#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

# 7 Ongoing Spot in Church Bulletin

Keeping Celebrate Recovery in front of your church family is essential for growth! But you may be thinking, “We’ve been up and running for several years. Surely everyone here knows about what we're doing."

A quote I read from an unknown author stated, “If you tell the average man there are 278,805,732,168 stars in the universe, he will believe you. But if a sign says Wet Paint he has to make a personnel investigation.”

Today may be the day someone is visiting your church for the first time. Or it may be the day someone says “Hey, I wonder if that paint is wet!” Either way, you never know who’s looking, so be ready.

Here’s a copy of one of our weekly bulletin spots:

Is Celebrate Recovery for me?
Are there things in my life
that I do that hurt others?

Is there something I wish
I could live without?

We would love to see you at CR
where you will find fellowship
with other believers who are
working through their hurts, habits and hang ups.

Every Fri. night 7:00pm

Praise & Worship,
Teaching or Testimony

For more information:
www.wfrchurch.org/celebraterecovery
http://www.celebraterecovery.com/

Notice we ask a couple of questions. Be creative and try not to ask recovery questions in the regular way like,"Do you have a problem with drugs or alcohol?" Instead, come up with questions that will apply to a greater spectrum of folks. Also make sure you give some kind of contact information. Web sites are particularly helpful as people can check things out before actually talking to someone.

You know, I think next week we may actually start our bulletin spot off with the heading, "Wet Paint". You never know someone may reach out to investigate!

I would love to hear from you about your creative bulletin spots. You can e-mail me at mowen@wfrchurch.org or comment on this blog. I look forward to hearing from you.

Now in the words of Paul I will leave you with this, "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:4-6

Mac