Local church opens doors to weekly Celebrate Recovery program
(Seguin) — Need healing? A local church says it guarantees to open its doors every Thursday night as a place for comfort and “healing no matter what you’re going through in your life.” Continuing tonight is the Celebrate Recovery program at Crossroads Church.
However before anyone crosses the invitation off their table, Ministry Leader Jeremy Wallace, says he wants individuals both church members and community members to recognize the true benefits that this new ministry brings to not only you personally but to your family as a whole.
“Celebrate Recovery is a safe place for folks to come and share about their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. It’s a place where they don’t have to wear a mask or put on a pretend façade. They can just come as they are and share what is really going on in their life. It’s an international ministry. It’s actually located in over 35,000 churches worldwide. We are unapologetic about the fact that Jesus Christ is our higher power at CR and that’s what kind of separates it from other recovery groups. The other thing is we don’t only focus on substance abuse. A lot of times with the word recovery, people can get that misconception but where do you go if you are just anxious all the time, or you suffer from depression, or co-dependency, or unforgiveness, self-doubt, grief — these kinds of things, childhood trauma? We all need a place where we can go and kind of unload the things that we are carrying and so that is what Celebrate Recovery is,” said Wallace.
Wallace says the list of struggles and real life dealings are limitless and may include other factors such as eating disorders, relationships, anger, destructive behavior plus things like spending and day to day stress.
“There’s no expectations. We understand that it is often times hard for somebody to get out of their car when they get in the driveway, the parking lot of our Celebrate Recovery because they don’t know what they are getting into but what they will be greeted with is a smile and a warm welcome and a warm dinner to get things started. There will be a bunch of smiling, friendly faces there of other fellow strugglers that have found freedom since walking through those doors. So, we do our best to make that person feel as if they are just one of us because we are all strugglers whether we admit it or not and we are all going through things in our life. And, some people don’t share right away.”
“You don’t have to share anything. You can just go and listen and often times, the listening — me hearing of what other people are going through, gives me some perspective on what I’m going through and so it helps my recovery and it also helps me identify other areas of weakness of mine when I hear other people struggle. Whoever wants to come regardless of the issue can come and we will welcome you with open arms,” said Wallace.
Wallace says what makes Celebrate Recovery valuable is the foundation behind it all.
“The fact that we can name our higher power is one of the biggest things and I think that is what has honestly contributed to the success of this organization and these groups of folks who are leading these groups is we identify our creator and it’s not just a nebulous concept — we know who he is. His name is Jesus Christ and we know what he did for us and we use the Bible specifically to help guide these eight principles and the 12 steps and they are based on the beatitudes in the Bible so it’s literally using the words of Jesus to engage in recovery and engage in addressing the behaviors in our life that have taken us off the right track,” said Wallace.
Wallace says the program for Crossroads officially began last Thursday and is encouraged by all the new faces he expects tonight and every Thursday from here on out. He says the church has specifically designed the format to ensure that everyone benefits.
“We do realize that some people will be getting off of work to come out here so we want to provide a dinner, a pot luck style type of dinner to have ready to go for those who can make it during that time. So, 6:30 is the dinner and 7 to 9 p.m. is the large group where we meet and we actually listen to a lesson or a testimony. Every other week, we try to alternate and that alone is such a big part of my recovery is hearing what other people are going through and so we get time for that and then we break out into our small groups once that is finished so that we can go work on our own recovery and after that is over, we have a time where we can fellowship, have some dessert and try to find an accountability partner or a sponsor to help us go through the things we are going through,” said Wallace.
Wallace says struggles are real and impact each and every one of us. He says we all have struggles. They are all just different.
“I would encourage them to give it a shot. We understand that it can be difficult sometimes to reach out and to be vulnerable but it’s been such a rewarding thing in my life and in those around me and in my family. I see changes. My family sees changes and that’s the main reason why I have continued in this because of the changes that they have been able to see in me so I say give it a shot. It’s an open group so there’s no commitment. Just come and try it out and I’m sure they will be met with open arms at the door and they’ll love it in every way,” said Wallace.
Tonight’s Celebrate Recovery begins with dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by the program at 7 p.m. Crossroads Church can be reached by calling 830-251-2080. The church is located at 3455 W. Hwy 90.