Celebrate Recovery

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Celebrate Recovery ministry is to fellowship and celebrate God´s healing power in the lives through the 8 Recovery Principles, and 12 steps. Celebrate Recovery began at Saddleback Church about 16-17 years ago, and they have been able to start the program in over 10,000 churches and over 500,000 individuals have completed the program.

People who are interested to join their meetings, don’t have to be alcoholics, or have past drug problems like I’m used to seeing at other A.A. or similar meetings. In fact anybody dealing with any hurts, habits or hang-ups can join and are welcomed. This recovery program is based on God’s Word, the Bible.

A few years ago even President George W. Bush has recognized and praised Celebrate Recovery program as a ministry at the 11th Regional White House Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The 12 steps described here are as follows:

Step 1
We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors. That our lives had become unmanageable.
For 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)

Step 2
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to act according to His good purpose.
(Philippians 2:13).

Step 3
Made a decision to turn our life and will over to the care and loving concern of God.
I urge you, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s great mercy, to offer your self as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
(Romans 12:1)

Step 4
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).

Step 5
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).

Step 6
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)

Step 7
Humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
(1 John 1:9).

Step 8
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).

Step 9
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 someone has something against you, leave your offering there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
(Matthew 5:23-24).

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

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

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