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Celebrate Recovery®
WELCOME NEWCOMERS!
RECOVERY GROUP INFORMATION
If you are new to recovery we encourage you to attend “Newcomers 101”
Celebrate Recovery Small Groups CAN:
- Provide you a safe place to share your experiences, strengths, and hopes with others that are also going through a Christ-centered recovery.
- Provide you with a leader who has gone through a similar hurt, hang-up, or habit and who will facilitate the group as it focuses on a particular Step each week.
- The leader will also follow Celebrate Recovery’s “Small Group Guidelines,” listed below.
- Provide you with the opportunity to find an Accountability Partner or a Sponsor.
- Encourage you to attend other recovery meetings held throughout the week.
Celebrate Recovery Small Groups Will NOT:
- Attempt to offer any professional advice. Our leaders are not counselors. At your request, we can provide you with a list of approved counseling referrals.
- Allow its members to attempt to “fix” one another.
Small Group Guidelines
- Keep your sharing focused on your own thoughts and feelings. Limit your sharing to 3–5 minutes.
- There will be NO cross-talk. Cross-talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.
- We are here to support one another, not “fix” one another.
- 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.
- Offensive language has no place in a Christ-centered recovery group.
Chemically Dependent
Individual groups for men and women
This group is for anyone who has ever thought they have a problem with drinking alcohol or using drugs. You may have tried to quit on your own and found some level of sobriety, but freedom from the compulsion to use your drug of choice has been elusive. At Celebrate Recovery, we know that a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Higher Power can set us free.
* Please be advised if anyone threatens to hurt themselves or others, their Small Group Leader has the responsibility to report it to a Celebrate Recovery Ministry Leader.
Co-Dependency
Individual groups for men and women
This group is for anyone struggling with the compulsion to rescue or take care of others, the compulsion to control or manipulate others, having difficulty setting boundaries or recognizing their own worth. Members in this group learn to express their own needs and wants in a healthy way.
Physical/Emotional and/or Sexual Abuse
Individual groups for men and women
This group is for anyone who has endured past physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. Recovery includes healing from the traumas done to us at some time in our past and healing from the influence these past experiences continue to have on our lives.
Adult Children of Family Dysfunction
This group is for anyone who grew up in a family or home where one or more caregivers struggled with addiction, compulsions, co-dependency or any other unhealthy behaviors. Recovery includes healing from the damaged emotions and belief systems from our childhood.
Sexual Addiction
Individual groups for men and women
Support group for those seeking recovery from lust and compulsive sexual behaviors. This group provides fellowship, is a safe place to share our struggles, pain, and victories, and helps to establish accountability and mutual support among the group members throughout the week.
Food and Body Image Issues
This group is for anyone who struggles with food and/or body issues that may result in compulsive behaviors such as overeating, binging and/or purging, starvation, excessive exercise, or obsession with food, looks, and/or body weight/size. Recovery includes transferring worship from food and body to God, and replacing lies and unhealthy distorted beliefs about God, food, and body, with truth and healthy God-driven self-worth and esteem.
Love and Relationship Addiction
This group deals with Love and Relationship Addiction and provides a safe place to deal with depression, isolation, lack of trust, and the unhealthy use of love and relationships as a means of achieving worth.
Co-Dependent Women in a Relationship with a Sexually Addicted Man
Sexual addiction and its causes are largely unknown to most people. This group not only provides support but also helps women seek an understanding of their own personal issues. Co-Dependents can then confront their own denial and behavior while gaining insight and understanding of their spouse’s sexual addiction.
Recovery from Anger
Individual groups for men and women
These recovery groups are for men and women who find that anger is their first response to any size problems. The anger may be very evident as rage, or less obvious in terms of withdrawal and isolation. These groups focus on managing a God-given emotion in constructive ways.
WELCOME TO AN AMAZING SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE!
Celebrate Recovery®
ADULT CHILDREN OF FAMILY DYSFUNCTION
Exploring the Issue of Adult Children of Family Dysfunction
Did you grow up in a family or home where one or more of the caregivers struggled with addiction, compulsions, co-dependency or other unhealthy behaviors? Was your home filled with conflict, neglect, or anxious systems?
Often children from dysfunctional families think the systems they grew up in are normal and may be unaware of the adverse effects.
Adult children of Family Dysfunction often create survival skills from childhood, such as isolation, perfectionism, and family peacemaker, which then become habits or hang ups as adults.
Characteristics of an Adult Child of Family Dysfunction may include but are not limited to:
- We suffer from lack of self-confidence or low self-esteem.
- We have difficulty trusting others.
- We have difficulty acknowledging or expressing emotion as an adult, having learned how to repress painful or confusing emotions as a child.
- We have to guess what is normal, having grown up in a dysfunctional home.
- We have spent time taking care of others while neglecting our own needs.
- We lived in anxiety, walking on egg shells, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
- We struggled with unexplained anger, rage, and sadness.
- We have difficulty following through on a project because of a struggle to concentrate and focus.
- We manage time poorly and do not set priorities in a way that works effectively for us.
- We have difficulty forming healthy adult relationships.
- We judge ourselves harshly, especially when things did not go perfectly.
- We are prone to addiction to alcohol or drugs, self harm, or self destructive behavior.
- We are either extremely responsible or irresponsible brought on by alack of good example growing up.
- We overreact to change.
- We get angry frequently or easily, and tend to isolate.
- We constantly seek approval and affirmation.
