The change of seasons is right around the corner- didn't summer just begin? It sure seens that way. As our children get back in the swing of school, homework ,and going to bed early, some of us adults may find ourselves getting back into some old habits as well. For many of us some of these habits may not be healthy. I am so thankful for a place like COMMUNITY that has a place like Celebrate The Journey.

Epic Theatre Company (Naperville, IL) will be holding open general season auditions on Saturday, September 20th from 10:30-12:00p.m. at Community Christian Church, Yellow Box Campus, 1635 Emerson Lane, Naperville, IL 60540. Auditions will be held in the lower level, Room 4 for the 2008-2009 season which will include Let it Be Christmas, a  Beatles-themed Christmas musical, and our Epic Jr. children’s show, Jack and the Beanstalk.

I love our mission at Community -- Helping people find their way back to God.  And, I love how our Caring Hearts & Hands ministry does just that!  Through CHH we minister our Lord's compassion to people in our church family and community who are experiencing hardships.  Over and over, we've seen the glory of God as He brings people back to Him as they experience His compassion in real, tangible ways through our ministry.  I believe it's powerful to tell people about Jesus; it's even more powerful to show them Jesus!

I have to say that I am really excited about this October for COMMUNITY.  We will be releasing a newly developed DVD small group Curriculum as a part of our IGNITE strategy where it will be our goal to group all the people who come to check us out for IGNITE series WITH (Sept 13/14 - Oct 4/5) and it's gonna rock!

CCC Blue beat Alleluia Lutheran and E-Free Church of Naperville on Saturday to put them in the quarter-finals.  Their third game of the day found them up against league rivals, Naperville Church of Christ.  CCC Blue put up a good fight, but lost and now has to battle their way back for a second shot at the championship.  Thank God for double elimination!  Come on out and cheer them to victory on Saturday (8/23) at 10:30 at Frontier Park (behind Neuqua Valley HS).

We had a blast at our campus picnic. Here are some photos to prove it! 

We are trying a new approach to providing school supplies to Brady students this fall. Instead of getting a long list of supplies that you need to go out and buy and try to cram into a paper bag, all you have to do is tell us you would like to sponsor a child (or two or three) and we pre-order supply kits.  We will still sell them for a fraction of the cost to Brady parents, so the school will earn money as they have in the past.  It is our goal to get at least 300 Brady students sponsored this year!

Many of you have expressed how you are taking the challenge! What challenge you ask? Well, during week two of the OMG series, we examined why we give financially to God in our celebration services. Part of our Biblical look was in realizing how gifts of love always cost us something and the challenge is before us to give our of love and sacrifice back to our God who is given us so much. So the practical challenge is to give 10 percent for 10 weeks and see what God does in and through our lives. 

Today, we launched a great new tool on the web site: the Small Group Finder. It's never been easier to find a small group! Using this new search engine, you search our small groups database for a small group near your home and see the result on an interactive Google Map. In addition, you can filter the results by campus, category, the city where the group meets, and whether or not the group has childcare. After you've found the group you want, send the leader an email!

Join Triple Threat Mentoring in a much needed library renovation project to update East Aurora’s Beaupre Elementary School Library. The project target is to provide a better resourced, organized and more user friendly learning resource center to support after school literacy programming and academic achievement for low income students at Beaupre Elementary. We’re excited to offer this fun volunteer opportunity as part of Triple Threat’s commitment to invest in East Aurora kids in the areas of athletics, academics and arts.

The Naperville Downtown location has started a choir! This is my favorite thing in the whole world! Nothing adds more energy and enhances worship more then 30 people singing their hearts out on stage!