Celebrate Recovery “is a fellowship of men and women who proclaim Jesus Christ is their higher power”, explains Clinical MA Jimmy Monaghan. It’s a Christian-based program that uses literal biblical verses and passages to help members through the recovery process.
12-Step Method
Like other fellowships and recovery groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, this program uses the 12-step method to recovery. The 12-steps in this program are accompanied by biblical verses and comparisons to keep the program centered on Christ and taught through a Christian lens.
Celebrate Recovery also uses 8 principles that are based on the biblical Beatitudes. In addition to being based on the Beatitudes, these principles coincide and match up with the 12-steps.
Weekly Meetings
Celebrate Recovery groups meet weekly, in a similar forum to traditional recovery group meetings. These meetings are usually a few hours long, following the format of a Fellowship event, a speaker’s meeting and then a traditional meeting.
A big difference between Celebrate Recovery meetings and traditional meetings are that during small group times in Celebrate Recovery meetings, members are split into both gender and issue-specific small groups.
Age-Specific Curriculum
Celebration Recovery has a specialized curriculum for children, called Celebration Place. This program is intended for children aged in Kindergarten through 5th grade. Its central purpose is to teach children the tenants of recovery, teaching them “to turn to the word instead of the world”. Monaghan uses the term “pre-covery” to describe the purpose of the group.
Children are taught how to implement coping mechanisms in preparation for the struggles that they or a loved one may face in the future. The hope is that by teaching children how to find solace in struggle through the word of the Lord from a young age, they’ll be adequately equipped to handle Addiction, in whatever form they may face it, when they do come across it.
For those in middle and high school, Celebration Recovery uses a program called The Landing. The hope is that families can engage in the programs in their hometown and help each other through as loved ones are in treatment.
Finding Recovery Through Christ
Though we all have, as Monaghan explains, “hurts, hang-ups and habits”, this program aims to help people through those in a productive and fulfilling way. We all struggle, but “Together, as a spiritual fellowship that follows Christ, we’re able to find strength in that.”
