Brownwood News – A retired law officer is greeted with a big bear hug from his sponsor—a former meth addict. A woman who once lived on the streets sits and visits with another woman who came to the meeting hoping to learn how to deal with a family member’s addiction. Everyone there might be labeled as “one of those people” from someone who doesn’t understand what’s going on.
But “those people” are not embarrassed to admit that they are here because life– due to addictions or depression or struggles– had become unmanageable. They come every Thursday as “those people” have done for several years welcoming others who come to Celebrate Recovery for the first time.
Celebrate Recovery which meets every Thursday at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Thursday, April 6 at 7 pm in the CCC building on Coggin Avenue. The community is invited to attend this milestone celebration which marks a quest on the part of Coggin to bring a recovery program to this area that would approach recovery from a spiritual life-change.
“For some time, we had looked for a Christ-centered recovery program that would target all areas of a person’s life,” Bill Allen, Recovery Pastor for Coggin said. “After hearing about CR, we knew it was the program we had been looking for all along.”
Celebrate Recovery, or CR as members often call it, was developed 25 years ago at the Saddleback Church in California where well-known speaker and author Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor. The curriculum which is based on Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount was developed by Saddleback’s Recovery Pastor John Baker. Baker, a recovering alcoholic often faced ridicule in his traditional twelve-step meetings for identifying Jesus as his “higher power.”
“Other recovery programs are great and do a great job, but as a general rule, will allow a person to have as their high power anything or anyone they want to designate as their higher power,” Allen said. “CR is designed to teach and train a person with the belief that the only true higher power is Jesus Christ. When a person turns his or her life and will over to His care, then they have the power to change. And so, starting with that premise, CR is built around the idea that without Christ, it is impossible to be everything God intended you to be in your life.”
Many of the traditional recovery programs are aimed at helping individuals overcome chemical addictions like drugs and alcohol or a lifestyle addiction like gambling. Celebrate Recovery is aimed at helping people overcome all of “life’s hurts, habits and hang-ups.”
CR addresses dealing with “hurts” in a person’s life before “habits” which most people associate with addiction.
“Through the Celebrate Recovery program, people discover how they have let their past hurts control their lives for years,” Allen said. “The understanding of how the past can have power over a person becomes a revelation that moves people to new levels of life growth and freedom from the past hurts.”
While CR also celebrates when members reach milestones of sobriety, the program focuses on more than just the aspect of getting clean and sober.
“In the ten years of our Celebrate Recovery, we have seen individuals who were addicted to alcohol and drugs become sober and then grow in health as they learn how to manage life,” Pastor Allen said. “We have watched individuals move from living on the street to living reasonably successful lives as they turn their will and life over to the care of God.
While many people would admit to having little things that irritate them, some truly struggle with ideas, beliefs or emotional issues that impact the quality of their daily lives.
“Others have found help with persistent emotional struggles like anger or fear and have been able to work through those issues and learn how to identify how they manifest themselves in everyday life,” Allen said. “Several have found that the issue that brought them to recovery was not their root issue at all, but rather the way they were coping with the root issue.”
It’s not unusual for people to come to Celebrate Recovery seeking advice and support for issues that a family member may be dealing with.
“CR can give loved one’s perspective and understanding about how struggles may be conquered and give them the patience and tools they need as they walk alongside someone they love who is struggling,’ Pastor Allen said.
A Celebrate Recovery meeting is often a real surprise to those who are used to attending a traditional twelve step meeting.
“We have a time of praise and worship music as well as testimonies and lessons,” Stacy Walker CR Recovery TEAM leader says. “Most are very relieved that we don’t make them stand up in front of 50-60 people and say something like ‘Hi, I’m Fred and I’m an alcoholic.’ The word “celebrate” in our name means just that. Life is hard, but we use our weekly meetings to celebrate the victories we achieve as we learn to live life through the one true higher power, Jesus Christ.”
CR meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. including holidays. Everyone is invited to attend. For more information contact Bill Allen at 325-642-7272 or Stacy Walker at 325-642-3085
