Speakers

We are a group of people that want to help people to find God and work through their hurts, hangups, and habits.

  • Johnny Baker

    Pastor and Global Executive Director of Celebrate Recovery

    Johnny Baker has been on staff at Saddleback Church with Celebrate Recovery since 2004 and has been the Pastor of Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback Church since 2012. As an adult child of an alcoholic who chose to become an alcoholic himself, Johnny is passionate about breaking the cycle of dysfunction in his family and helping other families find the tools that will lead to healing and openness. He knows that because of Jesus Christ, and by continuing to stay active in Celebrate Recovery, Maggie, Chloe, and Jimmy – his three children – will never see him drink. Johnny is a nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and teacher of Celebrate Recovery.

  • Jeni Baker

    Global Executive Director of Celebrate Recovery

    Jeni, together with her husband Johnny, serves as the Global Executive Director of Celebrate Recovery. She has a heart for sharing her story of God’s victory in her life over codependency and childhood dysfunction, and sharing the hope and healing she has found in recovery. They have been married since 2000, have 3 kids, and have served together in ministry for over 16 years. She has a desire to help others find the same freedom and healing she has experienced in her own life.

  • Rodney Holmstrom

    Global Field Director of Celebrate Recovery

    Rodney Holmstrom is the Global Field Director of CR. He has also served the past 18 years as CR pastor of Fellowship Bible in NW Arkansas. He is enthusiastic about helping families and communities break the cycles of dysfunction to help them in finding purpose in their pain from their hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Rodney is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and practices in NW Arkansas. He and his wife of 32 years, Carol, have two married adult children, his son, Jason married to Leasha, and his daughter, Taylor, married to Luke. He and his wife are proud grandparents to three grandchildren.

  • Mac Owen

    Global Director of Celebrate Recovery

    After 14 years of leading a recovery ministry at their church, Mac and Mary went to their first Celebrate Recovery Summit in 2004 at Saddleback Church in California. They’ve been leading in CR ever since! Mac was an elder at WFR Church, West Monroe, LA for 17 years and now serves as an elder at Impact Christian Church, Woodland Park, CO. Mac has served as CR Ministry Leader in West Monroe, LA, CR Louisiana State Rep, CR Regional Director, CR National Assimilation Coach. For the last 14 years, Mac is serving as the National/Global Director of CR.

  • Andy Petry

    The Landing Director

    Andy serves as the Landing Director for Celebrate Recovery and is passionate about impacting the church to help bring healing to families and to set up the next generation with the same healing that Celebrate Recovery has brought in his life. Andy has worked with his local CR since 2015 and through it has watched God bring freedom in so many ways, especially in his struggle with pornography. Andy currently serves on staff as the ministry leader for CR at Fellowship Fayetteville. He and his wife Julia are proud parents of their 2 young kids, Harper and Hudson.

  • Cheryl Baker

    Co-Founder of Celebrate Recovery
  • Cheryl Luke

    Cultural Communities Director
  • Dickie Everman

    Southeast Regional Director

    Dickie’s struggles have been with alcohol and drugs. His sobriety date is May 5th, 1996. He has been married to his beautiful wife, JuaNita for 34 years. They have four adult children, five grandchildren, one great grandchild and two grandchildren on the way. They started their Celebrate Recovery at Calvary Christian Church in Winchester, Ky in 2007. He joined the staff at Calvary in 2011 as Recovery Pastor and became a State Rep in 2013. Dickie was asked to serve on the National Team in 2019 where he serves as the Southeast Regional Director.

  • Domingo Arambula

    Social Media Director

    Domingo Arambula has been actively involved in Celebrate Recovery since 2014. In 2016, he joined the CR State Representative Team, and in 2017, he took on the role of Team Lead. Since 2019, Domingo has been creating content for Celebrate Recovery National, and in 2023, he was appointed as the Social Media Director for the National CR Team. Domingo also serves as the Ministry Leader and Recovery Pastor within his local CR Group and Home Church. He is passionate about assisting individuals in breaking free from the cycle of dysfunction within families and is committed to spreading awareness about Celebrate Recovery and shares his knowledge with his five children, Natalie, Jesse, Kassandra, Valerie, and LJ.

