John Baker - Moving Forward in Gods Grace: The Journey Continues, Participants Guide 5: A Recovery Program Based on Eight Principles from the Beatitudes

John Baker is the founder of Celebrate Recovery, a ministry started at Saddleback Church. It is estimated that over the last 25 years more than 1.5 million people have gone through this Christ-centered recovery program. There are currently over 27,000 churches that have weekly Celebrate Recovery meetings.

John has been on staff since Celebrate Recovery started. He has served as the Pastor of Membership, the Pastor of Ministries, and is currently the Pastor of Saddleback Churchs Signature Ministries. He is also serving as one of the nine Elder Pastors at Saddleback. John is a nationally known speaker and trainer in helping churches start Celebrate Recovery ministries.

Johns writing accomplishments include Celebrate Recoverys The Journey Begins Curriculum, Lifes Healing Choices, the Celebrate Recovery Study Bible (general editor), and The Landing and Celebration Place (coauthor). Johns newest books are Your First Step to Celebrate Recovery and The Celebrate Recovery Devotional (coauthor).

John and his wife Cheryl, the cofounder of Celebrate Recovery, have been married for more than four decades and have served together in Celebrate Recovery since the beginning. They have two adult children, Laura and Johnny, and five grandchildren.

Johnny Baker has been on staff at Celebrate Recovery since 2004 and has been the Pastor of Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback Church since 2012. As an adult child of an alcoholic who chose to become an alcoholic himself, Johnny is passionate about breaking the cycle of dysfunction in his family and helping other families find the tools that will lead to healing and openness. He knows that because of Jesus Christ, and by continuing to stay active in Celebrate Recovery, Maggie, Chloe, and Jimmy his three children will never see him drink. Johnny is a nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and teacher of Celebrate Recovery. He is a coauthor of the Celebrate Recovery Daily Devotional, Celebration Place, and The Landing, and is an associate editor of the Celebrate Recovery Study Bible. He has been married since 2000 to his wife Jeni, who serves alongside him in Celebrate Recovery.

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Moving Forward in Gods Grace

Copyright 2016 by John and Johnny Baker

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ePub Edition May 2016: ISBN 978-0-310-08322-1

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First Printing May 2016

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by Rick Warren

The best known ministry at Saddleback Church that is going to last for easily 100, maybe 200 years started when a guy, who was a drunk, came to me with a 13-page letter. And that ministry is called Celebrate Recovery.

Now, let me just put this in perspective. This may be Saddlebacks greatest contribution to the world. Over 20,000 people have completed the step studies at Saddlebacks Celebrate Recovery. Over three and a half million people worldwide have gone through a Celebrate Recovery step study.

Right now, around the world, 27,000 churches are using Saddlebacks ministry called Celebrate Recovery 27,000 churches! It is so successful that Celebrate Recovery is the official recovery program in 44 state and federal prison systems. It has been translated into 20 different languages.

Do you think John Baker, when he came to see me in my office many years ago and said, Ive got an idea for a ministry, Pastor Rick, imagined it would be affecting three and a half million people in 27,000 churches? No. You have no idea what God wants to do through you. You may have the next big ministry idea. You may have the next Celebrate Recovery dwelling in you a ministry that could be started and reproduced to bless the whole world. One guy, out of his own pain, starts a ministry that now affects tens of thousands of churches and millions of people.

Rick Warren

(Excerpted from Pastor Warrens talk at Angel Stadium on Saddlebacks 35th anniversary)

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19)

Welcome to The Journey Continues!

We are so excited for you as you continue to grow on the road to recovery! If you are starting The Journey Continues, it means a few things about you. First, it means you are ready to take the next step on your recovery journey and take your recovery to the next level. It also means that you have already completed at least one The Journey Begins (the original Celebrate Recovery Participants Guides 1 4) step study group. Last, it means that you have had some time, probably at least six months since completing that study, to begin applying the Biblical Principles of Recovery to your life.

Here in The Journey Continues you will build on what you learned about Christ and yourself in The Journey Begins, grow deeper in your faith, and strengthen your recovery. Youll find brand new acrostics, new questions, and of course, hundreds of Bible verses. Just as in The Journey Begins, youll grow closer to Christ and the other members of your group as you dig deeper into your life and find freedom in new areas.

To begin The Journey Continues, you will see if DENIAL has snuck back into your life in any way and, if so, what to do about it. Since you learned what you give up when you admitted your powerlessness in The Journey Begins, here you will explore what Gods POWER can do in your life and will see how keeping your HOPE in God can maintain your SANITY. Because you have already turned your life over to Christ, in or before you completed Principle 3 of The Journey Begins, you will focus here on the daily ACTIONS you need to take to turn your WILL to Him.