We Have a Place to Take Your Hurts, Habits, and Hang-ups

Celebrate Recovery is now at LBF 

By Phil Shahbaz, Pastor of Community Life 

Scripture is clear; we all have sinned. It’s because of our sin that we hurt ourselves and hurt other people. Most of the time, our sin comes from a place of pain. We then proceed to mask that pain through alcohol, drugs, pornography, and a large assortment of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. As a result, each of us needs repentance and recovery in order to live our lives the way God intended.

Life Bible Fellowship Church now has a specific program to help carry our burdens and point us to the cross. It’s called Celebrate Recovery.

Celebrate Recovery was created to help overcome our hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Overall, it is a faith-based recovery program based on the actual words of Jesus rather than psychological theory. The program’s aim is to lead “us through recovery, towards full Christ-like maturity, by way of the transformational power of the Holy Spirit.

You have likely heard of the 12-step program within Alcoholics Anonymous. This program has absolutely changed many lives and helped people on the road to recovery.

The 12-step points contained in AA point us towards a “higher power,” but remains vague about the nature of God, the saving power of Jesus Christ, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

There are seven specific features that differentiate Celebrate Recovery (abbreviated to CR below) from AA:

1. CR is based on God’s Word – the Bible. In scripture, Jesus taught what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, or the Beatitudes. He began the Beatitudes by stating eight ways to be happy. These eight “principles” serve as the foundation for God’s road to recovery, wholeness, growth, and spiritual maturity. 
2. CR is forward-thinking. Rather then wallowing in the past or focusing on painful memories, CR focuses on the future and depending on the power of Christ to make changes. 
3. CR emphasizes personal responsibility. The healing power of Christ can begin working on our mind, will, and emotions when we stop playing the “accuse and excuse” game of victimization. The program helps us face up to our own poor choices and deal with the things we can do something about. 
4. CR emphasizes spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ. Lasting recovery cannot take place without total surrender to Christ. We all need Jesus. The road to recovery begins and ends with belief in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. 
5. CR utilizes the Biblical truth that we need each other in order to grow spiritually and emotionally. The program is built on small group interaction and fellowship with a caring community. The program does not allow us to walk alone. 
6. CR addresses all types of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Some recovery programs only deal with alcohol and drugs. CR deals with a limitless number of issues. Whatever you are struggling with, CR has a place for you. 
7. CR is a leadership factory. Because the program is biblical and church-based, it produces a continuous stream of people moving into ministry after they have found recovery in Christ. 

Celebrate Recovery is a ministry that changes lives in a dramatic way. Our hope is to see hopeless marriages restored and people set free from all kinds of sinful hurts, habits, and hang-ups. It is a dramatic program that will implement Christ-centered recovery at Life Bible Fellowship Church. Regardless of your struggle – whether it is alcohol, drugs, divorce, sexual abuse, codependency, domestic violence, sexual addiction, food addiction, gambling – there is now a place for you to take your burden.

The leaders of our Celebrate Recovery program are Lindsey and Jacque Williams and Steve and Brenda Johnson. They are products of Celebrate Recovery programs at other churches. They serve as living testaments to the transformational power of Jesus Christ. You can email them at celebraterecovery@lbfchurch.com or sign up online at lbfchurch.com.

You can also sign up through your K.I.T. card or stop by the Celebrate Recovery table on Sunday morning. No matter how you choose to contact them, what’s important is that you make the decision to make a change. There is a way. That way is through Jesus Christ. The Celebrate Recovery program at LBF will be here to help.