Making Your Group Safe for All - Celebrate Recovery Ministry Leader's Chief Commission

Last week we were in Pennsylvania for a One Day Seminar, including the Seven Keys of Recovery and the Advanced Leadership Training. Many thanks to Ron and his team of great volunteers. I also made a new friend on Face Book!

I enjoy Face Book and the opportunities it brings to "stay in touch" with family and friends on a social level. I also have fun with the creative use of YouTube for promotions about Celebrate Recovery world-wide. There are many other creative ways technology connects us and raises awareness of CR in the public eye - and techchnology is great - most of the time!

One area of concern regarding our advanced means of technology is that of anonymity and confidentiality. I've seen and heard examples of someone filming or photographing all or part of a Celebrate Recovery meeting, and then displaying it somewhere on the web.

As a Ministry Leader, your first obligation is to make Celebrate Recovery a safe place for all participants. Letting a camera, camera equipped cell phone , or other video recording device into your meeting can be a violation of the sacred trust of confidentiality or anonymity.

A leader may point out that "I got a signed waver from all concerned". My concern is for that individual who walks in without giving their consent, or the person who later changes their mind and later says, "I didn't really want to sign, but everyone else did".

Two points regarding technology use in a Celebrate Recovery meeting - then I'll let you evaluate where your group stands.

1.) Recording the lessons of Celebrate Recovery is something you should not be doing. The body of the lesson, including the acrostic, is copyrighted material and should not be duplicated for public consumption.

2.) Perhaps the best use of still or video photography is in the promotion of your CR ministry. Think of the "WORDS" video, or the DVD included in the Basic Leadership Kit. A local promotional video is usually shot once, then used for specific purposes in the local church.

In addition, regular or weekly photography or video taping should not be a part of your Celebrate Recovery ministry. The use of camera or cell phone photography should be STRONGLY discouraged in your Celebrate Recovery ministry. If you are recording Celebrate Recovery lessons for inclusion on the web - you're going to have to stop.

Serving as a Ministry Leader, you've likely thrown personal anonymity and confidentiality out the door a long time ago. I wish to encourage you to make CR a safe place for all - and keep the cameras out of the meeting unless there for specific purposes of promoting your ministry.

On another note - this Friday is the last day to take advantage of early registration for the 2009 Summit at Saddleback Church. You may register by visiting us online at Celebrate Recovery .

Celebrating Recovery - each day in Christ! - Jim

Comfortable, Familiar, at Home in Celebrate Recovery

It has been a couple of weeks in a row since I've been able to fellowship at my home church in Austin, Texas. While traveling home from the recent CR seminars in Tulsa and Greenville, I've been on the road or in the air on Sunday, and have missed my church. This morning as Paula and I arrived to take our position as greeters during the first service, we were walking down a hall, I felt a sense of peace and satisfaction and commented "It sure feels good to be here today!".

The sense of "being at home" is something I so desire for your Celebrate Recovery participants when they happen to visit another group.

The Trademark and DNA of Celebrate Recovery are discussed in all of our training events for the purpose of making sure that visitors from other CR ministries from across the country or from the other side of the globe always feel "at home" when they walk through your door. It is always a concern to hear that someone visited another CR, and left confused because it did not match the structure and best practices adopted from the model we find at Saddleback Church.

Whether your ministry is hosting dozens or hundreds of individuals, you can and should follow the model that is taught in all of our training events. We expect that, as a church offers
Celebrate Recovery, it will be an authentic representation of the original - home to participants familiar with the training we provide.

If you need assistance in understanding any part of the Leader's Guide or Seminar workbooks, we have a great group of volunteers in the US, and a growing number of recognized ministry leaders internationally, who are more than willing to answer questions you have about starting and growing a healthy Celebrate Recovery ministry.

There are three more One Day Seminars featuring the Seven Keys and the Advanced Leadership Training between now and June. I'd also like to get in a reminder that we are ahead of registration numbers posted this time last year for the soon coming Celebrate Recovery Summit. You can find registration information for any of our events by visiting Celebrate Recovery . Bless you on this Road to Recovery!

