Celebration Ministries is based in Hagerstown, Maryland. The members of the Board of Directors come from several different churches and ministries and provide ministry oversight. Each Board member has a passion to see those that call Hagerstown and the surrounding area home grow into the fullness of God's love and grace. The ministry operates on three primary platforms: Recovery Programs, Residential Programs and Training Programs. 

HISTORY  

Celebration Ministries was formed in January, 2008. An outgrowth of 2nd Acts Ministries, Inc. that was formed in 2003, Celebration Ministries is modeled after the Biblical New Testament Church as recorded in the New Testament, specifically in the Book of Acts. This ministry was created for the purpose of celebrating what God is doing in and through the lives of individuals and the Body of Christ. This includes creating a safe environment where people can be trained while encouraging them to grow spiritually, mentally and physically; a ministry that is networking with what is working and implementing and/or facilitating what is missing; a ministry that is constantly moving Onward and Upward!


Click here to download the Celebration Ministries Brochure in MS WORD Format
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS




Clarence and Kathy Horst

Clarence- CHorst@CMHag.org
Kathy- KHorst@CMHag.org    Clarence and Kathy Horst have a passion to see the Body of Christ come together to see Hagerstown transformed by the power of God and become an Isaiah 62 city, to see the city changed one life at a time. Their life mission is to see leaders be all that God has formed them to be. Clarence serves as the president of Celebration Ministries and together he and Kathy serve as ministry leaders of Celebrate Recovery Hagerstown. Clarence serves on the Board of Directors for the Hagerstown Rescue Mission, R.E.A.C.H. of Washington County, HUB Network as well as numerous other community organizations. Clarence also serves on the Maryland Comptrollers Business Advisory Council. Kathy is very involved in the local community, serving on various organizations and committees as well as leading Mercy’s Call, a post-abortive ministry that helps women who have lost a child through an abortion. They have served as Executive Pastors, Care Pastors, Church Elders, Trustees and many other various roles in the church and their local community. They have worked extensively with boys and girls ministries as well as building churches, schools and teaching leadership around the world. Clarence, an ordained minister of the Gospel serves bio-vocationally. He currently owns Coldwell Banker Innovations with offices in Hagerstown, Frederick and Greencastle, Owner of Hagerstown Builders a custom home construction company and co-owner of ProTek Fiber with his oldest son which is a fiber and low-voltage contracting company. Clarence and Kathy live in the Hagerstown Maryland Area; they have seven children and  eight grandchildren.
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       Denny and Debbie Newcomer 
 Denny - DNewcomer@CMHag.org 
 Debbie- DebbieNewcomer@CMHag.org  

Denny & Debbie Newcomer are the founders and leaders of The Fire-Place; an outreach into the city of Hagerstown where the focus is on reaching the un-churched with the experience of freedom, healing, and hope through Spirit-led worship, prophetic impartation, and the message of God’s love and grace. Prior to founding The Fire-Place, Denny & Debbie co-pastored Living Word Worship Center in Hagerstown, MD, for 12 years. During that time, they both served in various capacities with other ministries in the Hagerstown area. They have two married children and five of the world’s most awesome grandchildren. Their passion is to see the city of Hagerstown transformed by the Glory of God coming upon them and the city.   
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Jerry and Linda Jones                                      
 Jerry- JJones@CMHag.org 
 Linda- LJones@CMHag.org   

 Jerry and Linda Jones serve on the Board of Directors of Celebration Ministries, where Jerry is the Treasurer.   They are the proud parents of six biological sons, two adopted sons, 23 foster sons (over the past six years - as part of the exempt organization Redemption Farm), and have many spiritual sons and daughters.  They have served as church elders, taught many years of Sunday School, shepherded many small groups, and mentored dozens.  Both have a teaching background (Jerry - math, and Linda - science), and Jerry served in upper management at the Internal Revenue Service in Washington.   They have been very active with Celebrate Recovery Hagerstown - both leading Open Share Groups as well as Step Studies.   Currently, they are serving the Lord by mentoring many individuals and leading a Sozo prayer ministry.
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Karen Starliper
Karen- KStarliper@CMHag.org    

Karen Starliper serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors of Celebration Ministries.   She has lived most of her life in the Hagerstown area and is the Executive Secretary at Brook Lane Health Services, where she has worked since 1991.  Prior to that, she worked in the office of Dr. Howard Weeks, a local family practitioner, for many years.  Her children and grandchildren are the center of her life, three wonderful daughters, five granddaughters and three grandsons.  Karen has been very involved in her church over the years, serving in several Care Ministries and facilitating a Single Moms’ Life Group.  She co-founded and co-facilitated a local divorce recovery group in the community for many years and in the past has volunteered at the REACH shelter.   Karen has a servant’s heart and believes that God has called her to Celebration Ministries to do her part in His plan for Changing the City…One Life at a Time.   
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David & Jeannie Ramos
David- DRamos@CMHag.org 
Jeannie- JRamos@CMHag.org

