Why Celebrate Recovery?
Why offer Celebrate Recovery? Why not leave this stuff up to other people and other organizations? Good questions.
As a pastor I’ve come to realize that when new people walk through our doors it is almost always for one of two reasons: they’re either really happy or really hurting. Something major has gone on in their life – for good or bad – that has driven them to get connected to their Creator. Truth is, almost no one just happens to roll out of bed on a Sunday morning after years of ignoring God’s existence, and say, “You know, I usually sleep ‘till Noon on Sundays but today I’m thinking church!”
Quite the opposite. A young couple comes bouncing through our doors newly engaged and looking for the perfect church to get married in and raise their children in. Life has changed and they’re happy. A middle-aged man hides in the back of the worship center wondering why his marriage has fallen apart and if God can help him get his wife back. Life has changed and he’s hurting. A woman pulls in the parking lot having taken on a new job, in a new town, and it’s time to find a new church. A father has brought his family to church for the first time in 15 years because his wife has an addiction that’s ruining the family and they need to know if Jesus can work a miracle. People come through our doors with lives in flux and hearts either full of joy or filled with hurts.
And the sad truth is that most Christian communities – ours included – tend to be really good at welcoming in and showing love to the “happy” people and not so good at welcoming, connecting with, and providing true healing to those hurting people. We tend to do step one and give them the gospel, reminding them that they are forgiven of their sins and no longer owned by their struggles through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and never, for those who need it, get to step two. We give them the good news that they’re right with God but then do little to help them deal with the ripple effects of their sinful choices and heal the deep wounds in their past.
And yet Jesus tells us that he came to give us more than an eternity, more than membership in His family and more than forgiveness of sins – as if those aren’t incredible on their own. Jesus tells us that he came so that we might “have life and have it to the full” right here and right now. (John 10:10) Which, for those who are hurting, means allowing the power of God and the message of Jesus to not just save their souls tomorrow but heal their wounds today; to take the stuff in them that is broken and change it into an incredible testimony of God’s power and love for even the lowliest of people and the worst of sins.
That’s why any church that wants to truly change lives and leave a lasting impact on the world will not only engage in mission trips to third world countries or open up food banks for the needy. They will first and foremost position themselves to bind up the wounds and apply the gospel to the deep hurts and hidden pains of the men and women walking through their doors every Sunday morning. That’s when real, lasting, life change takes place. And that’s exactly why we’re starting Celebrate Recovery at CrossPoint. It’s about facing the reality that scores of broken people are in our church and in our community and doing what we can offering to them the full life found in Jesus Christ.
And no one else can offer the lasting healing and the full hope that God’s people do. No one. Everything else is just a Band-Aid. Only Jesus can give them the full life, not just a fixed life.
Pastor Matt
Loading...