Almost any night in churches across Arkansas, a Celebrate Recovery group is meeting. The Rev. Carl Palmer credits the Bible-based program with saving his marriage.
Celebrate Recovery isn't a typical recovery ministry solely focused on addiction. This is a program for individuals with any and all types of problems. The Celebrate Recovery catchphrase indicates it's a program to help people with their "hurts, hang-ups and habits." That could be anything -- martial problems, anger issues, grief, low self-esteem.
"Everyone has some type of problem," Palmer said. "There are all kinds of issues that bring people in, but it's a comprehensive program. While the issue may be different the solution is the same -- being right with God, right with yourself and right with others."
The program was started about 20 years ago at Saddleback Church, the megachurch in California led by well-known pastor and author Rick Warren. John Baker, a recovering alcoholic, approached Warren about the need for a Christ-centered recovery ministry. With support from the pastor, Baker developed Celebrate Recovery. The program is now in more than 20,000 churches worldwide. Thirty groups are active in Arkansas in churches of all sizes.
Palmer, who serves as associate pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, is a state representative for the program and oversees the Celebrate Recovery groups in Northwest Arkansas. But his first encounter with the program wasn't as a leader. It was a cry for help.
"I had my own issues -- not drugs or anything -- they were purely behavioral and acting out of hurt, issues from long in my childhood but it came to a point where my wife said to get help or get out," Palmer said.
THE LONG WALK
He found his way to a Celebrate Recovery meeting at Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers, but walking inside wasn't easy.
"The hardest trip is from the parking lot to the door," Palmer said. "That first night at Fellowship, the parking lot was dark and big and I seriously turned around three times but I was in a fight for my life, for my family, my career. Turning around wasn't an option."
At Celebrate Recovery, Palmer found out he wasn't alone with his struggles.
"I opened up and was able to actually face some issues I had been burying for
30 years," he said. "I found some healing and wholeness."
After completing the program, he knew it could help those in his own church. He started the program at his former church in Elm Springs. When he was appointed to serve at Central UMC, he started the program there at the urging of the Rev. Tony Holifield, the church's former senior pastor.
The ministry has been going on at Central UMC for two years and the group meets on Thursday nights -- first for dinner, then a large group meeting before breaking into small groups for discussion.
Celebrate Recovery is a 12-step program that also includes eight principles based on the Beatitudes found in Chapter 5 of the Book of Matthew. Confidentiality is key so participants know they can trust one another. The goal is to create a safe place for participants to honestly confront their issues.
Some sessions include lessons on a step or principle and others feature a testimony by someone whose life has been changed through the program.
"I love, love, love the testimonies," Palmer said. "To hear how God moved them from a place of hurting to wholeness."
The small groups, called open-share groups, are gender specific and some are issue specific and participants are free to share their thoughts or not. But the real work of recovery comes in the step study, which can take anywhere from nine months to a year to complete.
Rodney Holmstrom leads the Celebrate Recovery program at Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers, where the ministry has been going on for 12 years. The Friday night gatherings draw about 350 adults, as well as 100 children and about 50 students who have programs of their own.
The program was started to help not only those in the church, but also those in the community. In the beginning most of those participating were members of the church, but now Holmstrom said most are from outside the church, including those from other churches who don't have a Celebrate Recovery program.
The youth version of the program is known as the Landing, and Holmstrom said it covers a wide range of issues.
"From cutting, to pornography, to mom and dad are going through a divorce," he said. "It's all over the map. Today's students just hurt in general. There's just so much more out there."
The younger children's program is Celebration Place and their program is tailored to be age appropriate. All the programs address some of the same issues, which gives families the opportunity to carry the discussion home and delve deeper.
RECOVERY FOR ALL
Holmstrom said one of the biggest misconceptions is that Celebrate Recovery is only for addicts.
"It's a tough ship to turn," he said. "When we hear the word recovery, we do go automatically to substance abuse, but when God created the world and created Adam and Eve he said 'It is good' and then sin entered the world. Starting with Adam and Eve, God created us in His image and that image was broken. From then forward we've been trying to recover the broken image. From that mindset we are all in recovery."
Holmstrom said most who come to the program are there to deal with the hurts of everyday life.
"It's a ministry of the heart," he said. "That's what I love about Celebrate Recovery. Deal with the heart and that takes care of everything else."
While the program is biblically based, it doesn't only focus on prayer or the Bible as solutions to all of life's problems.
"If somebody has been through a tough situation I think sometimes our fallback is either [to say] read the Bible more or pray harder. While those are good things -- and part of what we do -- it's a little bit irresponsible for us to say 'just get over it, pray harder,'" Holmstrom said. "We're equipping them with tools."
Holmstrom said the program has helped many people and many of those go on to become volunteers in the church or back home in their own churches.
"They are so hungry to serve. They want to give back," he said. "That's the Gospel through and through .... I really believe if Jesus was walking the earth physically he'd be at a Celebrate Recovery meeting. He wants to be with those who are broken and hungry for change in their life instead of the ones who say, 'I've got it all together.'"
Ultimately, Holmstrom said, the goal is for those completing the program to help others.
A PLACE OF HEALING
Layne Mason and his wife, Marsha, lead the Celebrate Recovery program at First Assembly of God in North Little Rock. They first encountered the program while living in the Las Vegas area and began leading the program at First Assembly when it started about a year ago.
"We were new at a big megachurch in Henderson, Nev., and they were going to start Celebrate Recovery and looking for people interested in being involved. We got involved immediately," Mason said. "I had about eight months of sobriety when they launched and I was in leadership from the beginning. My wife, she is also a recovering alcoholic and was about a year ahead of me in her sobriety so it fit for both of us."
Mason said he has seen how the program has helped people.
"We have a young man who came through our program and he could never seem to get any kind of hold on his sobriety. He started attending and just celebrated a year of sobriety," he said. "We had another lady who had been in and out of various rehabs and she has over nine months of sobriety."
Mason said family members sometimes come in support of their loved ones and end up tackling their own problems.
"When somebody is sick in the family, it affects the entire family," he said.
Some participants come because they've been nagged into it by their family. Others have hit bottom and realize they need help. Mason said it's the church's job to be there when that happens.
"I think oftentimes when people go to church they feel judged in the first place. They feel like they are not welcome because they've done so many things they think they can't be forgiven for," he said. "It's hugely important for churches to realize every soul matters to God and regardless of what their hurt, hang-up or habit is they are welcome and loved. I feel every church should have Celebrate Recovery."
For Palmer, the program epitomizes the ministry of Jesus.
"This is exactly what Jesus was about," he said. "Not one person who came to Jesus to be healed did so inside the temple. Jesus had to go outside to heal and what he's calling us to do is to go into those highways and byways and find them. We're creating a place where it's OK to not be OK. It's OK to be broken and dealing with dysfunction and broken relationships. We don't have to pretend we have it all together. It's my passion to create that place."
More information on Celebrate Recovery groups in Arkansas is available online at celebraterecovery.com.
Religion on 02/14/2015