Celebration Church

I love this church, what can I say? I drive an hour and 15 minutes (one way) to attend so that alone says a church alive is worth the drive! The Word is amazing, worship is as well, and the people are amazing! I now serve here because I love it so much! If you’re in the area (or not), come visit and you’ll love it too!

The message was “Hidden in Plain Sight “ It was good to be home and to take time to have and experience in our growth of being believers. Look forward to Tim coming back to Union Church in Maryland .

Celebration Church was the final church I attended in Jacksonville before heading back home to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and what a great church to end that season with. If I had known it was only about 19 minutes away, there would have been many Sundays where I would have split my time between Celebration and the Church of Eleven22 campuses. The worship music was incredible. In my opinion, very few churches have compared to the energy I experienced at 2819, but Celebration came close. It felt like a full-fledged concert for Christ from beginning to end. The worship was alive, powerful, and full of passion. I had seen Pastor Tim Timberlake on Instagram and watched some of his reels before attending. I already knew he spoke well, but hearing him in person was different. He preaches with passion, boldness, and volume. He is not timid about the Word, and he does not seem concerned with people’s opinions. I appreciated when he said, “Don’t ask me, go to the Word. Don’t believe what I say.” That is the kind of preaching people need — bold, biblical, and pointing people back to Scripture instead of personality. The people were also great. While I was sitting with my service dog, a lady named Frenchy came over, sat down, and asked if she could join me at the table. Of course, I said yes. Frenchy, shout out to you and your son. You were both great people. In a time when I needed fellowship, camaraderie, and simple human kindness, you listened, were polite, and made me feel welcomed. There was also a man whose name I cannot remember, but he wore a cowboy hat. He brought me coffee and helped seat me in a place that was convenient for me and my service dog. He was also an Army veteran, and I appreciated the brotherhood and hospitality. Thank you, bro. Celebration Church left a strong impression on me. Great worship, great preaching, great people, and real hospitality. I cannot wait to come back into town, hopefully with friends or family, and introduce them to the people and church we talked about. Keep preaching the Word.

I decided to visit this church during a time when I was trying to reconnect with my faith after having drifted away for a while. At first, I appreciated how digestible everything felt, it’s definitely an easy place for newcomers to step into without feeling overwhelmed. However, when I made the decision to pursue baptism, I was surprised by how informal and unstructured the process felt. It seemed like something you could simply sign up for and complete after a service and then drive home without much guidance, preparation, or spiritual authority. For me, this was a deeply significant step, and I found myself longing for more direction, tradition, and spiritual grounding. Over time, I also found it difficult to connect with the overall tone of the services, especially the sermons. They often felt crafted more around relatability, humor, and keeping the audience engaged than around reverence or a deep, scripture centered message. The frequent jokes and casual tone made it harder for me to experience the sense of sacredness and reflection that I personally believe church calls for. I guess I was hoping for something more rooted in tradition and exploration of the more challenging aspects of faith. Most of the sermons are just the pastor telling you what you can do to receive bigger blessings, which I do not believe is the fullness of the church. The use of pop style music, teleprompters, and the overall presentation style further contributed to this feeling that the church is more focused on optics than reverence. Instead of being drawn into a space of reverence and contemplation, I often felt like I was attending something designed more to entertain an audience than to spiritually ground us. Ultimately, I realized I was looking for a more structured and deeply rooted expression of faith. This led me to return to the Catholicism, where I feel a stronger sense of tradition, guidance, and reverence in worship. I truly believe this church may be a great fit for those who are new to faith, but ultimately there is really no spiritual authority held at this facility and if you plans to grow in your faith, I would use this church as a steppingstone to do so.