Addiction Recovery and Church

I think we could do a better job as a church with community support groups. We don’t even have to staff the meetings, all we’d have to do is open our doors and provide a space for organized groups to meet. It’s a service. If we need incentive, doing this would also put the church’s name out there.

Maybe it’s a regional thing? Like the church in the mission field doesn’t need to open their doors to support groups because other churches are already on top of things but if I were to go to the MorCor I’d see more community at large involvement in church buildings?

I have been to a few AA meetings, and actually really enjoyed it. In the AA meetings I’ve been to they serve coffee, share their sins, and drop the f-bomb to get a laugh if the mood gets too serious.

I imagine recovery gets messy. I haven’t been to one of our addiction recovery meetings but for whatever reason I assume it to be a fairly sterile, “lab coat” environment, sort of like a SS lesson. I’m guessing no one ever drops an f-bomb and that the utmost serious mood is the goal (basing that solely on my experiences in every other church meeting I’ve attended all my life). I hope we create space for real life to occur in our recovery meetings.

There is not much dogma or doctrine in AA which is one reason why I think I liked the meeting.

…

I imagine the church program blends LDS doctrine and scripture with the 12 steps. I’ve heard of other christian churches adapting the 12 steps program to incorporate the bible and Jesus more in the discussions. AA does not resolve specific questions about God, just that he exists and will help the addict recover if he acknowledges God and surrenders to his will.

It makes me wonder whether involving someone’s religion/deity is the big contributing factor or whether social interaction with people in similar situations is the big contributing factor. I hope someone helps me out here but I believe the church’s program is sort of like a class. People attend, the classes are over, people go their separate ways, maybe they take the classes over again if they feel the need. I imagine other support groups as meeting at regular intervals and members of the group building a rapport over time. Do we get that with the church’s addiction recovery program as well?

I have been thinking about alcoholics in the church. I don’t know of any. It seems that any alcoholics and addicts in the church are either less active or fully recovered. Where is the alcoholic in the trenches who wants to go to the bar and church? Is there a place for him? Would he feel welcome on Sunday? Would he even want to be there? There are people in AA who have been sober for decades, but there’s also a handful of people who relapsed yesterday and still go to meetings. I don’t see these types of people on Sunday.

We place so much emphasis on the WoW and on porn that I believe we unintentionally create a culture where someone struggling with either becomes too embarrassed to attend church. People may judge the person coming into SM that smells like alcohol or smoke. The congregation may accept the drinker/smoker with open arms but that person may feel like they are being judged. Either way that person doesn’t feel welcome and it likely stems from the overemphasis we place on the WoW. I know a few people, excellent people, that don’t attend church because it feels like we’ve made the WoW a requirement for being a fellowcitizen. It’s a shame.

I think we could do a better job as a church with community support groups. We don’t even have to staff the meetings, all we’d have to do is open our doors and provide a space for organized groups to meet. It’s a service. If we need incentive, doing this would also put the church’s name out there.

Maybe it’s a regional thing? Like the church in the mission field doesn’t need to open their doors to support groups because other churches are already on top of things but if I were to go to the MorCor I’d see more community at large involvement in church buildings?

Every time the subject comes up in our area the discussion always turns to “Well, they have to realize they can’t have coffee in the building and there’s no smoking on the property” etc. We have had blood drives in our ward, and the Red Cross does reluctantly agree to no coffee. Other organizations are not so willing to agree. In fact, even though our building (stake center) is well suited to be an emergency shelter in time of disaster and the Red Cross looked at it and loved it, they won’t put us on the list because of no coffee rule. They figure we should be able to give on that a bit in time of disaster (I agree). Likewise, we used to allow a local adult basketball league (which included some members) to use our building for practices and games – until there was a practice one night on the same night as an RS activity and some sisters complained about the men leaving the gym to get drinks across the hall while not wearing shirts (live pornography, I suppose!). The bishop mentioned it to the group leaders and they decided he was being an ass and didn’t need to use our building any more.

(I’m chuckling to myself because of how I’m picturing this conversation might fair on some other boards. :wtf: )

Back to the regularly scheduled program, I know our local ARP guy pretty well and he loves the program. I have read through the manual, and as others have pointed out it is the 12 steps with an LDS bent. However, our local Methodist church does the same thing – they have a program with a more religious bent that meets there (Friends of Bill W.).