Reflections

Starting in July The Salvation Army plans to launch a Christian based recovery program, entitled Recovering from Life’s Hurts. The program is modeled after the Celebrate Recovery program that was developed by Pastor Rick Warren and the staff members of the Saddleback Church.  Like Celebrate Recovery, Recovering from Life’s Hurts merges the principles of 12 Step programs with Jesus’ Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). While most recovery groups focus on people with addictions issues, this program includes anyone recovering from life hurts. 

In John 11 we read that Jesus gave life to deceased Lazarus. However, when Lazarus came out of the grave his hands, feet, and face were still bound with the grave clothing. Jesus told to those standing around the gravesite, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” The purpose of developing the Recovering from Life’s Hurts program is to enable Christian people to help each other to remove the grave clothing that is binding their lives and keeping them from enjoying full liberty in Christ.

Throughout the month of June the Recovering from Life’s Hurts program will be put together, including guidelines regarding appropriate and inappropriate disclosure in a small island community setting. We trust this new program will be a source of healing as people seek to recover from life’s hurts. The first eight sessions will deal with the Beatitudes and their corresponding 12 Step principles. How the program develops after that will depend upon the number of participants, leadership, and the topics needing to be addressed.

Major Scott Nicloy 

Salvation Army Church