Loving Jesus. Loving People. Sharing hope.
Finding freedom from life's hurts through Christ-centered community
Celebrate Recovery Ministry
A safe place to find community and freedom from the issues that are controlling your life
Healing from Addiction, Habits, and Hurts – A Christ-Centered Recovery Program
Life can be overwhelming. We all have struggles—whether it’s the weight of past mistakes, deep wounds we can’t shake, or habits that keep us stuck. Sometimes, we try to handle it on our own. Other times, we just ignore it, hoping it’ll go away. But what if there was a better way?
What Is Celebrate Recovery?
Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered program where real people come together to work through real struggles. It’s a place where we get honest—about our pain, about the ways we try to escape it, and about how those escapes can cause even more damage. But it’s also a place of hope, healing, and change.
Whether you’re battling substance abuse, anger, control issues, or emotional wounds, CR provides a safe and supportive community where you can find healing.
The 8 Biblical Principles of Celebrate Recovery
The path to healing isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about surrender—learning to rely on God instead of our own broken ways of coping. Celebrate Recovery is built on eight biblical principles that help us walk through this process. These principles, based on Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5, show us what true freedom looks like.
- Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. (Matthew 5:3)
- Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover. (Matthew 5:4)
- Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. (Matthew 5:5)
- Openly examine and confess my hurts, hang-ups and habits to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Matthew 5:8)
- Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. (Matthew 5:6)
- Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others when possible, except when to do so would harm them or others. (Matthew 5:7,9)
- Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
- Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and my words. (Matthew 5:10)
Events
Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery is a biblically balanced approach to help bring sustainable recovery and healing to our hurts.
What can I expect at Celebrate Recovery?
A typical Celebrate Recovery meeting includes:
- A large group meeting
- An open share small group
- Newcomers 101 (for your first week only)
Participants are encouraged to invite their families and friends to the pre-meeting dinner if they so choose; the dinner is designed for a time of great fellowship and great food at affordable prices with other Celebrate Recovery participants.
The large group meeting is designed for the participant to set aside the busyness and stress of the outside world by entering into a time of prayer, praise and worship, and teaching as a way of getting in touch with the one and only Higher Power, Jesus Christ.
The open share small group meets immediately after the large group meeting and provides a place for the participant to connect with other Celebrate Recovery attendees. This is a safe place where participants can be in gender-specific groups and issue-specific groups.
Newcomers 101 is for first-time attendees and will help you better understand what Celebrate Recovery is all about as well as provide you the opportunity to ask questions or process your feelings in a safe environment before you make a commitment to a small group.
After you’ve attended Celebrate Recovery for a while, you will join a step study. The step study small group is for those who are ready to delve deeper into their past and the choices they have made. Step studies take place another night of the week.
Are there guidelines for group members?
Yes. The following five guidelines will ensure that your small group is a safe place.
Keep your sharing focused on your own thoughts and feelings.
Not your spouse’s, someone you’re dating, or your family members’ hurts and hang-ups, but your own.
Focusing on yourself will benefit your recovery as well as the ones around you. Stick to “I” or “me” statements, not “you” or “we” statements.Limit your sharing to three to five minutes, so everyone has an opportunity to share — and to ensure that one person does not dominate the group sharing time.
There is NO cross-talk. Cross-talk is when two people engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.
Cross-talk is also making distracting comments or questions while someone is sharing. This includes speaking to another member of the group while someone is sharing, or responding to what someone has shared during his or her time of sharing.
We are here to support one another, not “fix” one another. This keeps us focused on our own issues.
We do not give advice or solve someone’s problem in our time of sharing or offer book referrals or counselor referrals!
We are not licensed counselors, psychologists, or therapists, nor are the group members. Celebrate Recovery groups are not designed for this.
It is up to the participants to include outside counseling to their program when they’re ready.Anonymity and confidentiality are basic requirements. What is shared in the group stays in the group. The only exception is when someone threatens to injure themselves or others.
We are not to share information with our spouses/family/co-workers. This also means not discussing what is shared in the group among group members. This is called gossip.
Please be advised, if anyone threatens to hurt themselves or others, the Small Group Leader has the responsibility to report it to the Celebrate Recovery Ministry Leader.
Offensive language has no place in a Christ-centered recovery group.
Therefore, we ask that you please watch your language. The main issue here is that the Lord’s name is not used inappropriately.
We also avoid graphic descriptions. If anyone feels uncomfortable with how explicitly a speaker is sharing regarding his/her behaviors, then you may indicate so by simply raising your hand.
The speaker will then respect your boundaries by being less specific in his/her descriptions. This will avoid potential triggers that could cause a person to act out.Why choose a faith-based recovery program?
Unlike secular recovery programs, Celebrate Recovery is centered on Jesus Christ as the ultimate source of healing. While the 12 Steps of Recovery offer practical guidance, true transformation happens when we surrender to Christ.