Biblical Alternatives to Celebrate Recovery: Why and What
(Click here to jump to the Biblical
alternatives.)
Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery claimed to be a Christ-centered, 12-step program. They
claimed it was like Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) but based on the Bible
instead. The proponents say it's a life-changing program with information
every Christian needs to know. People who won't go to church sometimes
will go there. The founding church says over 5 million people have "gone
through the program." That all sounded really exciting!
A friend who wouldn't go to regular churches invited me to C.R. saying it
was like a church. I originally came just to get her plugged into
something. It was a welcoming, worshipful community with many people who
love Jesus. I stayed to review the program, encourage people, and learn
from them. Specific people there had a big impact on me. In each case,
those people were exemplifying Biblical principles to do that. It was
Christ and God's Word, not C.R. itself, that caused it.
Over time, I noticed more and more stuff that bothered me. There were
many gaps, or even contradictions, between Scripture and C.R.. They
grossly misinterpreted Bible passages. In many cases, they promoted
worldly, pagan, or even false teachings over clear teachings in the Bible.
Those teachings sounded right out of A.A. or a self/works-focused gospel.
They also talked to non-believers and people in false religions like they
were already part of Christ's church. They either didn't or barely shared
the Gospel. They would go into depth on C.R. material, encourage
evangelizing the program, and even had an overseas missionary for it. My
skepticism peaked when they said not to question is because the
originating church spent decades figuring out how to get its results. Just
believe, follow, and you will to.
I decided to step back to look at the whole program with fresh eyes. I
looked into the originating church (Saddleback), the founders
(Warren/Baker), the history, booklets, and so on. What I learned led me to
discourage people from attending C.R. or using its materials. God's Word
says to have nothing to do with false gospels or teachers. To help you
evaluate C.R., I'll do a quick rundown of its good points, corrupt
philosophy of the host church, and false teachings in the program. Then,
there's a few proposals on how to do a Biblical, support group.
Strengths of Celebrate Recovery
The strengths in the order that I ran into them:
- C.R. groups are highly-welcoming, non-judgemental, and loving
communities. They treat everyone who comes through the door like they're
sinners who know they need to change their lives. Their goal is to help,
not judge, them.
- Many people there are (or were) in churches. They say they feel safer
sharing with C.R. groups. Some complained people in churches are less
friendly, stick with their cliques, and gossip about people more than
help them. Some said their churches were good but nobody could relate to
their problems. They all agreed they got more help at C.R..
- Food and fellowship. Teaming up with the hosting church, C.R. feeds
people $2 meals before the service so they're focused on it, not their
bellies. They'll let you eat free if you have no money. The volunteers
from the church are just as kind. Everyone hangs out for around 30
minutes getting to know each other or catching up since last week. The
local chapter also has the best, homemade cookies you'll ever eat. It's
hard to stop coming because you're giving up C.R. and those cookies.
- The worship service of the local chapter is contemporary, energetic,
and has prayer teams to support those going to the altar. Far from
snoozing, many people there have hands raised high singing praise to
Jesus Christ. Many of them are clearly grateful to Him. This is partly a
worship style (i.e. personal preference). Of people who prefer it, some
didn't have it at their church at all, some had less of it, and some
just like an extra time and place to worship the Lord. They also offer
counseling and prayer at the altar as part of the worship service before
the sermon or group shares. Some people who were falling apart really
needed it, too.
- Based on C.R.'s materials, the sermons offer practical lessons about
many areas of life to help people overcome "hurts, habits, and hangups."
They're like having a therapist show up to preach a sermon with some
supporting Bible verses. They cover enough topics over time that
everyone will learn something helpful. People commonly said two things
about C.R.'s lessons. First, they came in for one problem before
noticing they had many more problems. Second, those who brought someone
else with a problem to fix realized they needed to fix themselves, too.
- Nightly praises. The C.R. service takes time to ask the whole room
what they're thankful for. Many answers are straight-forward, such as
Christ's forgiveness and their church family. People also testify to
specific struggles they had, ranging from sin to family illness to job
situations, which God helped them face or totally solved. Quite a few
people that came in from jails testified that, after coming to Christ,
He changed them enough that their prison sentence was greatly reduced or
cancelled entirely. Some finally got their kids back. Although most
churches don't do this, weekly testimony at C.R. keeps everyone pumped
up and lets members see the bigger picture of how God works in peoples'
lives.
- Every other week, the local chapter trades a sermon for a stand-up
testimony from people in the group. People who often don't like speaking
in public will share their life story in front of a whole crowd. They'll
talk about the gritty reality of life before Christ. People mention
childhood abuse, sexual abuse, being on hard drugs, being violent,
feeling worthless, being crushed by life's pressures, and so on. They
eventually encounter Jesus Christ, a C.R. group, or both. Their life
starts changing. They share the lessons God taught them over time. In
some cases, the local C.R. saw that transformation happen. In the
audience's eyes, those testifying become living proof to both the power
of God and that C.R. itself changes lives.
