Dead Man Walkin’

Celebrate Recovery is on to something big.  From humble beginnings over 20 years ago, it’s now in over 20,000 churches worldwide.  Conceived as a 12-step program similar to AA, but that is explicitly Christian, it is changing lives in profound ways, and growing beyond the wildest expectations of its founders.  It will definitely be an important component of our program at CrossRoads.

In the beginning, John Baker had gone from victory to victory in his life.  In high school he lettered in basketball, baseball and track, and was class president.  Yet he had two incompatible personality traits that caused a burning emptiness inside.  As he puts it himself, he was a “walking, talking paradox – a combination of the lowest possible self-esteem and the world’s largest ego”.  And once in college, he discovered what he thought was the solution to his problem – alcohol. 

After college, his success – and his drinking – went on to new heights.  He joined the Air Force, became a pilot, and spent lots of time in the officers’ club.  Later he earned an MBA, got a job in the corporate world, and having met and married Cheryl while still in college, they started raising a family.  But all the while, beneath the surface of this idyllic dream, he still felt like a dead man inside.

His drinking got worse and worse, and soon was out of control.  He woke up one morning and knew that he couldn’t take another drink, but realized down deep that he couldn’t live without one.  When he hit his personal bottom, he started attending AA meetings with a vengeance – more than 90 meetings in 90 days.

As he worked the steps, however, he started cleaning up.  He was working on the hurts, habits and hang-ups that had led to his trying to drown the emptiness he felt with alcohol.  And as he faced and dealt with each demon, his wife, from whom he was separated by that time, started to see the change in him, and liked what she was seeing.

The big breakthrough came when he learned that she and the kids had started attending a local church, and invited him to come with them.  He accepted, and God started working a whole new set of miracles in his heart.  He learned that Jesus, in the greatest sermon ever preached – the sermon on the mount – laid out the principles on which all people would be wise to build their lives.  They’re called the beatitudes. 

As he learned these life-changing principles, he realized that in them lay all the principles by which he could not only defeat his dependency on alcohol, but to attain an abundance in his life that would truly set him free.  AA had taught him to yield his life and will to a “Higher Power”, and he knew in his heart that the true Higher Power was and is Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!  Yet when he shared his awesome discovery at AA meetings he was mocked!  He developed a deep longing to join in fellowship with other believers who were struggling as he was.  He wrote to the pastor of his church, Rick Warren, and described a vision God gave him for a Christian Recovery program, and Warren said “Great John, you do it! 

John left the corporate world, entered seminary, and started to meet with other folks in his church who wanted to recover from their own hurts, habits and hang-ups.  Celebrate Recovery, from a humble beginning in Saddleback Church, became the gold standard of recovery programs.

Along the way, something else profound started to happen.  At most churches, the washed, smiling, “normal” people met for Sunday services up in the main hall, while downstairs, the recovery people would meet for their own weekly service, and break into small groups to share and work the steps and principles.  Many of the upstairs people thought of themselves as not really needing to recover from addictive behavior, so it was often like two very different churches, meeting in the same building.

Gradually, though, some of the upstairs people would start to check out what was going on downstairs, and to realize that CR might be a way to fix a loved one who did struggle with something.  So they would go downstairs to check it out.  Before you knew it, many of those people started to realize that God wanted them to work on a few things in their own lives.  Eventually it became pretty well known that nearly everyone has something they’re struggling with, and that the principles on which CR is based are good for everyone to dig down deeply into.

And one final point.  The eighth and final principle (Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words. "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires) led to many folks making a transition from being served, to serving.  And as they did, they made another huge discovery – that although hurt people hurt people, HEALED people heal people.  "God never wastes a hurt", as Pastor Warren has said, and now through Celebrate Recovery, thousands of people were discovering for the first time why they had to go through their own valleys of the shadow of death – because nobody is more fulfilled by helping others with their own hurts, habits and hang-ups than one who had been there, and done that, and finally arrived at that place where they could truly say, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last!”

Eight Principles Based on the Beatitudes

1. Realize I'm not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor."
2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover. "Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ's care and control. "Happy are the meek."
4. Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. "Happy are the pure in heart."
5. Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. "Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires."
6. Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I've done to others except when to do so would harm them or others. "Happy are the merciful. Happy are the peacemakers."
7. Reserve daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
8. Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words. "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires."