CR Summit = AMAZING!

Our CR ministry is blessed to be able to take a group to CR Summit each year.  This year was my first year to get to go and if I had to sum it up in one word it would be AMAZING!  The 16 of us that attended from MRCC had the pleasure to  worship together with 3600 other CR family members.  There was no discussions of denominations; it was just a body of believers who were praising our Higher Power, Jesus Christ!

Summit is a yearly event held at Saddleback Church in California.  Rick Warren (author of Purpose Driven Life, and a number of other books) is the head Pastor at Saddleback, so they obviously have a large congregation. Very large.  We had the pleasure of getting to hear Rick Warren speak and God provided him some amazing words to share with us.  I will be sharing more of Rick Warren’s quotes on our Facebook page in the coming weeks, but one that stood out was “Whatever gets your attention - gets you!”  Where is my attention focused?  To be honest sometimes MY attention is helping serve on the TEAM, or doing tasks on a Friday night that “need to get done” but maybe sometimes my attention needs to be focused on my own recovery instead!   That was a great point and really made me do some thinking about me and my recovery journey!

If you haven’t been to Summit, the entire group worships together and then we break up and attend training sessions on different areas of the CR program. 

This year one of the highlights was to getting to see the world premier of the movie Home Run.    Now, I’ll be honest and say most “church movies” I’ve seen are cheesy! Like worse that a Lifetime Original movie!!  But this movie, Home Run, was amazing!  It’s going to be a powerful tool to explain how God uses CR to change lives, provide healing, and restore relationships.  There will be more to come about how our CR program at MRCC is going to promote this movie and how can you be a part of that!  (You might get sick of hearing me talk about it.)

I hope you’ll be at CR this Friday night.  It will be a great night of praise & worship, and several of us will be sharing what we learned at CR Summit.  See you then!

Grateful Believer,

Karyn

A Cure for the Summertime Blues

I'm warning you right now: you're going to think I'm crazy.  You know that thing that some people have: Seasonal Affective Disorder that usually means winter depression? Well, I have that, but mine is in the summer instead of the winter. No, I'm serious. It's a real thing.  For me, it seems fitting that summer rhymes with "bummer."

I know it's crazy because summer's full of fun and frolic. Everyone is excited to go on vacation, spend family time at picnics, take outings to the water park.

But as the temperature rises outside, I feel a dark cloud inching over my mood. I usually forget it's coming. Sometime towards the end of May, I'll feel the darkness moving in and think, "Hey, what's the deal? I've been pretty depressed lately." And then I remember.

I'm a grateful believer in Jesus who struggles with overeating, in addition to depression. So, summer also seems like a minefield of food to avoid, like frozen yogurt, and popsicles, and home-made ice cream, and . . .mmm . . . oh, sorry - I'm triggering myself.

But, like a pitcher of (sugar-free) lemonade on a scorching day, one summer event completely refreshes me: the C.R. Summit. Every year a group from our Celebrate Recovery travels to Orange County, California to attend this national C.R. conference. We attend trainings and sessions to explore how to lead and grow our Celebrate Recovery program. In past years, we have enjoyed lessons from well-known authors John Townsend and Henry Cloud (who wrote the ground-breaking book, Boundaries).  But the most energizing thing about the C.R. Summit is that I am in a large room, surrounded by people who have chosen to take off their masks. They GET IT!

 

Recovery folks know how to worship! If you've had the chance to visit us and see how happy we are to be out of denial and into God's Grace, you know what I mean. Worship at the C.R. Summit is like that, but with 1,900 additional, happy people!

So, I will get through the difficult summer days with the thought, "The Summit is coming! The Summit is coming!"  We promise to listen carefully, and pour our renewed enthusiasm back into our program. Next year, why don't you come with us?!

Grateful Believer,
Angi

Summer FUN

Nothing says Summer FUN like CR Training!!! For the past three summers our CR group has hosted an Area-Wide Leadership Training for Celebrate Recovery programs, and this Sunday we’re doing that again.  I really wasn’t kidding about the fun part and to prove it, I’ve turned FUN into an acrostic!!!

Training is FUN!

F stands for Free.  Our trainings are free and come with FREE childcare as well!  (That’s one reason I attend! haha kidding.) Even if you’ve been to numerous trainings before it never hurts to attend training again over the same subject – different trainers may explain something you haven’t heard before. This Sunday our topics will be focused on CR Leadership.

U stands for Understanding.  You gain understanding about our CR program and why “we do what we do” each and every time you attend trainings.  The basic principles of CR never change, but practices might.  What does that mean?  An example would be our TEAM learned at CR Summit (National Training) that it was recommended that each sharer in an open share group only share ONE TIME during the group meeting.  The TEAM came back and implemented that into our Friday night meetings.

N stands for Needed.  Okay I stretched the letter N on this one to Needed if you want to Lead!  Training is needed (meaning required) if you ever want to LEAD in our CR program.  We feel like we have well trained leaders that work hard to insure the safety of our groups.    We do keep track of who attends training so we are aware when participants have met the requirements to lead.

This Sunday from 3-6 we will be hosting our 4^th annual area-wide training session.  We will meet in the Summit in the same room we’ve been meeting in each Friday night this Summer.  There are over 30 visitors coming so we need a GREAT showing from our group as well, call a friend and ask them to come with you!  Beat the HOT SUMMER HEAT and come enjoy our FREE air-conditioned training!! ; )  You’re bound to have a FUN time!

Grateful Believer,

Karyn