- After service, they do "open, share groups." People take around 3-5
minutes each describing their sins and struggles that week. No
interruptions, mockery, or offensive jokes are allowed. There's a
confidentiality requirement. They share with a mix of friends and total
strangers with brutal honesty. The group encourages and prays for each
other. Only drawback was having no crosstalk or feedback from others.
That reduces how church members in the New Testament help each other in
the groups. People could still try to be helpful one-on-one after group
share, though.
- Many courts approve of the C.R. program as a way for people to improve
themselves. They might get reduced or canceled punishments. The C.R.
leader will sign some paperwork for them saying they attended. C.R.
groups also might have members running "recovery houses" for people like
this. Some would be in jail if not for the recovery houses. Quite a few
people in them excitedly praise God for changing their lives through
caring people, Bible teaching at that recovery house, and the C.R.
program.
Many of those practices were in the New Testament. I expected to see them
in churches. Yet, most of us attending C.R. didn't see
that in our churches. The results people claimed that C.R. gave them made
me keep coming to better understand what I was seeing. Plus, it was just
really awesome to see God move in many, visible ways every week.
Both church-going and un-churched people kept asking for help like this.
Even with that demand, most people I talk to at our church had no interest
in
doing something similar or helping those people in a Biblical way. Most
would say it was interesting before going back to daily activities. Some
people told me to refer those in need to a therapist or something. Most
wouldn't even speak to them if they visited a church. If they did, it was
a few minutes before leaving them alone again.
Yet, we're called to love and help others. I feel like there's instead a
lot of apathy toward people in need in otherwise Biblical churches. I feel
like this drives people to seek help outside of those churches in programs
like these. And, if those churches lack love, how can they claim to be
more Biblical? If better at interpreting the Word, shouldn't we hold them
to an even higher standard when they love and care less than non-Biblical
programs?
We need Christ, His Word, solid teaching, personal holiness, and love all
together. All are necessary and work together. If a group failed in one or
more areas, I struggled to figure out how to react to that with what
priorities. I stayed in C.R. longer trying to figure it out. What I
noticed was churches with bad teaching, esp not Biblical, went in the
wrong directions the most with turn around being hard or never happening.
I'd continue to make the Gospel and God's Word the highest priority, use
conformance to them as main tests, and address the remaining problems from
there using the Word. That's worked for around 2,000 years.
Problems of Celebrate Recovery (esp false teaching)
The problems of Celebrate Recovery are severe. I'll split this
into a few sections. One set is where Celebrate Recovery came from with
what philosophy. There's so much disobedience to God's Word in each step
that big problems are inevitable. The next set describes the problems that
showed up in abundance.
Rick Warren and Saddleback Church
- In the C.R. "step study," they told us not to question anything about
it. Their reasoning was that Saddleback spent decades designing it,
refining it, and proving it out with changed lives. They claimed over 5
million lives changed. We're not given details to evaluate those claims.
We must take their and Saddleback's word on faith. The resulting
impression is that, if C.R. ever contradicts God's Word, we should trust
it over our intuition because Saddleback knows the Bible better. God's
Word orders us to test
the spirits, test
every claim against His Word, and the Bereans exemplified
that. So, we're going to obey God's Word and thoroughly test C.R..
Also, my personal experience over several decades is that any group who
tells you to just trust them and not check their claims is almost always
corrupt.
- Test the spirits means scrutinizing the people involved, esp their
personalities and motivations. Saddleback Church invented, promotes, and
profits on Celebrate Recovery. Their pastor, Rick Warren, stays in
disobedience to God's Word. He preaches a selfish
gospel, uses a fake
bible, and makes his church more
worldly to appeal to non-believers (more
examples). Here's a great
article on such "seeker sensitive" churches for those who haven't
heard of them. You want to avoid them or anything they create since
they'll corrupt it all.
The Purpose-Driven Life (Warren's philosophy)
- Most good churches pick a solid translation that's close to original
words ("formal equivalence"). They might cite extra translations where a
word has complex meaning. We do this because we believe God's Word is
living and active with power to get the results for which He sent it. In
P.D.L., Warren uses dynamic translations, paraphrases, multiple
translations per lesson, and constantly changes them. He says he does
this because listeners will tune out if they don't hear fresh things.
Warren believes the Spirit of God won't get results unless he does
specific work to help God out. I want to ask him how he thinks God got
results in areas with one translation (eg KJV) or in the manuscript
days. Warren showed elsewhere that he's even willing to pick the one,
dynamic translation that contradicts most others if it's close to his
own words.
