A week after receiving the letter, Pastor Rick & John Baker met up and Rick urged John to start this new ministry by saying “You do it!”

The name “Celebrate Recovery” came to John during a reflective drive in his car, and just three months after John Baker shared his heart to start Celebrate Recovery, the first meeting took place in November 1991. At the time, Saddleback Church didn’t have a building, so the meeting took place at the Charter Hospital in Mission Viejo, CA.