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

Following the Trademark, Building a Healthy Ministry with an Authentic Large Group Meeting Night

I have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to visit groups across the country as I go to Celebrate Recovery Seminars in many different states and regions. In the Seminars, and the upcoming CR Summit, a large part of the training is focused on trademark and format.

An inconsistency noted in some groups has been failure to follow the meeting format outlined in the Celebrate Recovery Leader's Guide. On pages 28 - 29, there is a great example of a calendar that will take you through a calendar year of CR. All you have to do is enter the teacher, testimony, or special feature and a large part of your work is done! Your calendar year, the one used in your church's CR ministry, begins with the date you establish as part of your "90 Day Kickoff Strategy", found on pages 20 - 21 of the Leader's Guide.

The "Three Doors" video found in the Advanced Leadership Training kit is a great way to understand and apply the Large Group, Open Share groups, and Step Studies in your local ministry. It is important to remember that the Step Study groups are intended to occur on a different meeting night during the week. It is possible to offer Step Studies on several nights of the week depending on leader availability.

Pages 32 - 33 of the Leader's Guide include a format for Open Share groups that are held immediately following the Large Group meeting or scheduled during another time in the week. These are the agenda items you need to cover in your Open Share group, and provide a format for the small group leader to follow.

Keep in mind the Celebrate Recovery participant Guides are not part of the Open Share group that follows your Large Group meeting. The exception may be times a participant wants to share something learned in answering questions in the booklet as part of his or her Step Study. The time in an Open Share group is typically used to cover the focus questions selected by the Ministry Leader. In some cases, the small group leader may be delegated the task of coming up with focus questions for the time in Open Share.

I want to point out to Ministry Leaders that the State Reps, Regional Directors, and I wish for your Celebrate Recovery to be a lasting ministry of your church. The best way to insure healthy regular growth for your ministry is to determine from the start that your Large Group meeting night will always held with the newcomer in mind. If you have any questions about starting and growing CR, we are here to help you and your ministry team be a success. We don't commission training centers or consultants - we only endorse a great group of volunteers to help your ministry grow.

You need to keep in mind you do not need to start Step Study groups in the first six months to a year. You can use this additional time in your first year to prepare group leaders and assistant group leaders for the task ahead. Trust me - participants and leaders will benefit from the Large Group meeting time and the support and accountability developed in Open Share.

Next time we'll have a look at what the Ministry Leader and the rest of the TEAM need to be alert for in a successful Step Study meeting planned for another night of the week.

Be sure to go to the Training Coach Blog to decide on how to divide your team to cover the Celebrate Recovery Summit. It is always fun to return home and share experiences and what was covered in the workshops with other members of your group.

Celebrating Recovery - each day in Christ! - Jim

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