Celebrate Recovery

Drawn from the Beatitudes, Celebrate Recovery helps people resolve painful problems in the context of the church as a whole. Rather than setting up an isolated recovery community, it helps participants and their churches come together and discover new levels of care, acceptance, trust, and grace.

There is a way the church can help the wounded move beyond their hurts, habits, and hang-ups to experience the forgiveness of Christ. Celebrate Recovery helps the church fulfill its role as Christ's healing agent. You don't have to lead alone. To lead people forward in spiritual, physical, and emotional restoration is to walk in the footsteps of Christ. And that's why the Celebrate Recovery Leader's Guide is so important. With everything you need to encourage lasting life-change, the leader's guide is the best way to facilitate Celebrate Recovery in your church and help people look forward to a whole new future. The Celebrate Recovery Leader's Guide includes: Fresh testimonies A 90-day start-up strategy A clear, easy-to-follow format Step-by-step instructions for each meeting Guide for conducting leader training Teaching notes for the 25 lessons of The Journey Begins (Participant Guides 1-4) Overview of the 25 lessons of The Journey Continues (Participant Guides 5-8) Along with a willing heart, this leader's guide is invaluable for leading men and women forward in complete restoration and transformation through Christ.

Find freedom from life’s hurts, hang-ups, and habits. The NIV Celebrate Recovery Study Bible is a powerful and positive ally. This Bible is based on eight recovery principles found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and on the underlying Christ-centered twelve steps of the proven Celebrate Recovery program. This Bible and all of its added content lifts you up and shows you how to walk, step by attainable step, on a path of healing and liberty. Based on the proven and successful Celebrate Recovery program developed by John Baker and Rick Warren, the NIV Celebrate Recovery Study Bible offers hope, encouragement, and, through developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, empowerment to rise above your struggles. Celebrate Recovery is a biblically-based program that helps those who are struggling by showing them the loving power of Jesus Christ through the recovery process. The Celebrate Recovery program is offered in thousands of churches worldwide. Features: Complete text of the accurate, readable, and clear New International Version (NIV) Articles explain eight recovery principles and accompanying Christ-centered twelve steps Over 110 lessons unpack eight recovery principles in practical terms Recovery stories offer encouragement and hope 30 days of recovery-related readings Over 50 full-page biblical character studies are tied to stories from real-life people who have found peace and help with their own hurts, hang-ups, and habits Book introductions Side-column reference system keyed to Celebrate Recovery’s eight recovery principles Topical index “I’m excited you’re beginning the journey to recovery. Your life will change. You’ll experience freedom from your sinful habits, hang-ups, and hurts as you give up control and allow Jesus to be Lord in every area of your life.” From the foreword by Dr. Rick Warren, senior pastor, Saddleback Church “Throughout the pages of Scripture, we see God’s heart for celebrating recovery! This collection will help you experience and celebrate that journey, one step at a time. Jump in and see how recovery and spiritual growth are one and the same.” Dr. Henry Cloud, Christian psychologist, author, and speaker

You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression “time heals all wounds.” Unfortunately, it isn’t true. As many pastors and counselors know, people still carry hurts from thirty or forty years ago. The truth is, time often makes things worse. Wounds that are left untended fester and spread infection throughout your entire body. Time only extends the pain if the problem isn’t dealt with. Your First Step to Celebrate Recovery introduces you to a biblical and balanced program that has helped nearly a million people overcome their hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Based on the actual words of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount rather than psychological theory, the Celebrate Recovery program has helped people for over 20 years to grow toward full Christ-like maturity. Author and founder John Baker tells the true story of how Celebrate Recovery became one of the largest Christ-centered recovery programs in history. Baker will help you discover how God’s love, truth, grace and forgiveness can bring healing into your life.

Since Benjamin Rush first introduced the disease of wills as the cause of alcoholism, a steady and slow infiltration of the disease model has infected how the church treats those who struggle with addictions. The first organization that truly sought to remove the soul care of addicts from the church was Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), through their bestselling The Big Book of AA and the introduction of the 12 Steps. AA's influence on how the church confronts addiction still reverberates today, with many of the ministries that address addiction firmly rooted in what can be found in AA literature. Addictions were once viewed as an issue caused by sin and best addressed through faith and prayer. Currently addiction is seen through the lens of disease. The ramifications are consequential as more church members are struggling with addictions than ever before. Tracing the progression of addiction from sin to disease will reveal that the SBC and its churches have been negligent in understanding the underlying foundations of AA and the influence that the medicalization of substance abuse has had on how churches approach what should be classified as a sin issue.

The Celebrate Recovery Participant's Guides are essential tools for the personal recovery journey. In the seven lessons in Guide 4: Growing in Christ While Helping Others, you will work through the final two principles on the road to recovery. More than just maintenance, these principles will help you prevent relapse and give you the necessary tools to help others in their recovery process. 7 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. 8 Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words. "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires" (Matthew 5:10). By working through the lessons and exercises found in each of the four Participant's Guides you will begin to experience the true peace and serenity you have been seeking, restore and develop stronger relationships with others and with God, and find freedom from life's hurts, hang-ups, and habits. All the scriptures have been updated to the new NIV 2011 version.

The Celebrate Recovery Participant's Guides are essential tools for the personal recovery journey. In the six lessons in Guide 1: Stepping Out of Denial Into God's Grace, you will experience the first 3 of the 8 recovery principles: 1 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. "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor" (Matthew 5:3). 2 Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me recover. "Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). 3 Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ's care and control. "Happy are the meek" (Matthew 5:5). By working through the lessons and exercises found in each of the four Participant's Guides you will begin to experience the true peace and serenity you have been seeking, restore and develop stronger relationships with others and with God, and find freedom from life's hurts, hang-ups, and habits. All the scriptures have been updated to the new NIV 2011 version.

Celebrate Recovery introduces The Journey Continues—four new participant's guides designed as a revolutionary, new second step study curriculum. This step study is taken after completing The Journey Begins (Participant Guides 1-4). In the seven lessons in Guide 7: Honoring God by Making Repairs, you will experience Christ-centered and biblically based studies filled with brand new acrostics, deeper questions, and more helpful Bible verses. The content in Guide 7 will focus on a deeper study of principles 4-6 of the recovery process: Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself, and to someone I trust. "Happy are the pure in heart" (Matthew 5:8). Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. "Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires" (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, except when to do so would harm them or others. "Happy are the merciful" (Matthew 5:7). "Happy are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9). By working through the lessons and exercises found in each of the four participant's guides of The Journey Continues you will find a deeper sense of true peace and serenity, continue to restore and develop stronger relationships with others and with God, and find deeper freedom from life's hurts, hang-ups, and habits.