Recovery Groups ???
August 28, 2006We want to start recovery groups at our church. A recovery group is a group of people who have suffered a similar addiction or survived a similar abuse. The best known recovery group in America is Alcoholics Anonymous. Why a group? Because a group provides a much more effective healing environment than individual counseling. Alcoholism is a form of insanity. (Actually, any addiction in its latter stages is a form of insanity.) An alcoholic believes that if he stops drinking he will never be happy again. His drinking may have already cost him the loss of every precious thing in his live, yet he will still believe that he can not be happy without alcohol. If you, a nonalcoholic, try to point how insane this is, the alcoholic will just say that you don not understand. And you really do not understand his craving or his insane thinking. But a recovered alcoholic understands both the craving and the insanity. He or she is the best one to minister to the one who stills lives in drunkenness. One of my dear friends who is alcoholic went to an AA meeting expecting a judgmental lecture on the evils of alcohol. Instead he found a bunch of happy, colorful, former drunks having a good time without the mood elevating effects of alcohol. He felt understood instead of condemned, and hope instead of despair. That two and half years ago, and he has not had a drink since. These groups are called "recovery" groups because an addiction always steals life from us, always harms our true self. In a loving, nonjudgmental, spiritual environment we have the opportunity to recovery what has been stolen from us.
Jack,
I am so honored and blessed that the Lord gave the provision of a job and transfer to the Fort Worth area and made the way for me to come to WellSpring! The message of overcoming is SO needed by church goers and those standing outside of the church. Silence is indeed the most insidious form of denial....whether it is repressed memories or just trying to ignore the problem and hoping it will go away. We need a church where open honest communication is embraced and encouraged - where we can lift one another up and encourage one another. I so admire your honesty in sharing your stories and being so real.
A recovery group - Al-Anon - saved my life 11 years ago. I had been a prodigal for 25 years - not setting a foot in a church. I was so hardened against God and the church...I would have never taken the advice that I needed God in my life. The hope and spirituality that I experienced at Ala-Non chiseled away at that hardened heart and less than a year later I was finally saved and turned my life to Jesus at the age of 35. Hallelujah!
I am all for starting recovery groups at WellSpring. One of my favorite scriptures: Ecc 4:9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.
Ecc 4:10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he does not have another to help him.
We need one another so that we can learn the beauty in the message of Rev 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony.
Peace and blessings,
Beth
Beth :: September 3, 2006 02:40 PM