John Baker - Asking God to Grow My Character: The Journey Continues, Participants Guide 6: 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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Asking God to Grow My Character

Copyright 2016 by John and Johnny Baker

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ePub Edition May 2016: ISBN 978-0-310-08324-5

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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)

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. (Lamentations 3:40)

Welcome to the next step study in The Journey Continues. You are about to revisit Principle 4 and all it entails. Remember, Principle 4 says, Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. Here in Participants Guide 6, Asking God to Grow My Character, you will once again dig into the work of Principle 4.

Youll begin by taking a look at what makes, and what makes you, a good sponsor and servant leader. You will look at the truth you have discovered about yourself from prior step study groups, and then you will begin a fresh, new Spiritual Inventory. There are three brand new lessons on the Inventory to help you get writing again. Theres even a brand new worksheet, called Pros from My Inventory, designed to help you keep track of all the good things you have done and that God has done through you since starting Celebrate Recovery. If you have a copy of a past inventory, youll want to have it close by.

This is a chance for you to dig deeper into existing recovery issues and any new issues that have arisen since completing a The Journey Begins group. Remember all of the victory you experienced from your initial inventory, and expect God to do great things in your life during this one, too.

John Baker
Johnny Baker

By Pastor Rick Warren