- We had to grow up too soon, lose childlike qualities of innocence due to having to take on major responsibilities at an early age.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of an Adult Child of Family Dysfunction in Recovery May Include but are not limited to:
• Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power • Work the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently. We recognize we are powerless to heal from the damaged emotions resulting from our childhood. • We come to believe that we matter to God and He loves us as His child. • We look to God and His Word to find our identity as worthwhile and loved human beings. • We learn that the emotions we are feeling are very real and need to be acknowledged. • We learn how to organize our emotions. First by noticing them, then honoring them, organizing them, and sharing them with God and at least one other person. • We learn to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us and make amends for harm we’ve done to others. • We gradually release the burden of unexpressed grief, slowly move out of the past, and no longer allow it to control us. • We can set clear limitations and boundaries. • Become an adult who is no longer imprisoned by childhood reactions. • We are willing to mature in our relationship with God and others. • We come to believe that God won’t waste the hurt in our lives. • In our recovery, we become willing to be used by God to bring hope to others with similar struggles.
Celebrate Recovery®
FREEDOM FROM ANGER
Exploring the Issue of Anger
There is a plan and a purpose for anger in our lives. Anger is one of our 10 basic God-given emotions and there are constructive ways to deal with and express anger. For many of us, anger is the primary way we choose to express emotions. Therefore, anger is an issue that must be managed. We must learn to recognize our unhealthy patterns of anger and the emotions and circumstances that push us to become destructively angry.
For us, anger is a “misdirection,” a hang-up that we have developed to mask hurt or fear. At it’s core, our anger is an intent to preserve our personal worth, essential needs or basic convictions.
We may feel intense shame and guilt over the actions we have committed during our unhealthy expressions of anger. We vow never to act that way again, only to find ourselves back in the same situations, unable to change it by our own power.
Characteristics of Someone Struggling with Anger Issues may include, but are not limited to:
- I have to raise my voice to get my point across.
- I become impatient easily when things do not go according to my plans.
- When I am displeased with someone, I may shut down any communication with them or withdraw entirely.
- I am annoyed easily when others don’t appear sensitive to my needs or convictions.
- I do not easily forget when someone “does me wrong”
- When someone confronts me with a misinformed opinion, I am thinking of my comeback while they are speaking.
- When I am forced to deal with emotions or circumstances that I do not want, I become resentful.
- I become annoyed when others don’t hold themselves to the same standards that I hold myself to.
- I often use sarcasm and humor to communicate a point.
- People take me seriously when I am “aggressive.”
- I may act kindly toward others on the outside, yet feel bitter and frustrated on the inside.
- I find myself overreacting to minor incidents.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery for Anger Issues may include, but are not limited to:
- We have accepted Jesus Christ as our Higher Power.
- Working the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently.
- We are learning that Jesus can be trusted.
- We are shifting our focus from ourselves and our desires to serve God and others.
- We are learning to take more personal responsibility for our actions and emotions.
- We are learning to “take a pause” before reacting.
- We have learned to recognize unhealthy patterns of anger in our lives.
- We have shared those patterns and “triggers” with at least one other person and are accountable to them for how we deal with them.
- We are learning to deal with our anger quickly.
- Ephesians 4:26, “In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
- We are becoming more comfortable expressing our more vulnerable emotions like fear, hurt, rejection, and insecurity.
Celebrate Recovery®
CELEBRATION PLACE
Welcome!
While you are at Celebrate Recovery, Celebration Place is a place where your children can make new friends, share ideas, play games, sing songs, create crafts, and watch videos and movies. Each week your children will learn the same lesson that you are learning in Celebrate Recovery. And most important of all, they’ll learn about God’s amazing love for them!
Celebration Place is truly a celebration—of the joy of life, the wonder of God’s love, and the promises of the future. Celebration Place is a structured program for children. The night begins with a time of connection that we call Free Play.
Free Play
People were created for connection. Free play offers an opportunity for children to play together. Play is very important for children. It helps prepare them mentally and emotionally to learn in addition to building friendships.
Worship
Every Celebration Place meeting includes a time of worship. We want to encourage children to connect with God. Praise and worship are just one way people can connect with God.
Teaching Time
Children will experience sessions on topics such as denial, powerlessness, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and more–at their age level.
Centers
Every lesson has three centers that help reinforce what is being taught. These centers include things like games, crafts, object lessons, and snacks. They are a lot of fun and give children a way to connect with each other.
Small Groups
We have small group time before and after our centers. This is a time for the children to talk about the lessons, to ask questions, and share what they learned. It also gives the children a safe place to come out of their shells and talk about whatever is going on in their lives.
Small group guidelines:
- We talk about our own thoughts and feelings, not about other people. When it’s our turn, we only talk for a few minutes.
- We talk to the whole group, and not just one person.
- When others talk, we listen quietly without interruption
- We don’t talk outside the group about what others say, unless we’re worried that people might hurt themselves and others.
- We never use mean words or put-downs at Celebration Place
During small groups, children use their Celebration Place Journals to get in touch with their feelings and record their thoughts. This unique aspect of the journal opens the door to healing communication by teaching children to talk to each other, talk to God, and talk to their parents.
Children bring home a discussion sheet so that the parents can talk with them about the week’s topic and healthy choices can be reinforced. The unique approach initiates positive, fun, faith-filled conversations between children and parents that let them practice open communication and sharing in ways they may never have experienced before.
Closing
The main points of the lesson are reviewed as a final reminder of the recovery themes taught. Children end the night in prayer by reading together a child version of the Serenity Prayer.
God, help me accept the things I can’t change;
Give me the courage to change the things I can;
And give me the wisdom to know the difference.
