My wife and I volunteer in a Christ based recovery program. It is so incredible to see people’s lives changed every week. I started in the ministry in 2009 because I wanted to be able to play guitar and worship the Lord with that. Eventually I was asked to lead the praise and worship team and also to teach the newcomer’s class. Celebrate Recovery began in Saddleback Church, pastored by Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life” and other books. We have weekly meetings on Tuesday nights in addition to “Step Studies” where people go through the famous 12 Steps. Because of the nature of what we do, men and women never meet together except for the newcomer’s class.
When I began helping lead the newcomer’s class, there was a woman there whose husband was involved in ministry at another church. Not long after I started helping, she felt like God was calling her to help her husband in his ministry. Because of this, we needed a woman to take her place.
In the newcomer’s class, we introduce the newcomers to Celebrate Recovery. We tell them about the ministry and then watch a short video. After that, we break up into two groups. I take the men to a different room while the women stay where we began the class. In those small groups, we show them what goes on in the groups each week and we get to know the newcomer and encourage them to come back and work on their recovery.
I remarried in 2009 and I had prayed earnestly that if I was ever going to remarry that God would bring a woman into my life that could be in the ministry with me. Up until the point that the lady leading the newcomer’s class with me left, my wife and I weren’t doing any kind of ministry together even though I know God brought her into my life and I had asked for that.
One day in late summer of 2010, my wife, Barbara, texted me from work on Friday and suggested that we go to the beach the next day. We hadn’t been to the beach all summer long and I suggested that we go to Clearwater Beach, Florida which is my favorite place because of the white sand and the Gulf of Mexico is prettier and much calmer than the Atlantic Ocean. When we got to the beach the next day it was raining so Barb suggested that we run up to Hudson, Florida to have a hamburger. There is a little place that sits out over the water and it is one of the first places I ever took her on a date when I came to meet her in Florida.
When we got there, the place was almost empty which is really unusual. We were sitting alone when Barbara told me she wanted to share something with me. She told me that she felt like God was calling her to help me with the newcomer’s class. She said, “I guess I’ll never know if it is God unless I try it.” Just as she said that, the waitress walked up and asked what we were talking about. I didn’t want to get into a big discussion so I just told her it was a “church thing” called CR. She acted surprisingly shocked, reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a key chain with a gold colored coin that she had received for having two years of sobriety. She had been going to a Celebrate Recovery in Hudson! Obviously, God was confirming the plans He had for my wife!
Each week, we meet people that come to the program for the first time. Many of them, their lives are in shambles because of sin and poor lifestyle choices. We never share, outside of Celebrate Recovery, what certain people are struggling with or specific situations. “What happens in CR, stays in CR.” CR is a safe place and we make sure people know that. We also let the newcomers know that we do not tolerate any gossip or telling other people what people are going through.
When I first heard the word, “Recovery”, I immediately thought of drug and alcohol addiction. That is a small part of what we deal with in CR, probably around 20% but it is so much more. We deal with divorce hurt, anger issues, sexual integrity and many more things.
If it were not for the victories we see in people’s lives each week, I could not be involved in this ministry. I see the hurt that sin causes and have even seen what sin does when it is “full grown” and that is death! It hurts me when a man or a woman comes to CR and their marriage has fallen apart because of their addiction to pornography or because of an affair. I see the destruction a lifestyle of drinking or doing drugs causes. I get so angry at Satan and the sin in this world. But all of that is offset by the many incredible things we see our glorious God doing in people’s lives!
One man in CR has spent more than half of his life in prison. A magazine in Florida wrote an article about him while he was serving an 85 year sentence and said he was the meanest man in Florida’s prison system. Basically serving a life sentence, he accepted Christ into his life and God began to do a miraculous work in his life. In four years, he was out of prison. He continues to serve the Lord and goes back into the prison system to work with men and share what Christ did for him! I could go on and on about what God is doing.
On the first Tuesday of each month, we have “Chip Night” where people receive different colored chips (like the waitress in Hudson, Florida). When they begin their recovery, they receive a blue chip. When they have been in recovery for one month, they receive a different colored chip and then a chip at three months, six months, nine months and a year and then each year thereafter. Chip Night is my favorite night because I see people that are beginning to, and continuing to, make good life choices, the choice to walk with Christ and to walk away from sin!
John 8:36 New King James Version (NKJV)
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Let me encourage you, if you are struggling with sin, no matter what it is; anger, pornography, sexual sin, alcohol or drug abuse, get involved in a program near you and learn to walk with the Lord. He SHALL set you free.