Celebrating Recovery - each day in Christ! - Jim

Anniversary Time - Great Rejoicing in Celebrate Recovery

This past November, Pastor John and Cheryl Baker celebrated SEVENTEEN years of loving and serving people at Saddleback Church's Celebrate Recovery ministry. A great time was had by all, whether part of leadership for years, or showing up the first time as a newcomer.

All year long, there are many other anniversary celebrations in CR ministries across the country and around the globe.

On many occasions I've had the opportunity to drop a note of congratulations to the ministry leader and team who are working hard to faithfully operate a ministry that is meeting the needs of people from the church and community every week of the year.

Last week, Paula and I had a great opportunity to join Marty and Carri Kennedy, friends through CR who were celebrating a four year anniversary at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, TX (pictured above). It was an awesome evening rejoicing with 300 people who were there to mark a special occasion in the life of a recovery ministry serving one of the largest churches in East Texas. National Assimilation Coach, Mac Owen and his wife Mary , were part of the celebration as well.

You will often be encouraged in CR with the concept "we are better together". The leadership of the ministry at Green Acres is formed with the help and encouragement of several churches that have banded together to provide the volunteer manpower necessary to carry out the large group and open share on Monday night, along with step studies that occur other times during the week.

Through networking and cooperation, Marty and his team have successfully raised other leaders who have since started Celebrate Recovery at several churches in and near the Tyler area.

Ministry leader - I know many of us put the name of our church on the shirts we design for the leaders or participants of our ministries, but this team thinks so much of community networking, the shirts that are provided to the leaders and participants say "Celebrate Recovery - Tyler Texas". Truly a sign they are a community minded resource. - looking well beyond the walls of the church to meet the needs around them.

Another observation is that Celebrate Recovery functions as another door to the church, noting that many of the Celebrate Recovery participants seek a growing relationship with Christ through the great Bible teaching of Green Acres.

If you have leaders who have never been to a One Day Seminar, if you have experienced leaders who need to go to the Advanced Leadership track, please drop by CelebrateRecovery.COM

to check out upcoming training opportunities for Winter and Spring 2009. Drop by and say "hi!" when you come to any of these events!

Celebrating Recovery - each day in Christ! - Jim

jimk@saddleback.com

Recovery in a Growing National/International Community

Travel is always exciting!

Whether you travel for business of leisure, I hope you have opportunities to visit Celebrate Recovery ministries in other parts of the country. It is great to visit with brothers and sisters in recovery where ever you go. Visit Bob Wood's CR International blog to get an idea of the international Growth of this ministry. You'll be amazed where we are!

When I first got involved in Celebrate Recovery, options were quite limited, as far as this ministry was concerned. We are now at a point where we are seeing multiple groups within a city or major metropolitan area - and it is great!

The following verse gives much encouragement to us as we gather - for help, strength, and hope in our spiritual walk - and recovery.

Romans 15:5 (New International Version)
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.

My wife and I recently visited a small group from church that meets in our neighborhood. I knew a few of the group members through Bible study and other activities of the church, but many were "friends I had not met yet", as Grandmother Kirchner used to say!

As the meeting got underway, Paula and I had a sense of peace, unity, and vision as we met with others from our church. We gathered together with a sense of commitment and purpose that has been clearly cast through the mission of the church to be REAL Christians.

R - Reproducing Other Disciples, Matt. 28:18-20
E - Esteeming God Above All, Mark 12:30
A - Announcing the Good News, Luke 24:46-47
L - Living for Others, Mark 10:45

As our church is intent on helping members to be REAL, I wanted to be sure that you as ministry leaders are doing all you can to be sure the Celebrate Recovery ministry of your church is real - as the dictionary defines being "genuine in existence".

Training at the Celebrate Recovery Summit and the One Day Seminars across the country will help you start and grow a Celebrate Recovery ministry that is an authentic ministry, faithfully following the trademark, DNA, and best practices developed through seventeen years of experience at Saddleback Church, and a growing world-wide ministry.

This Winter and Spring we will have Seminars in various parts of the country that will help you and your ministry leaders succeed in growing a ministry that will produce life change and discipleship in the lives of men and women who will come through the doors of your meeting room.

Most of this year's events will have both the Seven Keys of Celebrate Recovery AND Advanced Leadership Training. Visit Celebrate Recovery where you can find out more about the events that will have "something for everyone".