- Warren also quoted The Message: a paraphrase of the Bible. A
paraphrase is like if a preacher retold the Bible in their own words
instead of God's. The author of The Message has talent for vivid,
attention-grabbing descriptions. Yet, that's man's words and
interpretations instead of God's Word. No preacher should present one as
the other. Even worse, the author of The Message believes homosexuality
isn't a sin, modified Romans 1 to teach that, and publishes a "bible"
that can lead people to hell. If homosexuality is your sin, you can take
the Roman's Road to hell with his Bible! Many people have warned both of
them about this. Warren continued promoting paraphrases as if they're
God's words while the author continued promoting unrepentant sin as the
path to salvation. Do you need to know any more?
- In the same vein, Warren's materials use proof-texting.
That is, he starts with pre-existing, talking points. He looks for
verses that look similar. Then, he slaps them on his own work to make
the audience think what he said came out of the Bible. It may or may not
support what he said. The right
way to use God's Word is to understand a passage in its original
context, derive what it's
teaching, and make your sermon from that. You make your words match
God's Word. Which of these you do also shows whether you believe more in
the power of God's Word or your own words. Which does Rick believe in?
- In P.D.L., Warren is definitely a talented writer. He compellingly
argues the many benefits of following God and his own philosophy. I was
surprised that I even later made some of the same arguments as a new
believer. I used to think people would see how great Jesus is if I just
explained the benefits, said it in the right way, and was good enough to
them. I kept reading Scripture, noticed that their approach contradicted
mine, and that they simply shared the Gospel and the Word with God
delivering the results. (Illustrated
in Parable of Good Seed.) I really believed in my works,
not God's. I changed my style to match what Jesus and the Apostles did.
Like I once did, Warren tries to "sell" people on the Bible because he
believes his own work drives the conversion process.
- Sharing the Gospel. Jesus and the Apostles focus on who Jesus is, our
sin, that we deserve wrath, Christ's sacrifice and resurrection, faith
in Him, repentance, and holy living. Warren's writing for six days was
mostly benefits of the Bible with rare references to Jesus. Like the
prosperity gospel, Warren's gospel prioritizes what God does for us in
this life if we do the right things. He waits until "Day 7" to barely
share the Gospel. In his description, he doesn't mention or clearly
explain: Jesus as man and God; what sin is with lists of specific ones;
the atonement; that Jesus was raised from the dead; what real repentance
is. Without any of that, you just say a prayer so that the Jesus you don't
know becomes your Lord and Savior. Here's how Warren describes
the result: "...[the Spirit] will give
you the power to fulfill your life purpose. The Bible says, 'Whoever
accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and
forever!' Wherever you are reading this, I invite you to bow your head
and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity: 'Jesus,
I believe in you and receive you.' (Offers booklet on spiritual growth
if you email him.)"
- Before I say anything else, I will counter Warren that his priority
should be: "Jesus Christ is Day 1 and every day after that is centered
on Christ." The Gospel comes first when Jesus, Peter, and Paul preach.
It's priority in other letters, too. One parable
emphasizes that our audience might not even live another day. Likewise,
Warren contradicts God's Word by saying our biggest problems are a lack
of purpose and our personal struggles. God's Word says we're wicked,
sinned against Him, and deserve to die and burn in Hell. That's more
offensive to people. Warren's focus is also mostly earthly while Jesus
and the Apostles put our hope on heavenly things.
- In P.D.L., Warren challenges his audience to take steps toward
becoming more righteous. He wants them to get the benefits of the Bible
by obeying it more. He does this in the sections before Day 7
where he shares the Gospel. As in, Warren treats non-believers
like they're a part of Christ's church. These are people who, without
the Gospel, will burn in hell no matter what steps they take in their
lives. Elsewhere, he makes his church experience one that non-believing
visitors enjoy and want to participate in. Then, he says his "church"
has more people in it than others. That Warren treats non-believers like
believers also means you can't trust any of his numbers. Jesus
and the Apostles share the Gospel, let non-believers walk if they don't
like it, ask believers to follow them (aka the church), and pour most of
their time into actual followers of Christ.
- In his 40
Days program, Warren promises great results to any church that
lets him run all core aspects of those churches for 40 days. Warren
tells them to use his vision, his sermons, and devotional writings
written by Warren. He says they'll get worse results if they leave out
even one or two his works. He clearly believes that he and his works,
not God and His, are critical to those churches' success. The alleged
need for his own writing also implies Warren is more gifted than anyone
those churches might listen to, such as Billy Graham or John Piper. I
doubt Warren comes close to Billy Graham in how many people he's
delivered the actual Gospel to. Especially since Rick doesn't usually
share it. Rick Warren seeing himself as this critical to others
churches' success means he is a megalomaniac.
