Celebration on the Lake Church

Home
United States
Payne Springs, TX
Celebration on the Lake Church

Celebration on the Lake Church is an interfaith community where persons of all faiths, all races, sexual orientations and economic circumstances.

09/07/2026

I thought we’d have some fun today with bible translations! They are many, and they have occurred over generations, by intent of the translator and by the words in common usage at the time the translation was made. This is a bit long, so grab your favorite beverage and a snack and dig in!

Here is Matthew 5, NIV (one of the translations often used by the UCC)

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount NIV:

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light

Now let’s see what it looks like in the Gen Z Version:

1. So, like, Jesus looked out and saw a bunch of people, and he was like, 'Okay, time to get my zen on.' So he went up this mountain and sat down, and his crew of disciples was like, 'Hey Jesus, what's up?'

2. So, like, he started talking and dropped some knowledge, saying,

3. Those who have a humble mindset are blessed, 'cause they got the hookup to heaven's kingdom.

4. Those who feel down vibes will be uplifted, yo: they'll find some genuine comfort in the game of life.

5. Happy are the chill ones, 'cause they'll totally score the whole planet.

6. Happy are those who crave justice and righteousness, because they will find fulfillment.

7. Those who show kindness are totally blessed, 'coz they'll definitely receive kindness back.

8. So like, those who are genuine and have like, no hidden agenda or bad vibes in their hearts, they're totally 'cause they'll get to experience the awesomeness of encountering God and stuff.

9. Those who bring peace are so epic, bro, 'cause they'll totally be known as God's squad.

10. Hella fortunate are the ones who get persecuted for doing what's right, 'cause they're the kings and queens of heaven.

11. You're lucky when people trash talk you, harass you, and spread all sorts of lies secuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Background: Gen Z was born between the years 1997 to 2012. They come after Millennials (1981–1996) and before Generation Alpha (starting in 2013). I’m not stating that this is the definitive Gen Z version—there were several websites purporting to be the Gen Z translation, so I picked this one as the most interesting of the lot!

09/06/2026

We wore our fall sports shirts at COTL today! What fun!

09/05/2026

Some churches close doors to people they deem “not worthy” of God’s love.

COTL makes sure its doors are open to all.

(These doors are found outside of Welcome Table DOC in Arlington, TX.)

09/04/2026

What will Rev. Dennis Ureche be wearing when he takes the pulpit at COTL on Sunday, 9-6-26? It's Wear Your Favorite Fall Sports Gear Day! Come join the fun!

Coffee and donuts at 9 a.m. in the fellowship hall!
Worship service at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary!

Admiring our team gear--whenever!

Visit us in person at 9120 TX-198, Payne Springs, TX!
Watch the service streamed live at https://www.youtube.com//streams (but if you choose this option, we can't admire your sports gear)!

Remember: No matter which team(s) you support, we are all on God's Team!

Note: The Allen (Texas) Americans Hockey team mascot is not expected to join us on Sunday.

09/03/2026

The first picture is butter.

The second picture is the QR code for Givebutter.

What a funny name for a donation site: Givebutter

However, this is the way you can give online to Celebration on the Lake UCC if you can’t be there in person or if you don’t trust the USPS to deliver your envelope on a timely basis. (Seriously! It took 12 days for an envelope mailed in my city to get back to my spouse at our home address, and that was 8 days after his birthday!)

Givebutter is the name of the company that runs the website that manages the online donations to COTL You can use this QR code! (If your phone is stupid, like mine, and it doesn’t like to deal with QR codes, there is another way.)

You can go to https://celebrationonthelake.com/ and scroll down to the Donate button, and we will gratefully accept whatever amount you choose to give! You can do this one time or every week!

It was easy enough for me to do it, and I’m a known technoklutz!

Yes, there is a fee associated with online giving. Sorry, but that’s the way the app pays for its expenses. There is also an “optional” 15% “tip” to GiveButter; you can opt out of this.

Donations to COTL are tax deductible—all churches are automatically awarded 501C3 status by the IRS. YAY!

Even bigger YAY—The IRS rules have changed for 2026, and you can deduct up to $1,000 if single or $2,000 if filing jointly for direct cash gifts to qualified 501(c)(3) public charities.

Help COTL make a difference by donating today!

[Maybe someday when COTL is staffing the MAGS food pantry again (probably in 2027), we will do a food raiser to get butter to donate to MAGS!]

09/02/2026

Excerpted from Nicene Creed:

“I believe in one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.”

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”

Hey! It’s Catholic (uppercase “C”) in the first version and catholic (lowercase “c”) in the second version! What gives?

Back when the Catholic church (Roman variety; we are not talking about the Eastern Orthodox Church which came about due to the East–West Schism of 1054) was THE Christian church (pre-Martin Luther and the rise of the Protestants), they used the uppercase “C” because that’s who they were and still are. (They just don’t have a monopoly on the Christian religion any longer.)

