Grace Community Church Salem Oregon

A 12 step recovery program based on eight principles from the Beatitudes.

Come celebrate with us….

5:45 PM Dinner ($3 per person)

6:30 Worship

7:00 Testimony

7:30 Small Groups

8:30 Solid Rock Cafe (Dessert & Fellowship)

Our Executive T.E.A.M. and our food and music leaders went on a retreat to the coast to discuss how we can become better at CR as a group. What a blessing that was to have that time as a team. It was a great time to get closer to God and to become closer as a group (T.E.A.M.).

On March 11th we had our first special event concert. Kelly Condron who is from Chicago, Illinois came to our CR, after locating us on the CR web site, and shared with all of us some of her musical giftings. The fact that she felt God calling her to our little Church here in Salem, Oregon is exciting. What an awesome time that was! She also joined in on one of our women’s small groups. Celebrate Recovery is many things to a lot of people, but it is just amazing to see how God can use a program started many years ago in one church now in many churches to bless those of us with all of our Hurts, Habits, and Hang-ups. We continue to get excited at all of the things God is doing just in our church and community through Celebrate Recovery. Just imagine what he is doing on a regional or even on the national level. God is so good!

Sincerely,

Jim Brietenbauch
Lynda Lee Kersey
Grace Community Church Salem, OR

We are extremely excited about the local business support that we are receiving, it’s great to see the community become involved. We are very happy about our numbers since the beginning of January, we are averaging between 40 and 50 people each week at our large group meetings on Tuesday evenings. We did have to cut back on one of our women’s small groups, but when the time comes we are ready to start it back up.

Our executive “T.E.A.M.” and our food and music leaders will be heading off for a retreat to discuss Celebrate Recovery at Grace Community Church in early March. This will be a great time to fine-tune our meeting, area by area. One area we are needing to work on is the child care. However our “T.E.A.M.” is dedicated and we will find a solution.

Sincerely,

Jim Brietenbauch
Lynda Lee Kersey
Grace Community Church Salem, OR

During December and January schedules were all messed up, meetings on different nights to work around the holidays, but we still held a Celebrate Recovery meeting every week. Attendance was down somewhat, but we still had most of our regulars. It was great to know we all still had Celebrate Recovery during what can be the most hectic time of year.

The last week of December - first week of January instead of having our Celebrate Recovery on Tuesday evening, we moved up our meeting night to Monday, December 31st and joined together with the rest of our church, to have a special night of activities. After our large group meeting and small group CR meetings we were able to stay until after midnight in a safe and wholesome environment. The theme was, “Let God make a transformation in you”. This really touched one of our regular attendees from Celebrate Recovery, who stayed after CR for the New Years Eve Celebration. One of the games that was played involved “transforming” a person from your group into a “Transformer”, this was achieved by using everyday things from around the house such as empty paper tubes and aluminum foil. God really spoke to this gentleman through this silly game on making a transformation in his life this coming year. It is amazing to see how God can work in our live through everyday happenings.

On that note we would like to thank Bethany Baptist Church for inviting everyone to join in with them on celebrating their five year anniversary with Celebrate Recovery. It was great seeing representatives from all of the local CR groups all come together on their special night. CR really works! Great job Bethany and we look forward to joining you on your 10 year anniversary.

Sincerely,

Jim Brietenbauch
Lynda Lee Kersey
Grace Community Church Salem, OR

Since our last report, we have continued to see growth. Not necessarily in numbers, but in regular attendance. It’s great to hear people at church on Sunday talk about looking forward to seeing someone at our Tuesday night meeting, and if they are going to be there or not. Our worship team has been “touched by God”, and we have had some awesome rockin’ worship. The guitar riffs have been thumping; the worship leaders are led by the Holy Spirit. It’s been such a fulfilling time with God. This last week we even rocked out to Christmas Carols. WOW!

Week after week our food group steps up and offers a great meal, we really appreciate the attention they put into their job with Celebrate Recovery, we would not be the same without them. This last month we also had a cookie/recipe exchange during Solid Rock Cafe, it was a fun and inexpensive way to do something exciting as a whole group. We are looking forward to 2008 and to the works that God has in store for Grace Community Church in Salem, Oregon.

Sincerely,

Jim Brietenbauch
Lynda Lee Kersey
Grace Community Church Salem, OR

We’ve only just begun! We just had our seventh meeting at Grace Community Church in Salem, OR, on Tuesday evening so we are still pretty green. We are so looking forward to the miracle that will happen just as it has at many other churches. We continue working out the bugs, now we just need more people to come. What an amazing program and we are so excited to be a part of Celebrate Recovery.

About four weeks ago I received a phone call regarding a lady that was asking about our Celebrate Recovery. The church office gave me the phone # and I called and talked to her. She was from all the away across the ocean and saw us on the CR website. What a blessing! She recently moved to the area and came to our CR and is planning on attending on a regular basis. What a blessing and a testimony to how the CR website works and how great God is!! Thanks and God bless!

— Jim Brietenbauch From Grace Community Church Celebrate Recovery