- Likewise, when Warren ordained female pastors, he pointed
to his numbers while others cited
the Bible and 2,000 years of Spirit-led teaching. Warren usually pushes
growth, not Scripture, as the proof that his methods are good. I'll note
that growth is really popularity. Warren is saying, if it's popular,
then it must be God's will. Whereas, God's Word says His will is a
narrow gate, offensive, and leads to persecution. Jesus was abandoned by
his own disciples, too. That what Warren does is popular with all kinds
of people, even non-believers, is more evidence it's not what
God wants.
- Jesus says what defiles a person comes from their hearts. The heart of
the Purpose-Driven Life philosophy is self-centered, works-centered,
people-pleasing, and doing the opposite of what Jesus and His Apostles
say and do. Much like the critic I linked, Warren trades the person,
words, and work of Christ for his own philosophy, words, and practices.
He treats our Lord Jesus Christ as a low priority. Warren spends almost
all his time focusing on everything but the Gospel and who Christ is.
So far, both "test the spirits" and "test everything" tell us to avoid
Rick Warren and Saddleback at all costs. They follow themselves more than
Jesus and His Word. Anything they produce will be corrupted by their
P.D.L. philosophy. If the rest build on it, we will be able to review them
much more quickly.
Alcoholics Anonymous and John Baker (briefly)
- The Oxford Group
was an organization of Christians who wanted to overcome sins to live
holy. Their solution was mostly accountability groups confessing sin,
encouraging, and praying for each other. Their broader theology was a
mix of good and bad. They also claimed their practices transformed many
lives with impact on whole countries. I haven't tested their claims for
lack of time. I should still have links to free copies of their old
books if anyone wants to research them. I might later out of curiosity.
An article I'll cite next says H.A.
Ironside blasted them for preaching everything but Christ in
practice. Sounds familiar.
- Bill Wilson was an
alcoholic who heard of the Oxford Group's teachings from a newly-sober
friend. In his fourth stay at the hospital, Bill prayed to an unknown
God to help him. He had a "spiritual experience" involving a white
light, a feeling of ecstasy, and serenity. He quit drinking. He remained
a "spiritualist" into all kinds of risky practices. Wilson tried to help
people in the Oxford group quit drinking but failed. Bob
Smith was an anti-religious alcoholic who tried Oxford Group for
two years for sobriety. Several articles (example)
cite their official biography saying they teamed up, connected with
demonic spirits, and wrote up their recovery program while doing that.
Wilson helped Smith quit drinking. They teamed up, made their own
recovery program (Alcoholics
Anonymous), claimed to help over 100 people get sober, and
published their "Big Book"
and 12-Step model to help others. Ch. 4 ("We Agnostics") looks
universalist and deist, not Christian. Other groups would be made in
their image by doing exactly what they do. I'll skip a deep dive on them
to just mention what's relevant for Christian review.
- Alcoholics Anonymous is a Christ-less program (1/2),
focuses people on their works, follows their own book/practices, pushes
worldly concepts that contradict the Bible, and does have good advice
embedded in it that helped many people. I'll quickly note that you can
also get good advice on topics like addiction from Christian writers who
specialize in it. Since interpretations vary, I'll say that joining A.A.
is either disobedience to God's Word or very risky due to many teachings
contradicting it.
- John Baker was going to A.A. at Saddleback Church. That Saddleback
would host an anti-Christian program is probably worth its own section.
I'll just say Baker was trained in A.A.'s teachings, not God's Word. He
converted to Christ after hearing Rick Warren's version of the Gospel.
God transformed Baker's life. Baker later proposed to Warren that the
church needs an AA-like program that was Christian. Warren thought it
was a great idea.
- They merged A.A.'s practices, some Bible verses, and their own stuff
into a new program: Celebrate
Recovery. God banned
Israel from adopting pagan traditions because they turned His people
away from His Word and practices. If God's Word is true, they should've
known mixing A.A. with the Bible would cause problems.
Celebrate Recovery's Problems (in order I encountered them)
- Like P.D.L., C.R. doesn't put the person of Christ front and center.
It doesn't require sharing the Gospel first, often, or boldly. Like
A.A., C.R. mostly preaches practices to make our lives better.
Whereas, the Bible centers on a person (Christ) who saves our
souls, practices to obey Him, maybe our lives get better, and
our suffering will often increase (i.e. persecution).
- They always countered by telling me "we get to Christ in Step 3." I
don't know which is worse: that they said it, or thought anyone obeying
the Word would nod at it. That Christ is Step 3, not Step 1, tells you
C.R.'s priorities right off the bat. It's actually worse because you do
four videos in the step study before getting to Christ. So, they're
actually saying they'll tell you about Jesus in seven weeks if God lets
you live that long. Hearing lots of helpful information, except the real
Gospel, is also common in seeker-sensitive churches. Their program
designers do this to avoid offending visitors to keep them coming back.
