Managing a recovery ministry can present as many obstacles as it does benefits for a church and its surrounding community.
Leading churches identify three principal areas that can affect the ultimate success of a recovery ministry: the sponsoring church, dynamics within the recovery ministry itself and the larger community.
Obstacles exist in each of these areas, such as the stigma attached to those in recovery, lack of volunteer leaders and difficulty attaining community trust. Churches that are successfully overcoming these barriers are finding strategies that help them thrive in each circumstance.
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Overcoming Barriers Within the Sponsoring Church
In churches involved in recovery ministry, stigma is a major issue that takes many forms. It shows up in stares and disparaging comments from church-goers, church leaders who relegate recovery meetings to the back room of their facilities, and hurting people who would rather suffer in silence than be seen at a recovery meeting. |
Leaders have taken some daring steps to break down the stigma and face these real-life situations.
Bill Hale, minister of the Atlanta Outreach program at
North Atlanta Church of Christ in Atlanta, GA says acceptance in the sponsoring church often begins with involving key congregational leaders.
"We have three elders who are mentors in our recovery ministry now," Bill says. "You have to find ways to get people to renew their minds about what it is we are trying to do. We have been able to pull in people who have seen the value of the ministry, who are also influential in the church."
Bill stresses the importance of elders taking an active role in the ministry, versus serving merely as an advisor. North Atlanta Elder Ken Shurmard adds that even with elder support, the ministry is not without detractors. "If folks don't like what the ministry is about, we realize they will leave," he says. "That is OK. They need to find a place they can serve, but our church family is committed to this direction."
Overcoming Barriers Within a Recovery Ministry
When a recovery ministry has the blessing of supportive senior leaders and a sponsoring church environment that promotes its growth, obstacles such as a shortage of volunteers, insufficient training and short-sighted leadership can impede progress.
Retaining leadership with the vision, commitment and heart to seed and grow a recovery ministry is a key component to its success. With those abilities, leaders can guide the ministry through difficult waters. "You |
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have to make sure you have the right people to bring the program," says Pastor Chad Hunt of
Caveland Baptist Church in Cave City, KN. "My call, my anointing, my gifting is recovery ministry."
At Caveland, the Addiction Deliverance Outreach (ADO) recovery program's strict standard of church attendance—participants must attend services twice per week—helps identify a client who will be a truly committed leader in the future.
"Mandatory attendance exposes them to God's word, but also serves as a filter because people who are not committed to the program fall away from the church," Chad says. Those who graduate from the program become candidates who are willing and dedicated to serve as leaders.
Overcoming Barriers in the Larger Community
Reaching into the community surrounding the church is vital for recovery ministries because most people approach the ministry from outside the church walls.
To raise awareness of the Atlanta Outreach, recovery leaders started hosting community pizza parties outside the church. "We would go to them, we'd sing and bring pizza," Bill Hale says. "That's how we got them in." |
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Leaders would then teach a simple Bible truth with recovery principals and give out recovery Bibles and grocery coupons. "They would say 'here's a church that cares about us,'" Bill says of the popular meetings. "One of the guys said once: 'I came for the pizza, but I stayed for God.'"
Collaboration with local community agencies was initially more difficult for North Atlanta leaders until they overcame some of the community's misperceptions about Christian recovery. The directors of the programs were concerned about their clients being involved in a Christian recovery program.
"They wanted to make sure that we weren't going to say 'you just need Jesus, not a sponsor,'" he says. The Atlanta Outreach gained the trust and respect of these agencies by paying regular visits, participating in their education processes and volunteering service and the church counseling center. "And we are aware of our boundaries," Bill adds.
To learn more about beating the stigmas and difficulties of recovery ministry download Meagan Taylor's full paper, Clearing the Hurdles: Overcoming Obstacles in Recovery Ministry
at the following link: http://www.leadnet.org/Resources_Downloads.asp?IsSubmit=True#472
Other free Recovery ministry resources include:
