“It’s going to be a packed house tonight,” a friend whispered to me. That was evident from the moment we turned on to Research Forest Drive, home of Celebration Church of The Woodlands, Texas.
It was hours before the Friday evening service started, and the parking lot was full. The lobby was full of laughter; in the distance you could hear the worship team putting the final touches on a rehearsal.
The line was reminiscent of other revival atmospheres, like Toronto or Brownsville, people waiting to get a “good seat.”
While Pastors Frankie and Allie Mazzapica were on staff at Lakewood Church with Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen, the Mazzapicas were divinely inspired to start a Spirit-filled church in The Woodlands. The church saw a lot of success early and moved facilities several times during the first five years to adjust for growth. Eventually they were able to purchase land and build a facility of their own. However, Frankie still had an insatiable desire to see more.
Although he had a Pentecostal background and believed in the gifts of the Spirit and healing, he was not seeing it actively take place at Celebration Church. Everything changed for Frankie when he scheduled a meeting in West Virginia with Randy Clark. Frankie was specifically looking for “signs of anyone with an endowment of power on their life.”
Through mentorship from Clark and traveling to Brazil with Global Awakening, Frankie and Celebration Church have never been the same.
In every worship experience for the past 36 months, Frankie and Celebration encounter signs, wonders and miracles. Many times there are multiple people healed every weekend. One adjustment Frankie has made to embrace how the Holy Spirit is moving at Celebration Church is shortening his sermon length from around 35-40 minutes to 20 minutes or so. Because they are a growing church and have multiple services, this enables them to have more time to go for miracles, healing and deliverance.
“It’s kind of an aggressive shift. But our church has only grown and at a much faster pace than we have ever grown before,” he says, reflecting on everything God is doing in his church.
Last weekend, Clark led three services at Celebration. One focused on healing, another had a Q&A discipleship course and another was an impartation service.
The Friday night healing services began with an amazing uplifting time of worship. The worship team is uber talented, including finalists from The Voice, with each member capable of having their own quite successful careers.
Celebration Church lived up to his name. As worship concluded, Frankie led the congregation in a standing ovation for God that lasted well over a minute. The presence of God was palpable.
Clark told several stories of amazing healing he has seen over the years. He began to call out words of knowledge and dozens of people encountered the miracle working power of God.
He then asked any person in the congregation who had been on an overseas equipping trip to Brazil with him to join him on the stage to give words of knowledge. Over 50 people made their way to the stage, and it was easy to recognize that is one of the major catalysts for this environment: so many lay people equipped in the gifts.
Hours later, people were still in line receiving healing prayer. Volunteers tasked with keeping track had no way to measure how God was moving in The Woodlands.
Saturday night’s service lasted even longer, with lines of people waiting to receive impartation, healing and deliverance lasting until midnight.
After Clark returned home early Sunday morning, it was interesting to gauge if the atmosphere would be the same as it was the previous two days. Each of the multiple services that morning at Celebration Church led by Frankie was as potent as the previous three by Clark. {eoa}
Tyler Feller is a freelance writer for Charisma News.
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