Friday, September 13, 2013

Pastor's Perspective - Happy Birthday CR!



Happy Birthday Celebrate Recovery!

Today is the 7th year anniversary of our Celebrate Recovery ministry here at First Christian Church of Suisun City (www.1stchristianchurch.org)! Since instituting it in September of 2006, this Purpose-Driven outreach has been used by God to help heal countless lives willing to courageously address their hurts, habits and hang-ups.

Personally, I still remember well in autumn 2005 receiving the brochure in the mail promoting a local CR conference taking place in Santa Cruz. Being a pastor, I receive a lot of solicitations daily promoting a variety of special events, seminars and conferences. Admittedly, most end up in my ‘round file’ by my desk! However, for some reason, I couldn’t throw that brochure away. For two weeks I looked at it. After presenting the societal need for such a specialized ministry to our church leaders, we stepped up and several of us went to the conference. We were hooked immediately by the integrity and methodology of the ministry, and we were greatly inspired by the testimonies of many who had experienced true healing and Christ-given freedom in their lives. After months of organizational and team-building meetings, we launched CR as a flagship ministry at First Christian nine months later.

Under the dedicated and able leadership of Amy Anderson and currently Rick Deshazo, with the help of highly-committed coaches and volunteers, CR is a rain-or-shine weekly beacon in our region for anyone hungry to be free indeed.

For anyone interested in checking-out this proven and safe recovery ministry that addresses a wide array of challenges, the group meets every Friday evening at 7:00P.M. at 199 Marina Blvd in Suisun City. My personal guarantee is that you’ll find a group of people just like you, who will love you, accept you and encourage you no matter what you’re going through in life. For a church that prides itself on being ‘real’, those who engage CR are the ‘realest of the real’.

Happy Birthday!


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