Celebrate Recovery

Timing is everything. I mean, God's timing is everything. Several of us from my church had been talking about and praying about whether God would have us to begin a recovery ministry at our church to help reach those in our pews and outside the church who are struggling to stay sober. Since all of us on the leadership team have our roots in a twelve step program, we naturally turned to the idea of Celebrate Recovery, which is a Christ-centered twelve step recovery program. Over a year ago several of us sat down to discuss the possiblitites with one of our pastoral staff, and for one reason or another, nothing ever came of it. I met with that staff member again in Januaray, really to ask what had happened to the idea. He assured me me that we had his support, and I promised to begin e-mailing the two others that I knew were interested in the ministry. Life happened though, and their e-mail addresses laid on my kitchen table for months before I remembered to e-mail them. Not only were they still interested, but they wanted to begin meeting as I did, to brainstorm and begin to really plow through all of the Celebrate Recovrey resources we could. Not even a week after I began e-mailing them, the pastoral staff member we'd been communicating with contacted each of us about a leadership training in Chicago on 6/14. All of us but one were able to go, and many others from the misistry staff at our church came too. I was thrilled to find out that another who had been set free from a sex addiction was coming as well, in hopes of begining a group at the Creek for those who struggle with porn and sex addiction. It is so needed. Much more than many realize.

We had a great time, and I really enjoyed getting to know some of them more. Some I met for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised at the intense focus on leadership at the conference, and was touched time and time again by the founders John and Cheryl Baker and by the countless testimonies of changed lives and marriages that had been a result of God working through a local Celebrate Recovery ministry. It is so much bigger than I thought...not just for addictions. I also heard testimonies of people God had set free from anger problems, co-dependency, eating issues, cutting, and past emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. I know that ours will start out smaller, with probably a focus on alcohol/drug dependency, and maybe co-depency or a men's sexual addiction group. Other Celebrate Recovery groups in our area have started the same. But it's pretty encouraging to see just how much God can make a group grow, rise up leaders for new groups, and bring healing, salvation, and wholeness to so many. We're so excited to see what the future holds!

www.CelebrateRecovery.com