It is a Christ-centered recovery program based on the eight recovery principals borrowed from the Beatitudes.
Gresh Harbuck, ministry leader for Celebrate Recovery, started the program along with associate pastor Debbie Barrett at ClearBranch United Methodist Church in Argo Jan. 16, 2005.
“Our program is based out of California and Rick Warren’s church, Saddleback,” said Harbuck. “An alcoholic named John Baker came to an AA meeting and then became a member of Warren’s church.”
Harbuck said Baker became frustrated because he was unable to mix church and the AA meetings together. He could not talk about Jesus at the AA meetings and wanted to.
“Baker went to Warren about starting a 12-step, Christ-centered recovery program,” Harbuck said. “He made sure each step was biblical and had a verse of scripture.”
The purpose of Celebrate Recovery is to serve God by reaching out to others so they can step out of denial into God’s grace, take an honest and spiritual inventory that will help them get right with God, themselves and others. That will allow them to grow in Christ while helping others.
The program had about 15 people at that initial meeting. In the span of almost five years, the program has outgrown the present location at ClearBranch.
“We teamed up with the Salvation Army and started bringing in some of those guys,” Harbuck said. “We kept having special events and in the course of almost four years, we had grown to about 60. Eighteen months ago, we just started exploding and now, we average between 220 and 230 on a weekly basis.”
Harbuck said the growth has been so overwhelming the need to find a new place to hold meetings was inevitable.
“We outgrew the Family Life Center here at ClearBranch and yet not big enough for the sanctuary,” Harbuck said. “We have a new location and it is the old Ace Hardware building in Springville that is located next to Burtons.”
Harbuck said they will open the new location in Springville on Friday, Dec. 4, but a huge event is planned on Dec. 11, at 6 p.m. There will be a cookout and the CR Praise Band will perform. Guest speaker is Brad Graydon from The Basement.
“Right now, we have about 80 people from outside the county that we are busing in,” Harbuck said. “The court system sends us people and counselors send us people. We work with people who are grieving, those who are addicted to gambling, sex, alcohol, etc. Any hurt, habit or hang-up they may have, we are there for them.”
The program meets every Friday. Doors open at 6 p.m. and those in attendance are fed for free. At 7 p.m., there is a worship service that Harbuck described as high-energy, sort of like a youth band. That will last about 30 minutes and then there is testimony time followed by a break before breaking out into small classes. Men are in classes together as well as the women. Afterwards, there are snacks and then they dismiss. All total, the program last about four hours each session.
“Some people will come from other churches just to be part of our worship service,” Harbuck said. “We even have a class for those who have loved ones who are chemically dependent. We call it co-dependency.”
Harbuck said the goal is to get people to the point of accountability.
“We hope to bring them from a pit of addiction or struggle to being around people who have been where they have been and now who are on the other side,” Harbuck said. “Once they come out of that pit, we hope they turn around and help someone else out. We want to build future mentors and maybe one day, change the community.”
For more information about Celebrate Recovery, call Harbuck at 238-8075.
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