Their slogan is even, "Keep coming back!" Did Jesus and the Apostles
tell people who rejected the Gospel to keep coming back to church?
- Worship is our offering to God praising who He is. In false-gospel
churches, the songs will usually be more about what good things God does
for us to appeal to our self interest. In the same vein, C.R. also uses
songs from churches that preach the Prosperity
Gospel: Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation. For example, Jenn Johnson
sees God as a genie in a bottle you rub to get what you want. That's
what her song, Goodness of God, is about. Avoid these churches and their
songs. Even if you re-interpret them, your money or Youtube views
promote their churches (and fake gospels) to others who don't know
better. People looking for the real Jesus see fake Jesus's on top of the
search results and sales charts. The people at C.R. that I talked to
didn't know anything about this at all.
- In church, you need a Bible to follow sermons that teach God's Word.
You will often read whole passages. Then, the leader will teach its
meaning, how we see Christ in it, and how it teaches us to live. In
C.R.'s services, they teach from C.R.'s materials instead of the Word.
People rarely bring Bibles. They don't need them for C.R. services.
- Like P.D.L., C.R.'s material use proof texting with multiple
translations to support their own talking points.
- God's Word teaches the Gospel first. If people accept it, they're
discipled further with Biblical teaching and topical material that's
compatible with it. The lessons are based on what that group needs the
most at that time. Celebrate Recovery ditches the Biblical model to use
the 12-step model that Alcoholic's Anonymous popularized. C.R. even uses
A.A.'s 12 steps verbatim with minimal changes. Bible literacy is neither
required nor increased in that model. That makes their misuses of the
Bible harder to spot for attendees.
- C.R. takes Bible verses out of context to teach different points. The
Beatitudes are a horrendous example. Almost two thousand years of
teaching are that the Beatitudes are about repentance (justification),
God gives us new hearts (regeneration), outward behavior that flows from
that (sanctification), and the eternal consequences of
choosing Christ. In Matt. 4:23, Jesus also preached the Gospel to all of
those people before following up with the Beatitudes. Rick
Warren reads them, says they're about the "principles of recovery," and
how works we do with God's help change our habits in this
life. Then, Warren and Baker merge those "Eight Principles" with
A.A.'s 12 Steps. While Jesus puts the Gospel first, they move it to Step
3 for C.R.. This is all so opposite of what and how Jesus taught the
Beatitudes that I was convicted to turn down the offer to publicly read
them for the group. I cringed every time someone recited their warped
use of God's Word. The crowd clapped for it but the Holy Spirit inside
of me didn't.
- God's covenant with Israel says He'll bless or punish the nation based
on their faith and obedience. Lev.
26 and Deut.
28 predict horrifying punishments. Lamentations' author describes
in Ch. 2 that God's wrath is on their nation for sin and idolatry. Esp
in Ch. 5, the details line up with the predictions. God is causing
them to be enslaved, raped, murdered, and eat their own babies. God
actually punished His people for so long that an entire generation
lived through it and then died off. The author ends Ch 5 begging for
God's mercy while talking like it may never come. In C.R., Baker cites
Lam. 3:40 saying it's about taking a personal inventory of our sins to
kick our bad habits because God wants us to enjoy a better life. What
Lamentations is saying to its readers and how C.R. uses it are as
different as night and day.
- Many teachings directly contradict God's Word, esp if based on A.A..
That includes un-Biblical diagnoses like codependency
that even psychologists haven't accepted, that we are helpless needing
faith in God to kick bad habits (atheists do self-improvement), trading
Biblical terms for those that please non-believers ("a higher power" or
"spiritual experience"), and non-Biblical goals like living in
"recovery" instead of sanctification (a Christ-only,
Spirit-driven process). It's pointless to teach steps for sanctification
to non-believers because not a single second of sanctification happens
without faith in Christ.
- Adding to that, C.R. often replaces the Bible's concepts and commanded
practices with its own concepts and commanded practices. They say
"everyone needs" C.R., learn/teach its materials more (not the Bible),
"keep coming back" to C.R., do so even if C.R. isn't working for them,
invite non-believers to C.R. (not faith in Jesus), "we should go door to
door" doing that, and go overseas on mission to plant... C.R.'s (not
churches). Kind of like what 40 Days does. I'll credit the local chapter
for a few leaders strongly encouraging people to regularly be in the
Word, in prayer, and in Biblical churches. Sad irony.
