Newcomers

Newcomers 101

During your 1st visit to CR you will want to attend the Newcomers 101 following the Large Group Session. The Newcomers 101 provides you an opportunity to learn more about CR and provides a small group experience to ask questions and discover what share group would be best for you to attend as you begin your road to recovery.

Check out the list of recovery issues:

Our small groups have trained leaders and rules to make it a safe place. Your most thorough healing will be experienced in a 12 step study group. Expect God to build you into a new person through your recovery.

8 Recovery Principles
(Based on the Beatitudes, by Pastor Rick Warren, Saddleback Church)

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.” Matthew 5:3 (Step 1)
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.” Matthew 5:4 (Step 2)
CONSCIOUSLY choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
“Happy are the meek.” Matthew 5:5 (Step 3)
OPENLY examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
“Happy are the pure in heart.” Matthew 5:8 (Step 4, 5)
VOLUNTARILY submit to every change 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.” Matthew 5:6 (Step 6, 7)
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.” Matthew 5:3 (Step 8, 9)
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. (Step 10, 11)
YIELD myself to be used by God 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.” Matthew 5:10 (Step 12)

The 12 Steps

Step 1:

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

“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.” Romans 7:18

Step 2:

We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

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

Step 3:

We made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.

“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” Romans 12:1

Step 4:

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

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

Step 5:

We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed.” James 5:16

Step 6:

We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

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

Step 7:

We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.

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

Step 8:

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

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

Step 9:

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

“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.” Matthew 5:23-24

Step 10:

We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

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

Step 11:

We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Colossians 3:16

Step 12:

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

“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” Galatians 6:1

Groups Rules

Keep your sharing focused on your own thoughts and feelings. Please limit your sharing to 3-5 minutes.
There will be no cross talk please. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in dialogue, excluding all others. Each person is free to express feelings without interruption.
We are here to support one another. We will not attempt to “fix” another.
Anonymity and confidentiality are basic requirements. What is shared in the group stays in the group!
Offensive language has no place in a Christ-centered group.

Small Groups Can...

Provide you a safe place to share your experiences, strengths and hopes with others who are going through the “Principles” in a Christ-Centered recovery.
Provide you a leader who has gone through a similar hurt, hang-up on habit that will facilitate the group as it focuses on a particular Step each week. The leader will also keep Celebrate Recovery’s “FIVE RULES.”
Provide you with the opportunity to find an accountability partner or sponsor.
Encourage you to attend other recovery meetings held throughout the week, if available.

Small Groups Will Not...

Attempt to offer any professional clinical advice. Our leaders are not counselors. We will provide you with a list of approved counseling referrals.
Allow its members to attempt to fix one another.

Serenity Prayer

GOD, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make all things right
If I surrender to Your will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You
Forever in the next.
Amen.