Celebrate Recovery began at Saddleback Church in the early 1990s and has been helping people recover from hurts, hang-ups and habits ever since. John Baker was an alcoholic who also was a Christian. As he was recovering from his issues while attending Alcoholics Anonymous, he became uncomfortable with the lack of freedom to use the name of Jesus Christ as his Higher Power. From this place of discomfort, he went on to found the ministry that became known as Celebrate Recovery.
Celebrate Recovery in Topeka meets at the First Southern Baptist Church at 19th and Gage. The meal starts at 6 p.m. At 6:45, live worship begins and about an hour later participants join in small "gender-specific" discussion groups. Every other week there is a testimony and alternating weeks there is a teaching. There are many features of Celebrate Recovery that are similar to other 12-step recovery programs.
Celebrate Recovery meetings include the Serenity Prayer, but it is longer. It goes like this: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. ..
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You in the next."
This is an adaptation of the "Complete Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr.
The teachings and the practice of repeating the 12 steps and their "biblical comparisons" give participants the opportunity to learn how to practically apply God's word in their lives, that is, in negotiating life's trials and temptations according to the Bible, especially the Beatitudes (Matthew 5,6 and 7).
People do not have to be drug addicts or alcoholics, or sex addicts or gamblers to be a part of Celebrate Recovery. Most participants come to the conclusion after perhaps beginning with a presenting problem such as one of the above, that what they are really dealing with is what everyone else in the world is dealing with: sin. That is the beauty of Celebrate Recovery. It works like the church should work, bringing sinners together to recover from the power of sin.
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