Charlie Bibb and a dedicated core group of volunteers launched Celebrate Recovery at Southside Baptist on January 13, 2005. The first night's Christ-centered Recovery Program drew 43 people. Since that time Celebrate Recovery at Southside has welcomed over 600 first-time visitors and is averaging over 200 people each Thursday night.

The original four small groups have multiplied to 14 small groups in a little over a year. Small groups are gender specific and include drug addiction; alcohol addiction; sexual addiction; depression; physical, emotional and sexual abuse; codependency, fathers of addicted children, and mothers of addicted children. What Bibb considers even more remarkable than the rapid growth is that Southside's Celebrate Recovery program has provided the inspiration for five other churches in Middle Georgia to start their own programs.

"They came to our ministry, learned how the program runs, and took it back to their own churches. Basically, the Celebrate Recovery program should be run the same way—starting out with Worship, using the same material, and the small group support. Gary Neal from Harvest Cathedral has taken Celebrate Recovery into the Baldwin and Scott State Prisons," Bibb said.

The other Middle Georgia churches that have started Celebrate Recovery programs include: New Hope International on Hwy. 127 in Kathleen (Monday nights at 7 p.m. ), Unity Baptist Church on Hwy. 96 in Warner Robins (Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. ), Christ Chapel in Macon (Thursday nights at 7 p.m. ), Harvest Cathedral in Macon (Tuesdays nights at 7 p.m. ), and Avondale Baptist Church in Macon (Monday nights at 7 p.m. ) Southside's program meets every Thursday night at 7 p.m.

"I cannot begin to tell you all the testimonies and the stories that have come out of Celebrate Recovery. God is using people to change lives. It's like the Bible story of the woman at the well who had an encounter with Jesus when she came up to the well to get water. She came back down forgiven, told her story, and half the town followed her back up to the well. When somebody has a changed life, they have a passionate story to tell. People are looking for hope somewhere. I want them to find that hope here," Bibb said.

"When people first start coming to Celebrate Recovery, they see some of their old friends from the streets and outside in the world. They see their friends' changed lives and realize that it can be done. One young man recently got out of jail, went into detox and heard about Celebrate Recovery and my involvement. I was an acquaintance of his through my party days, and he ended up coming one Thursday night to the program. He heard the gospel one time and got saved. He got plugged into Celebrate Recovery, talked his wife into coming, and he's been clean over a year. Now, the husband is running a drug addiction small group, and his wife is running a codependency small group. They're in church; they're in Sunday school; they're active. They have changed lives," Bibb said.

"Another young woman came to the program very negative about everything in her life. Over the course of a year she has found hope in the Lord, and her attitude has changed totally. She speaks positively now about where she is in her life. She's also leading a small group."

Southside started a new program on May 4 aimed for teenagers from 8th to 12th grades called "Life Hurts…God Heals." The eight-step recovery program was written by Doug Fields from Saddleback Church in California. It addresses drug use, dysfunctional homes, cutting, and depression.

"We had a lot of teenagers coming to Celebrate Recovery, and since adults are dealing with different issues, we wanted to start a program geared to teens. Ann Brinson from Second Baptist Church teamed up with us to help start this ministry to make an impact in our community. Whatever pain teenagers are going through, this program helps them. We had 12 teenagers show up on May 4, and 17 showed up the next week. The teenagers participate in the worship time and then break up into small groups," Bibb said.

"Throughout this whole process God has supplied the leadership for the needs in this ministry. Always. We have a Celebrate Kids ministry, nursery care for babies to 2 years old. From ages 3 to 12, we have a Celebrate Kids program for the kids. We have started a Divorce Care group that meets every other week. They participate in the worship and then go to their small group. We are praying about starting a grief ministry for people who have lost loved ones and can't seem to find peace. We're waiting until God supplies the leadership." Bibb said.

"Our church has supported this ministry financially. Pastor Jerry Walls has a heart for hurting people and has allowed us to minister to people in our community. It is awesome how our church has supported this program."

On June 1, Celebrate Recovery is having a celebration called June Jam from 6 to 9 p.m. at Southside Baptist Church. Several local bands will come and play. There will be lots of barbeque and good food to eat. There'll be games and blowups for kids. It will be a good time for everybody.

There's a whole lot to celebrate!

For more information, call Charlie Bibb at 953-9388.