Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery started in 1991 at Saddleback Church in Lake

Forest, California. At that time, the church was meeting at a high

school gymnasium. John Baker wrote Pastor Rick Warren the “now-famous,

concise, 13-page, single-spaced” letter outlining the vision God had

given John for Celebrate Recovery. After reading John’s letter, Pastor

Rick said, “Great, John — go do it!”

The first night 43 people attended, and Celebrate Recovery was born.

Beginning with only four Open Share Groups — Men’s and Women’s Chemical

Dependency and Men’s and Women’s Codependency — the ministry has grown

to over 14 groups today. Over 27,000 people have gone through the

program at Saddleback Church. Many of them are now serving in Celebrate

Recovery and the Church. Celebrate Recovery is the number one outreach

ministry at Saddleback Church, with over 70 percent of its members now

coming from outside the church.

The first 10 years were the birth stage of Celebrate Recovery, and

now God is calling us to take it to the world. There are now 35,000 Celebrate Recovery churches

around the world, and that number continues to grow. We are part of a

movement that is bringing the healing power of Jesus Christ to the

hurting and broken through working Celebrate Recovery’s Step Studies, The Journey Begins, and The Journey Continues. To date, over 5 million individuals have completed a Step Study.

In addition, Celebrate Recovery is not just growing in churches, but

in recovery houses, rescue missions, universities, and prisons around

the world. New Mexico was the first state to adopt Celebrate Recovery

into its state prison system and now has Celebrate Recovery pods in all

its state prisons. In August 2004, Celebrate Recovery was announced as

California’s state-approved substance abuse program for prisons. This is

an exciting and growing outreach opportunity for every Celebrate

Recovery.

We are a part of something much larger than one church’s Celebrate Recovery. We are part of a movement that God is blessing.

Celebrate Recovery is every Thursday at 6.pm