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christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 4
m
More and more, it has become obvious that the
Church needs to be a safe place for discussing
and working through the real issues of life.
Many pastors have realized their inability to
address and handle the many problems within
the body of Christ, both in not having the time
and experience. Most of us want to serve Christ
wholeheartedly, but find that our hurts, habits
and hang-ups hold us back. There is nothing
worse than loving Christ with all your heart and
not being able to overcome these obstacles.
On a personal level, I have been in recovery
for more than 19 years. My wife and I have expe-
rienced God’s healing, not only in our own lives,
but also in the lives of countless others. For the
past 12 years, we have had the blessing of leading
the Celebrate Recovery (CR) ministry at Blue
Ridge Community Church in Forest, Virginia.
To watch others grow and develop a stronger
relationship with Christ is something I would
Dav i d O’ Br i en
Equipping the Local Church
to Help the Hurting
celebrate
recovery
never want to miss. As a ministry leader, I have come to learn that the
recovery process articulated through CR principals is synonymous with
Christian discipleship. It has been amazing to watch newcomers who are
struggling with wanting to even be at CR, or wondering if things will ever
change, to see the transformation take place as they experience healing in
community through the power of Christ and then gain the confidence and
desire to help others.
Through God’s work in CR, we live out 2 Corinthians 1:3-4,
“Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion
and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can
comfort those in any trouble with the same comfort we ourselves have received
from God.”
What a great picture of the Church!
What is Celebrate Recovery?
While on staff at Saddleback Church, Celebrate Recovery founder,
Pastor John Baker, presented the idea of a Christ-centered program for
the whole family to Pastor Rick Warren in 1991. Beginning with the 12
steps of recovery and their biblical comparisons, Baker also developed
eight principals based on the Beatitudes to form the ministry’s founda-
tion. The mission is to provide an environment that produces life change
for Kingdom results. Celebrate Recovery is not just for “those people.”
