My Time On the Road
August 21, 2006I am on the way home from Sydney, Australia, where I just finished a conference at a Dayspring Church, a great church. The theme of the conference was Living Free from Shame and Addictions. It is amazing how much shame and addiction is in the church today. Part of the problem is that we pastors are silent on these subjects. And sometimes we even shame those who are already bound by shame and addictions.
The most recent estimates that I have seen claim that about 10-15 % of the population in America suffer from alcoholism. Yet every time I ask an audience how many of you have been significantly harmed by alcoholism, either your own or that of a loved one, 50-60% of the audience raises their hand. Alcoholism is one of the most perfect diseases. It does not just hurt one person, but whole families. And one of its primary symptoms is denial. It convinces the alcoholic that he or she is really not an alcoholic. I have been studying addictions like alcoholism and pornography for the last two years. I have also been studying shame. I am convinced that addiction and shame are two of the most pervasive strongholds in the church today that impair our friendship with Jesus.
At the Dayspring conference we prayed for many people bound by various addictions. Because the Dayspring staff is so full of grace people felt safe confessing their secrets. Pastor David Crabtree also teaches that grace is more than undeserved favor. It is also God's empowering presence. This helped people to feel hope as well as safety. One of the things that I constantly emphasized during the conference was, "If you can not talk about it, it owns you." The power of darkness begins to be broken as soon as we tell a safe and loving person our shameful secrets. This happened during every ministry time at the conference.
Dayspring has a large, well trained ministry team that stands at the front of the church and prays for people at the conclusion of each service. Many people confessed their addictions and shame, and received prayer. This is the beginning of freedom.
Jack, you spoke at length to my wife Janine on the first night of the recent Sydney conference - welcome to my world - It has just occured to me again but more clearly this time what the primary difficulty for her is- she is a mum and she has been living under the threat of the death of her son for such a long time and the past month has perhaps been the worst - our son Isaac is approaching 9yrs - it has been a long time! - Isaac is profoundly disabled, fed by machine, medicated 12x per day etc - we have been doing this his whole life, it has affected everything - and waiting for death has been excruciating for her. He has a siezure disorder, and has been recently very unwell. Janine's pain and stress have been acute - as you discovered. PS. Your Books and Preaching.Teaching have done so much for me -Thanks - Callard
callard :: August 23, 2006 08:13 PM