Step 2 · Stepping into the Room

Arriving at Your First Group Meeting

Your group meets for exactly 2 hours. Leaders start and end on time to honor your life and model consistency.

• The leader opens in prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to be present and setting the time apart as sacred.
• The group reads the 423 Group Guidelines together: confidentiality, self-focus, respect, listening, and staying on topic.
• Everyone is reminded that this is a grace-based space. The goal is not to fix you, but to walk with you.

From the first minutes, you are given a clear sense of safety and structure so you are not guessing what is expected of you.

Step 3 · First 60–80 Minutes

The Witnessing Community: Recovery Lines

The first hour of group is devoted to the Witnessing Community. Each member shares their week through the Recovery Line:

• Below the Line: acting out behaviors such as pornography, masturbation, fantasy, or risky situations.
• Slippery Slope: warning signs like excessive screen time, emotional reactivity, missed spiritual rhythms, or isolation.
• Above the Line: healthy rhythms such as prayer, Scripture, community connection, movement, and rest.

As you share, the group listens without interrupting, fixing, or preaching. You are witnessed in your real story, not reduced to your worst moment.

This weekly rhythm builds humility, confession, and growing self-awareness about what is happening in your everyday life.

Step 4 · Beneath the Surface

Addiction, Compulsion, and Storywork

As you and others share, leaders gently connect your week to the deeper patterns beneath behavior:

• Addiction: the brain’s reward system, triggers, rituals, acting out, and the shame-driven loop that follows.
• Compulsion: unmet desires, attachment wounds, identity lies, and the urge to escape pain.

Through Storywork, leaders and members ask questions such as:

• What were you feeling or trying to avoid in that moment?
• Does this connect to earlier experiences or wounds in your story?
• What did shame say about you this week? What did you believe about yourself?

The aim is not to excuse behavior but to understand it, so that healing can address both the behavior and the pain beneath it.

Step 5 · Final 40–60 Minutes

The Discipleship Hour: Learning to Live a New Way

After a short break, the group shifts into the second hour, focused on discipleship and equipping for long-term change.

• Guided curriculum from Scripture, theology, and trauma-informed recovery tools.
• Homework discussion where members share insights from weekly readings and exercises.
• Life History Maps every few weeks, where one member shares a more complete story with time for questions and care.
• Practical tools such as relapse prevention plans, window-of-tolerance work, and attachment repair practices.

Recovery is treated as part of discipleship: bringing your thoughts, body, emotions, and relationships into alignment with the new life Christ offers.

Step 6 · The End of the Night

Closing, Care, and Ongoing Connection

As the 2-hour mark approaches, leaders protect the ending time to respect your commitments outside the group.

• The group closes in prayer, often shoulder-to-shoulder or arm-in-arm, as a sign of unity and blessing.
• Members are encouraged to stay connected during the week through check-ins and call lists.
• Leaders may follow up with anyone who shared something particularly painful or heavy.

Over time, this consistent rhythm of honesty, presence, and prayer shapes a community where you can be known and supported in real change.

Step 7 · Your Turn

Ready to Take a Step?

You have just walked through the full flow of a 423 meeting—from your intake conversation to the closing prayer of a weekly group.

If you are tired of hiding and want a safe place to pursue healing with Jesus and others, we would be honored to help you begin.

Not ready yet? That is completely okay. You are welcome to keep exploring our resources and come back to this step when you are ready.