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OUR CHURCH

Celebration is a young, comtemporary style church with a mission to reach and develop people for Jesus.  As God works in and through us, we strive to make all our activities fit that focus.  We respond to His work in us with worship, discipleship, fellowship, evangelism, and ministry.

We believe everyone can and should minister and we try to find areas within our community of believers to help you accomplish this.

 

We are Conservative with the Word

           Consistent in our Walk

           Committed to His Work

           Contemporary in our Worship 

Believing that we can do more through cooperation than we can alone, we are aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention locally, in the state of Illinois, and nationally.

We started in the pastor's home in 2001, moved within a year to a rented facility, and then recently purchased and remodeled our own facility!  God is on the move!

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OUR PASTOR

 

     Terry Walters and his family moved to Pana in 2001 to start Celebration and have been with us ever since.  He is a native Illinoisan, though the first 20 years of his ministry were in AR, TN, and IN.  He began ministry as a Youth and Music Minister and after nearly 12 years of that ministry, moved into the pastoral ministry.

     After graduating from Williams Baptist University in AR in 1991, Terry moved to South Bend, IN as a church planter in '92, then later moved back to IL to pastor and eventually started Celebration in 2001.

     He has led in foreign and associational work as the Team Leader of a Peru mission partnership and served on a couple of our state convention's committees.

     Besides pastoring our church, he created and worked with our original children's ministry, Straight Street, for several years, writing all the skits, performing in them, and teaching in the rotation of teachers.  He occasionally wrote the lessons as well, and from those has now published three children's books!

     He and his wife, Cheryl have two grown children and five grandchildren.

     On a sad note, In Oct. of '22, Pastor Terry announced his retirement effective March 1, 2023! He hopes to stay busy with pulpit supply and interim preaching as well as writing.

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