Celebrate Recovery fundraiser will be held April 5

The Celebrate Recovery ministry at Shady Grove Baptist Church will be having a chicken barbecue event April 5. The public is invited to attend.

Celebrate Recovery is a ministry that is designed to help people in recovery from any type of addiction. Terry Theus, who serves as director of the Celebrate Recovery ministry at Shady Grove, says that almost everybody is recovering from something.

"It could be drugs or alcohol but the truth is it could also be anger, bitterness or a habit that makes us spin our wheels," Theus said.

Shady Grove's Celebrate Recovery ministry holds services each week on Tuesday evenings. A worship service with a message is followed by breakdown into small groups.

"In the worship service, a lot of times we have a testimony of someone from the community that has been delivered from an addiction," Theus said.

Theus said that the Celebrate Recovery program is geared not only to those struggling but to family members as well.

Theus said that the hardest thing about attending a Celebrate Recovery service is walking through the door.

"Once someone comes, there is a freedom. But the first time they come, that is an admission that you need help and most people don't want to admit that. The truth is that there are things in everyone's life that need to be cleaned up. So many people are hurting, hurting from a habit or hang-up," Theus said.

The chicken barbecue event at Shady Valley is both a fundraiser for the program and a chance for people to see the power of change that is taking place in the lives and hearts of these people through the ministry of Celebrate Recovery.

After a free chicken dinner, there will be a short service with speaker Steve Snider.

Snider, who serves as pastor of the McDonough First Assembly of God, is also a singer who does concerts all over the country.

"When I didn't have a life, God gave me a life," said Snider, who also overcame substance addiction more than 40 years ago. Snider said that his message that evening will be that God has a great life planned for everyone.

Also during the service will be a cardboard testimony, where participants from Celebrate Recovery will hold a piece of cardboard. Written on one side to the cardboard will be their addiction before Christ and on the other side how Christ changed their lives.

"Don't live a life of regret," Theus said. "Give it to God. Don't let it break you, let it make you."

The chicken barbecue dinner event will be held at 6 p.m. April 5. Shady Grove Baptist Church is located at 3642 Ga. 41 North. The meal and the event are free.

Alline Kent can be reached at 396-2467 or allinekent@cox.net.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Celebrate Recovery fundraiser will be held April 5 ."