What are your objectives at Celebration Center regarding building and facilitating an active community?
We spent our first 10 years building our church. Now we are actively working on our next 10-year plan — trying to get our members more missional and out in our community, involved in city government, community organizations, etc. We have built our local church and now we want to extend our tent.
What has been the reaction from staff members who are now using The City?
Our staff loves it! It has completely changed the way our office works. Using The City took away a lot of the stress of communications from the office staff and made it so much easier to organize on the go and as things come up. For example, we have church softball teams that play in a local league. Two teams had games scheduled on Memorial Day. That morning we found out that the games were cancelled. Normally, it is not a huge deal to call 26 players, but our offices were closed that day, so we were in a bit of a panic. We posted a notification about the cancellations on The City and only one player didn’t get the message.
If a peer from another church was considering The City and asked you for your opinion, what would you say?
We have told several other churches about The City and showed them how we are using it. I would say it is way worth the investment and has changed the way our church office functions. Even our Sunday morning announcements revolve around The City. I think all churches are looking for ways to use social media — this has been a great solution for us.
About Celebration Center
With a congregation of 125, 10-year-old Celebration Center is located in the small coastal town of North Bend, Oregon. A majority of its members tend to be 30 to 40 somethings with families. The town is home to a community college and coast guard station, bringing a lot of young people through their doors on a temporary basis.