  • Hess Hester

    CPR Director - Men
    Hess recently retired after serving over 26 years as Lead Pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. SHBC was the first church in Oklahoma to establish the ministry of Celebrate Recovery over 22 years ago and have helped 60+ others get started in Oklahoma and contiguous states. In 2006, Hess formed a CR 12 step group with eleven other pastors in Tulsa which ultimately evolved into the ministry of Celebrate Pastors in Recovery which now includes groups for spouses and women serving in vocational ministry as well.
  • Hosanna

    Speaker, Author, and Spoken Word Artist

    Hosanna Wong is an international speaker, best-selling author and spoken word artist helping everyday people know Jesus for real. Widely known for her spoken word piece, “I Have A New Name,” Hosanna shares in churches, conferences, prisons, and other events around the world, reaching across various denominations, backgrounds and cultures.

    Born and raised in an urban ministry on the streets of San Francisco, Hosanna later packed her life into suitcases and traveled to churches and other ministries throughout the United States to share about Jesus through spoken word poetry. During those years without a permanent home, she began speaking and creating resources to serve the local and global Church.

    Hosanna currently travels and speaks year-round, and serves on teaching teams at churches throughout the United States. She and her husband, Guy serve together in various ministries equipping people with tools to share the gospel of Jesus in today’s world.

    Hosanna is the best-selling author of How (Not) to Save the World, and her newest book, You Are More Than You’ve Been Told!

  • Jeff Redmond

    West Regional Director

    Jeff Redmond is currently the CR Western Regional Director. Jeff has been a member of Bayside Church in Granite Bay, CA since 1997. In 2001 after attending the CR Summit, Jeff started a Celebrate Recovery ministry at Bayside, was hired in 2004, made CR Pastor in 2011. Jeff’s past struggle with alcohol, is what led him eventually to find Celebrate Recovery and discover the answer to his calling and purpose from God. Through Celebrate Recovery, he discovered that, his pride, controlling, codependent, people pleasing and low self-esteem, fueled his sin addiction to alcohol. In 2007, Jeff began sharing CR around the world. Colombia, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Vietnam, Cambodia, 2007- 2023. Jeff has been married to Debi for 51 years. Has 3 adult children and 10 grandchildren.

  • Joe Clark

    Native Nations Director
  • John Brennan

    Angel Tree
  • John Molina

    CR Inside Director

    Recovery at the local level since 2006 and became a Celebrate Recovery Inside State Rep for Texas in 2014. John is passionate about helping those that are currently incarcerated behind prison walls. His desire is to bring hope to the hopeless. John found freedom through the saving power of Jesus Christ and wants to share that with men and women who struggle just like he did. He is married to his beautiful wife Shirley. He has two children, Christopher and Krisna. And two grandchildren Karissa and Kaiya.

  • Ken Haffner

    South Central Regional Director

    Ken Haffner serves as the Executive Pastor for HighPoint Fellowship in Splendora, TX, where he has been a member since 2006 and has been serving in ministry since 2007. He began his recovery journey in 1996 and loves working with people in their recovery. He and his wife Tammy helped start the CR ministry at their church in 2008. Today, Ken serves as the CR South Central Regional Director. Ken loves working with others and spending time with his family.

  • Marnie Buehler

    Conferences Director
  • Mary Owen

    CPR Director-Women

    Mary married her high school sweetheart, Mac, in 1976. Despite facing a challenging decade due to Mac\’s struggle with drug addiction, their lives took a positive turn after attending their first CR Summit at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, in 2004. Currently, Mary finds joy in guiding other pastors\’ wives through Celebrate Pastors Recovery Step Studies. Mary and Mac are blessed with three children and ten grandchildren. Mary cherishes leading in ministry alongside Mac, and she fondly says, "The best adventure began in our life in 1988, and it just keeps getting better!”

  • Nick Olson

    Opiods Champions Director
  • Richard Cobb

    Celebrate Recovery International Director

    Richard Cobb started his Celebrate Recovery journey in 2004 with his wife Dara and became an Alabama State Representative in 2006 serving until 2015. Since 2015 as the Celebrate Recovery National Director International. In his role, Richard has traveled to many places around the world to help launch and/or support Celebrate Recovery ministries in those countries. The number of Celebrate Recovery’s International Representatives has grown from 18 to 78 during this time, including several new CR Country Directors. Celebrate Recovery has now been translated into 28 languages, and more are in the works

  • Roger Stanton

    Mental Health Director

    Roger Stanton, once an isolated architect, lived a life of hidden struggles masked by his pride. In 2009, amidst his broken sexual desires and a failing marriage, this lifelong sinner encountered a transformative experience of Christ’s freedom through the ministry of Celebrate Recovery. Together with his wife Sarah, Roger has served for over a decade as a ministry leader in CR. God continues to breathe restoration into Roger and his marriage, even allowing their recovery story to help others across the globe. He has served on the CR National Team in various capacities and is currently pursuing studies to integrate his passions with his calling as a mental health counselor.