Amen
Purpose of Celebration Place
Sometimes the hurts, hang-ups and habits that children struggle with go unnoticed. That’s why Celebration Place is so important. It’s a place where children ages K-5th grade can discover their own pathway to healing.
With structure, love, discipline, and guidance, we hope to help children to develop life skills that will be vital in their times of struggle and daily life. Celebration Place is designed to equip children with practical coping techniques, strategies, and values to prevent the development of unhealthy coping mechanisms. We like to think of it as “PREcovery.”
Celebration Place gives children…
- Hope for all the amazing things God has in store for them
- Truths that help them overcome life’s challenges by learning to lean on Jesus
- Joy as they embark on a wonderful, year-long journey of songs, games, videos, impactful experiences, and great conversation
- Friendships with other children
Celebrate Recovery®
CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY
Exploring the Issue of Chemical Dependency
Have you ever thought you have a problem with drinking alcohol or using drugs? If so, you may have tried to quit on your own and found that while you can gain some level of sobriety, freedom from the compulsion to use your drug of choice has been elusive. At Celebrate Recovery we know that a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Higher Power can set us free.
Characteristics of someone struggling with Chemical Dependency may include, but are not limited to:
- I drink or use in excess to get drunk or high on a regular basis.
- I feel powerless to stop using my drug of choice.
- I tell myself that I will quit, but I never follow through.
- My addiction causes pain to myself and to those around me.
- My use has cost me close friends, key relationships, jobs, or other important parts of my life because I have made my drug of choice the most important thing in my life.
- Using used to be fun, but now it is something I feel like I need to do just to get by.
- I get angry when loved ones tell me I have a problem.
- I try to hide my addiction from others.
- I think that if I could find the right amount, combination, or drug of choice, my problems would go away.
- I feel convicted that I have a problem, but I try to push that feeing away in order to protect my addiction.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of someone in recovery for Chemical Dependency may include, but are not limited to:
- Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power
- Working the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently.
- Doing the work to sustain sobriety, or abstinence from drugs and alcohol.
- Attending recovery meetings regularly.
- Developing a support team of a sponsor and accountability partners.
- Intentionally praying and doing the work to restore and develop stronger relationships.
- Growing closer to Jesus as we work through the 8 principles to find His healing power from all of our hurts, hang ups and habits while turning to Him for lasting comfort that cannot be found in a drink or drug.
- Learning how to serve others out of the freedom we are finding.
Celebrate Recovery®
CO-DEPENDENCY
Exploring the Issue of Co-Dependency
Co-dependency is when a person’s need for approval or validation from another person allows them to be controlled or manipulated, or a person who attempts to manipulate or control someone. They are willing to compromise their own values, choices, and behavior at the expense of their personal well-being.
Characteristics of someone struggling with co-dependency may include, but are not limited to:
- Assuming responsibility for other’s feelings and behaviors.
- Feeling guilty about other’s feelings and behaviors.
- Having difficulty identifying or expressing one’s own feelings.
- Minimizing, altering, or denying how one truly feels.
- Worrying about how others may respond to your feelings, opinions, and behavior.
- Valuing others opinions and feelings more than your own.
- Living with messages of not being good enough, valued, or loved.
- Fear of expressing different opinions or feelings from those of others.
- Fear of being hurt and/or rejected by others.
- Compromising one’s own beliefs, values, and integrity to avoid other’s rejection or anger.
- Over-functioning to be needed, valued, or loved.
- Tolerating mistreatment or abuse from others while justifying their behavior and trying to defend them.
- Overly caring for others at the expense of one’s own self needs; feeling victimized and “used” as a result.
- Anxiety in saying “no” to someone, even when saying “yes” would be at great inconvenience.
- Directly or indirectly attempting to fix, manage, or control another person’s problems to help them avoid feeling bad or experiencing the consequences of their choices.
- Judging everything you think, say, or do harshly, as never being “good enough.” A perfectionist at heart.
- Feels conflicted by a desire to be needed and resentment for feeling obligated in serving others.
- Being extremely loyal, to the point of remaining in harmful situations too long.
- Feels bound in relationships by performance (what I do) rather than core value and worth (who I am).
- Avoids conflict with other people to the point of being unable to speak true feelings or asking for valid needs to be met.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of someone in recovery for codependency may include but are not limited to:
- Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power.
- Working the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently.
- Accepting and walking in the biblical truth that our identity and value are who we are in Christ, and not based on how others view us, what we do, or the service we perform.
- Learning to recognize and enforce healthy boundaries that accurately establish where we end and another person begins. Not allowing others to compromise those boundaries.
- Learning how to help others in suitable ways, without rescuing or fixing; allowing them to act independently, allowing them to own the results of their choices and behavior.
- Performing acts of service as a choice, not out of duty or for recognition and value from others. Serving with joy using God-given talents and abilities.
- Learning to live a balanced life where self-care and taking responsibility for our own health and well-being take priority over the addictive behavior and control of others.
Celebrate Recovery®
CO-DEPENDENT WOMAN IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH A SEXUALLY ADDICTED MAN
Exploring the Issue of Being a Co-Dependent Woman in a Relationship With a Sexually Addicted Man
Many of us blame ourselves for the addict’s behavior: We tell ourselves, “If only I were more attractive, thinner, taller, shorter, etc.—if only I were more sexual.”
We give in to others’ behaviors, only to lose ourselves in the process. Sometimes, we have even participated in their sexual fantasies, or joined in by using pornography with them, leaving us feeling used and abused. Some of us ignored or did not recognize the signs that the addict was living a secret life.