David and Jeannie Ramos serve as lay pastors of the FaithStep Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Hagerstown, MD.  FaithStep was founded as a home based cell church in 2001 after many months of prayer and was commissioned as a church plant of the Chesapeake Conference of SDA in 2007.  FaithStep is committed to reaching out to the people of Hagerstown with the hope of the Gospel and in demonstrating the love of Christ by addressing the spiritual, social, and economic needs of the community.  David is a bi-vocational pastor and also serves as an operational manager at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick.  Jeannie is a homemaker and mother to their four children, Stephen, Brian, Jacqueline, and Christopher.  She is an active member of the Evangelical Christian Leaders Network (ECLN) here in Hagerstown.  David and Jeannie have a passion  to seek and to save the lost.  They long to see revival come and to see Christ proclaimed and exalted in the Cumberland Valley.
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Ed & Kim Kennedy
Ed- EKennedy@CMHag.org 
Kim- KKennedy@CMHag.org

Ed and Kim Kennedy have been married since 2001.  They have 4 children, 4 grandchildren. They began volunteering in benevolence ministry 12 + years ago and have helped to start several food pantries, a clothes closet, and organized the Community Christmas Day dinner for 11 years. They have also worked with people to overcome financial challenges and learn effective money management. Ed helped to implement and continues to oversee the growth and development of Celebration Farm, which began in 2009 in response to the tough economic times.  Ed is also involved with the ‘Helping Hands’ ministry that assists low income homeowners and/or the elderly with small household projects. 

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Pastor Kris & Paula Nyman

Pastor Kris: frelse@icloud.com

I grew up in Denver, Colorado.  My paternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden in the early 1920s.  So, I grew up with a strong heritage of Swedish traditions, language and relatives.  I actually have more relatives in Sweden than in the U.S. because both my father’s parents came from large families and both were the only ones among all their siblings to leave Sweden.  I have two older brothers and one younger brother. 

I grew up in a Lutheran church in Denver where they still had services and Bible studies in Swedish.  Later we moved to a church nearer our home in the suburb of Englewood.  I was confirmed at that congregation, Grace Lutheran Church of the American Lutheran Church.

I came to experience living faith in Jesus while working at a coal mine in Wyoming when I was 18.  Later, when I returned to my home congregation, my pastor discipled me to the assurance of Salvation by faith in Jesus!  I am forever grateful for that gift, and desire to see many others come to saving faith in Jesus.

I attended college at Metropolitan State in Denver, graduating with a degree in Meteorology.  I intended to use that knowledge for flying and not as work as a full-time meteorologist.  It became apparent that God wanted me in the ministry and not flying airplanes. 

I attended Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.  There I had the opportunity to study abroad for one year in Oslo, Norway.  I worked for the summer in my relative’s factory in Sweden, and then spent the school year in Oslo.  Spoken Swedish and spoken Norwegian are very close.  At the seminary in Oslo, all my classes were taught in Norwegian.

After returning to the U.S., I was starting my internship sight in Baudette, Minnesota, on the Canadian border, when the love of my life, Paula said “yes” when I asked her to marry me.  We were married in 1982.  We went back to Wartburg Seminary for my senior year.  I graduated, and then was ordained in June of 1983 in my home congregation, Grace Lutheran Church, Englewood, Colorado.

My first parish was a three point parish in Northeastern Montana.  I served the congregations of Medicine Lake Lutheran, Reserve Lutheran and First Lutheran.  In 1987 I was called to serve Trinity Lutheran Church in Choteau, Montana, near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

 It was in Choteau that Paula and I were blessed with our only child, a beautiful girl named Annika.  She now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and works as a Birth Doula, a labor coach, and helps single women as well as couples develop and follow their birth plans.  When the time comes for a precious baby to enter this world, she is there helping, encouraging, supporting and ministering to these people.

My wife, Paula, graduated with a degree in Elementary/Special Education.  She taught third grade in the public school in Medicine Lake, Montana for the first three years we lived there.  She loves to do creative things.  She has been a quilter, a weaver, a scrapbooker—both traditionally as well as digitally.  She currently is taking a series of online classes on photography as well as designing web sites.  She loves to help people learn to study the Bible inductively and dig into God’s Word for themselves.

In 1992, I was called to serve Calvary Lutheran Church in Perham, MN in the lake country of that state.  In 1995, I was called to serve Zion Lutheran Church in Beulah, North Dakota as the associate pastor.  In 1998 I moved to the senior pastor position of that same church. 

In 2003, because of the liberal leanings of the ELCA, I preached about the importance of holding to God’s Word from Genesis through Revelation.  This eventually led to us voting to leave the ELCA.  We came close to reaching the 2/3 majority, but not close enough.  A large group ended up leaving and joining an Association of Free Lutheran Congregation’s church, Prince of Peace, AFLC in Beulah, ND.  That group called me to serve as its pastor, where I remained until I moved to Hagerstown in November of 2014 to serve as the pastor of Christ Community Church.

                                                    
HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

 

 The ministry is funded by tax deductible donations given by individuals, businesses, churches and foundations. If you would like to be a part of this exciting ministry, send your tax deductible donation to:

Celebration Ministries
PO Box 2976
Hagerstown, MD 21741-2976


Email: Info@CMHag.org

301-393-4377

Celebration Ministries is a part of 2nd Acts Ministries, Inc.
A 501 (C) (3) Charitable Organization. All donations are tax deductible.