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Programs helps participants with hurts and habits
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Members of the music ministry rehearse for the worship portion of a recent Celebrate Recovery session.
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Theresa Seraphim
for South Peace News
At 7:00 on a recent Friday evening, Tom Moore invites everyone at Community Christian Church to stand and sing worship songs. Then he invites one person to come forward and share her story of how the Celebrate Recovery program has changed her life.
“A year ago, (she) wouldn’t have been able to do this,” Moore, the program co-ordinator, tells the gathering.
Moore says many participants, like this woman, have grown through being in the program, which began at Saddleback Church through member Johnny Baker.
Baker, said Moore, struggled with alcoholism and joined AA. He then took the 12 Steps a step further by setting out Eight Recovery Principles, based on the Beatitudes.
“We look at the past but we don’t focus on it. We look at today and the future,” says Moore.
Music, considered essential to the program, is incorporated into the sessions, which begin with large group sharing and then split off into smaller groups based on whatever the person is dealing with. In the small groups, volunteer leaders help participants with their issues and provide support.
After the small group session, at 9 p.m., there is a coffee house.
“It reinforces the fact that we’re all human…That’s where we’ve found a lot of healing happening.”
Celebrate Recovery also requires that each participant have an accountability partner – males with males and females with females. The co-ordinators also have a support system and pray for leaders daily, as is mandated by the program.
Sessions in the year-long program alternate between lessons (26 in total) and testimonies designed to show the progress of participants, says Moore. After the year, the cycle begins again. Celebrate Recovery began in Slave Lake a year and a half ago.
“We didn’t have to create anything – they provide us with everything,” says Moore.
Because the program is the same everywhere, if a participant moves away, to a place where Celebrate Recovery is offered, they can automatically join the new group.
After completing the program, participants may continue in the program as volunteer small group leaders, musicians, or in other capacities.
Participants deal with a range of issues, including child abuse, sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorders, depression and codependency.
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is – the way (the program is) written, it’s directed towards any issue,” says Moore.
“We have people who are completely free of cocaine abuse and eating disorders. One gal had an issue with self-esteem and now she’s one of my leaders.”
About 40 people have gone through the program here, and Moore currently has eight regular leaders and two backup leaders to help him.
Moore stresses anyone, of any denomination or no denomination, is welcome to participate in Celebrate Recovery.
“Our focus is to help people be healed.”
Moore says the terminology of the program is different – no reference to addictions.
“We call them hurts, habits and hangups, because everybody has them,” says Moore.
People – both the participants and the 16 volunteers – are dedicated to the program.
“The only Friday night we missed last year was Boxing Day,” notes Moore.
Some participants initially come on their own, while others are brought by friends and/or family. Moore says one person brought a friend and then realized she, too, needed Celebrate Recovery.
“The program is open. We want it to be comfortable for them to come,” says Moore.
As the clock moves towards 8:00 on this Thanksgiving weekend Friday evening, Moore asks participants what they are thankful for, and several mention Celebrate Recovery.
Then, after a few more songs, they move into small groups, to move towards healing of habits, hurts and hangups.
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