Many of us blame the addict and their behavior for every problem in our relationship. We believe that if they would only change then everything would be fine. In essence, co-dependents are addicted to their spouse’s behaviors. They either give in to the addict, try to control them, or make them stop.
We have sometimes pretended to family, friends, and co-workers that everything is “wonderful.” We have been unforgiving and sometimes punishing toward the addict.
Characteristics of a Co-Dependent Woman in a Relationship with a Sexually Addicted Man may include but are not limited to:
- Having a spouse who continually escapes to pornographic material.
- Having a spouse who is currently having or has had an affair.
- You, yourself, are having an affair.
- Issues dealing with molestation and abuse from a spouse.
- Their spouse engages with sex workers.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery for Being a Co-Dependent Woman in a Relationship with a Sexually Addicted Man May Include, But are not Limited to:
- Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power.
- Working the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently.
- Recognize the struggles of other co-dependents.
- Learn healthy, Christian values for family roles and rules.
- Gain information about healthy sexuality and relationships.
- Break through denial and other unhealthy family patterns.
- Encouragement from the group to find peace, strength, and grace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Build healthy relationships by finding love and acceptance in a “safe” place to share.
- Realize that we could not control the addict or their behavior.
- Understand that our problems are emotional and spiritual.
- Face our denial and accept the truth about our lives, and our past issues.
- Realize that blaming ourselves, trying to control the addict and/or ignoring their behavior, refusing to set and uphold our own personal boundaries, are all signs of co-addiction.
- Accept responsibility for our own actions and make Jesus the Lord of our lives.
- Become dedicated to learning about sexual addiction and co-addiction and becoming partners with our spouse in recovery.
- Realize we are not responsible for their addiction or recovery. It is not our job to “fix” them.
- Find healthy ways to release our fears and anger and refuse to use anger inappropriately toward the addict.
- Have a safe place to share fears, hurt, or anger and also to rejoice in victories.
- Face our own defects and work through these feelings.
- Take the focus off of the addict and focus on God and our own thoughts and feelings.
Celebrate Recovery®
FOOD AND BODY IMAGE ISSUES
Exploring Food and Body Image Issues
An unhealthy relationship with food and/or our bodies begins and continues for many different reasons. Food may be used as a coping mechanism to ease negative feelings, emotions, and circumstances, to have control in one area of our chaotic life, or to change our body to fit an imagined standard that will bring fulfillment, peace, and acceptance.
We may be living a double life, secretly acting out, ashamed of our lack of control, our bodies, our destructive and irrational behaviors. We may rationalize our behaviors, justifying our unhealthy relationship with food as “health conscious.” We may jeopardize our relationships, health, jobs, morals, and values to continue in our self-destructive behaviors.
Characteristics of Someone Struggling with Food and Body Image Issues, May Include but
Are Not Limited To:
- Inability to discern when physically hungry or physically full
- Excessive or compulsive consumption of food (bingeing) and/or getting rid of food (purging)
- Self-induced starvation, excessive use of laxatives, enemas, “diet” pills, or medications for weight loss
- Excessive and/or unhealthy weight loss
- Obsession with body weight and shape
- Spending the majority of your day thinking about food, when you’ll eat, what you’ll eat, how your body looks, how much you weigh, etc.
- Belief there is one or more perfect diet, program, plan, pill, or exercise that will be “the answer”
- Low self-esteem and/or negative body image
- Emotional disconnect from self, others, and God
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups, and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery for Food and Body Image Issues, May Include but
Are Not Limited To:
- Accept Jesus Christ as higher power
- Working the 12-step recovery process diligently and consistently
- Shifting our worship from food and our bodies to God
- Finding healthy coping mechanisms for negative feelings, emotions, and circumstances
- Developing a healthy identity and positive self-worth that comes from God, not our bodies or others
- Learning to love ourselves as God loves us, so knowing we are worth the work it takes for Him to heal us
- Emotionally connecting with God, self, and others and developing safe relationships
- Viewing food as fuel for our body, and as something that God gave us to enjoy
- Learning and listening to our body’s cues for hunger, fullness, and what foods to eat
- Discerning the difference between physical and emotional hunger
- Decreasing obsession with food and body, replaced with self-acceptance, contentment, peace, and fulfillment from God
- Developing a balanced, healthy approach to food and health
- Healing our distorted beliefs about food, ourselves, or our bodies
Celebrate Recovery®
GAMBLING ADDICTION
Exploring the issue of Gambling Addiction
If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit gambling entirely, or if you have little control over the amount you bet, you are probably a compulsive gambler. A compulsive gambler is described as a person whose gambling has caused growing and continuing problems in any department of his or her life.
Characteristics of someone struggling with a gambling addiction may include, but are not limited to:
- My gambling makes me careless of the welfare of myself and/or my family.
- I have borrowed money, sold possessions, and/or committed an illegal act to finance gambling.
- After losing I felt the need to return as soon as possible and win back my losses or after a win had a strong urge to return and win more.
- I have lost time at work, school, home, and with friends to gamble.
- At times, I have been defensive about my gambling and justified my right to gambling, especially when trying to escape worry or stress.
- I was trapped in the illusion of “just one more time.” Or “this time it will be different.”
- When I did seek help I was only looking for the pain to go away.
- My track record shows that it is impossible for me to gamble in any form.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from out hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of someone in recovery for gambling addiction may include, but are not limited to:
- Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power.
- Working the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently.
- Living without gambling one day at a time with the help of the Higher Power, Jesus Christ.