When the Protestants were looking at the wording in the Nicene Creed, they said, “HMMM. We really, really don’t like that uppercase “C,” so let’s make it a lowercase “c!”

The word catholic means “a wide variety of things; all embracing.” If someone describes their taste in food as catholic, it means they are willing to try anything. It is correctly used in both senses depending upon which denomination is reading it!

09/01/2026

Sunday, 9-6-26!
Celebration on the Lake UCC!
Wear your fall sports gear!

Fall sports seasons—professional, college, high school—are upon us!

It’s time to recognize that teamwork is important to all of us, no matter how we encounter it!

What’s your favorite team? Wear something to support it!

(Don’t feel obligated to buy something just for this! Wear what you have/can borrow from a friend!)

Strut your stuff at 9 a.m. during the coffee/donut hour, and then wear it proudly during the 10 a.m. worship service!

Even if my team is the best competition for your team, remember that we are all on God’s Team!

08/31/2026

King James and the Thees & Thous

Does your tongue ever get tangled around the thees and thous in a classic hymn or whenever you read an older version of the bible? Whatever are those thees, thous and thines for anyway?

Back when the King James team assembled to translate the Bible from Greek to English between 1604 and 1611, they used the then-common form of thee and thou because that was the way people spoke!

[Sidebar: William Shakespeare wrote from 1589 to 1613, so, of course, the King James version reads more like Shakespeare’s works than it does a modern translation!]

As English evolved, thee and thou were replaced with you and your. Somehow, however, when addressing God, thee and thou stuck as a way to show reverence toward God. Thus, in modern versions such as the ASV, the RSV, and the NASB, the 17th century pronouns are still retained when describing or addressing God.

That old-fashioned language then makes some hymns a turn-off for many believers because of the archaic sounding words. What a pity – because there are some great depth and spiritual teaching in many of the classic hymns.

We now know that we can speak to God friend to friend, using the common language we would use in our everyday talk. God cares more about the status of our heart than the words we use, and God understands every form of language!

Some of the older hymns, the ones with thee, thou, and thine have been recast into modern language, making them more accessible to people today. Purists find this not to their liking because it is unfamiliar, and sometimes other words are changed to make the cadence of the hymns work with modern language.

What to do? It’s up to you! Sing along or don’t if the hymn is not to your liking, but we know God hears it no matter which words are used!

Retrieved in part from https://karenwingate.com/king-james-thees-thous/

08/29/2026

Holy Ghost v. Holy Spirit

Both Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit were used to refer to the third person of the trinity well before the 20th century, although the former was the most common in biblical and prayer texts.

The word ghost is of Germanic origin and comes from Old English gast, meaning soul, life, breath, good or bad spirit, angel, or demon. Christian texts in Old English use gast to translate the Latin Spiritus from where we get Holy Ghost. The more modern sense of a disembodied dead person is first attested in the late 14th century but remained quite rare. In modern English, the word gast sneaked into the word aghast, which means "to be terrified, shocked, or rendered breathless." The related German word Geist, which means both spirit and ghost, has occasionally found its way into English in words such as poltergeist.

Spirit comes to English from Latin through French and also means souls, courage, vigor, breath. The original uses in English are mainly translations from the Vulgate Latin Bible that translate the Greek Pneuma and Hebrew Ruah. Christians also made a distinction between soul and spirit. Spirit, in the sense of a supernatural being, is found from the 13th century.

Older translations of the Latin bible into English used Holy Ghost more often than Holy Spirit. Almost all recent translations of the Bible have preferred Holy Spirit in most instances.

The reason is probably because the meaning of the word ghost has gradually shifted over the last 300 years and now predominantly refers to the vision of the specter of a deceased person or a demonic apparition. BOO! or Casper the Friendly Ghost, perhaps?

Holy Spirit therefore is now almost universally over the last 50 years or so has become common usage. The expression Holy Ghost, however, when properly understood, retains its validity in the context of personal prayer for those who wish to continue using it.

Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/holy-ghost-and-holy-spirit-4627

08/28/2026

It's time for the return of the Man in Black! No, Christopher Schouten is not hiding behind a screen--it's a pixel problem!

To see what he looks like for real, and to hear his message, come hang out at Celebration on the Lake UCC, Payne Springs, TX, at 10 a.m. on Sunday, 8-30-26!

Come early for donuts and coffee to share your week's adventures with others! What with the wild fires and the 100+ degree days, each of us has a story to share!

Christopher has been traveling in Europe, so he's probably got some great stories to share, too!

We are counting down the final Acts of Kindness to see when we will each 250! What did you do this week that was a benefit to others? Come print it on the list!

Address

9120 State Highway 198
Payne Springs, TX
75147

Opening Hours

9:30am - 12pm

Telephone

+19039103184

Website

http://celebrationonthelake.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Celebration on the Lake Church posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your place of worship to be the top-listed Place Of Worship in Payne Springs?