Revolution 180

So we are going to make THIS blog the Celebrate Recovery blog - because in recovery, the idea is to make a 180 - turn clear around, go the other direction. Repentance means this same thing . . .it is so much more than just being sorry for what we've done wrong.

We are hoping to get a grant that helps us go to the next level - and we are going to try to put some foundational elements into place before we get the grant (I'm going on faith).

Celebrate REcovery is our Friday night church service that takes the Word of God and combines it with the Twelve Steps. I know that there is some controversy over whether or not the church is supposed to be incorporating "recovery" principles into it's ministry - but the way I look at it, Jesus is all about "recovery." The cool thing is that he is also about renewal and repentance.

We started about a year ago - using materials from Saddleback Church. They took the Beatitudes and very successfully were able to meld them with the Twelve Steps. There is an opening dinner - usually a BBQ, followed by a Large Group meeting (Church) which has rockin' music, testimonies, teaching, chip nights, etc. Then everyone breaks into Small Groups (men, women) and they meet and talk about the teaching (sort of like Sunday School on Friday nights!). Afterwards, we have a Sally's Cafe where we have snacks and goodies to munch on. IT all ends about 10pm on Friday night - except for the cleanup crew.

It's been going well - and it has brought a lot of people into the family of God. Some people come on Sunday mornings and some just come regularly on Friday nights. We have about 60-80 people each week - and it definitely keeps us jumping.

We'll keep writing in this blog about the ups and downs - the hard things, the good things, the people whose lives are changed. . .

For now, thanks to Robbin and the crew for keeping it going! Good work, guys!