- God's Word says only baptized believers can be members of local
churches. You have to surrender to Christ to be part of His Body, God's
family. At C.R., everyone that regularly attends is part of their
"forever family." Christ brings His whole family to heaven but you can
join C.R.'s and still go to Hell.
- God's Word says we take it a day at a time. We thank Him for every
good thing, confess the bad things, forget the past, and press onward
toward Jesus Christ. Our motivation is also Christ. C.R. uses
performance-focused rewards, like chips and T-shirts, while citing the
Ebenezers in the Old Testament to justify it. They actually got it from
the pagans at A.A., not the O.T.. Their Christ-rejecting, works-centered
program that needs to use achievement trophies (chips) to motivate their
members. A.A.'s pyramid
design on their chips even looks similar to a popular, pagan
symbol ("Eye of Providence"). C.R. took a pagan practice, renamed it,
and kept doing basically the same thing. God's no fool...
- God's Word places higher requirements on leaders, discourages most
from being teachers, and says God will judge them more strictly. Many
people believe the devil attacks leaders harder, too. (I can't recall a
verse on that, though.) Most churches only appoint baptized believers
with proven character who are also trained in the Bible and theology.
C.R. seems to encourage almost anyone to become leaders if they've done
a step study. They push it more quickly than churches, too. One C.R.
leader I met tried, but failed, to explain the Gospel to their audience.
Another was a practicing, Roman Catholic. Church's leaders try to lead
people to Christ and obedience to His Word but C.R.'s might lead you...
anywhere. Even Hell.
- Many Biblical churches end services with readings from Scripture,
either exhortations or prayers. C.R. ends every night with the Serenity
Prayer. Reinhold Niebuhr might have authored it. Yet, C.R. got it from
A.A.. You can bet A.A. picked it for wording that let their
non-Christians pray it while staying committed to false gods or
themselves. Why would a "Christ-centered" program imitate how A.A.
people pray when we have Christ's and others' prayers in the NT? And are
commanded to imitate Him?
In summary, C.R. is thoroughly filled with false teaching. The
founding church refuses to repent of that and its decades of sin. That's
enough to walk away from both immediately. At least, that's what most
people would advise if just using verses
on false teaching. If your theology leans toward 1
Thes. 5:21, these are still enough problems to avoid promoting C.R.
to reduce the spread of false teaching. Even buying C.R. materials for a
non-C.R. group would fund Saddleback which spreads their false
teaching.
When I delivered critiques, C.R. proponents kept countering that what I
said was addressed in the "step studies." They dig in deep there with
lessons, therapy workbooks, and a Recovery Bible. They do these over eight
months with the goal of changing their entire lives for the better. They
said the Gospel and God's Word is all over C.R.... if you enter a step
study vs attending the service. With this program, there's always another
thing you have to do before knowing who Jesus Christ is. After entering
it, I found it had the same problems from Purpose-Driven Life, a few good
things, and a Bible. Again, you can get a Bible and therapeutic advice
without all the horrors I've described. Most importantly, nothing
justifies minimizing Christ or rejecting His Word!
Can Churches Have the Same Benefits?
With their life-changing experiences, many Christians attending C.R.
believe it makes sense to have a C.R.-like program. I tried to imagine one
with all its benefits but none of its weaknesses. The alternative must be
solidly ground in the Gospel, God's Word, have accountability for acting
on both, and practical lessons that don't contradict either. Churches
could implement it themselves alongside regular, Bible teaching. If they
didn't, groups in churches or outside of them could do the same. What
might that look like?
Many missionaries in South Asia build their churches using the Three
Thirds model. It divides a meeting up into discussing the past week,
a lesson, and goals for next week. If needed, that can be expanded into a
full service with more information and activities. Three Thirds meetings
already have group prayer, personal sharing, worship, lessons with group
discussions, and goal setting. Just make sure the sharing time includes
our actual sins, temptations, and worries.
For the lessons, the new program can ditch the pagan, 12-step model.
Instead, we'll use topical lessons grounded in God's Word. They can cover
issues such as suffering, forgiveness, marriage, addiction, mental health,
and so on. The topics of the new program can be in any order. If
open-source and online, they can also be given to the group members ahead
of time so they can jump right to learning what's most important to them.
They can share what they learned on any topic in the personal-sharing part
of the meeting. If on-topic, they might share it during the lesson
discussion.
My big questions include what topics to teach, how much is theology, how
much is personal issues, how to embed the Gospel, what Bible passages
teach on specific topics, and whether and how much to use secular sources
for therapy questions (esp worksheets). While brainstorming, I came up
with a few models that might work. I encourage people to experiment while
being careful about false teaching.
