by Dennis Dalman
Celebration Lutheran Church was transformed into a dazzling otherworldly dimension in early June with all of its rooms brimming with stars, planets, rockets, shining foil and even a floating astronaut.
The occasion for the ambitious and vividly imaginative displays was the annual Vacation Bible School for children, which took place from June 5-8. The theme of this year’s Bible School was “Stellar Shine Jesus’ Light.”
It took students and adults hundreds of hours to create and put together the jaw-dropping “out of this world” displays, with leadership from Nicole Oftedahl, who is the church’s primary youth and family director for children; and from Chris Garman, office manager. Many others, too, helped make the program a success.
Young participants eagerly launched into a fun learning adventure at the event, with Bible stories and lessons interwoven with the fun activities. Several times the children launched into songs in the church’s large sanctuary, dancing as they sang. They even had a surprise landing by an astronaut named Mickey (an appearance by Katrina Bahen, the church’s assistant part-time youth director for grades 6-8). The activities, all suffused with Bible lessons, included music, drama, science experiments and art works. They also played high-energy games like Mission Control and Pool Noodle Feudal.
The children were divided up into “crews” led by older student crew leaders. For four days, there was a morning session (9-11:30 a.m.) and a night session (6-8 p.m.), with students enrolled in one or the other of those sessions.
Each day or evening, all the student crews got together for lunch snacks that connected with a particular day’s key Bible verse.
Celebration Lutheran Church was chartered in Sartell in 1983 and has grown by leaps and bounds since then. The first church was located at 931 Fifth Ave. N., which opened for services in 1986. By 1987, baptized membership surpassed 500 congregants under the leadership of Pastor Paul Birkeland. That church was expanded starting in 1991.
In 1999, the church purchased a 20-acre lot by the Morningside neighborhood in north Sartell. After the new church was built, its first worship service took place on Aug. 3, 2008. Its current lead pastor is Jeff Sackett. There are now more than 2,500 members of Celebration Lutheran Church. The church offers both in-person and online worship services.
Its stated purpose is to “activate each of us so more people know the way of Jesus and discover community, justice and love.” Celebration’s vision is to facilitate “a world experiencing the difference God’s grace and love in Christ make for all people and creation.”
The church, which is very community-connective, offers wide-ranging, comprehensive mission programs and activities for youth and encourages diversity among its membership.
Celebration Lutheran Church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
A “Stellar” astronaut named Mickey (Katrina Bahen) makes contact via phone with a group of little astronauts at Celebration Lutheran Church’s “Stellar Shine Jesus’ Light.” The four-day event, a Vacation Bible School, took place June 5-8 at that church in Sartell.
Young children and teenagers gathered at the Sanctuary in Celebration Lutheran Church before organizing into “crews” (learning groups). The older children, those wearing yellow T-shirts supervised and taught the little ones fun activities and lessons from The Bible.
The stage in the Sanctuary of Celebration Lutheran Church was decorated with whimsical “out-space-themed” objects, including two rockets that together state “Jesus’s Light.” The event was elaborately planned and decorated for the church’s four-day Vacation Bible Study.
A rocket greeted guests to Celebration Lutheran Church’s Vacation Bible Study event June 5-8. Note the cotton “clouds” that the rocket had just burst through.
An astronaut floats weightlessly above the entrance of Celebration Lutheran Church.
Children at Celebration Lutheran Church made dozens of these lunchtime rocketry items by painting pop bottles silver and adding festoons of colored cloth to symbolize the flames of a takeoff.
