outside the church walls through Bible study and fellowship groups like Men of Honor, Creative Women, and Twenties and Thirties (TNT), or through church picnics and various fellowship events. Every person in the church is given many opportunities to put their gifts to work in ministry. Each Thanksgiving we work with other community churches to feed over 200 hot meals to the needy and shut-in families of the area. At Christmas time our folks bless the elderly at the local nursing facility through caroling and prayer. And when someone in the church is in need, the rest of the body rushes in to address the concern. These are tremendous chances for the gifts of the body to be mobilized and used.