People just don’t stumble into recovery groups

People just don’t stumble into recovery groups. They are usually there because of some kind of crisis that their addiction has created. Because of the intensity of their problem and the emotional instability involved the newcomer is always the most important person in the room. We as a group have the opportunity to intervene in this person’s life. We must not be involved in the drama of our own lives or the life of the group to the degree that we overlook the newcomers needs. There is no script to follow. The correct action is to be led by the Holy Spirit



As members of Christ’s body and as group members we should always be in a "state" of carrying His message. We keep in mind that the newcomer in our group is a person with real needs. We adjust the group to meet this persons needs. It’s not about the “life” of the group. Even though the life of the group is important it’s more about the life of the person. If our newcomer is born again it’s just about us hooking this person up to what they already have but have lost. That is an attachment to Christ within.



Hurting Christians need to become reacquainted with the facts. The facts are that the old person that they were is dead and a new creation exists within them. It is also a time to realize that this is made possible by what Christ has done for them at the cross and all that is needed is an acceptance of the facts. This is the truth that breaks addiction and sin in ones life. Through the cross comes life and a way that can be lived by. We are buried and raised with Christ. Pointing this out to the newcomer through our own personal testimonies and talks will make the difference.



We as a group must have a single message. The message is that we can not save ourselves. Freedom comes from Christ alone and his method of providing it. Backslidden Christians struggle with addiction and sin because the have forgotten who they are. So in a very real way we are dealing with complacency. Complacency is an enemy to the group and to the individuals who attend our groups. We must also guard against complacency within ourselves.



We as "oldtimers" share that we can not free ourselves from addiction by focusing on the addiction. We share that we can't fix the damage we have done by attepmting to fix it all on our own. Our confession is that it takes somebody way bigger and much stronger than us to do this. As we trust in the lord and the powers He destroyed at the cross our areas of concern line up with the spirit of God. Addictions are broken and relationships are healed.

by John Madden on Monday, October 11, 2010 at 7:35pm
Thanks for the good word John.

For information about Celebrate Recovery in your area, contact Rodney at 479-659-3679 or roholmstrom@fellowshipnwa.org

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha...
Read more

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the ...
Read more

Guidelines are there for a reason

Anyone who has participated in a Step Study or a small group through Celebrate Recovery has heard the five small-group guidelines. They’re supposed to be read aloud before each meeting starts, just to remind everyone or to inform any newcomers. Most of the guidelines are obvious and make perfect sense on the first reading. Anonymity is vital and as people who are submitting to God as our Higher Power, we should realize that we are in no more a position to “fix” each other than we are to “fix” ourselves. There’s one guideline that puzzled and even annoyed me at first, that pesky no. 2. “There is NO cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.” At first I really didn’t understand the guideline. “Did they seriously need to tell us not to talk to each other while someone was sharing?,” was my thought. But as the guideline was explained further, I better understood. We ar...
Read more