pat loughery

Pat’s intro: Why did I pick this workshop?

We have a member of our chruch –

—
Speaker: Pam Larson, in Happy Lehman’s church (Champaign Vineyard).

Introduces her husband as “behind every successful woman is a strong man”. Strongly interested in the issue of women in leadership. interested (from youth) in social justice, the poor, the broken. Loves David Wilkerson’s book “The Cross & the Switchblade”.

Why do Recovery Groups in your Church
Why wouldn’t you?
Pam tells the story of Ed, the story of Nancy. more.
We do it by putting faces on recovery.

Mark 2:15-17 (NLT):
15That night Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among the crowds that followed Jesus.) 16But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with people like that, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”
17When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.”

This sums up recovery ministry.

Warning: There will be strong critics because you fling wide the doors to “these kinds of people’. Quote with Don Williams, Jesus and the 12 Steps, p. 9-10.

If you are going to start and do recovery ministry, He will root out the addictions and attachments in your life. You will not escape. Maybe it’s cocaine, church work, or rescuing people. This ministry itself can become an addiction, an idol.

This is a crisis: a dangerous opportunity, because God will examine deep into your life. The great thing about this is that you have no secrets.

Reason 1 why we should do recovery ministry:
1. We’re all subjected to addiction due to the fall.
2. We’re a media driven culture with a western mindset.

50% of the commercials on TV are for pharmaceuticals.

Sexual addiction has a very strong hold, both inside (more) and outside the church.

We’re a culture of pain avoidance.

This conflicts with Kingdom reality:

Hebrews 12:1-4
Romans 14:17

Suffering is normal; it happens. We cannot avoid it.

3. The harvest is rotting on the vine.
There is no shortage of hurting and broken people in our lives. All need freedom, all need health.

“”We are clearly a Christian recovery program. We respect your spiritual journey. You all are welcome. We will be clear: for us, THE higher power is God in Christ.

Matt 9:35-38: the problems are so great and the workers are few.

If you’re considering this, pray to the Lord of the Harvest for workers for this ministry work. You have to have something burning in your heart for this, or it will eat you alive.

The difference between a “Classic” 12-step Recover Program and the Healing JOurney approach:
We unashamedly name Jesus as source of healing.

The Kingdom perspective: God WANTS to bring his kingdom.
This isn’t a self-help program; pull yourself up by the bootstraps program. This is an “if God doesn’t show up I’m going to die” program.

When you pray for the Kingdom to come in an addict’s life, GOd will blow up that life, all to hell.

Kingdom means GOd’s rule, not our own.

“You can chose to live your life any way you want. If you’re claiming Jesus as your higher power, you don’t GET to live your life any way you want. You do not get to be supreme ruler.”

We live in the tension of two kingdoms.
Kingdom now gives us a theology of healing.
Kingdom future gives us a theology of pain.
Living in both means that you’ll live in victory and in defeat, and that’s OK.
It’s OK to struggle as a Christian.

This program is anchored by the VIneyard statement of faith.

tagline: “Successful recover is best accomplished in a safe, healing community of fellow travelers.” So many people find community as a positive, helpful thing. Vital.

It’s not the teaching that changes lives for people on HJ; it’s the small group leaders’ ministry of the HS.

Titus 3:3-7
3Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy. We hated others, and they hated us.
4But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. 5He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. 6He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. 7He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.
– Titus 3:3 through Titus 3:7 (NLT)

This journey is not for the faint of heart: it’s a declaration of war on the enemy.

HJ is hope for real change.

—> That’s the “why”.

Three Important Parts to a Successful Recovery Program
1. Holy Spirit Day (stolen from Alpha).
Rocks -> shiny stones
2. Prayer and ministry in the small group. Discussion is good, but only a God-encounter changes lives. Tangible encounters.
3. Accountability among the leadership team. Spreads into the small group time. Every person on the leadership team chooses two questions that they are asked every week for accountability. The guests at the HJ group are told this at the firs week, which helps them to see that if even the leaders are accountable in relationships, then they can be as well.
4. YOU must be accountable.

—-

Workshop Part 2

Questions:
Small church: Start with a pilot small group: 2-3 men, 2-3 women. Separate the men from the women. Don’t separate issues; mixed issues gives empathy for others. it’s often beneficial to mix those things in a group.
Family systems: Yep, that comes up in most of the talks and week 1 has stuff.
Do you teach spiritual warfare: Not specifically but it’s definitely imparted. RCT? Not taught, but implied. Listening skills, etc. In training of leaders.
Separate men from women? Yes, absolutely. Also are getting more couples coming now.
What happens after 13-weeks? We do 13 weeks, then train for a month. Sometimes we’ve done bridge groups: 4-weeks on boundaries; 4-weeks on Eldridge’s waking the dead; some discipleship thing. We tell them: one time through will never do it for you. Consider the first time through as “scratching the surface”. Small group leaders stay in touch.
What do you do if somebody cdan’t/wont’ complete a step? That’s OK. We dont’ check their hoemwork, force them, etc. We do have a covenant (don’t ask them to sign it). REspect others. Everybody’s story is important and you can’t fix people.
Diff from living waters? 12-step is stopping behavior. living water is about looking at the root to find out why you’re doing it. Answer: HJ is about both.

—

Resources:
Will be videotaping testimonies and teaching for fall -> DVD

—-

A sample HJ night.