#2 Communication Between Church Staff & CR TEAM

Your responsibility helping Celebrate Recovery become a valuable part of your church starts with good communication between the church staff & the CR TEAM. In other words, helping the church see what a valuable asset CR can become!

Our CR meets in the Fellowship Center. This room is also used for weddings and receptions. And when are many weddings? Saturday, and of course, most folks like to set up for weddings on Friday. Our church made it a policy that no one can start decorating until after CR on Friday nights. We realize this may be a hardship on mothers of the brides. So our CR offers them an army of volunteers to help move table chairs and whatever else is needed after CR. This is a job even the Newcomer feels like they can be a part of and we are not shy about asking them. This helps the Newcomer feel like they are “a part of” instead of just “occupying a seat.”

This past Sunday our Senior Pastor said, “As a church we are going into one of the rougher areas of our town to remodel a house for a community center in conjunction with other area-wide churches.” What he said next was a reflection of how CR has become invaluable. He stated, “I know “our” CR family will lead the way!” He didn’t say, “Mac, can you get “your” CR guys to help?” CR has become an vital part of our church because with rescue comes the heart for service!

My favorite story is when one of our TEAM members was in the church office one Monday. Our staff happened to be discussing how they were going to pull off an old fashioned “dinner on the grounds”, that our leaders had told the church we would have for our 50th anniversary. The staff was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with the task of feeding over 1200 people. That’s when our CR TEAM member stepped in and said, “I believe CR can help!”

CR showed up early to set up tables, move chairs, set up food & drink tables, serve, and clean up afterwards. Brightly colored CR shirts could be seen everywhere. When it was over the staff & ministers were admiring a completely cleaned-up area (by 2:00) and were commenting on what had just happened there, to which one replied, “CR just happened here!”

Because of the relationship CR has with our staff, they love to tell others about CR. Our church sees God working through CR changing lives right before their very eyes!

Matthew 5:14 is a good picture of who we need to be:

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

Mac
mowen@wfrchurch.org

Facebook, you got to be kidding!

I promise to get back to our Top 10 list on how to be the best Assimilation Coach as soon as I stop getting side-tracked by good ideas and ways to get the word out about Celebrate Recovery!
From the title you already know some of what’s coming, so let’s get right to it.

Recently, I was encouraged to get on facebook and ask people to be my “Friends”. I thought, you have got to be kidding! I don’t have time for this! Not to mention it sounded way too girly for me. I mean, really, how could anything with a name like facebook be manly, right? Ok, I can see right now you are noticing there are still some issues I need to work through, but remember, I am in recovery. To not appear totally overbearing in my macho-ness, I simply said, “This must be for people with nothing better to do.”

My good friend, Johnny Baker said, “No, Mac, it’s not that we don’t have other things to do. It’s just that while you are doing things in the evening like maybe watching TV, others are choosing to interact with real people! And since we have a National CR wall on facebook, we as leaders need to be on there. At the very least to check out what’s being said.” OUCH! Point well taken.

So I signed up and it has been a blessing, to not only me, but to our CR family. You may be thinking, how so? First off, I told all our leaders to sign up for facebook and start interacting with old friends but not for the purpose of talking about the past with them. You talk about what you are doing now. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is CR.

In the last three weeks, we have had five people come to our CR directly from conversations they had with our CR members on facebook! Then last week a woman wrote, “I watched your Newcomers video that is posted on FB, and cried through it. Can I come to CR?”

Also, weekly, I listen for a good “quote of the CR night” that I can post, only after I have asked for permission of course. This starts amazing dialogue about CR. Once again, a tool that the Enemy has been capitalizing on ~ the computer. But God’s people are taking it back and using it to reach out to the hurting!

Now having said all that, remember this, use facebook wisely! Go to Paula’s Encourager Coach blog posted on March 23rd to see how to do this.

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” 1Corinthians 9: 22b-23

Mac
mowen@wfrchurch.org

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

As promised, we are going to show you some great t-shirt ideas. Thanks to Jess Lesick from CT and Lisa Kouns from LA for the photos!

When you think about it, what better way to share about CR than to be a walking billboard. I love when I see other people point at a shirt I'm wearing and say to a friend “Hey look at that!” or asking “What does that mean, God never waste a hurt?” or “what’s Celebrate Recovery?” So coming up with shirts that not only catch people's eye but get them to ask, “ What’s that about?” so you can reply, “Glad you asked!”, is a great way to not only share about CR but also sends a powerful message about who we follow in CR and what Jesus is able to do!

One of my favorite tshirts is from a friend who came up with the following saying when we did our cardboard testimonies. The tshirt says “Satan said I was garbage, God says I recycle garbage!” You can see him in action on the condensed version of our CR Newcomers video at http://www.youtube.com/ entitled, WFR Celebrate Recovery Newcomers video.

So be creative and let me know some ideas you’ve come up with, you never know who’s looking!

Mac

#5 Resource Table Part 2

WOW, I didn't know talking about resource tables would generate so much interest! But you know really it should ,because Newcomers who may be afraid to ask questions, will pick up information off your tables to read. So thanks for the emails about your resource tables.

This week see how Celebrate Recoveries all over the country are making the most of an opportunity by impacting Newcomers with their resource tables. These pictures can help you can brainstorm to present your table more effectively. We actually have had a good resource table. But after seeing what some of you are doing, we're kicking ours up a notch!

A favorite verse of mine is Col. 4:5, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity."

Also we have received a lot of interest in t shirt ideas so next week we will show you some we have seen, used, and others we came up with at our local CR . What a great way to get the word out...wear it!

#5 Resource Table

If you don’t have it out there, how can they read it? How important is it to have materials available? Well, let’s start with a reminder of who our meeting nights are for. All together now, “It’s all about the Newcomer!” (Mary said that was pretty cheesy) but it’s so easy to forget that it’s not about me.

The most natural thing to do on meeting nights is to look for all my friends in recovery. And forget that there are going to be people that show up who know nothing about recovery. Or if they are familiar with recovery it will be secular recovery. And I know this, the last time I was at an AA meeting, we didn’t start off with Praise and Worship.

So having literature that explains what CR is about and brochures on different struggles, as in photo above, that can be addressed at CR is a must! It’s kind of like God and his relationship with us. He didn’t just tell us about having a relationship with Him (okay He did at first, but we didn’t do too good a job at retaining the info). So He made sure it was written down so we won’t forget.

"Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple." II Tim. 2:15

I’m continually discovering new ideas on how to have a better group by reading and re-reading the material written by John Baker and CR team. I mean, really, how about that Life’s Healing Choices book? Just when I was wondering how I would teach the same lessons we’ve been doing for five years, I've found great new ideas from this book while using the same acrostics! And then there’s the Celebrate Recovery Bible that is packed full of great Bible character studies of men and women in recovery who were leaders in God’s church.

In Louisiana, we plan everything we do around a meal and most of us really love to cook. A vital ingredient to a successful meal is presentation. It’s got to look good before I’ll eat it. Same thing with your literature table…don’t haphazardly throw things out there. Make sure the table looks pleasing to the eye. Set up your resource table in a way where the Newcomer will want to feast on the information you have presented.

Also your resource table is the perfect place to show CR T-shirts and caps. There are some great ideas for sayings on shirts out there. We’ve been collecting these sayings for years. Maybe next time, if you want, I can give you a list of the shirt quotes we’ve collected.

Thanks for all the comments…keep them coming.

Mac