Grace Chapel Fellowship

Welcome to this support group. If you are working a program, or if you are looking for a program that works, welcome. Whether your problem is addiction, anger, compulsion, depression, outbursts, stress, or other problematic relationships, we invite you to give our program a few weeks’ trial. If any of these common troubles hinders your honesty, your intimacy, or your spirituality, here you are among those who understand.

We truly hope you find here the refreshment we have come to love from the Scriptures, the Twelve Steps, and the fellowship built around them. Many of us have been to the bottom. Many of us have brushed even death with our compulsive behaviors. We had tried many ways to fix our lives, and came to realize that we had gained only more compulsive behaviors. We know that, right now, only the grace of God stands between us and the bottom. We understand.

There is hope. Serenity will grow for you, too, as we experience together the power of admitted human powerlessness when placed in the hand of God.

Anonymity and confidentiality rule here, else the safety that we cherish in which to be truly honest will be spoiled. We help each other, and gain our own help, most by listening without criticism or gossip.

Basic Group Principles
We Listen – to hear in another person’s sharing that which will bring us hope.
We take Turns – to avoid monopoly, interruption, and crosstalk.
We Say I – to tell our own story and to stay on our own side of the street.
We Express Appreciation – for other’s sharings because no one’s experience is of less value than another’s.

Choose a Prayer
1. Let the Words Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.
2. Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

The Seven Churches
The Seven Churches in the book of Revelation, chapters 1-3, were small churches to which Jesus Christ sent letters about how to improve their group life and fellowship. We work on the premise that families and some corporations are small groups in which we would like to have improved group life and fellowship.

Furthermore, the letters Jesus Christ sent to these Seven Churches were apparently dictated by Jesus himself and taken down as Jesus spoke them. So we study the communication skills manifested in these letters as those of Jesus Himself.

The Eight Beatitudes
1. Blessed are those who admit their spiritual poverty, for theirs is the kingdom of recovery.
2. Blessed are those who mourn their shortcomings in the presence of God and another human being, for they will be comforted.
3. Blessed are those who humbly ask God, for they will have even the whole earth.
4. Blessed are those who turn their intense hunger and thirst toward God, for they will be filled as never before.
5. Blessed are those who carry the message of recovery to other sufferers, for they will keep their recovery.
6. Blessed are those who continue to promptly admit their wrongs, for they will have a clean conscience to see God.
7. Blessed are those who make amends, for they will be called the family of God.
8. Blessed are those whose loving detachment meets misunderstanding and ridicule, for theirs is the kingdom of recovery.

The Twelve Choices
These are the choices we made in our recovery:
1. We chose to explore this God of the Bible who claims our full attention, having claimed also to have brought us this far.
2. We agreed that all our own efforts to free us had proved powerless.
3. We decided to call on the name of God for healing.
4. We took rest and quiet time to reflect on our lives and make a courageous inventory.
5. We chose a mentor in recovery and honestly and specifically confessed our wrongs to God and to one other person.
6. We decided to let God correct our wrongs, and to let go of vengeance.
7. We asked God to correct these wrongs, and thereby to free us from hurtful bonds.
8. We listed in writing all those we had wronged, and chose to make restoration to them all.
9. We made restoration wherever possible, honestly owning our fault.
10. We choose to live in continuing inventory, and to admit our wrongs when they happen.
11. We choose to give full attention to God by prayer and reflection, asking for wisdom and power to do God’s will for us.
12. We recognize our blessings in these choices and we choose to carry this way of life to other sufferers, and to live this way in all our affections, thoughts, words, and actions.

As we close, we would remind you to take with you only what you find helpful and to keep it confidential. I may tell that I was here, but not that you were here. I may tell what I heard here, but not who said it. I may tell my story here, but not yours. I may try to change me here, but not you.

You are among friends. There is hope. And there is help. If today you feel disappointed and let down, please try us, and God, again. Because we are imperfect, our welcome may not have been as warm as our feelings for you, but someone here can relate to your problem. So if you will talk, and listen, we will all grow in love.

If you will, let us take one another’s hands and pray together.

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Copyright 1990, 1994, 2010 Wilma Zalabak