Agenda, Participants and Ministry Opportunities

I am back to write about what a typical Celebrate Recovery ("CR") night looks like, what certain participants may be looking for assistance with and what ministry opportunities are available at CR.

A typical CR program has a general meeting night and a step study night. I will explain in greater detail the differences between open share groups and step study groups, but they are different. Just to be clear, the step study group will meet on a different night from the general meeting night. I am not yet certain if we will be launching our step study groups in August or not. Typically participants spend some time in the general meeting before they are comfortable in an open share group. Then after some time in an open share group they are ready for a step study. While some might be ready to jump in to these three parts immediately, many may not.

We expect to start our general meeting nights on August 3, 2009. That is a Monday night. Unless there is an irreconcilable facilities problem, we will hold our general meeting nights on Monday nights. We should know the answer to this question by the end of April. General meeting nights have a schedule that looks like this:

• 6:00 - 7:00 BBQ This is a buffet-style dinner for participants and volunteers. The cost will likely be around $3 per person. The menu typically includes hot dogs, chicken and maybe even burgers all cooked on the grill. Sides of salads, chips, condiments, etc. are served as well.
• 6:45 Childcare will open.
• 7:00-8:00 The large group, general meeting takes place. During this meeting there is a time of worship, reading of the principles or 12 steps, teaching or testimony time and information or announcements.
• 8:00-9:00 Open share groups meet. These are gender specific groups. Initially we plan to have one group for men and one group for women. With time as the participation increases these groups will either multiply or specialize. For example, typically there would be an open share group for men that have habit issues they want to deal with and one for men with hurts or hang-ups they want to deal with. The same groups would be available for women. However, to start we will likely have one group for men and one for women. During this time the participants have five minutes to share. The sharing is prompted by a focus question that they can choose to use as a launch-point for their sharing. It is governed by guidelines that are skillfully enforced to make the group a safe place to share.
• 9:00-9:30 Cafe During this time the participants and volunteers can grab a cup of coffee and share a snack or dessert.
• 9:30 Children must be picked up from childcare by this time.

Wow, that took up more space and time than I thought. I have to stop there this evening, but I look forward to continuing the post by discussing areas of recovery and ministry opportunities.

Blessings,
Matt