- Staying away from that first bet. If there isn’t a first one, there cannot be a 10th one. And when free of gambling, life becomes much more manageable.
- Experiencing the true peace and serenity you have been seeking.
- Restoring and developing stronger relationships with God and with others.
- Stop relying on dysfunctional, compulsive, and addictive behaviors as a temporary “fix” for pain.
- Learning how to serve others out of the freedom you are finding.
Celebrate Recovery®
LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP ADDICTION
Exploring the Issue of Love and Relationship Addiction
For most women with unhealthy love and relationship addiction, we are dealing with depression, isolation, and a lack of trust. Unhealthy use of love and relationships is used as a means of achieving worth.
Characteristics of Someone Struggling with Love and Relationship Addiction may include, but are not limited to:
- Lack of nurturing and attention when young
- Feeling isolated, detached from parents and family
- Mistake intensity for intimacy
- Hidden pain
- Seek to avoid rejection and abandonment at all cost
- Afraid to trust anyone in a relationship
- Inner rage over lack of nurturing, early abandonment
- Depressed
- Manipulative and controlling of others
- Perceive attraction, attachment, and sex as basic human needs, as with food and water
- Sense of worthlessness
- Escalating tolerance for high-risk behavior
- Presence of other addictive or compulsive problems
- Using others to alter mood or relieve pain
- Existence of secret “double life”
- Defining “wants” as “needs”
- Use fantasy or unhealthy relationships to escape painful feelings or reality
- Unrealistic or unhealthy expectations with our spouse
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery for Love and Relationship Addiction may include, but are not limited to:
- Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power
- Working the 12 step recovery process diligently and consistently.
- Shifting our worship from our sexuality to God.
- Finding healthy coping mechanisms for negative feelings, emotions, and circumstances.
- Developing a healthy identity and positive self-worth that comes from God, not our bodies or others.
- Learning to love ourselves as God loves us, so knowing we are worth the work it takes for Him to heal us.
- Emotionally connecting with God, self, and others, and developing safe relationships.
- Identify difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships with others.
- Not engaging in sex with self, phone sex, cyber sex, pornography, fantasy, or a sexual relationship outside of marriage.
- Seeking a biblical definition of healthy sexuality.
- Become willing to experience grief, forgiveness, and acceptance.
- Discerning the difference between physical “need” and “want”
- Avoid cross over addictions; i.e. food/alcohol/drugs
- Identify triggers
- Avoid people, places, and things that tempt us to act out.
- In our recovery, we become willing to be used by God to bring hope to others with similar struggles.
Celebrate Recovery®
MENTAL HEALTH
What we are.
- A safe and loving place for those seeking to find support amid mental health issue and dual diagnosis. Willing to support mental health through Christ-centered accountability and sponsorship.
- A safe place to work through all of life’s hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Believing that freedom in Christ is something that can be complete even without physical healing.
What we are not.
- A place for judgment.
- A replacement for counseling and therapy.
- A place that gives up on HOPE!
Exploring Mental Health
Fifty percent of all adults will experience some form of mental health issue in their life. * This can mean different things to different people. Ultimately, the list of the different types of disorders is too large for one informational sheet.
“Mental Health Issue/Mental Illness is an ongoing condition that affects mood, behaviors, and thinking patterns which may cause suffering and/or may interfere with a person’s ability to function with typical daily activities on a frequent basis.”
Just like any other organ in our body, our brains are subject to malfunction from time to time. In the same way that a heart, lung, or kidney can malfunction, our brains can malfunction. This can lead to feelings of devastation, anger, or loneliness, for example. Often the result is a feeling of isolation, loss of control, and hopelessness.
Frequently, to ease these overwhelming emotions, people will use unhealthy coping skills. This can be through unhealthy relationships, at-risk behaviors, substance abuse, etc.
Thankfully, through the loving grace of Jesus Christ we do not have to live under the assumption that we have no hope. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) we see God telling us,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
This tells us that when we are feeling weak, God steps in to fill the gap for us if we let Him.
Celebrate Recovery is a tool to help us experience the freedom that comes when we allow God to stand in the gap for us. Utilizing the 12 Steps of Recovery and their biblical comparisons, along with the 8 Principles based on the Beatitudes, we allow God to work in our lives. In Step 3, “We make a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.” When we stop trying to get by under our own power and give that control over to God, we start living under His power. His “perfect power” offers healing and hope from life’s hurts, hang-ups, and habits.
God gives us the ability to come out of the darkness that weighs so heavily on us. We can feel what it is like to walk through life with hope for a better tomorrow. We can start building relationships with others that are healthy. We learn positive tools for coping with frustrations and then incorporate these tools into our lives.
Celebrate Recovery cannot promise physical healing from your mental health issues, no more than it can promise healing for cancer. What we can offer you is this:
Celebrate Recovery is…
- a safe and loving place for those seeking to find support in the midst of a mental health issue and dual diagnosis.
- willing to support mental health through Christ-centered accountability and sponsorship.
- a safe place to work through all of life’s hurts, hang-ups, and habits believing that freedom in Christ is something that can be complete even without physical healing.
Celebrate Recovery is not a replacement for professional counseling, therapy, and medical treatment. We are here to support those efforts and encourage you as you use them.
Living with mental health issues can be difficult. There is no denying that fact. But living with mental health issues does not have to be a lifelong sentence of misery. You do have hope for a better tomorrow. By living one day at a time, one moment at a time, you can find peace. You can live a life that is extraordinary.
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Celebrate Recovery®
MIXED ISSUES
Welcome to Celebrate Recovery!
