A Christ-centered program designed to help people struggling from hurt, pain or addiction of any kind will kick off this weekend at The Church on Main.
Program Director Sheila Stringer said a dinner and program at 5:30 p.m. will introduce interested people to “Celebrate Recovery.”
“The Church on Main had Celebrate Recovery at one time, but they didn’t really have it in this capacity,” she said. “We’re going to roll it out in a large group capacity. Anybody is invited, not just our church. Our first actual service will be on Thursday, Sept. 20 and it will begin with a dinner beforehand at 5:30 p.m. We’re going to try doing that with donations. We will have child care provided, and the service will start at 6:30 p.m. and run until 7:30 p.m. There will be a worship time and then teaching. It’s like a church within a church. The music style will be upbeat. We want to celebrate what we’re recovering from. We really want to celebrate the fact that God has delivered us and is bringing us through our burdens, whatever they may be.”
Celebrate Recovery is often thought of as a place where people come to recover from addiction, but Stringer says that it is much more: Grief, pain, PTSD, depression, divorce or loss of a loved one, for example.
“I really hope people understand that it is not just drug and alcohol addiction. It can be any hurt or hang-up,” she said. “It can be people that are codependent or emotionally abused, anything that you are struggling with. We have so many young people that are abusing cutting. … Maybe it could be somebody from the military who is simply trying to come back into society. Maybe you are someone coping with a loved one who is in jail or you’re just coming out of jail or someone who is dealing with elderly parents. They need somewhere to go to be able to worship and just talk to somebody.”
Stringer said the program will begin in a large group setting with the hour-long service. Within a couple of months, they will break off into gender-specific groups after that and have “open share.”
“We’ll start with the big issues: chemical dependency, abuse and codependency, whatever the main issues are. There are very specific guidelines,” she said. “It is very orderly and every time, whether it is the open share or the large group, there is an additional study that has a workbook and it would be a small group of five to seven people. You get into deep healing and being able to talk openly. I’m not there to heal them or fix them, but the word of God is very much a part of it. There is a lot of time to go through that. It is built on 12 principal keys found in Matthew 5.”
Stringer said the Celebrate Recovery team has been working for about two months every Sunday after church and that she attended leadership training in April.
She said she isn’t sure what to expect as far as attendance goes.
“People are starting to call, so I hope it is good,” she said. “I know there are a lot of other groups: There is ACTS and AA and many others. Here’s how I feel: I just want people to get better; I don’t care where they go. We just want to be another avenue. The word of God is the key in our program.”
Stringer said she hopes that the group can contribute to a healing in Marion County.
“I love this town,” she said. “My heart has always been here. I’m so glad to be back here and so glad we can start this program up here.”
