Pastor Tim and Donna
Pastor Tim and Donna Hawthorne met and married in Liberty, Mo. They are both graduates of Full Faith Bible College in Kansas City. Tim enjoyed a successful career as a District Sales Manager before answering the call to full time pastoral ministry in 1996 to a small church in North Dakota. He was called by Calvary Church in Marinette, Wis. to serve as senior pastor in 2001, and he retired in 2023. Because their daughter Katie is our former senior pastor Craig Ellefsen’s wife, in September 2025 Pastor Tim graciously accepted Celebration Assembly’s invitation to be our interim senior pastor.
Tim and Donna have raised five daughters, four serving in the ministry with their husbands. All five are actively involved in ministry. Tim and Donna love to spend as much time as possible at family get-togethers with their ten grandchildren. Tim enjoys an occasional golf game with friends, board games, old movies, and mysteries. Donna enjoys sewing, card making, board games, personal inductive Bible studies, and reading. Both enjoy serving in the pastoral ministry, the companionship of good friends who share their faith and love for ministry, and occasional camping trips.
Pastor Craig and Katie with Zach, Kayleigh, and Nate
Pastor Craig served as Senior Pastor of Celebration Assembly from February 2012 to August 2025 and was our longest-serving senior pastor. He and his wife, Katie, have three children: Kayleigh, Nathaniel, and Zachary. They moved to Fond du Lac from Baraboo, Wis. after serving as Youth/Associate Pastor at One Life Assembly of God from 2004 to 2012. They also served previously as Youth Pastor at New Life Community Church in Oshkosh, Wis. from 1999 to 2004. Pastor Craig believes his calling for the ministry came early in his college career, but it took him three years before he pursued it fully. In September 2025 the Ellefsens moved to Plover, Wis. to begin the new season of life that God called them to be in.
Pastor Craig grew up in West Bend, Wis., and Katie grew up in Liberty, Mo. They met at North Central University in Minneapolis where Pastor Craig graduated in Pastoral Studies in 1999. He and Katie were married in Kansas City, Mo. in May of 2000.
Pastor Craig enjoys computers, watching classic black and white movies, and playing percussion. He also has a real heart for people in Fond du Lac and an authentic passion to see them grow and develop into godly men and women of Christ. He believes everyone has an awesome purpose and destiny from God to do great things and to believe in something bigger than themselves.
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