You may have come to our ministry because of a friend’s recommendation. Maybe you are here because you saw a flyer or heard an announcement here at our church. Regardless of why you decided to attend, we are SO glad you are here.
We are very excited you have decided to stick around for our Open Share Groups. We want to provide a secure environment in our Open Share Groups that keep you coming back! That is why we use the following five guidelines. These guidelines ensure that no matter what group you decide to attend, it will be an experience in which you will feel safe and supported.
These Small Group Guidelines are:
- Keep your sharing focused on your own thoughts and feelings. Limit your sharing to three to five minutes.
- There will be NO cross-talk. Cross-talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person sharing is free to express feelings without interruptions.
- We are here to support one another, not “fix” one another.
- 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.
- Offensive language has no place in a Christ-centered recovery group.
Exploring Recovery
After attending our Newcomers 101 group you may still be struggling to find the right Open Share Group for you. (The goal of Newcomers 101 is to explain how Celebrate Recovery works and to help you find an Open Share Group.)
You may have looked through our group descriptions and not found a group that specifically meets your recovery needs.
You may have looked through our group descriptions and decided that you could be in any of them. You are unsure where exactly to start.
You may feel most comfortable starting your recovery journey around others with “mixed issues”…
However, at some point we believe there is power in being able to “name” your specific issue. Consider joining a step study, if one is available, to help you dig in to your recovery and to help you identify the core issue you are struggling with.
If you feel overwhelmed because you identify with more than one issue, we always recommend you start your recovery journey with the issue that is causing you, or others, the most pain right now.
How We Find Recovery
Attend our mixed issues group! We are so glad to have you join us. This is a group that will help you address and begin the healing process for your hurt, hang-up, or habit. Your struggle is important to us, and we look forward to walking with you on your unique recovery journey.
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Celebrate Recovery®
PHYSICAL, SEXUAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE – 12 STEPS
STEP ONE – We admit we are powerless over the past, and as a result, our lives have become unmanageable.
STEP TWO – Believe God can restore us to wholeness, and realize this power can always be trusted to bring healing and wholeness in our lives.
STEP THREE – Make a decision to turn our lives and our wills to the care of God, realizing we have not always understood His unconditional love. Choose to believe He does love us, is worthy of trust, and will help us to understand Him as we seek His truth.
STEP FOUR – Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, realizing all wrongs can be forgiven. Renounce the lie that the abuse was our fault.
STEP FIVE – Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of the wrongs in our lives. This will include those acts perpetrated against us, as well as those wrongs we perpetrated against others.
STEP SIX – By accepting God’s cleansing, we can renounce our shame. Now we are ready to have God remove all these character distortions and defects.
STEP SEVEN – Humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings, including our guilt. We release our fear and submit to Him.
STEP EIGHT – Make a list of all persons who have harmed us and become willing to seek God’s help in forgiving our perpetrators, as well as forgiving ourselves. Realize we’ve also harmed others and become willing to make amends to them.
STEP NINE – Extend forgiveness to ourselves and to others who have perpetrated against us, realizing this is an attitude of the heart, not always confrontation. Make direct amends, asking forgiveness from those people we have harmed, except when to do so would injure them or others.
STEP TEN – Continue to take personal inventory as new memories and issues surface. We continue to renounce our shame and guilt, but when we are wrong, promptly admit it.
STEP ELEVEN – Continue to seek God through prayer and meditation to improve our understanding of His character. Praying for knowledge of His truth in our lives, His will for us, and for the power to carry that out.
STEP TWELVE – Having a spiritual awakening as we accept God’s love and healing through these steps, we try to carry His message of hope to others. Practice these principles as new memories and issues surface, claiming God’s promise of restoration and wholeness.
*Throughout this material, you will notice several references to the Christ-centered 12 Steps. Our prayer is that Celebrate Recovery will create a bridge to the millions of people who are familiar with the secular 12 Steps (I acknowledge the use of some material from the 12 Suggested Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous) and in so doing, introduce them to the one and only true Higher Power, Jesus Christ. Once they begin that relationship, asking Christ into their hearts as Lord and Savior, true healing and recovery can begin!
Celebrate Recovery®
PHYSICAL, SEXUAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE FOR MEN
Exploring the Effects of Physical, Sexual and Emotional Abuse for Men
RECOVERY IS A TWO FOLD PROCESS in this case. The first step is healing from the traumas done to us in our past, and the second step is healing from the influence these past experiences continue to have on our present.
Characteristics of Someone Struggling with the Effects of Physical, Sexual, and/or Emotional Abuse may include, but are not limited to:
- Are hesitant to identify themselves as victims of abuse
- Feel isolated, depressed, worthless, and helpless to change
- Are struggling with feelings about God in relation to their life experiences of abuse
- Condemn themselves, denying the past abuse affects their present circumstances
- Feel out of control and defeated in areas of compulsive behavior
- Feel angry, bitter, and rebellious; have trouble with authority figures
- Feel a lack of self-worth and low self-esteem.
- Are preoccupied with thoughts of what it means to have a “normal” relationship with others: mates, friends, family.
- Question their own sexual identity and may experience confusion regarding their own sexuality
- Desire to regain their sexuality and feel safe in intimate relationships
- Question self-reality: “Who am I?”
- Question whether life has a purpose
- Feel “at home” in crisis situations
- Struggle with perfectionism or “all or nothing thinking”
- Desire to have victory through Christ over the life experience of abuse
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery From Physical, Sexual, And/Or Emotional Abuse May Include, but Are Not Limited To:
- We recognize that we are powerless to heal the damaged emotions resulting from our abuse. We look to God for the power to make us whole.
