What is Celebrate Recovery?

Celebrate Recovery is a network of highly imperfect people helping other highly imperfect people learn the skills that help us navigate our way through a world that is very often toxic and painful by providing a safe place for all people to receive and to give support in dealing with the hurts, habits and hang-ups that we all face.

We attempt to accomplish this by learning, understanding, and practicing the traditional 12 steps of recovery as well as 8 recovery principles from the New Testament. The goal of Celebrate Recovery is complete transformation where both the mind and the body benefit from learning new and effective ways to cope with our past, our present, and our future redemptively. We understand that authentic transformation occurs over time and is rarely quick and is never perfect.

By diligent application of our new skills we slowly begin to discover the presence and reality of a forgiving and an empowering God that is active on our behalf—the reason we celebrate. Through our work and celebration we begin to experience moments of freedom from addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behaviors of our past. By continuing with our program we find that these moments of freedom gradually become our new way of life.

Through Celebrate Recovery we believe it’s possible to renew and reinvigorate every relationship we have, at least from our perspective. We can’t control other people, and we don’t attempt to. We simply endeavor to control our own thoughts and behaviors based on the truth taught by Jesus.

You’re certainly welcome to attend the next Celebrate Recovery meeting. We all welcome your participation and happily invite you to check us out. For more information, call the church office at 479.452.9201 or e-mail ed@communitychurch.com.

Celebrate Recovery Schedule

Celebrate Recovery meets every Thursday (including holidays) in the Learning Center on the Fort Smith campus. You don’t need to be a member or regular attendee of Community Bible Church to attend. It is for men and women, 18-years-old and older and childcare is available for those with younger children.

6pm: Dinner ($7)
6:30pm: Large Group Session.
7:15pm: Small Groups

Celebrate Recovery Small Group Guidelines

1.Keep all comments focused on your own thoughts and feelings. Please limit your own comments to three to five minutes.
2.There is 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.
3.We are here to support one another, not “fix” another. There are no experts.
4.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.

Celebrate Recovery Twelve Steps and Their Biblical Comparisons

1.We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Romans 7:18

2.We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

3.We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

4.We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

5.We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16

6.We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

7.We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1:9

8.We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31

9.We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24

10.We continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!1 Corinthians 10:12

11.We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and power to carry that out.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16

12.Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore them gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1

Celebrate Recovery Eight Recovery Principles

1.Realize I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and 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

4.Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself and to another person whom I trust.
Happy are the pure in heart. Matthew 5:8

5.Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life.
Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires. Matthew 5:6

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 doing so would harm them or others.
Happy are the merciful” Matthew 5:7 Happy are the peacemakers Matthew 5:9

7.Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His work for my life and gain the power to follow His will.

8.Yield myself to be used by God 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