Celebrate Recovery Report

Well, I finally got around to attending my first meeting of Celebrate Recovery in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Here is my report: I wasn't that impressed frankly. There were maybe 60 people in attendance and the first part of the meeting was taken up by very LOUD music. They were singing about the LORD but the music was very loud and almost rock style. I appreciate songs like "AMAZING GRACE' but the kind of loud rock style music I heard was unappealing. The next part of the meeting was relating the 12 Steps to Biblical Principles. I have seen that done before and it is nothing new. Those that know the history of AA realize that the 12 steps were inspired by the Bible and the Oxford movement. They had a speaker who a minister at a local Church and he spent about 20 minutes or so talking about the 6th step. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. There was a projection screen and he related the 6th step to the Acronym "READY"' R was for relapse. Y was for yield. The other letters all stood for something relating to the sixth step,but honestly I cannot remember what they were. It was kind of a cutesy ACRONYM but not terribly helpful. Frankly, I don't think the 20 minute presentation helped a single soul. I spoke with the fellow who attended with me afterward about it and he agreed the presentation wasn't particularly helpful. Afterward, they broke up into small discussion groups. That was probably the most helpful part. Some good things were said about resentment and anger. To me Celebrate Recovery seems like a repackaging of Evangelical Christianity with a slight twist of embracing the 12 steps. My personal observation is that Evangelical Christianity has mostly failed to deliver the message and teachings of Christ in a meaningful way that brings people to Salvation. On the positive side I did not see the false idea of addiction being a "disease"promoted. And at least the name of Christ can be mentioned in the meetings. I wish I had a better report but I don't.