I'll be referencing therapy worksheets. Open-source questions are
probably best made by Biblical counselors but will they? Meanwhile, I did
find a web
page claiming to link to tons of them. Some of them might be
open-source or willing to do it. If using non-Christian sources (most will
be!), carefully vet the questions against God's Word, cite them as
external, and mark their references as "non-Christian." We don't want to
repeat C.R.'s mistake of treating worldly teachings like they're Biblical.
Bible Study Method
Before I describe alternative models, I want to mention why and how we'll
use the Bible in the accountability group. We want participants first and
foremost to know who Jesus Christ is, how He saves us from our biggest
problem (Hell), and that God's Word is the ultimate authority. We're
putting Christ and His Word first. We also show these people how to
properly read it, apply it to their lives, and just soak up more of it.
We'll also build on sources of free, theological training to encourage
believers to use them, too. Using the Word might also lead the Holy Spirit
to speak to and through believers in ways that weren't in the planned
lesson.
We'll teach Bible passages using the historical-grammatical
method, or "expository" style. That will show the audience how to
read God's Word in its original context. We'll teach them the SWORD
method so they can get a quick and easy application out of any
passage. Then, we'll tie the passage into the person of Christ and the
redemptive story that runs across the whole Bible. We'll embed the Gospel
into the lesson somewhere.
Once we understand the passage, we will draw out the practical lessons it
taught people of that time. Then, we'll apply them to today. We'll add the
therapy questions that tie-in to the passage. They can discuss all of
that. We can give them web sites and/or handouts to dig deeper into any of
that.
On topical lessons, we'll use Bible passages that teach those or similar
lessons. The topics might be just Biblical (eg God's character, nature of
sin) or C.R.-like topics. Examples: Forgiveness or family issues might use
Joseph's story (definitely include it somehow). Instead of "Starting Over"
in C.R., we'll teach the need for repentance, regeneration, and
sanctification. We can embed similar advice into them while highlighting
the role of the Holy Spirit. For non-C.R. topics, we might cover identity
(including gender roles), marriage, and children. We might use Jacob's and
David's families to make those interesting. If about feeling stuck or
hopeless, we can use Israel's exile in the O.T. and Paul's imprisonment in
the N.T..
Also, we might have an opening class that teaches critical techniques
above. Basic interpretation, SWORD, good translations, good commentaries,
and where to get Biblical answers. To support using SWORD, we might
summarize God's character, man's attributes, our sins, basic commands, and
God's institutions. Maybe also a sheet with a method on how to pull more
specific applications out of Bible passages. We'll give them solid
resources to learn about topics on their own: GotQuestions,
DesiringGod, IBCD's free
resources, and ACBC reading
list. For deeper education, we'll give them BibleProject,
BiblicalTraining, and No
Place Left's training.
Only SWORD with a good translation will be mandatory.
The point of all of this is to equip them in a way that keeps paying off
during these and other Bible studies. They'll see how and where to look
for answers to important questions in God's Word. If outside a church,
this might also be their first exposure to Bible study like this.
Brainstorming Results
Option 1
(Far as I know, this is how God has used His Word to transform most
peoples' lives since the church was founded. John Wesley also made this a
formal, group activity in his churches. Many others have, too.)
We'll look at passages with sins, good traits, and outright commands.
Then, we'll ask if we've done or are doing any of those individually.
Next, we'll look at each institution in our lives: parents/children
(family unit), jobs (business), neighborhood/schools (community), and
government interactions. In each case, we'll ask what sins we've
committed, been victim of, what good we've done, and so on. We'll assess
our spiritual health in all areas of life.
Optionally, there might be a day-to-day portion. Participants will be
given basic lists of sins and fruits of obedience. They're to journal day
to day what God shows them in their interactions with other people, esp
failures or improvements. They share those. People answer any questions
they have about what God's Word says in such situations. So, they're are
meditating on what God is showing them now in their
own lives while also steadily learning from His Word.
Doing this is basically how God transformed the lives of many Christians
for thousands of years. That includes mine which started with a long
list of sins. We just read the Bible, explore all the ways it might apply,
pray for answers, note what pops into our minds research it, apply it, and
discuss it with each other. We often learn from more mature believers,
too. God steadily sanctifies us this way.
Option 2
(This is the most like Christ-centered, Bible teaching.)
This is similar to Option 1. The difference is we focus on passages about
Christ, who He is, who we are, and try to close the gap. I mention it
second because it takes more interpretation than passages with clear
commands. The benefit is you really get to know Jesus Christ as you try to
imitate His character.
If being more specific, you might pick part of God's design which Christ
exemplifies in His life and character. Examples might be being filled with
God's Word, putting others' needs first, humility, purity, or even respect
for authority. Cite verses that illustrate it. Describe (exposit) their
meaning. If you know any, include verses and real-world examples of any
benefits that come from living that way to show God's goodness.
Then, start listing the ways we fall short of that, the problems that
result, verses showing that, and real-world examples.
