Celebrate Recovery Blog

 I am getting excited about the kickoff of the Fall One Day Seminars.  I hope you will be able to attend a Seminar near you. It is a great place to be an encourager and to network with other Encourager Coaches from your state or region.

I was thinking about the Summit the other day, remembering our huge gathering of E Coaches in Tent 3 at Saddleback on Wednesday evening.  What an exciting time it was to network, share,  and answer questions.  I sure enjoyed our time together!

Seeing the huge gathering of E Coaches in one place made me realize how many of you there are across the nation.  If most CR ministries are using the T.E.A.M. in their leadership structure, then there are a lot of us! 

What would you think would be a common struggle for new E Coaches?  I often hear someone say that their ministry leader thought they would make a great E Coach, but they aren’t too sure.  Such a statement says that the Ministry Leader has a lot of faith in that person to encourage others and plan events for social times, but the E Coach needs to have faith in themselves. There may be a need for assertiveness and boldness, to feel good about themselves.

You have many gifts and personality attributes that made you the right person for the job. Build a team of helpers that can walk along beside you to assist. Have fun and build relationships with the leaders in the ministry.  They will need your timely prayers or uplifting words as they serve faithfully in this ministry.

I’ll look forward to seeing you in Arkansas, New York, Colorado, Indiana, or Texas. Have a blessed week serving others with gladness of heart!

Paula

Jim and I have a Couple’s Testimony that we have written and shared several times at local Celebrate Recovery meetings.  Every time we are able to tell our story, we are blessed beyond measure, remembering what God has done for us and in us over the years.

As members of a local church, we attend a church home group on Wednesday evenings.  We meet in various homes and the group is lightly structured, a place to get to know fellow church members over a meal and some light sharing about a book we are reading or a short series of teachings or Bible study.

A couple of months ago, our group leaders decided that we would all share our life maps.  If you don’t know what a life map is, it’s telling your life story.  You can create storyboards, show photos, or just share your life journey with the group.  We have listened to several life maps over the past couple of months and decided we would share our CR testimony. After all, why should we rewrite a presentation when we have already done the work of writing our testimony?????

Last Wednesday evening was our appointed meeting to share.  Amazingly, every single person was there. We stayed on the script, kept our sharing limited to about 20 minutes, and did not dance around the issues of our life.  You could have heard a pin drop, the room was very quiet. At the end, we asked for questions and were able to discuss some of what we had shared.

What a great way to advertise Celebrate Recovery! What a door of opportunity to share some truth with those who would not normally walk into a Celebrate Recovery meeting. What a great way to convey to those in our small group about our past and what God has done in our lives.

Next week, we have an invitation from a local CR group to share our testimony!  Wherever God opens doors, we are willing to walk through them.  I encourage you to share your story too!  Someone out there needs to hear how God has worked in your life!

Be blessed as you encourage others!

Paula