The Church's Role In The Recovery World

The role of the Church
It takes two things to make the church safe for hurting people: grace and competency. Grace makes it safe to share our secrets and our struggles because we won’t be judged, condemned, or preached to. In a practical sense, Grace is when people see our hearts rather than our behaviors. Competency makes it safe to reveal our problems because we can see that they have the experience, understanding, and plan to help us change and be successful. So whose problem is this? I believe that we in the recovery world have to be pro-active in creating safe churches for our people to be successful. Not just in staying abstinent, but to grow into healthy social and spiritual beings.
All too often, local churches do not become aware

Active engagement in preventative policy transforms communities and encourages healthier environments in which young people can thrive without resorting to societal pressures to drink.
Too often we hear of the pain caused by unfounded notions about addicts and addiction. Judgmental attitudes toward addicts create negative feelings among those who suffer from addiction. Such attitudes facilitate stigma rather than compassion and active healing. Such attitudes are often based on a misunderstanding of addiction and its causes or sometimes most of the elders in the churches lack the education needed to counsel an addict.
Education about addiction and advocating for effective public policy are critically important, too. They are necessary tools that churches need alongside recovery programs. Effective change involves prevention calling us to dig deeper and go further in our own education and advocacy by addressing the systemic and stealthy ways that addiction infiltrates our society. Extending addiction ministry to prevention and advocacy addresses the systemic root causes that lead people to need recovery programs in the first

The experience of God's saving grace offers wholeness to each individual. In light of the reality of alcohol and other drug abuse, the church has a responsibility to recognize brokenness and to be an instrument of education, healing, and restoration. First, we must be committed to confronting the denial within ourselves that keeps individuals and nations from overcoming their struggle with alcohol and other drug abuse. Second, the alcohol and other drug problem must be understood as a social, economic, spiritual, and health problem. Third, the church has a fundamental role in reorienting the public debate on alcohol and other drugs by shifting the focus from punishment to prevention and treatment. This is rooted in the Christian belief in the ongoing possibilities for transformation in the life of each individual and in our