Celebrate Recovery

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · John Baker · 1991 · Saddleback Church, California, USA

What it is

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centred, church-based recovery ministry. It is not a therapy and is not delivered by clinicians. Pastor John Baker founded it at Saddleback Church, California, in 1991. Each group is a ministry of a local church and is run by volunteer lay leaders who are themselves…

Format

• CR has no fixed course length. People may attend for as long as they need. There is, however, a published sequence of involvement.
• Weekly General Meeting Night (open, ongoing). This has three parts:

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Programme fidelity and "certification". There is no clinician licence. A CR group must keep the "DNA": it is Christ-centred, uses only the Bible and the CR curriculum, has gender-specific groups following the Five Guidelines, meets face to face (an online group must be linked to a local in-person group), and is accountable to Christ, the local church and the Saddleback model. In the UK, a group is listed on the…
• Version followed: the Saddleback-model Celebrate Recovery (CR) as published in the Updated curriculum (John Baker, Zondervan 2016: one Leader's Guide plus Participant's Guides 1–4; follow-on "Journey Continues" Guides 5–8), and the meeting rules ("DNA") as set out in Celebrate Recovery UK's 2023 training handouts. Local church practice varies; where a local church page is the only source, it is labelled as such.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the sponsor's role drifting into therapy.
• anticipatory anxiety. Debrief at the next session.
• avoidance of meetings after a lapse, out of shame.
• pressure from group members or the sponsor to reconcile with abusers.
• competition between the programme's frame and the treatment plan. Name it openly.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.