Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. Today we visit with two guests who have experienced

the healing power of sharing with others the pain of their personal struggles.

Pastor Johnny Baker and Christian Singer Jason Crabbe.

First up, Pastor Johnny Baker has been on staff at Celebrate Recovery since 2004

and has been the pastor of Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback Church since 2012.

As an adult child of an alcoholic who also dealt with alcoholism in his own life,

Johnny is passionate about breaking the cycle of dysfunction for families and helping them find the road to freedom,

which is also the title of his new book. Here's Pastor Baker.

I'm Johnny Baker. I'm the pastor of Celebrate Recovery here at Saddleback Church and

I'm also the author of a brand new book called The Road to Freedom. And that's what I do and

something about me but normally how I introduce myself to people

at Celebrity Recovery is this way. Hi my name is Johnny I'm a grateful believer in

Jesus and I struggle with alcoholism and co-dependency. It's just the way that we talk to each other and

celebrate recovery to kind of say here's who I am and why I'm here. An important

thing to point out before we get too much further though is to tell you this

my identity is found in Jesus Christ,

not in my hurt, my hang up, or my habit and that's just a big component of

celebrate recovery. Although I was born in Wisconsin and we moved around a lot when I was a kid I spent most of my life here in Lake Forest and I grew up going to a local church a small local church and I went there as a preschool student and when I first started attending preschool my family

didn't really go to church often but for some reason they put me in a Christian preschool and

it was the best thing that could have happened for me. It was there that I met Jesus and I got to know all about him and hear stories about him.

And my preschool teacher, Ellie, said, hey, you love hearing stories about Jesus. If you want to hear more, you should come back

on the weekend and bring your family with you. And so I thought that was great idea. So I invited my parents to come to church with us,

...