- We understand that safety is a high priority and will remove ourselves from any unsafe
- We come to believe that we matter to God and He loves us as His
- We admit that God’s plan for our lives includes victory over the experience of
- We understand that the abuse committed against us is not our fault. We are NOT
- We understand that the people who abused us are responsible for the abusive acts committed against us. We will not accept the guilt and shame resulting from those abusive
- We look to God and His Word to find our identity as worthwhile and loved human
- We learn that the emotions we are feeling are very real and need to be acknowledged.
- We learn how to organize our emotions by first noticing them, honoring them, organizing them, and sharing them with God and at least one other
- We don’t accept responsibility for the abuse itself but do accept the responsibility for our responses to the
- We are wiling to accept God’s help in the decision and the process of forgiving ourselves and those who have perpetrated against
- We come to understand that releasing our offender to God allows us to move forward toward the healing
- We come to understand that forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciliation with my
- We are willing to mature in our relationships with God and others.
- We come to believe that God won’t waste the hurt in our
- In our recovery, we become willing to be used by God to bring hope to others with similar
Celebrate Recovery®
PHYSICAL, SEXUAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE FOR WOMEN
Exploring the Effects of Physical, Sexual and Emotional Abuse
RECOVERY IS A TWO FOLD PROCESS in this case. The first step is healing from the traumas done to us in our past, and the second step is healing from the influence these past experiences continue to have on our past.
Characteristics of Someone Struggling with the Effects of Physical, Sexual, and/or Emotional Abuse may include, but are not limited to:
- Are hesitant to identify themselves as victims of abuse.
- Feel isolated, depressed, worthless, and helpless to change.
- Are struggling with feelings about God in relation to their life experiences of abuse.
- Condemn themselves, denying the past abuse affects their present circumstances.
- Feel out of control and defeated in areas of compulsive behavior.
- Feel angry, bitter, and rebellious; have trouble with authority figures.
- Feel a lack of self-worth and low self-esteem.
- Are preoccupied with thoughts of what it means to have a “normal” relationship with others: mates, friends, family.
- Question their own sexual identity and may experience confusion regarding their own sexuality.
- Desire to regain their sexuality and feel safe in intimate relationships.
- Question self-reality: “Who am I?”
- Question whether life has a purpose.
- Feel “at home” in crisis situations.
- Struggle with perfectionism or “all or nothing thinking.”
- Desire to have victory through Christ over the life experience of abuse.
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working through the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery From Physical, Sexual, And/Or Emotional Abuse May Include, but Are Not Limited To:
- We recognize that we are powerless to heal the damaged emotions resulting from our abuse. We look to God for the power to make us whole.
- We understand that safety is a high priority and will remove ourselves from any unsafe situation.
- We come to believe that we matter to God and He loves us as His child.
- We admit that God’s plan for our lives includes victory over the experience of abuse.
- We understand that the abuse committed against us is not our fault. We are NOT GUILTY.
- We understand that the people who abused us are responsible for the abusive acts committed against us. We will not accept the guilt and shame resulting from those abusive acts.
- We look to God and His Word to find our identity as worthwhile and loved human beings.
- We learn that the emotions we are feeling are very real and need to be acknowledged.
- We learn how to organize our emotions by first noticing them, honoring them, organizing them, and sharing them with God and at least one other person.
- We don’t accept responsibility for the abuse itself but do accept the responsibility for our responses to the abuse.
- We are wiling to accept God’s help in the decision and the process of forgiving ourselves and those who have perpetrated against us.
- We come to understand that releasing our offender to God allows us to move forward toward the healing process.
- We come to understand that forgiveness does not necessarily mean reconciliation with my offender.
- We are willing to mature in our relationships with God and others.
- We come to believe that God won’t waste the hurt in our lives.
- In our recovery, we become willing to be used by God to bring hope to others with similar struggles.
Celebrate Recovery®
SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
“Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help come!? He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help those who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3 (GNB)
Principle 8
Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.
Celebrate Recovery Service Opportunities
Solid Rock – Help with set-up or take-down, serve every week, or every other week.
Audio / Visual – Visual ~ Run PowerPoint® during Large Group or Newcomers 101, or to help develop various PowerPoint presentations for special trainings, workshops, etc. Friday nights: Audio ~ Work with the worship team
CR Worship Team – Vocalists and musicians are needed to help lead worship during the Large Group Meeting.
Greeters – This is a front-line ministry! Come early and be the smiling face that welcomes Newcomers. Help greet at Solid Rock or Newcomers 101
Prayer Ministry – Join in to pray for the leaders, teachers, participants, and all of the meetings. Or join the weekly team and pray for the prayer requests turned in each meeting via an email prayer chain.
Pizza Teams/ Barbecue Cookout Team – Come help in the kitchen, help the barbeque team, or help set up tables while you get to know people. It’s a great first step in service and fellowship.
Office Volunteers – Barbecue season—April through October.) Help with various tasks that help make general meeting nights happen!
Prison Ministry – Assist with distribution of The Purpose Driven Life® books. Send an encouraging note to inmates in jails and/or in prisons across the country. We need women to write to female inmates and men to write to male inmates. Write to one inmate or as many as you like.
