Lynton Turkington, Senior Pastor, Celebration Church

In an interview with Invest:, Lynton Turkington, senior pastor of Celebration Church, discussed the church’s multicultural foundation, collaborative leadership, commitment to young people, and community outreach. “God’s not looking for ability; He’s looking for availability,” Turkington said.

What distinguishes Celebration Church and the community it has built over the past 30 years?

I started the church 30 years ago with nine people: my Caucasian family of five, a Hispanic family of three, and a single Black lady. We had a multicultural beginning, and now we have more than 1,000, maybe a couple thousand, people who would call our church their home church.

What is unique about our church is that it is still about 50% non-white. On Sunday morning in Raleigh, churches can still be fairly divided along racial lines. We have never had a particular strategy where we were trying to meet quotas for different groups. It has been the natural growth of a healthy church culture that has been multicultural from the beginning. We think that has been a hallmark of what the Lord has done in helping us build a healthy church community.

Raleigh is also one of the buckles on the Bible Belt, but it is a melting pot of spiritual diversity. There are pockets with heavy concentrations of particular denominations. We identify ourselves as a nondenominational church. We are not affiliated with a particular denominational brand, but we feel we are able to present a healthy, balanced biblical perspective while building life and community together.

How does Celebration Church view its role beyond traditional church ministry?

We believe faith applies to every area of life, not only church. Often, when people in church say the word ministry, they mean church. When God thinks ministry, He thinks bigger, and He thinks kingdom.

We have created an environment where our faith is applied to every area of life, including business, education, sports, activities, and politics. That does not mean the church is going to take over those areas. It means the calling of people in our church is to take the gospel of representation and reconciliation into every sphere of life.

We have a healthy business community in our church. We have entrepreneurs, educators, people in the medical field, and people in diverse areas who are taking their faith by representation to influence the community and make it better.

What leadership principles shape how you guide the church and your team?

Because the economy is not our bottom line, I do not lead to make the church more prosperous. We lead to make the church more effective. My leadership style is what I would call collaborative leadership.

I do not come in as a Type A personality, hit the table, and say it is my way or the highway. Even though I have been in full-time pastoral ministry for 46 years, I do not have all the answers. I have been able to surround myself with people who strengthen my weaknesses and provide perspectives I may not have.

I may have a vision of what we want to accomplish, but how we get that done happens through collaboration. Ted Scheeve is one of my four associate pastors, and we also have other members of our team who collaborate to help the church move forward and make a big difference in our community.

How did Celebration Church’s food distribution work become part of its community impact?

During COVID, my oldest daughter, who is Ted’s wife, was in TJ Maxx wearing a mask when a woman approached her while she was on a phone call. The woman handed my daughter the phone and told her to talk to the person on the other end.

The man said he was a night manager from Amazon and that they had more food than they knew what to do with. He asked if we could help. That phone call led to our gymnasium being filled with food. All of that food came in over two nights, and it was gone within 12 hours.

Since then, we have become the largest food distribution point within a five-mile radius and one of the largest within a 10-mile radius. Last year, we gave away 1.2 million pounds of food, which is equal to 600 tons, to more than 60,000 people.

When a person comes to our food distribution, they do not receive a small bag of groceries. A family receives about 50 to 70 pounds of food per distribution. Ted has been the brain behind making that effective.

How important is supporting children, young adults, families, and single people within the church?

A church has to provide opportunity and input into every area. In my teaching ministry, sometimes we can focus on families and husbands and wives with children. I am also quick to recognize that we have a lot of single people in our church who are not married and may or may not have children.

I deliberately include singles when referring to married couples so they feel connected to the church and realize they are not being overlooked. Single people need as much encouragement as anyone.

We have one pastor who oversees our ministries from babies through middle school, high school, youth, and young adults. From the beginning of this church, we have emphasized children’s and youth ministry. Before we had staff to minister to adults, we hired staff to minister to children and youth because they are the next generation.

There is an idea that we tend to lose teenagers when they get to college. One of my educators pointed out that we actually start losing them around fifth grade because cultural influences and ideologies they encounter begin much earlier.

Our children’s ministry is not glorified babysitting on Sunday morning. We have an educational track beginning with infants. There is an atmosphere of worship, and music is played even when they are babies. As they grow, we begin introducing them to the Bible and teaching spiritual realities at a level they can understand.

That carries through each age category so that when they reach their teenage years, they have a biblical and scriptural foundation.

What support does the church provide as people move through different stages of life?

We have activities during the week for children, as well as youth programming. As they get older and become more independent, our young adult ministry kicks in.

For married couples, we have marriage seminars and marriage empowerment. One of my pastoral associates oversees pastoral care, which includes biblical guidance for couples who are in distress.

We are endeavoring to cover this wide range of age groups while specializing so that everyone can be empowered. We want to provide a healthy, balanced biblical perspective throughout each stage of life.

How do you encourage members to take their faith beyond the walls of the church?

One of my favorite examples involves a woman in our church who had been an art teacher for 28 years. When she retired, her son encouraged her to take her artwork, make it digital art, and sell it in the metaverse as non-fungible tokens for cryptocurrency. At first, she had no idea what he was talking about.

Four years later, she had developed a community of artists she communicates with around the world. She shares about art, teaches the Word of God, prays for people, and encourages them in their faith in different countries.

That reflects the broader vision we have for ministry. Faith is not limited to what happens inside a church building. People can take what God has given them and use it in different areas and different places.

What has the church’s outreach taught you about responding to opportunities to serve?

God’s not looking for ability; He’s looking for availability. When you empower a faith community with a vision to think outside of themselves, pray outside of their own needs, and look for opportunity, God will send it.

Our food distribution is one example. We were not asking for this. We did not want this. But God provided the opportunity, and we just said yes.

About 100 volunteers help work to feed thousands of people. We only do the distribution every couple of weeks because it is so large, but we are also a hub that provides food to other organizations. There are food pantries and ministries across the state that we send food to, and we are a significant provider of food to the North Carolina Food Bank.

It is a clearinghouse because what we are doing has become so large. It was simply something God sent along. Sometimes making an impact means feeding people, and other times it means giving someone hope. The important thing is being available when an opportunity comes.