Celebrate Recovery opens new chapter in Carmel Valley

A new local chapter of Celebrate Recovery has found its way to Carmel Valley, hoping to provide peace and serenity for those who are hurting and in need of healing.

Celebrate Recovery has over 20,000 church locations all over the world and since the beginning of the year has been offered at Grace Point Church in Carmel Valley, Seacoast Community Church in Encinitas and North Coast Calvary Church in Carlsbad.

Rick Hust, support and senior ministries director at Grace Point Church, was responsible for bringing Celebrate Recovery to the area. As part of his role as a ministries director is finding new programs for the church, he attended a three-day conference at Saddleback Church in Mission Viejo, where Celebrate Recovery was launched 25 years ago by Rick Warren and John Baker.

Hust said in his heart he felt that the program would be something good for the church and the community as a whole and was also something he could be passionate about leading. Grace Point was able to partner with Seacoast and North Coast Calvary to bring the valuable program to the area — there are 20 Celebrate Recovery groups in San Diego and none were in this corner of the county.

“All of us in one way or another suffer through bad hang ups, habits or some type of hurt,” Hust said, noting issues include anger, substance abuse, depression, grief, gambling and other family problems. “In our area, there a lot of people suffering through hurts, hang-ups and habits and Celebrate Recovery is a fantastic offering to people in the community. It’s an incredible program.”

The nine-month program is ongoing and meets once a week. It is a “biblical and balanced” program, featuring both the 12 Steps and 8 Principles based on the Beatitudes, meant to clear a path to hope, freedom, sobriety, healing and the opportunity to give back one day at a time.

The actual step program meets once a week and there is another component, testimony and sharing where people share what’s been going on that week and learn about tools and resources to help get through those issues. People can go one to two times a week if they want.

Hust co-leads the program with Celebrate Recovery’s state representative Larry Erickson.

There is no entry fee but participants do pay for materials — all you have to do is show up and be open to change, Hust said.

“Everybody is suffering from something, maybe we don’t even know it ourselves because we pack it down. This program helps you look inward and ask yourself is there something you just can’t get past, causing stress and anxiety and not allowing you to be the productive type of person you would ultimately want to be,” Hust said. “This is a program to get you where you want to be, to celebrate and recover from it.”

The group meets Thursdays from 6:30-8 p.m. at Grace Point Church and Thursdays at 7-9 p.m. at North Coast Calvary Church. The step studies are held at Seacoast Church on Tuesdays at 7-9 p.m. for men and Tuesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. for women.

For more information and church addresses, visit gracepointsd.com, northcoastcalvary.org under ministries, seacoast-church.org or celebraterecovery.com.