John Baker - Living Out the Message of Christ: The Journey Continues, Participants Guide 8: 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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Living Out the Message of Christ

Copyright 2016 by John and Johnny Baker

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ePub Edition May 2016: ISBN 978-0-310-08328-3

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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)

Dont stop now!

In the final lessons of The Journey Continues, you will continue on the road to recovery and live out the rest of your life. This is so much more than maintenance! As in The Journey Begins, youll focus on what God wants to do through you now that youve found even more victory over your hurts, hang-ups, and habits.

In the next few weeks youll strengthen some healthy habits you began developing in The Journey Begins. Youll reinforce the habits of daily time spent with God through journaling, Bible reading, and prayer, as well as taking a daily inventory and see how these habits can help you build a strong relapse prevention plan.

Youll also take a close look at what God wants to do through you to help other people find the freedom and victory you have found. By giving back to God and saying yes to service, youll have the opportunity to become a Celebrate Recovery leader to help other people go through The Journey Begins and The Journey Continues.

This is an exciting time in recovery! Get ready, God is about to do some amazing things in, and through, your life as you complete The Journey Continues.

John Baker
Johnny Baker

By Pastor Rick Warren

1. Realize Im not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. (Step 1)

Happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor. (Matthew 5:3)

2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover. (Step 2)

Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)

3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christs care and control. (Step 3)

Happy are the meek. (Matthew 5:5)

4. Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Steps 4 and 5)

Happy are the pure in heart. (Matthew 5:8)