Start a Life Recovery Group

Welcome to Life Recovery.

We believe everyone can benefit from a Life Recovery experience. We all have struggles in life; struggles with addictions, food, depression, anxiety, and relationships to name a few. But we approach recovery from different angles. Some want a formal recovery meeting with a traditional recovery experience. Others want a recovery experience in a small informal group, or in an existing group they are already comfortable with at their church. And some may prefer learning about recovery at their own pace before jumping into a group or meeting experience. This is the beauty of Life Recovery. Unlike other Christian recovery approaches that mandate how and where their recovery ministry can be employed, Life Recovery brings Christian recovery to you – right where you’re at.

Life Recovery Meeting:

A Life Recovery Meeting is the most structured of the three options. It requires a minimum of two Life Recovery Leaders (one man and one woman) for gender specific breakout groups, in addition to a main group time for both genders. The Life Recovery Meeting requires the Life Recovery Bible, Life Recovery workbook, Life Recovery Devotional, and Life Recovery Journey book.

There are four stages for launching a Life Recovery Meeting:

• STAGE ONE: GATHERING INFORMATION
  1. Who will take the lead in planning –– Who will be the primary organizer for getting started — you, the pastor, or someone else?
  2. Who else will be involved — We do not recommend starting a group by yourself. Who else is interested in helping you lead a group or be a support for you in the group?
  3. Who will be the group leaders — The best way to find someone is to ask for your pastor’s help.
  4. Will your meetings be open or closed — An open meeting is the most common and is open to the community. A closed meeting is open to members of the church.

• STAGE TWO: PLANNING
  1. An official launch date — Decide on a specific date that you are going to launch the group. This helps with planning and advertising.
  2. Group materials — Who will purchase the materials each person needs for the meeting – the church or the attendee?
  3. Location of the meeting — Where will the meeting be held? Remember, if you want to have gender to gender breakout groups you may need more than one room (if the original meeting room isn’t big enough).
  4. Time and day to hold your meeting — You can have a morning, afternoon, or evening meeting. Most Life Recovery meetings are held during the evening hours. The only day of the week we do not recommend is Friday.
  5. Contact Person – Who will be your initial point of contact for someone interested in the group?

• STAGE 3: GETTING READY TO LAUNCH
  1. Training – You may want some training regardless of your previous experience running groups or attending recovery meetings. You can become certified as a Life Recovery Coach through New Life Ministries’ partnership with the American Association of Christian Counselors (www.aacc.net). If you are interested in additional training or coaching certification, call 800-NEW-LIFE (639-5433).
  2. Practice — We recommend at least one practice session before launching your group. Unless you have your own group approach, you can use the “Life Recovery Meeting Guide” to practice having a group meeting.
  3. Advertising — We recommend advertising your group to the church through announcements and the bulletin. You can also advertise through Facebook and other social media platforms. If you want ideas on how to advertise, or want to post your group on our website, call 800-NEW-LIFE (639-5433).

• STAGE 4: OFFICIAL LAUNCH
  1. Celebrate, debrief, and adjust: Once you have launched your group, talk to someone about how it went and about what changes you may want to make. Also, give us a call and let us know as well. We would like to provide feedback to help make your meeting the best experience possible.

Life Recovery Group:

Three or more people can start a Life Recovery Group. A Life Recovery Group is designed to be set up as a free standing group, or as a Life Recovery Group study within an existing home group, life group, etc. A Life Recovery Group is more informal than a Life Recovery Meeting but still provides a powerful Life Recovery experience. The Life Recovery Group requires a Life Recovery Workbook and Life Recovery Bible.

1. Find a location in your home, church, workplace or school, and obtain permission (if necessary) to form the group.
2. Put up a few flyers announcing the time and place, calling it a support group, recovery group, or Twelve Step group.
3. Show up early, arrange the chairs, make some coffee, and welcome people as they arrive.
4. Start when you say you will start by opening in prayer and by reading the Twelve Steps and correlating Scriptures.
5. Ask if anyone would like to share for three or four minutes. Don’t allow others to “fix” the speaker, and if he or she goes on too long, be sure to enforce the time limit.
6. Make sure everyone has a copy of the workbook. Ask them to study step 1 for discussion at the next meeting.
7. End when you say you will end by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
8. Be sure that everyone knows to get a Life Recovery Workbook and Life Recovery Bible, if they don’t already have one.

Life Recovery Study:

A Life Recovery Study is not necessarily a group, but it can be done in a group. It can also be one person studying on their own. If you are not ready for a group experience, but want to start learning about Life Recovery, or your group wants to study Life Recovery, all you need is the Life Recovery Bible and Life Recovery Journey. You can use the Life Recovery Workbook as well, but the Life Recovery Journey is more conducive to a study experience.

1. The Life Recovery Journey studies the Twelve Steps incorporating scripture with four studies for each of the Twelve Steps. This allows for up to a year of weekly, structured study.
2. You only need the Life Recovery Bible and Life Recovery Journey book to get started.
3. If you want to continue your studies beyond the Life Recovery Bible and Life Recovery Journey, click here to shop for additional materials in the Life Recovery series.