Recovery Ministry Gives Participants a Reason to Celebrate

Celebrate Recovery helps entire families take “steps” toward wholeness.

Longwood, FL (PRWEB) November 5, 2009 -- A Florida church is launching a program for individuals struggling with “hurts, habits and hang-ups” by showing them the loving power of Jesus Christ through a recovery process.

At the commissioning service for leaders of the new Celebrate Recovery ministry—held at Northland, A Church Distributed, located in the Orlando suburb of Longwood—Rusty Hurst makes his way to the front of the room, placing a heavily tattooed arm on the edge of the podium.

He begins, “My name’s Rusty Hurst, and I’m a person who struggles with alcoholism and addictions—and I’m a believer in Jesus Christ.”

“Hi, Rusty,” the group replies in unison.

“My life began like many of yours … I was born,” Hurst jokes. As the laughter subsides, he opens up about his childhood.

His father, a green beret in the Vietnam War, was a “severe alcoholic” by the time he got out of the military. What Hurst experienced as a young boy carried into adulthood, leading to his own addiction to alcohol and, eventually, landing him in jail. It was there that Rusty Hurst gave his life to Jesus Christ.

“I was finally sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he says. “I just hit my knees and asked Jesus to help me. It’s only by God’s saving grace that I’m able to be here and give back what has been so freely given to me.”

Hurst started attending Northland about a year ago. Now, the church has commissioned him, along with many other volunteers, for Celebrate Recovery.

Celebrate Recovery was started in 1995 by Saddleback Church—pastored by Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life”—over on the “other coast,” in Lake Forest, Calif. While the famous “12 steps” are pulled into Celebrate Recovery—condensed down into eight principles—it’s the focus on Christ that differentiates this ministry from other recovery programs, which teach people to turn to a “higher power” to help them through their addictions.

But possibly the most unique and exciting aspect of Celebrate Recovery is that the program isn’t just for the person struggling—it’s for the entire family.

“The hurts, habits and hang-ups are a family thing,” Hurst explains. “With an alcoholic father, for example, the wife's getting hurt and the kids get a lot of hang ups. So it's for the whole family.”

Gretchen Kerr, Northland’s director of life crossroads, started using Celebrate Recovery as part of Northland’s jail and prison ministry. Originally, the jail ministry team wanted to start offering Celebrate Recovery at Northland so that inmates would have a safe place to come and continue their recovery after they are released.

But Celebrate Recovery isn’t just for former inmates. In fact, it’s for anyone who has a hurt, habit or hang-up.

“That’s all of us!” Kerr says. “All of us have been affected either through childhood or through broken relationships, all of that stuff. Everybody has a little thing in their closet that, were we to bring it out and share it with someone else, would help with restoration and recovery.”

Celebrate Recovery will be held on Friday nights at Northland in Longwood, in the Children’s Worship Wing, from 6 to 10 p.m., and includes family style dinner ($2 charge per person), along with a time of worship and group discussions. Four groups are currently being offered: women’s addiction, men’s addiction, women’s co-dependency, and parents of prodigals.

According to Laurie Jean Harrington, a volunteer leader with her own story of recovery, the evenings are open to the entire community.

Dr. Kevin Urichko, one of Northland’s pastors who commissioned the group’s leaders on the church’s behalf, says that he is excited about Celebrate Recovery’s arrival at Northland: “We already have various recovery and healing groups throughout the church. This just sort of pulls it all together on a Friday night, creates a family oriented community and adds a whole other dynamic to it.”

He concludes, “Addiction is a fancy word for sin, and last time I checked, I’m a sinner … you’re a sinner. We’ve labeled it psychologically with various different types of addictions and diseases, and yet the point is, if you find yourself struggling with sin … this is His way out. So if you’re a sinner, come!”

http://www.northlandchurch.net

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