Jude 2

Just curious.....Wondering if any of your churches out there offer this program? It's for people with hurts, habits and hang-ups and is honored by our Court systems here in Pulaski County. Joey and I stepped into this ministry a little over a year ago and "CR" has become our church's biggest "feeder" ministry.

Most new members and baptisms have come from Celebrate Recovery. Our altar services are full with "CR" people every Sunday. CR people generate real excitement and eagerness to reach a lost and dying world.

Just our Thursday night meetings alone have grown from about 10 to 100. We now offer Celebrate Recovery for Children and Teens also, with specialized curriculum just for their age groups.

If you aren't doing CR, you are missing something wonderful!

We don't...but I am very interested and would like more info for my church...

Unrelated.. but is your Church Southern Baptist?

We do Celebrate Recovery at our church. It is a blessing to all those that participate! I agree, it is a great program.

Jinjer

I have talked to my Pastor about starting a Celebrate Recovery group at our church. I think it is a great idea.

I have been exposed to this program. I have a few reservations about it but I know that it has helped lots of folk...

If I were a pastor of a church i dont think i would use it....now this is based on my experience from the church i use to attend....MHO

Dale - what are your reservations? It's a ministry that is by the book - the bible that is. It takes you from Denial of sin, to asking God into your life, to asking hurt people in your life to forgive you, dealing with your character flaws through Christ, and then sharing your story with others so that they can come to the faith and you can start being part of the body of Christ.
But most of all, it accepts those that have been cast aside by the church. The woman at the well would have been in CR. Zacchaeus had a type of CR meeting in his home that night with Jesus.
Just saying.... It aint a bad thing if you're bringing in the ones that dont feel like the can go to church because they are too dirty.

MacUser wrote:Unrelated.. but is your Church Southern Baptist?

Technically, it's a "unique" SB church. However, practically noone that attends knows it is or that they are. And if you walk in off the street, you would probably think you had walked into a very lively worship service. We don't fall into any denominational "fit" nor do we want to. We are just followers of Jesus Christ. Period.

Kenya wrote:

MacUser wrote:Unrelated.. but is your Church Southern Baptist?

Technically, it's a "unique" SB church. However, practically noone that attends knows it is or that they are. And if you walk in off the street, you would probably think you had walked into a very lively worship service. We don't fall into any denominational "fit" nor do we want to. We are just followers of Jesus Christ. Period.

Awesome! I've been to more of these lately myself. Even garage ministries in which I have had the greatest revelations of my adult Christian life.

It's truely all about Jesus (and not ourselves).

We do CR at CRC! ...We have trained the staff for two other churches...We love this program

One of the largest CR programs in our area is operated by the United Pentecostal Church

I don't see it as "denominationally tied"....

Btw...nice to see the J2 peeps again...been gone a while

Kenya and Joey,

I am very excited to read this. We love programs that help people and I am glad you all are seeing so much good fruit from it!

We have recently begun attending a SBaptist church plant that sounds a lot like what you described. Strangely enough, it seems like a perfect fit for us right now. There are people from charismatic and baptist backgrounds who want to reach out in the community.

We have found the charismatic churches in this area to be charismatic first..before they are Christian and they kind of wear on their sleeve. We planted a church and merged with another church that seemed to be identical in their mission, but their staff were more content with being blessed (ie, self-centered) than reaching out, and were very irresponsible about letting anyone take the mic and give words, that often didn't bear witness, without correction.

Our baptist church has a heart to minister the gospel and discipleship through small groups. If the program you mentioned is available within the S.Baptist organization, I think it could be something someone could consider starting here. I'm so glad to hear about the work God is using you to do. It is exciting to see people witnessing and sharing God's love.

Jennifer and others,
Just to be clearer, Celebrate Recovery is not a way to do church. It takes the 12 steps of AA/NA and then addresses it from a spiritual perspective. And while many of our friends that come to CR are in fact dealing with addictions, using this year long 12 step program addresses other issues that satan throws at all of us. Hurts from various relationships and abuses of our past, Hang-ups that people get stuck on and dont sem t be able to move forward in their growth with Christ, and of course, Habits of any kind.
Since a church can't possibly address all these tough hurt/habit/hang-up issues in the pulpit on a regular basis, CR deals with them weekly and takes us through a year long effort from step 1 to step 12 that will help us address our flaws and personal issues so we can move forard. So many folks are just stuck because they cant address the past or present. CR teaches us to stop denying it, to address it, and allow God to heal us through our trials and even help others as we share our stories of healing.
And we have several that continue coming for years, even after they finish the 12 months/12 steps because they do in fact build relationships with the CR small groups that meet and they may find that they have other hurts along the way to deal with.
Satan will find something to use so he can mess with us. After one issue is starved out, he tries to get us to start feeding another issue that can bring us pain.
Ultimately, CR is focussed on addressing the pains of life, and especially on the great healer, Jesus Himself. Many have more pain then they know what to do with, so CR says, "We'll support you and be a group that will love you." In the last year, we've seen dozens of people rededicate their life or come to the Lord for the first time! If done right and with love and order, it feeds the church as Kenya said, becaue they need to be in church as well, growing in other parts of the Word.
We have our meetings on Thursdays with over 100 folks, and they over flow into Tuesdays for another open meeting and on Sunday at 9 for a 7 week Lifes Healing Choices small group. Just check out a Celebrate Recovery Training or order a kit from the Saddleback Church.
I think you'll like it.

We did it here a couple of years ago. There are many churches in the area that do it.

We don't use CR at Reunion per se, but one of our own is Bonnie Holcombe, who if the Chaplain at Hawaii's only women's prison, and she operated a faith-based Total Life Recovery Program that incorporates CR as a component of a holistic program.

I didn't think it was about a way to do church..I meant the worship service and your congregation that Kenya described sounded somewhat like where we have been attending.

CR kind of sounds similar to Steps to Freedom in Christ, which doesn't use 12 specific steps but looks at ways the Bible tells us we can be set free.. the sharing in the group and prayer was really good. It is quite different from AA, which I'm sure CR is also! Thanks again for sharing.. it really sounds interesting.