WHITING — The Whiting Community Church is launching a “Celebrate Recovery” program starting Monday, Oct. 19. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the meeting starts at 6:30.
Celebrate Recovery touches on a whole range of issues, including chemical addictions, food issues, pornography, physical and sexual abuse, abandonment, sexual and or love addictions, anger issues, co-dependency or any other issue people might be struggling with.The program is open to the public and walk-ins are welcome. Meetings will be held every Monday.
Celebrate Recovery is a 12-step program that is similar to traditional 12-step programs; the main difference is Celebrate Recovery is Christ-centered. Celebrate Recovery is designed to help not only help churchgoing believers but also the general public. It is a structured program that can provide a confidential and safe place for people to find recovery from their hurts, habits and hang-ups. It is a great option for people who may have hit bottom or are realizing that their lives are unmanageable. These are often people who may have never stepped foot in a church before. It’s also great for people who want to work on areas in their life that they know could use improvement.
The program is organized into three areas: open group time; small-group time, which is gender specific; and a very intense gender-specific step-study program. 
The large group time is an opportunity to celebrate. It gives people time to unwind from the stresses of the week and turn their attention to celebrating and praising God. The group will sing songs, read the 12 steps or eight principles, have a lesson or hear a testimony. Though it is Christ-centered, attendees do not have to believe in God.
After the large-group session, the meeting will break out into gender-specific small groups where people can share thoughts on the lesson or testimony and on things they feel are important to them. This might be a very heavy topic or a praise or a prayer request. It is whatever people want to share, if anything.
The step-study program is separate from the Monday night meetings and is the heart of Celebrate Recovery. This gender-specific group is for people who acknowledge that they have things they’d like to work on. The program goes deep into understanding why people do the things they do and how to recover. Besides working the program, everyone is encouraged to have a sponsor and accountability partners.
For more information, call 623-7171 or email [email protected].