  • Sabrena Stolze

    Training Director of Celebrate Recovery

    Sabrena Stolze started attending CR in 2007 for codependency and food issues, and is currently exploring recovery for Complex PTSD and Inattentive ADHD. She served at her local CR as a small group leader, Landing Director, Training Coach and Ministry Leader. She also served as a Celebrate Recovery Representative, Regional Director, CR Rep Trainer, and currently serves as the Training Director for Celebrate Recovery. She has a BA in Communications and Media Studies, is a Certified Peer Support Specialist, and her passion is training and teaching on personal recovery, leadership, and how to start and run healthy Celebrate Recovery Ministries.

  • Sarah Stanton

    Mental Health Director

    Sarah Stanton has been involved with Celebrate Recovery since 2009. Over the last decade, she has co-led a CR in WA alongside her husband, Roger. Sarah’s upbringing in a dysfunctional home led her to deeply appreciate her mother’s faith in the Lord, which guided her towards Jesus, the source of true peace and wholeness. Together with her husband, Sarah has traveled across the U.S., sharing their story of marital healing. For the past four years, Sarah has served as Celebrate Recovery’s Director of Mental Health, overseeing a dedicated global team of Mental Health Ambassadors. Sarah cherishes her role as a wife and mother to her three teenage daughters: Bella, Mia, and Laila. Professionally, she runs a private practice specializing in mental health counseling.

  • Scott Kemp

    North Central Regional Director

    Scott Kemp has been in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction for over 30 years and accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior in 1994. After a dozen years of secular recovery in AA, he was introduced to Celebrate Recovery in 2005 at the Summit Conference. His work in CR has helped him to overcome an addiction to pornography and experience recovery from codependency, lust, and grief. He and his wife Veronica have served as Ministry Leaders at their local church for 18 years. Scott served as a State Rep in Illinois for 6 years and now serves as the North Central Regional Director.

  • Sheila Knudson

    Northeast Regional Director

    Sheila currently serves as the Northeast Regional Director. Sheila is also a mom, grandma, and soon to be great grandma. Since 2005, Sheila has been dedicated to leading in various roles at CR. Beginning as a Ministry Leader, she then added serving as a State Representative for Ohio in 2010. She became the first Team Lead for Ohio then transitioning into leading the Northeast Region in 2017. Sheila has a desire to help people in their journey of healing through the foundation of Jesus Christ and the ministry of Celebrate Recovery. The love and support found in the world wide ministry of CR has helped her not only heal in the area of co-dependency and the effects of past abuse but has also seen her through her grief journey having experienced much loss over the years.

  • Shirley Molina

    CR Inside Director

    Shirley Molina is a native Texan who loves to cook and dine with family and friends. She has worked as a Celebrate Recovery Pastor and Ministry Leader for 17 years. She is the founder of Word of Faith Outreach Ministries and has served as Prison Ministry Leader since 1997. Shirley is very passionate about reaching hurting people wherever they are. For many years she felt ashamed to share her life’s story of Marriage and divorce, but Celebrate Recovery broke the chains of shame, guilt and fear. Shirley is currently the Celebrate Recovery Ministry Leader at their home church in LaMargue, Texas. Shirley is honored to have the opportunity to serve with her wonderful husband John as the CR INSIDE Director’s.

  • Sylvia Chesser

    Celebration Place Director

    Sylvia has been the Childrens ministry leader for her CR for 20 years and served as a regional rep for Celebration Place for 7 years before becoming the Director in 2021. She has four children who have all experienced both CP and the Landing and has seen God work in incredible ways through their involvement in Celebrate Recovery. She believes the next generation ministries of CR help our youth learn to rely on Jesus instead of the things of the world. She is passionate about sharing how CP and the Landing support children from hard places in addition to teaching “pre-covery” concepts to all children who attend.

  • Tony Campbell

    Welcome Home Director

Your Summit Team

There is a lot that goes into having Summit each year. We have a great group of people who are passionate about what we do and dedicated to having the best Summit each year.

  • Marnie Buehler

    Conferences Director

    California

  • Greg Garrison

    Tech Cordinator

    Kansas