Give therapy questions that tie into those failures. Maybe ask follow-up
questions about how God's principles might have prevented or helped each
situation.
Give pragmatic advice on those topics ground in or at least compatible
with God's Word.
Option 3
(This is the most like C.R..)
This option assumes two things: the real value of church is growing
together in Christ and God's Word; the remaining value of C.R. is in its
therapy workbooks that help us dig into our lives. We're already going to
point them to Biblical teaching and churches. People wanting this option
will say that a C.R. alternative needs a huge pile of therapy questions
covering all areas of life. Those might take specific gifts to develop,
they'll need many of them, and they'd have to develop them from scratch.
So, they will try to reuse anything helpful that's already out there.
So, they can start with therapy worksheets. Preferably free and open
source. Divide them up by topic or category. Pick topic/question sets that
will help the most people. That's what's in group lessons. The rest are
still available online, as printouts, and/or booklets. After doing a few
in-lesson, maybe give out the rest on that topic as a printout for group
members to do for homework.
Ideally, they'd derive all the questions they need from Bible passages.
Since questions are the rare resource, they'll look for passages that
teach the same points as their exemplary questions. If they can't, then
they teach passages on the same topics with their applications.
Then, say something like: "Let's look at this topic some more. We have
some questions about it from (sources)." Then, go to the questions. Each
topic might use one or several passages with amount of exposition tied to
timing requirements.
People are also naturally attracted to both stories and anything that
gets them asking questions. God hardwired us for it. Then, He wrote most
of His Word that way. Follow His lead! Use Biblical narratives and loaded
passages (eg Beatitudes). For confirmation, missionaries in many countries
said narrative evangelism worked well even with non-believers. An
evangelist also pointed out that loaded passages let you squeeze lots of
God's truth into limited time. And they're likely to ask follow-up
questions that extend the discussion.
Option 4
(This is most like doing a "Foundations" program in BiblicalTraining or
No Place Left.)
This one is more of a theological class. The idea is that a church wants
theological lessons, counseling lessons, or a mix of both. Also, that
they're more likely to do theology. So, you mix in practical lessons from
counseling materials. You tell people how the theology applies to their
lives.
Extra Considerations
The church hosting this might consider having Biblical counselors or
other professionals there. They might be volunteers or paid for blocks of
time. They should have a list of Christian counselors people can see for
one-on-one advice. There might also be people in the church who specialize
in specific kinds of struggles. I've seen "grief" and "DivorceCare"
ministries. Make sure people in the support group know who they can talk
to.
In church, we should have brothers and sisters we regularly talk to about
our issues. Preferably, people we can call at any time if something gets
too much. That conversation might prevent the sin we were about to commit.
In A.A. and C.R., they have "sponsors" and "accountability partners" for
this. We should already just be doing this with Biblical terms like
"brother," "sister," and "church family." Support it with passages that
emphasize what loving each other means. Paul, James, and John all have
good ones.
Celebrate Recovery opened with food and fellowship. The local church that
hosts ours had volunteers who supplied a meal. The charge was $2 but free
if you needed it. Some people there thought the fellowship time was too
short at 30-minutes. Standing in line took quite a bit of it. Consider
this if you implement it. Also, if your church already does fellowship,
that night might be a good one to implement this program. Our own church
already has up to an hour and a half of eating and fellowship if you show
up on Wednesdays. Then, there's classes of many types. The support group
could happen that night to build on the food and fellowship experience.
The "Celebration Station" is a table with their booklets, Recovery
Bibles, daily devotionals, and prayer requests. Saddleback is good at
marketing. Some churches likewise have helpful materials at their "welcome
booths." I suggest having on-hand materials from solid, Bible-based
sources. For study Bible, maybe the ESV Study Bible saying it will just
teach you the Bible. Although NIV, the Life Application Bibles are quite
popular with this crowd. Maybe have a few devotionals to choose from. In
the long run, someone should consider making an alternative to the
Celebrate Recovery Bible with a solid translation, sound teaching, and
money going to a trustworthy organization.
Include training on how to lead small groups and do the services. How to
train leaders. Again, all based on good, discipleship materials. My Serving
page has small groups guides in it.
If there's music, I'd include a warning about churches that push a false
gospel with music that sounds great as bait. C.R. had many songs with
these problems. List the churches, their false teachings, and the band
labels. Instead, use songs from safe sources that worship Christ using
Biblical concepts.
Host church should have cards or web sites with their own service times.
If church-neutral, maybe a list of good churches in nearby areas. Plus,
online sources where they can get good articles, sermons, and Youtube
content. Get people plugged into Biblical churches!
(Read the Gospel with proof it's
true and my story. Learn how
to live and share it. Go back to main
page.)