Celebration Community Church

OUR HISTORY

 

Celebration Community Church was born in August of 2001 when Pastor Terry Walters, his wife Cheryl, and daughter Whitney moved to Pana, IL to plant a church.  Terry had been a pastor in the area before and Cheryl was raised in a town just west of Pana.  They had made a few contacts and several folks were ready to help them begin the journey.

 

They moved in one weekend and held the first worship service in their home the following weekend!  Thirty people worshipped there that Sunday morning.  The next Sunday there were 39 in attendance!  In a couple of weeks, they rented a former skating rink called Danceland and began Sunday morning worship there.  Evenings and Wednesday Bible studies were still done at the pastor's house for a year.

 

A former hardware store became available to rent on a more permanent basis and in the fall of 2002, Celebration moved into the facility they renovated themselves on Hwy 51 at the south edge of town.  Later, classrooms were added to accommodate starting a morning Bible study to precede the worship and all classes and services were moved to the new building.  Much was done over the next 14 years to improve the facilities and the ministries offered, until recently, after much prayer and patience, the church purchased its own property in a neighborhood on the west side of town.

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A Methodist congregation merged with another one in a town nearby and vacated their facility.  Celebration purchased the property from the governing organization that owned the church building and a parsonage on the corner of Fourth and Clark Streets in Pana.  We added to the church building and remodeled the building and parsonage, upgrading everything from flooring to parking lot.  Come see what God is doing at Celebration!