Summit Bound!

As I thought about what I was going to write this week I kept thinking about different people who have asked “Is it really necessary for us to attend the Summit? Will we really get anything more than we could get at a One-Day seminar or from visiting successful CR’s that are up and running?” Six years ago this would have been my question. So I want to remind us all how important attending the Summit is to growing our ministries by sharing my experience.

Being someone who struggled with a drug addiction for many years and then in 1988 found relief through church and AA, I know the importance of support groups. Mary and I have been involved in recovery ministries since 1990. So when Mary’s brother was at Saddleback Church one year, he heard about this Celebrate Recovery ministry and wanted us to check it out. I thought, “Yeah right. I know everything about recovery that I need to know. Besides what we're doing is working. If it’s working, don’t fix it!” Some of you will know this kind of thinking is “contempt prior to investigation.”

Long story short, (you can ask for the long version when I see you at the Summit) we decided to go. We went for a break from the Louisiana heat more than anything else. We were in for a big surprise!

We arrived the first morning an hour and a half before things started, so we could leave early. But that’s not what happened. We were so taken by what we heard that we ended up staying till 9 pm. I told Mary this is good information. We can use this in conjunction with what we are already doing. The next day again we got there early so we could again leave early and ended up staying until 10 pm. At the end of that day I told Mary, "We need to stop doing what we are doing and start Celebrate Recovery!"

To say we were overwhelmed at our first Summit would be an understatement. We not only were hearing about a life-changing ministry, but were making new friendships with others who already had CR’s running successfully.

So what will happen if you decide to go to the Summit?

1. You will be filled with more information than seems possible to digest.
2. You will make friends with people you will spend eternity with.
3. These same people will help you start and grow your CR ministry.
4. You will experience praise and worship with over 3000 people who have been rescued. This alone is worth the price of admission!
5. You will leave inspired to make a difference in others lives and you will have the tools to do it.
6. You will also have a chance to leave what has been burdening you at the Cross.
7. Finally, you will become sleep deprived as you will be so excited thinking about all the people you will be able to help!

So what would I have done different about my Summit experience? Gone a lot sooner!

Mac
mowen@wfrchurch.org

#4 Producing Your Own Newcomer's DVD

First of all, I would like to say how thankful I am to Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback Church for all the resources that are available for the promotion of this life changing, church growing ministry that we are involved in. I know for us at White’s Ferry Road Church in West Monroe, LA, the resources made the difference of being overwhelmed with trying to do it all, to on the other hand, using what was available to free us up to work on what was most important, the Newcomer.

The one resource I think of immediately is the CR Newcomer dvd, “Words”. We have used this dvd in our Newcomers 101 since it was released and were thrilled there was something of such high quality that shared about CR in such simplistic detail.

Now as we have grown and more people come in and are ready to serve, we have a responsibility to help people discover where they can serve best. And in doing so, we uncover some very interesting talents.

For us, it was a young man who had been filming for wildlife videos. Our CR TEAM decided we wanted to produce our own Newcomer’s video. So who do you think we got to do the filming? That’s right, Jacob, the wildlife videographer, who happens to be married to our daughter, Callie. Callie bought an inexpensive editing program for our computer and became the editor. So what I’m trying to say here is we kept it low cost and still achieved the results we wanted by producing a video that reflects our CR.

Now Newcomers in our 101 class will recognize the people they just saw in Large group and CR becomes even more on a personal level. Added bonus, it gave all our CR participants the opportunity to be involved in getting the word out by being a part of the dvd.

I have to add here, it’s also a great way to get younger folks involved since most of them are much more savvy on techno matters. Since Jacob & Callie produced the Newcomers video, not only are they working on their own hurts, hang-ups, and habits but they are also reaching out to other young people and getting them involved with CR.

Mac