Celebrate Recovery is a Christ based recovery program for anyone with hurts, habits, or hang-ups. We gather at 7:00 on Thursday evenings for devotions, a Christ centered lesson, support, encouragement and celebration. There are generally 12-15 recovering men and women who attend CR. Some are new to the program and are coming to get back on track with their lives. Others come who have been clean and sober for years in order to encourage others, support and be supported, and to worship. We have started providing child care so those with children can continue to attend. We also supply a few snack items because several come straight from work and have not eaten since lunch. The church supplies a small budget for the materials needed and an offering is taken each week to help with the costs.

A Lesson From Celebrate Recovery that would be good for all:

We’re tempted to see ourselves as everyone else does. You know the way it goes. You see yourself as broken and beaten up. You see yourself as an addict or former addict. You see yourself as a failure.

If that’s what you believe about who you are, you’ll never become who God wants you to be. How you define your life determines your destiny.

That’s one of the reasons why, when John Baker first started Celebrate Recovery®, he didn’t ask people to identify themselves by their addictions.

Instead, in Celebrate Recovery, participants each identify themselves as “a believer who struggles with” a specific issue.

There’s a huge difference between the two. Your identity isn’t your sin. Your identity is in your Savior.

Don’t let the ugly words in your past (or even in your present) define you any longer.

Other people may see you as broken and damaged goods. But that’s not how God sees you.

I don’t know where you are in your walk with God today, but if you truly understand how God sees you—and how you fit into what he is doing in the world—it’ll change your life. You’ll never be the same again.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter whom you’ve done it with. God accepts you. You’re not accepted because you’ve always done what’s right. You’re accepted because of what Jesus has done on your behalf. Your faults have never surprised God. He has known them all along, yet he still offers forgiveness.

You may not always feel loved. But the consistent message of the Bible is that you are unmistakably loved by the One who created you. God says, “The mountains and hills may crumble, but my love for you will never end; I will keep forever my promise of peace” (Isaiah 54:10 GNT).

God’s love for you will never, ever end. You don’t have to earn it. It’s a free gift.

But you don’t have to try on your own. Together, we’re Jesus’ church and we’re God’s family. We’re the most powerful force on the planet when we come together for his sake.

Think about what we’re doing together through Celebrate Recovery. More than 35,000 churches around the world are using Celebrate Recovery to help people overcome their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. So far, more than 5 million individuals have completed a Step Study.

Our task is huge. There are two types of people: those who need recovery and know it, and those who need recovery and don’t know it. Everyone needs recovery.

God is at work in so many places through our partnership together. We can’t wait to see what God will do next!