Celebration Place and The Landing
Contact your ministry leader for more information on how to volunteer with Celebrate Recovery’s children’s program
Here’s How to Sign Up
Prayerfully ask God to guide you in selecting the area where you will serve. Then, fill out the Celebrate Recovery Response Card and return your card to the Friday night Information Table. It’s as simple as that! A Celebrate Recovery Leader will contact you and give you the steps to take to begin serving. We want to thank you for taking another step in your recovery by serving others. With your help, we will be able to reach more people in our families and communities who are struggling with hurts, hang-ups, and habits.
Celebrate Recovery®
SEXUAL ADDICTION
Exploring the Issue of Sexual Addiction
Our lust often begins as an overpowering desire for pleasurable relief. We may be running from an inner pain, loneliness, emptiness, or an insecurity, and find that sex is the best way to cope. Lust, pornography, sex with ourselves or with others can briefly dissolve tension. It can momentarily relieve depression, resolve conflict, and even provide the means to escape from or deal with life’s seemingly unbearable situations.
However, that pleasure often brings with it more tension, depression, rage, guilt, and even physical distress. The cycle continues as we try to relieve this new pain, leading to more sex, pornography and lust. We live in denial in order to avoid recognizing just how much our addiction controls our life. As we continue in our self destructive behaviors, sexual addiction jeopardizes our relationships, health, jobs, morals and values. Ultimately, sexual addiction takes the place of God in our lives as a coping mechanism to deal with life’s hardships.
Characteristics of Someone Struggling with Sexual Addiction may include, but are not limited to:
- Engaged in promiscuity and illicit relationships.
- Engaged in sex with self, phone sex, cybersex, pornography, sex outside of marriage, hook ups
- Living a double life
- Jump from relationship to relationship
- Always looking for the “perfect” relationship to fulfill wants
- Use sexual acts as a way to cope or escape.
- Pursuit of sex has harmed or destroyed your marriage relationship
- Unable to limit or stop acting out
- Cannot resist sexual images
- Feel guilty after acting out
- Legal issues from a sexual offense
- Denies the sexual addiction is a problem
- Escalating tolerance for high risk behavior
How We Find Recovery
Through a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Higher Power, and by working the 8 recovery principles and the Christ-centered 12 steps, we can find freedom from our hurts, hang ups and habits.
Characteristics of Someone in Recovery for Sexual Addiction may include, but are not limited to:
- Accept Jesus Christ as Higher Power
- Working the 12 step recover process diligently and consistently.
- Shifting our worship from our sexuality to God.
- Finding healthy coping mechanisms for negative feelings, emotions, and circumstances.
- Developing a healthy identity and positive self worth that comes from God, not our bodies or others.
- Learning to love ourselves as God loves us, so knowing we are worth the work it takes for Him to heal us.
- Emotionally connecting with God, self, and others, and developing safe relationships.
- Not engaging in sex with self, phone sex, cybersex, pornography, or a sexual relationship outside of marriage.
- Seeking a biblical definition of healthy sexuality.
- Become willing to experience, grief, forgiveness, and acceptance.
- Discerning the difference between physical “need” and “want”
- Avoid cross over addictions; i.e. food/alcohol/drugs/codependency
- Avoid people, places, and things that tempt us to act out.
- In our recovery, we become willing to be used by God to bring hope to others with similar struggles.
Celebrate Recovery®
THE LANDING
Welcome!
The Landing is Celebrate Recovery’s student ministry geared towards Jr. High and High School students. The lessons and content we walk through in the Landing are designed to mirror the same life-changing material as the adult Celebrate Recovery program – the difference is the Landing is packaged
for students. The Landing exists to provide a safe place for our students to process life and the struggles that accompany it, provide tools to help them live emotionally and spiritually healthy lives, and point them towards the freedom found in Jesus Christ. Through this journey we come to realize that our struggles matter, we do not have to face them alone, and our True Higher Power, Jesus Christ, offers us a better way forward that leads to lasting healing, hope, and freedom.
A typical night in the Landing will consist of:
Connect Time
This time serves to create connection between our students and leaders and builds friendships and connection. This normally involves some sort of game or activity.
Worship
Oftentimes our lives are filled with distractions and obligations that keep us from slowing down and focusing on what God is doing. A time of worship gives us all an opportunity to connect with and rest in God.
Teaching Time
Our Landing leaders will present biblical truths and recovery principles to us in a way that we can engage with, participate in, and apply to our lives.
Small Group
The Landing uses the same five Small Group Guidelines that adult CR uses in Open Share groups and walks through a series of questions that pertain to that night’s teaching time. Small Group gives the students a time to process and personalize the recovery principles they are learning.
Fellowship Time
This time serves as a place for students and leaders to connect, build relationships, and continue processing the lesson after the service.
Small Group Guidelines
No matter who we are, we all have struggles and pain that can keep us from living the abundant life that Jesus promised us. Thankfully, true healing can come when we connect ourselves to the hope of Jesus and a safe community of people who are willing to love us and walk with us. Our small groups play
a huge part in fostering that connection. Every week, in the Landing, we will have a time for small group sharing separated by gender. This time is essential to allow us to process through our struggles and hurts, and gives us a chance to connect what we’re going through to the truths we learn here. These groups are an incredible place to find connection, hope, healing, and encouragement, but that can only happen if they are truly safe. In order to ensure these groups are productive and safe, we use these same five Small Group Guidelines each and every week:
- Focus on your own thoughts and feelings when sharing in the group. Limit your sharing to three to five
- Please avoid all cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express their feelings without
- We are here to support one another, we will not attempt to “fix” one another.
- Anonymity and Confidentiality are basic requirements. What is shared in group will stay in group. The only exception is when someone threatens to harm themselves or others, or any case of
- Avoid offensive language; it has no place in a Christ-centered