Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered and Bible-based 12-step recovery program. The purpose is to focus on God’s healing power through fellowship with others by working the 12 steps and the 8 beatitude principles. Do you have trouble setting limits with yourself?  Do you sacrifice your identity, desires, or needs to make others feel good about themselves or to keep the peace?  Do you struggle feeling safe when you aren’t in control?

Do you raise your voice to get your way?  Do you act kind on the outside but feel bitter on the inside? Do you use food, sex, pornography, alcohol, relationships, drugs to cope with life problems?  Do you struggle with body image?  Do you love someone struggling with destructive behaviors such as drugs and alcohol?

Do you have a lot of self-doubts?  Are you scared to be alone?  Do you become impatient easily and get annoyed quickly?  Do you blame others for your problems?  Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you didn’t drink or use drugs? If you have answered yes to any of these questions don’t worry or give up hope. There’s a way out through Christ’s healing power. Please come join us on Tuesdays at 7:00 at the Quakertown campus.

What to expect?

Celebrate Recovery is a safe place to get real about your hurts, habits, and hang-ups. You’re invited to be a part of Celebrate Recovery! Just show up to get started!

Large-group

7:00–8:00 p.m.

Join us for a time of worship, testimonies, and teaching on the 12 steps and recovery principles.

Small-groups

8:00–9:00 p.m.

At the conclusion of our large group meeting, we will break up into gender-specific small groups for more in-depth discussions. The gender-specific open-issue groups will provide a more in-depth sharing of similar struggles. Teachings from the large group meeting or devotional readings will be used to initiate sharing. Participants are encouraged to comment, read, or just listen. You are welcome to come and not say anything. We use only the Celebrate Recovery material. No outside material is allowed to be used or shared with the group.

Some examples of recovery issues
  • codependency

  • chemically addicted

  • sexual addiction

  • eating disorders

  • dealing with anger

  • brokenness

  • recovery from guilt and shame

  • depression and/or loss

  • love and relationship addiction

  • behaviors and attitudes

  • adult children of the chemically addicted

  • recovery from sexual/emotional/physical abuse

  • anxiety

  • We are not limited to only these issues

Childcare for ages 3 -12 is available from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. All childcare workers have background checks.

FAQ

Do I have to be a member of Morning Star Fellowship to attend?

No, Celebrate Recovery is a ministry for anyone who is interested in a Christ-centered recovery program that will enable them to recover from life’s hurts, habits, and hang-ups. There are attendees who are not members and/or do not attend Morning Star Fellowship. Although if you do not have a home church you are welcomed by our loving fellowship of believers to visit with us on Sunday mornings, 9am & 11am.

What is recovery?

In physical health, recovery refers to the process of moving from illness to wellness. Our hurts, habits, and hang-ups are like an illness and using the tools of Celebrate Recovery we begin to move toward wholeness. Some might say, “from bondage to freedom in Christ.” Others might say, “from self-reliance to faith in Christ.”

How do I get started?

Just show up! We meet every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.

Who are the leaders of CR?

The leaders of Celebrate Recovery are men and women who have gone through similar hurts, habits, and hang-ups and have experienced Christ’s healing powers through the 12 steps and 8 recovery principles. They have also gone through the CR participant guides and have completed CR training. The leaders are not counselors and do not offer any professional advice. If professional advice is required, referrals may be made.

What are the guidelines in a small group?

To ensure confidentiality and anonymity, the following five guidelines are followed at all times:

1. Your sharing is focused on your own thoughts and feelings and is limited to three to five minutes.

2. There is no cross-talk. Cross-talk is when two individuals engage in dialogue to the exclusion of others. Each person is free to express feelings without interruption.

3. We are here to support one another. We will not attempt to “fix” another.

4. Anonymity and confidentiality are essential requirements. What is shared in the group stays in the group.

5. Offensive language has no place in a Christ-centered group.

What is a Step Study?

A Step Study takes place on another night for men and women. Celebrate Recovery uses the Twelve Steps and its related Scripture as the biblical model for living your life. A Step Study is a personal journey though each of these steps in a confidential group led by a facilitator who has completed a study. We use Celebrate Recovery’s four participants books. When you finish the study you will have worked your hurts, habits, and hang-ups through each step. A Step Study is a long-term commitment to the members of the group. It will typically take 9 months or more to complete the study.

Do I have to share?

In the small groups, absolutely not, until you are ready. You can pass anytime you wish and for as long as it takes for you to become comfortable. In the step studies everyone is required to share as the questions are answered.

What if I can’t make it every week?

You are welcome to come when you can for worship, large group, and small groups. However, if you join a step study, you are expected to come each week until you complete it. As with any endeavor, the more effort you put into Celebrate Recovery, the more benefit you will gain.

Step Study

The 12 steps and biblical comparisons

1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Romans 7:18: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Philippians 2:13: For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Lamentations 3:40: Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.

James 5:16a: Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

6. We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

James 4:10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.

1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Luke 6:31: Do to others as you would have them do to you.

9. Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Matthew 5:23-24: Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

1 Corinthians 10:12: So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.

Colossians 3:16a: Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

12. Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.

Galatians 6:1: Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

8 recovery principles

The Road to Recovery 8 Principles Based on the BEATITUDES (Matthew 5:3-10)

R = Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.

“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.”

E = Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.

“Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

C = Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

“Happy are the meek.”

O = Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself, and to another person whom I trust.

“Happy are the pure in heart.”

V = Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.

“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.”

E = Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others.

“Happy are the merciful. Happy are the peacemakers.”

R = Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Y = Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.

“Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.”